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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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compared with the comfortable , peaceful destiny of the herdsman , and his soul must become savage in a body rendered rude bv toil . Should it now occur to him to contrast this hard fate with the happy life of the shepherd , the dissimilarity
must strike him ; he must , according to ins sensual representation , hold the latter to be a favoured darling of Heaven . Envy awoke in his bosom - , tins unhappy passion must awake with
thft first inequality among men . With jealousy he regarded the busings of the shepherd , who peaceful fed his flock in the opposing shade , whilst he himself was pierced by the
meridian ray , and labour forced the sweat drops from his brow . The careless gaiety of the pastor distressed him . Ho hated him for his good fortune , and despised him for his indolence . Thus he harboured a secret
displeasure in his heart , to break out with violence on the first occasion . Nor could one long be wanting . The privileges of the individual had as yet no settled limits , nor were laws in existence to separate mine and thine . Each imagined that he possessed an
equal right over the whole earth , for tSie division into property could only result from conflicting claims . Suppose , then , that the shepherd had with his flock exhausted all the neighbouring pastures , and felt no inclination to lose himself in a distant country , far from his family—what would he do ?
What course would he naturally adopt ? He drove his herd into the plantations of the husbandiiian , or at least permitted them to wander thither unchecked . Here was rich store for his
sheep , and no law to defend it against him . Every thing on which he could seize was his—thus reasoned childish humanity . Now , therefore , for the first time , man came into collision with man ; in
the place of the wild animal with whom the cultivator had hitherto been engaged , stepped man , appearing now like a hostile beast of prey , who would lay waste his plantations . No wonder that he received him after the fashion of the creature whom he imitated .
* lhe hatred that for many years had been nursed within his bosom , aggravated his bitterness ; and a murderous l > knv with a club avenged him at once
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on the protracted fortune of his ' envied neighbour . Thus mournfully ended the first collision of men .
IV . Equality of Rank abolished . Some expressions of the record lead us to conclude that polygamy in this early period was rare ; and therefore that it had already become customary to submit to marriage , and to be contented with one wife . But
regular marriages appear to denote a certain measure of morality and refinement , scarcely to be expected in such an infant age . Men generally attain order only through the consequences of disorder , and lawlessness usually leads to the introduction of laws .
The prevalence of formal marriages appears , therefore , not to have rested on law so much as on usage . The first man could only live in wedlock , and his example had upon the second something * of the force of authority . With a single pair the human race began . Natifre , therefore , had proclaimed her will in this example .
If it be admitted that in the first ages the relative numbers of the sexes were equal , thus nature would have decreed that which man had not . Each took only one wife , because there was only one for his share . When a sensible disproportion manifested itself in the numbers of the
sexes , and there was room for choice , the ordinance was confirmed by observance ; and no one lightly ventured on insulting the customs of his fathers V > y innovation . In like manner , with the institution of marriage , a certain natural
government established itself in society . Nature had laid the foundation of filial respect in making the helpless child dependent on its father ; thus accustoming him from the tenderest age to honour his will . This feeling the sou
would retain through his whole life-Becoming himself a father , his son could not behold without reverence one so respected by his parent , and silently must pay his father ' s father a
higher veneration . This regard to the family ancestor must increase in an equal proportion with 6 ach accession of family and higher Step of age ; atKl his greater experience , the f ruits of so long a life , must , besides , give him a
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4 tO Remarks on the First Human Society ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1825, page 410, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2538/page/26/
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