A Discourse Upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality Among Mankind | Page 6

who live in a state of society, it is still past doubt, that if, on
the one hand, the sick savage, destitute of help, has nothing to hope from nature, on the
other, he has nothing to fear but from his disease; a circumstance, which oftens renders
his situation preferable to ours.
Let us therefore beware of confounding savage man with the men, whom we daily see
and converse with. Nature behaves towards all animals left to her care with a predilection,
that seems to prove how jealous she is of that prerogative. The horse, the cat, the bull,
nay the ass itself, have generally a higher stature, and always a more robust constitution,
more vigour, more strength and courage in their forests than in our houses; they lose half
these advantages by becoming domestic animals; it looks as if all our attention to treat
them kindly, and to feed them well, served only to bastardize them. It is thus with man
himself. In proportion as he becomes sociable and a slave to others, he becomes weak,
fearful, mean-spirited, and his soft and effeminate way of living at once completes the
enervation of his strength and of his courage. We may add, that there must be still a wider
difference between man and man in a savage and domestic condition, than between beast
and beast; for as men and beasts have been treated alike by nature, all the conveniences
with which men indulge themselves more than they do the beasts tamed by them, are so
many particular causes which make them degenerate more sensibly.
Nakedness therefore, the want of houses, and of all these unnecessaries, which we
consider as so very necessary, are not such mighty evils in respect to these primitive men,
and much less still any obstacle to their preservation. Their skins, it is true, are destitute

of hair; but then they have no occasion for any such covering in warm climates; and in
cold climates they soon learn to apply to that use those of the animals they have
conquered; they have but two feet to run with, but they have two hands to defend
themselves with, and provide for all their wants; it costs them perhaps a great deal of time
and trouble to make their children walk, but the mothers carry them with ease; an
advantage not granted to other species of animals, with whom the mother, when pursued,
is obliged to abandon her young ones, or regulate her steps by theirs. In short, unless we
admit those singular and fortuitous concurrences of circumstances, which I shall speak of
hereafter, and which, it is very possible, may never have existed, it is evident, in every
state of the question, that the man, who first made himself clothes and built himself a
cabin, supplied himself with things which he did not much want, since he had lived
without them till then; and why should he not have been able to support in his riper years,
the same kind of life, which he had supported from his infancy?
Alone, idle, and always surrounded with danger, savage man must be fond of sleep, and
sleep lightly like other animals, who think but little, and may, in a manner, be said to
sleep all the time they do not think: self-preservation being almost his only concern, he
must exercise those faculties most, which are most serviceable in attacking and in
defending, whether to subdue his prey, or to prevent his becoming that of other animals:
those organs, on the contrary, which softness and sensuality can alone improve, must
remain in a state of rudeness, utterly incompatible with all manner of delicacy; and as his
senses are divided on this point, his touch and his taste must be extremely coarse and
blunt; his sight, his hearing, and his smelling equally subtle: such is the animal state in
general, and accordingly if we may believe travellers, it is that of most savage nations.
We must not therefore be surprised, that the Hottentots of the Cape of Good Hope,
distinguish with their naked eyes ships on the ocean, at as great a distance as the Dutch
can discern them with their glasses; nor that the savages of America should have tracked
the Spaniards with their noses, to as great a degree of exactness, as the best dogs could
have done; nor that all these barbarous nations support nakedness without pain, use such
large quantities of Piemento to give their food a relish, and drink like water the strongest
liquors of Europe.
As yet I have considered man merely in his physical capacity; let us now endeavour to
examine him in a metaphysical and moral light.
I can discover nothing in any mere animal but an ingenious machine, to which nature has
given senses