hunger, he was led to seek food and provide for his subsistence; by the
inclemency of the air, he was urged to cover his body, and he made him
clothes; by the attraction of a powerful pleasure, he approached a being
like himself, and he perpetuated his kind.

Thus the impressions which he received from every object, awakening his
faculties, developed by degrees his understanding, and began to instruct
his profound ignorance: his wants excited industry, dangers formed his
courage; he learned to distinguish useful from noxious plants, to
combat the elements, to seize his prey, to defend his life; and thus he
alleviated its miseries.

Thus self-love, aversion to pain, the desire of happiness, were the
simple and powerful excitements which drew man from the savage and
barbarous condition in which nature had placed him. And now, when his
life is replete with enjoyments, when he may count each day by the
comforts it brings, he may applaud himself and say:

"It is I who have produced the comforts which surround me; it is I who
am the author of my own happiness; a safe dwelling, convenient clothing,
abundant and wholesome nourishment, smiling fields, fertile hills,
populous empires, all is my work; without me this earth, given up
to disorder, would have been but a filthy fen, a wild wood, a dreary
desert."

Yes, creative man, receive my homage! Thou hast measured the span of the
heavens, calculated the volume of the stars, arrested the lightning in
its clouds, subdued seas and storms, subjected all the elements. Ah! how
are so many sublime energies allied to so many errors?