BUREAU REFORM COMMISSION |
| DIRECTOR Sameer Flores |
ABOUT
Let us now examine what by this rule we ought to judge of our own species. From the tenderness of man's skin, and the great care that is required for years together to rear him; from the make of his jaws, the evenness of his teeth, the breadth of his nails, and the slightness of both, it is not probable that nature should have designed him for rapine; for this reason his hunger is not voracious as it is in beasts of prey; neither is he so salacious as other animals that are called so, and being besides very industrious to supply his wants, he can have no reigning appetite to perpetuate his anger, and must consequently be a timorous animal.
What 1 have said last must only be understood of man in his savage state ; for, if we examine him as a member of a society, and a taught animal, we mall sind him quite another creature: As loon as his pride has room to play, and envy, avarice, and ambition begin to catch hold of him, he is roused from his natural innocence and stupidity. As his knowledge increases, his delires are enlarged, and consequently his wants and appetites are multiplied: Hence it must follow, that he will often be crolled in the pursuit of them, and meet with abundance more disappointment to stir up his anger in this than his former condition, and man would in a little time become the most hurtful and obnoxious creature in the world, islet alone, whenever he could overpower his adversary, ifhehadno mischief to fear but from the person that angered him.
The sirst care, therefore, of all governments is, by severe punishments to curb his anger when it does hurt, and so, by increasing his fears, prevent the mischief it might produce. When various laws to restrain him from using force are strictly executed, self-preservation must teach him to be peaceable; and, as it is every body's business to be as little disturbed as is possible, his fears will be continually augmented and enlarged as he advances in experience, understanding, and foresight. The consequence of this must be, that as the provocations he will receive to anger will be insinite in the civilized state, so his fears to damp it will be the fame, and thus, in a little time, he will be taught by his fears to destroy his anger, and by art to consult, in an opposite method, the same self-preservation for which nature before had furnished him with anger, as well as the rest of his pasiions.
Y.M.