Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/92

 72 THE DECLINE AND FALL with some reluctance, to confess that the pastoral manners which have been adoniecl with tlie fairest attributes of peace and innocence are much better adapted to the fierce and cruel habits of a military life. To illustrate this observation, I shall now proceed to consider a nation of shej)herds and of warriors, in the three important articles of, I. Their diet; II. Their habita- tions ; and, III. Their exercises. The narratives of antiquity are justified by the experience of modern times ; '^ and the banks of the Borysthenes, of the Volga, or of the Selinga, will indif- ferently present the same uniform spectacle of similar and native manners.^ I. The com, or even the rice, which constitutes the ordinary and wholesome food of a civilized people, can be obtained only by the patient toil of the husbandman. Some of the happy savages who dwell between the tropics are plentifully nourished by the liberality of nature ; but in the climates of the North a nation of shepherds is reduced to their fiocks and herds. The skilful practitioners of the medical art will determine (if they are able to determine) how far the temper of the human mind may be affected by the use of animal or of vegetable food ; and whether the common association of carnivorous and cruel de- serves to be considered in any other light than that of an inno- cent, perhaps a salutary, prejudice of humanity.^ Yet, if it be true that the sentiment of compassion is imperceptibly weak- ened by the sight and practice of domestic cruelty, we may observe that the horrid objects Avhich are disguised by the arts of European refinement are exhibited, in their naked and 'The fourth book of Herodotus affords a curious, though imperfect, portrait of the Scythians. Among the moderns, who describe the uniform scene, the Khan of Khowaresm, Abulghazi Bahadur, expresses his native feehngs; and his Genealogical History of the Tartars has been copiously illustrated by the French and English editors. Carpin, Ascelin, and Rubruquis (in the Hist, des Voyages, tom. vii. ) represent the Moguls of the fourteenth century. To these guides I have added Gcrbillon, ar.d the other Jesuits (Description de la Chine, par du Halde, tom. iv.), who accurately surveyed the Chinese Tartary ; and that honest and intelligent traveller. Bell of Antermony (two volumes in 4to, Glasgow, 1763). 8The Uzbecks are the most altered from their primitive manners; i, by the profession of the Mahometan religion ; and, 2, by the possession of the cities and harvests of the great Bucharia. 8 II est certain que les gninds luangeurs de viande sont en g^n(f'ral cruels et fSroces plus que les autres honuncs. Cette observation est tie tous les lieux, et de tous les terns : la barbare Angloise est connue, i&c. Emile de Rousseau, tom. i. p. 274. Whatever we may think of the general observation, ive shall not easily allow the truth of his example. The good-natured complaints of Plutarch, and the pathetic lamentations of Ovid, seduce our reason, by exciting our sensibility.