Page:A discourse upon the origin and foundation of the inequality among mankind (IA discourseuponori00rous).pdf/270

paring the two Sums, found that the laſt greatly exceeded the firſt, and that every thing conſidered Life to Man was no ſuch valuable Preſent. I am not ſurpriſed at his Concluſions; he drew all his Arguments from the Conſtitution of Man in a civilized State. Had he looked back to Man in a State of Nature, it is obvious that the Reſult of his Enquiries would have been very different; that Man would have appeared to him ſubject to very few Evils but thoſe of his own making, and that he would have acquitted Nature. It has coſt us ſomething to make ourſelves ſo miſerable. When on the one hand we conſider the immenſe Labours of Mankind, ſo many Sciences brought to Perfection, ſo many Arts invented, ſo many Powers employed, ſo many Abyſſes filled up, ſo many Mountains levelled, ſo many Rocks rent to Pieces, ſo many Rivers made navigable, ſo many Tracts of Land cleared, Lakes emptied, Marſhes drained, enormous Buildings raiſed upon the Earth, and the Sea covered with Ships and Sailors; and on the other weigh with ever ſo little Attention the real Advantages that have reſulted from all theſe Works to the Human Species;