BOOK III PART II
most charming and most peaceable condition,
that can possibly be imagined. The seasons, in
that first age of nature, were so temperate, if
we may believe the poets, that there was no
necessity for men to provide themselves with
cloaths and houses as a security against the
violence of heat and cold. The rivers flowed
with wine and milk: The oaks yielded honey;
and nature spontaneously produced her great-
est delicacies. Nor were these the chief advan-
tages of that happy age. The storms and tem-
pests were not alone removed from nature; but
those more furious tempests were unknown to
human breasts, which now cause such uproar,
and engender such confusion. Avarice, ambi-
tion, cruelty, selfishness, were never heard of:
Cordial affection, compassion, sympathy, were
the only movements, with which the human
mind was yet acquainted. Even the distinc-