Us nont que pen d""enfans; Us en ont peu de soin:
tout se ressent de leur premier cUfaut; Us sont in- differents parce quils sont peu puissants, £sf cette indifference pour le sexe est la tache originelle qui fietrit la nature , qui Vempeche de s'^epa- nouir^ & qui detruisant les germes de la vie, coupe en meme temps la racine de la societe, L'homme ne fait done point d''exception ici. La nature en lui refusant les puissances de Vamour Pa plus maltraite & plus rapetisse quaucun des animaux,'^ An afflifting pifture, indeed, which for the honour of human nature, I am glad to be- lieve has no original. Of the Indian of South-America I know nothing; for I would not honour with the appellation of ktiowledge, what I derive from the fables publilhed of them. Thefe I believe to be juft as true as the fables of Efop. This belief is founded on what I have feen of man, white, red, and black, and what has been written of him by authors, enlightened themfelves, and writing amidft an en- lightened people. The Indian of NorthAmerica being more within our reach, I can fpeak of him fomewhat from my own knowledge, but more from the information of others better acquainted with him, and on whofe truth and judgment I can rely. From thefe fources I am able to fay, in contradidlion to this reprefentation, that he is neither more defeftive in ardour, nor more impotent with his female, than the white reduced to the fame diet and exercife: that he is brave, when an enter- prife depends on bravery; education with him making the point of honour confift in the deftrudlion of an enemy by ftratagem, and in the prefervation of his own perfon free from injury; or perhaps this is nature;
while it is education which teaches us to* honour force more than finefle; that he * Sol Rodomonte fprezza di venire Se non, dove la via meno e ficura, Arifto. 14. 11;