120 
planting, sowing, building villages, making war, 
public rejoicing, dancing, exercise of arms, &c. &c. 
It includes the whole of their domestic economy, 
which is thereby reduced to a system. In this law 
we find the true cause why the customs of their fore¬ 
fathers are kept up, and innovations prevented, their 
continuance being as firmly provided for, as the 
punishment of offenders. 
Thus have we described the simple bands by 
which the state of society in this great island is 
held together; and whatever moral defects may be 
found in their composition, the effects produced 
constrain us to think, either that the structure, which 
is preserved from falling by such a cement, is placed 
upon a good foundation, or that the simplicity con¬ 
stitutes the strength of the building. We are accus¬ 
tomed in our own country, to see laws heaped upon 
laws, and penalties upon penalties, to protect our 
persons and properties; while the effect produced is 
by no means such as might be expected from such a 
complicated piece of machinery. Much of this is 
undoubtedly owing to the height which luxury has 
attained, the numerous artificial wants thereby created, 
the manifold and extended nature of property, and 
the great inequality of circumstances necessarily 
resulting therefrom. We would not, with the Abb6 
Rochon, compare the civilized with the savage state, 
for the sake of drawing an inference in favour of the 
latter; nor would we, with him, pronounce the 
native of Madagascar, with his numerous seraglio, 
