INFLUENCE OF THE

NATURAL" STATE.

3

necessary evils, and inseparable from our humanity, are now known within the bounds of truly policied nations by the name alone; and many which were looked upon as punishments for the perversity of the will and spirit, and as hindrances ordained of God in the way of the enjoyment of life, now receive their natural explanation, and meet with their successful remedies. Some of the evils which decimated the race of men still living, and destroyed at once the blessing of sight and the bloom of beauty, approach their end; whilst others that were held as the necessary accompaniments of corporeal and mental development, of arts and of industry, are now known and combated by enlightened theory and experience as strange intruders into the community.

We are perhaps even disposed to believe that a life of perfect freedom-a natural life, as it has been called, spent in tilling the ground, in fishing, in hunting, &c.-must afford the greatest number of hours for undisturbed enjoyment. The walk, the residence in the country, the excursion, which, with such wonderful certainty and celerity fill the mind with joy, shed such a comfortable sense of well-being over the whole material man, seem of themselves to give us assurance that the intercourse with nature is the secret of health, the panacea for the ills of earthly existence; and that separation from her has sickness and infirmity for its consequence. However true this may be in many respects, it is still indispensably necessary to draw the distinction between

that intercourse with nature which is taken as pastime, and for short intervals, and that which is necessary and incessant, and is given as a means of supporting life. The peasant, the fisherman, the hunter, have other tales to tell besides those that are connected with the pleasures and felicities of their several callings. What nature yields must mostly be won with patient endurance or with persevering toil. He who refers himself to her singly and alone, hath indeed room enough for the exercise of his powers; but he hath also a burthen on his shoulders heavy enough to bear.

In the absence of all occupation for the higher faculties, the soul dreams on but too readily in a slumbering or half waking state. But to real, to perfect health, harmony of the corporeal and spiritual aptitudes is indispensable. He who is nothing more than bodily whole, differs but little from the beasts.

The individual, like the kind, has indubitably other duties, other work to do, than by the nearest way to pursue health, and health alone. To secure this inestimable blessing, whilst other objects are attained, is one of the grand purposes of civilization. The cultivation of the higher powers is nowise in itself, and necessarily, coupled with aught that is pernicious. That mental culture is alone injurious to the body which proceeds without regard to time, or means, or measure. True culture knows best of all what measure is right, what means are proper, what time is fit, and to lay down those rules of being

INFLUENCE OF SOCIETY.

and of doing which fulfil all that is needful to bodily as well as to spiritual health.

The requirements of society, results of our social state, but so often opposed to reason, the omnipotent behests of custom and of fashion, the various springs put into motion by passion and party spirit, are constant causes of a more passing or more permanent interruption of the sense of well-being; but with a little prudence, firmness, and reason, all of which are legitimate fruits of good education, the prejudicial influences of such circumstances may be greatly diminished, or entirely superseded. In no case are dark and clouded views of the civilized state significant enough to raise doubts of the comfort of its light and sunshine. The impressions made, the knowledge infused, the enlarged views engendered under the mighty influence of social co-operation, of the contemplation of noble works of art, of reading, of oral instruction, and of example, conscious and unconscious, all arouse the corporeal energies also, and give them play and power. In virtue of the support derived from cultivated intellectual faculties, from acquired force of character and religious submissiveness, man becomes capable of giving ceaseless and successful battle to all the external influences that tend to his detriment. Good sense and moral equilibrium present themselves to us as the means best adapted for achieving elasticity and pliancy under the sorest bodily inflictions. The hardy nursling of rude nature, without all support from

higher sources, sinks, in general, under serious and continued illness, much more certainly and sooner than the tenderly nurtured son of refinement, who, from each achievement of science and art, from intellectual communion through books, from intercourse and conversation with relatives and friends, draws vital refreshment, as it were, from a neverfailing spring.

The accounts we have from travellers who have lived long among uncivilized tribes and nations, differ materially in regard to the health and liability to disease of these communities. Whilst some speak of but few diseases as prevalent among them, others assure us that they had there observed the principal maladies to which we ourselves are subject. But when travellers notice few diseases, are we, therefore, certain that these are rarities in fact? Is not the reason rather to be sought for in the inhumanity of the natives, which is in some sort commanded by necessity, as it is sanctioned by custom, and the insufficiency of the remedial means with which they are acquainted? They are precisely those diseases which are most likely to meet the eye that are not seen among savages-chronic distempers, slow in their progress, consuming the body by degrees, against which science struggles with might and main, to which she only gives ground inch by inch, or which, more fortunate, she gradually compels to yield, and finally overcomes. Neither are those diseases observed among savage nations, the first

STATE OF SAVAGE COMMUNITIES.

7

symptoms of which neglected or not duly met hurry the patient rapidly to his grave.

It is well known that fractures of the extremities in our domestic animals do not readily unite, in consequence of the impossibility of keeping them at rest animals seldom lie; they pass the greater part of their lives standing. Their owners, therefore, rarely risk the trouble and expense of attempting a cure, the completeness and even moderate success of which is always problematical; so that the horse or ox which breaks his leg is usually put out of the way. But should we, therefore, say that fractures of the bones never occur among our domestic animals?

Tribes and nations which pass their time in war, and have always more or less of difficulty in providing for their wants in the essential article of food, cannot bestow the necessary care upon their sick when affected with lingering diseases. Simple good will is soon exhausted; the instinct of self-preservation prevails over natural affection even for the nearest relative; and in dull indifference, or with some show of sympathy, the victim of disease is by and by left to his fate. In communities where every one who would be fed must both aid in procuring and deserve his ration, very little care can be taken of those who are affected in their mind, who can do no work, and are only felt as hindrances in the way of every enterprise. The insane are but a kind of corpses, which can only be restored to life through the continued self-sacrifice of the sane who surround them. Left to their fate, and soon sinking under privations from which they