ON THE PRIMEVAL STATE OF MAN.
ever by primeval man, were violated the rights of hospitality; never, in his innocent bosom, arose the murderous meditation; never, against the life of his guests, his friends, or his benefactors, did he uplift the butcher axe. Sufficient were the fruits of the earth for his subsistence; and, satisfied with the milk of her maternal bosom, he sought not, like a preverse child, to spill the blood of nature. Such were the feasts of primeval innocence, such the felicity of the golden age. Long since, alas! are those happy days elapsed. That they ever did exist, is a doubt with the depravity of the present day; and so unlike are they to our actual state of misery, that the story of primal bliss is numbered with the dreams of visionary bards. That such a state did exist, the concording voice of various tradition offers a convincing proof; and the lust of knowledge, is the fatal cause to which the indigenous tale of every country, attributes the loss of Paradise, and the fall of man. [The felicity of the golden age is still, at certain intervals, celebrated in the East Indies, at the temples of Jaggernat and Mamoon. During those seasons of festivity the several casts mix together indiscriminately, in commemoration of the perfect equality that prevailed among mankind in the age of innocence.]
The merciful Hindoo makes humanity to animals apart of his religious duties. No nation, equally nu-
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