Volltext: The life, studies and works of Benjamin West, Esq. president of The Royal Academy of London

136 
matic contempt for whatever either tends to in-' 
crease their troubles, to encumber the freedom 
of their motions, or to fix them to settled habita- 
tions. In their unsheltered nakedness, they have 
a prouder consciousness of their importance in the 
scale of beings, than the philosophers of Europe, 
with all their multiplicity of sensual and intel- 
lectual gratilications, to supply which so many 
of the human race are degraded from their natu- 
ral equality! The Indian, however, is not deli- 
cient in mental enjoyments, or a stranger to the 
exercise of the dignified faculties of our common 
nature. He delivers himself on suitable occasions 
with _a majesty of eloquence that would beggar 
the oratory of the parliaments, and the pulpits of 
Christendom; and his poetry unfolds the lof- 
tiest imagery and sentiment of the epic and the 
hymn, He considers himself as the lord of the 
creation, and regards the starry heaven as his 
canopy, and they everlasting mountain as his 
throne. It would be absurd, however, to assert 
With Rousseau, that he is, therefore, better or hap- 
pier than civilized man; but it would be equally 
so to deny him the same sense of dignity, the 
same feeling of dishonour, the same love of re-
	        
Waiting...

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