all, become indispensable summer and winter, which would buy a village
of Indian wigwams, but now helps to keep them poor as long as they live.
I do not mean to insist here on the disadvantage of hiring compared with
owning, but it is evident that the savage owns his shelter because it
costs so little, while the civilized man hires his commonly because he
cannot afford to own it; nor can he, in the long run, any better afford
to hire. But, answers one, by merely paying this tax, the poor civilized
man secures an abode which is a palace compared with the savage's. An
annual rent of from twenty-five to a hundred dollars (these are the
country rates) entitles him to the benefit of the improvements
of centuries, spacious apartments, clean paint and paper, Rumford
fire-place, back plastering, Venetian blinds, copper pump, spring lock,
a commodious cellar, and many other things. But how happens it that he
who is said to enjoy these things is so commonly a poor civilized
man, while the savage, who has them not, is rich as a savage? If it
is asserted that civilization is a real advance in the condition
of man--and I think that it is, though only the wise improve their
advantages--it must be shown that it has produced better dwellings
without making them more costly; and the cost of a thing is the amount
of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it,
immediately or in the long run. An average house in this neighborhood
costs perhaps eight hundred dollars, and to lay up this sum will take
from ten to fifteen years of the laborer's life, even if he is not
encumbered with a family--estimating the pecuniary value of every man's
labor at one dollar a day, for if some receive more, others receive
less;--so that he must have spent more than half his life commonly
before his wigwam will be earned. If we suppose him to pay a rent
instead, this is but a doubtful choice of evils. Would the savage have
been wise to exchange his wigwam for a palace on these terms?

It may be guessed that I reduce almost the whole advantage of holding
this superfluous property as a fund in store against the future, so
far as the individual is concerned, mainly to the defraying of
funeral expenses. But perhaps a man is not required to bury himself.
Nevertheless this points to an important distinction between the
civilized man and the savage; and, no doubt, they have designs on us for
our benefit, in making the life of a civilized people an