QUESTION: Which is the more happy, a Barbarous, or a Civilised, Man? It may be said that the savage is more happy than the civilised man, inasmuch as, I. His free and unrestrained life makes him physically healthier. II. His wants are more simple and more easily satisfied. III. He is free from the cares, anxieties, jealousies, fears, and ambitions of civilised life. IV. He is less liable to disorder, either of body or of mind. V. He is free from the vices of society: intemperance, hypocrisy, deceit, and fraud. In opposition it may be said: I. That the freedom of life which the savage enjoys is but a poor substitute for the comforts of shelter, clothing, and food, which the civilised man enjoys: the best proof of which is found in the universal fact, that whenever the savage gets within reach of the civilised man's habits, he adopts them; whilst the civilised man is never atracted towards the habits of the savage. II. That, although he wants of the savage are simpler and fewer than the wants of the civilised man, his pleasures are also fewer, for he enjoys none of the delights of thought, of affection, of social happiness, of hope, and of religious belief. III. That, although he is free from the anxieties of life, he is also without knowledge of its privileges and pleasures, both of sense and soul. IV. That, although he is less liable to physical and mental disease, he is also less capable of enjoyment. He has no disease, but he has no happy health: neither his bodily nor his spiritual powers are turned to good account. V. That, although he is partially free from the vices of society, he is also unacquainted with its virtues. Benevolence, pity, honour, heroism, constancy, endurance, generosity, patriotism, fortitude, and resistance to temptation, are all unknown to him: whilst he is free from the thorns, he is also without the flowers of life. The state of the savage is darkness. Darkness mental and moral. The thrilling delights of thought, of reflection, and of judgment, are never his: his best ideas are vague, idle, dreamy, and useless. The unspeakable pleasures of home, of love, of relationship, of friendship, and of social' intercourse, are altogether unknown by him. The happiness that waits on an approving conscience, the ineffable pleasure that follows a good deed done, or a bad deed avoided, is a stranger to the savage breast. Above all, the exquisite happiness the civilised man derives from religious impression and belief, the unutterable joy which he feels in the conviction that he has a kind Father in Heaven on whom he can implicitly rely, and in the certainty that he is immortal, and shall never taste of death, all this is entirely unfelt and unknown to the barbarian. The poet says: "Where ignorance is bliss 'tis folly to be wise." But ignorance is never bliss. See THE HISTORY OF CIVILISATION. By W. A. Mackinnon, Esq., M.P. HOBBES'S TREATISE ON HUMAN NATURE.— "Love of Knowledge." ROUSSEAU'S "DISCOURS." HUME'S ESSAYS, "ON REFINEMENT IN THE ARTS," vol. i. p. 285. GOLDSMITH'S CITIZEN OF THE WORLD, Letters XI. and LXXXII. ANGAS'S SAVAGE LIFE. 264 PART III. QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION. 1. Which was the greater Man, Oliver Cromwell or Napoleon Bonaparte? See CARLYLE'S Letters and Speeches of Cromwell. SOUTHEY'S Cromwell. SCOTT's Life of Napoleon. MITCHELL'S Fall of Napoleon. HAZLITT'S Life of Napoleon. CARLYLE'S Hero-Worship. "The Hero as King." ROBERT HALL on Bonaparte. MACAULAY'S Critical Essays, vol. i. pp. 180-187. LORD BROUGHAM's Statesmen in the Reign of George III. 2. Was the Execution of Mary Queen of Scots justifiable? See History of England. - HUME. P. FRASER TYTLER'S Life of Mary. MRS. JAMESON's Life of Mary. See ROBERTSON's History of Scotland. NOTE. This discussion will embrace the following considerations: For what crimes did Mary suffer? Did she commit the offences alleged against her? And had the law of England any jurisdiction over her? 3. Has the Invention of Gunpowder been of Benefit to Mankind? See CHANNING on War. GIBBON'S Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. lxv. Edinburgh Review, vol. v. p. 471. WILKINSON'S Engines of War. NOTE.It is intended to inquire by this question, Whether Gunpowder, by making war more dreadful and abhorrent, has not tended to lead mankind to its discontinuance? whether, in fact, perfection in War does not necessarily lead to the preference of Peace. The use of Gunpowder in Mechanics may be taken into consideration with advantage to the discussion. 4. Which is the more valuable Member of Society, a great Mechanician or a great Poet? See CHANNING on the Age. EMERSON'S Essays. Edinburgh Review, vol. xlvi. p. 365. vol. xlvii. pp. 184-202. |