men imagine themselves superior to the rest, for the
very circumstance they despise in other animals?

"But, in the country where I was born, it is not only _man_ that
differs from what we see here, but every other circumstance. _Here_, for
a considerable part of the year you are chilled by frosts and snows, and
scarcely behold the presence of the sun, during that gloomy season which
is called the winter. With us, the sun is always present, pouring out
light and heat, and scorching us with his fiercest beams. In my country
we know no difference between the length of nights and days; all are of
equal length throughout the year, and present not that continual variety
which you see here; we have neither ice, nor frost, nor snow; the trees
never lose their leaves, and we have fruits in every season of the year.
During several months, indeed, we are scorched by unremitting heats,
which parch the ground, dry up the rivers, and afflict both men and
animals with intolerable thirst. In that season you may behold lions,
tigers, elephants, and a variety of other ferocious animals, driven from
their dark abodes in the midst of impenetrable forests, down to the
lower grounds and the sides of rivers; every night we hear their savage
yells, their cries of rage, and think ourselves scarcely safe in our
cottages. In this country you have reduced all other animals to
subjection, and have nothing to fear, except from each other. You even
shelter yourselves from the injuries of the weather, in mansions that
seem calculated to last for ever, in impenetrable houses of brick and
stone, that would have scarcely anything to fear from the whole animal
creation; but, with us, a few reeds twisted together, and perhaps daubed
over with slime or mud, compose the whole of our dwelling. Yet the
innocent negro would sleep as happy and contented as you do in your
palaces, provided you do not drag him by fraud and violence away, and
force him to endure all the excesses of your cruelty.

"It was in one of these cottages that I first remembered anything of
myself. A few stakes set in the ground, and interwoven with dry leaves,
covered at top with the spreading leaves of the palm, composed our
dwelling. Our furniture consisted of three or four earthen pipkins, in
which our food was dressed; a few mats woven with a silky kind of grass
to serve as beds; the instruments with which my mother turned the
ground, and the javelin, arrows, and lines which my father