Page:A discourse upon the origin and foundation of the inequality among mankind (IA discourseuponori00rous).pdf/183

pure State of Nature by no Means ſuited infant Society; that it was neceſſary Puniſhments ſhould become ſeverer in the ſame Proportion that the Opportunities of offending became more frequent, and the Dread of Vengeance add Strength to the too weak curb of the Law. Thus, tho' Men were become leſs patient, and natural Compaſſion had already ſuffered ſome Alteration, this Period of the Development of the human Faculties, holding a juſt Mean between the Indolence of the primitive State, and the petulant Activity of Self-love, muſt have been the happieſt and moſt durable Epocha. The more we reflect on this State, the more convinced we ſhall be, that it was the leaſt ſubject of any to Revolutions, the beſt for Man, (16) and that nothing could have drawn him out of it but ſome fatal Accident, which, for the public good, ſhould never have happened. The Example of the Savages,