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[[center margin]] 404 other kindred philosophers, in some original and specific difference of nature from other men? Writers of no inconsiderable eminence have ascribed the tolerance of pain by the American savage to the humidity of the atmosphere in the new world,recently redeemed, as they suppose, from the ocean,and abounding in marshes. Hence they have gratuitously inferred that the sensibility of the natives of this continent, both corporeal and mental, is impaired by the influence of their climate. But, do we find this reason verified by the experience of other portions of the globe? Are the people who happen to be posited on the borders of lakes, or in the neighbourhood of fens, less sensible to pain than others? Does a Hollander possess greater fortitude than a German? Or is his sensibility to suffering less keen? If such effects are produced by a relaxed fibre in the American savage, and it is found to diminish to such a degree, the irritability of the system, should we not equally expect to find him patient of affronts, languid in his resentments, tardy in his revenge? The true explanation of this phenomenon we shall probably discern, not in the physical constitution of America, but among those moral causes which are [[center margin]]405 so often overlooked in the philosophy of human nature. No person who reflects deeply on the principles of action in man but must easily be persuaded that active courage in encountering, and intrepid firmness in repelling danger, or that inflexible patience and fortitude in bearing up under calamity and suffering, are more frequently the result of the sentiments of the mind than of the physical force of the animal constitution. And it depends on the education of men, and the situations into which they are thrown, whether one or other of these characters be chiefly drawn forth, and called into action. It was not physical temperament, but education which enabled the youth of Sparta to endure the deprivations which were required of them by the discipline of Lycurgus, or suffer without complaining the lacerations with which they were exercised at the shrine of Diana. In that country, at present, where a sublime education had once rendered children more than men, do we not, by a change of manners, see men become less than children? It is sentiment which creates heroes in action or in suffering. Hatred and vengeance against his enemies, and the pride of defying their rage, are sentiments inculcated into the heart
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Reopened for Editing 2023-06-05 19:25:00
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Reopened for Editing 2023-06-05 19:41:09
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Reopened for Editing 2023-06-05 17:19:06