An essay on the history of civil society / [Adam Ferguson].

  • Adam Ferguson
Date:
1789
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the history of civil society / [Adam Ferguson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    fubjects, either by an ardent devotion to their own tribe , or a vehement animofity againd ene- mies, and by a vigorous courage founded on both, are well qualified to urge, or to fudain, the fortune of a growing community. But the favage, and the barbarian, have given, notwith- ftanding, in the cafe of entire nations, fome ex- amples of a weak and timorous character f. They have, in more inftances, fallen into that fpecies of corruption which we have already deferibed in treating of barbarous nations; they have made rapine their trade, not merely as a fpecies of warfare, or with a view to enrich their com- munity, but to polfefs, in property, what they learned to prefer even to the ties of affection or of blood. In the lowed date of commercial arts, the paf- fions for wealth, and for dominion, have exhi- bited feenes of oppredion or fervility, which the mod fin idled corruption of the arrogant, the cowardly, and the mercenary, founded on the defire of procuring, or the fear of lofing, a for- tune, could not exceed. In fuch cafes, the vices of men, unredrained by forms, and unawed by police, are differed to riot at large, and to pro- duce their entire effects. Parties accordingly unite, or feparate, on the maxims of a gang of robbers: they facrifice to intered the tendered affections of human nature. The parent fupplies the market for flaves, even by the fale of his own children; f The barbarous nations of Siberia , in general, are fervile and timid.
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