The View Of This Wild Coast, As We Sailed Along It, Afforded Me A
Continual Subject For Meditation.
I anticipated the future
improvement of the world, and observed how much man has still to do
to obtain of the earth all it could yield.
I even carried my
speculations so far as to advance a million or two of years to the
moment when the earth would perhaps be so perfectly cultivated, and
so completely peopled, as to render it necessary to inhabit every
spot - yes, these bleak shores. Imagination went still farther, and
pictured the state of man when the earth could no longer support
him. Whither was he to flee from universal famine? Do not smile; I
really became distressed for these fellow creatures yet unborn. The
images fastened on me, and the world appeared a vast prison. I was
soon to be in a smaller one - for no other name can I give to Rusoer.
It would be difficult to form an idea of the place, if you have
never seen one of these rocky coasts.
We were a considerable time entering amongst the islands, before we
saw about two hundred houses crowded together under a very high
rock - still higher appearing above. Talk not of Bastilles! To be
born here was to be bastilled by nature - shut out from all that
opens the understanding, or enlarges the heart. Huddled one behind
another, not more than a quarter of the dwellings even had a
prospect of the sea.
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