Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1853).djvu/290

274 and destroying the very germs of life, uproots at the same time society. Man is here also no exception to the general rule. Nature, by refusing him the power of love, has treated him worse, and lowered him deeper, than any animal.”

Amer. Vesp., 13. “Beyond measure sensual.”—108.

Amer. Vesp., 30, 31, 39, 75. “Of great strength and lofty mind.”—Ib. 78.

“The conquered Indians are the most cowardly and pusillanimous that can be seen: they excuse themselves, humble themselves to contempt, apologise for their inconsiderate temerity, and by supplication and prayer give the best proof of their want of courage. Either the accounts given in the History of the Conquest, of their great exploits, are a mere figure of speech, or the character of these people is not the same now as it was then; but this is beyond doubt, that the nations of the North enjoy the same liberty they have always had, without ever having been subject to foreign princes, and they live all their life according to their rules and usages, without any reason why they should change their character; and herein they appear the same as those of Peru and of South America, now enslaved or never subjugated.”

[And the last line of same note:] “Hard labor destroys them, on account of the inhumanity with which they are treated.”

“They live a hundred and fifty years.” — Amer. Vesp., 111.

Amer. Vesp., 13. “Their women are very fertile,” &c.

“The earth is cold, unable to produce the principles necessary for the development of the germs of the largest quadrupeds, which require, for their growth and propagation, all the heat and activity which the sun can give to the loving earth.”—P. 156. “The temper of man and the size of animals depend upon the salubrity and the heat of the air.”