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

 Intinct, Man, loing by old Age, or by Accidents, all the Acquiitions he had made in conequence of his Perfectibility, thus falls back even lower than Beats themelves? It would be a melancholy Neceity for us to be obliged to allow, that this ditinctive and almot unlimited Faculty is the Source of all Man's Misfortunes; that it is this Faculty, which, tho' by low Degrees, draws them out of their original Condition, in which his Days would lide away inenibly in Peace and Innocence; that it is this Faculty, which, in a Succeion of Ages, produces his Dicoveries and Mitakes, his Virtues and his Vices, and, at long run, renders him both his own and Nature's Tyrant. (9) It would be hocking to be obliged to commend, as a beneficent Being, whoever he was that firt uggeted to the Orenoco Indians the Ue of thoe Boards which they bind on the Temples of their Children, and which