Page:A discourse upon the origin and foundation of the inequality among mankind (IA discourseuponori00rous).pdf/104

Inſtinct, Man, loſing by old Age, or by Accidents, all the Acquiſitions he had made in conſequence of his Perfectibility, thus falls back even lower than Beaſts themſelves? It would be a melancholy Neceſſity for us to be obliged to allow, that this diſtinctive and almoſt unlimited Faculty is the Source of all Man's Misfortunes; that it is this Faculty, which, tho' by ſlow Degrees, draws them out of their original Condition, in which his Days would ſlide away inſenſibly in Peace and Innocence; that it is this Faculty, which, in a Succeſſion of Ages, produces his Diſcoveries and Miſtakes, his Virtues and his Vices, and, at long run, renders him both his own and Nature's Tyrant. (9) It would be ſhocking to be obliged to commend, as a beneficent Being, whoever he was that firſt ſuggeſted to the Orenoco Indians the Uſe of thoſe Boards which they bind on the Temples of their Children, and which