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

 pure State of Nature by no Means uited infant Society; that it was neceary Punihments hould become everer in the ame 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 les patient, and natural Compaion had already uffered ome Alteration, this Period of the Development of the human Faculties, holding a jut Mean between the Indolence of the primitive State, and the petulant Activity of Self-love, mut have been the happiet and mot durable Epocha. The more we reflect on this State, the more convinced we hall be, that it was the leat ubject of any to Revolutions, the bet for Man, (16) and that nothing could have drawn him out of it but ome fatal Accident, which, for the public good, hould never have happened. The Example of the Savages,