Page:A Vindication of Natural Society - Burke (1756).djvu/15

 could not but have felt pretty severely on many Occasions. The original Children of the Earth lived with their Brethren of the other Kinds in much Equality. Their Diet must have been confined almost wholly to the vegetable Kind; and the same Tree, which in it's flourishing State produced them Berries, in it's Decay gave them an Habitation. The mutual Desires of the Sexes uniting their Bodies and Affections, the Children, which were the Results of these Intercourses, introduced first the Notion of Society, and taught it's Conveniences. This Society, founded in natural Appetites and Instincts, and not in any positive Institution; I shall call Natural Society. Thus far Nature went, and succeeded; but Man would go farther. The great Error of our Nature is, not to know where to stop, not to be satisfied with any reasonable Acquirement; not to compound with our Condition; but to lose all we have gained by an insatiable Pursuit after more. Man found a con-