To prove this pretended retrograde progress from perfection we must
contradict the testimony of reason and of fact; and if the facts of
history are in any measure uncertain, we must contradict the living
fact of the organization of man; we must prove that he is born with
the enlightened use of his senses; that, without experience, he can
distinguish aliment from poison; that the child is wiser than the old
man; that the blind walks with more safety than the clear-sighted; that
the civilized man is more miserable than the savage; and, indeed, that
there is no ascending scale in experience and instruction.

Believe, young man, the testimony of monuments, and the voice of the
tombs. Some countries have doubtless fallen from what they were at
certain epochs; but if we weigh the wisdom and happiness of their
inhabitants, even in those times, we shall find more of splendor than of
reality in their glory; we shall find, in the most celebrated of ancient
states, enormous vices and cruel abuses, the true causes of their
decay; we shall find in general that the principles of government
were atrocious; that insolent robberies, barbarous wars and implacable
hatreds were raging from nation to nation;* that natural right was
unknown; that morality was perverted by senseless fanaticism and
deplorable superstition; that a dream, a vision, an oracle, were
constantly the causes of vast commotions. Perhaps the nations are not
yet entirely cured of all these evils; but their intensity at least is
diminished, and the experience of the past has not been wholly lost. For
the last three centuries, especially, knowledge has increased and been
extended; civilization, favored by happy circumstances, has made a
sensible progress; inconveniences and abuses have even turned to its
advantage; for if states have been too much extended by conquest,
the people, by uniting under the same yoke, have lost the spirit of