the hardships of this
errant life, they destroy all such unpromising offspring,[237] or desert
them to a slower and more dreadful fate. The lot of all is so hard that
few born with any great constitutional defect could long survive, and
arrive at maturity.

In the simplicity of savage life, where labor does not oppress, nor
luxury enervate the human frame, and where harassing cares are unknown,
we are led to expect that disease and suffering should be comparatively
rare, and that the functions of nature should not reach the close of
their gradual decay till an extreme old age. The decrepit and shriveled
forms of many American Indians would seem to indicate that they had long
passed the ordinary time of life. But it is difficult or impossible to
ascertain their exact age, as the art of counting is generally unknown
among them, and they are strangely forgetful and indifferent to the
past. Their longevity, however, varies considerably, according to
differences of climate and habits of life. These children of nature are
naturally free from many of the diseases afflicting civilized nations;
they have not even names in their language to distinguish such ills, the
offspring of a luxury to them unknown. The diseases of the savage,
however, though few, are violent and fatal; the severe hardships of his
mode of life produce maladies of a dangerous description. From
improvidence they are often reduced for a considerable time to a state
bordering on starvation. When successful in the chase, or in the seasons
when earth supplies her bounty, they indulge in enormous excesses. These
extremes of want and abundance prove equally pernicious, for, although
habit and necessity enable them at the time to tolerate such sudden
transitions, the constitution is ultimately injured: disorders arising
from these causes strike down numbers in the prime and vigor of youth,
and are so common that they appear the necessary consequences of their
mode of life. The Indian is likewise peculiarly subject to consumption,
pleurisy, asthma, and paralysis, engendered by the fatigues and
hardships of the chase and war, and constant exposure to extremes of
heat and cold. Experience supports the conclusion that the average life
is greater among people in an advanced condition of society than among
those in a state of nature; among savages, all are affected by
circumstances of over-exertion, privation, and excess, but in civilized
societies the diseases of luxury