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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-