He Is Compelled To Analyse And Study It In Its First
Elements, And To Augment The Modes Of Expression In Order To Keep
Pace With The Increasing Number Of His Wants And Ideas.
A colony bears the same relation to an old-settled country that a
grammar does to a language.
In a colony, society is seen in its
first elements, the country itself is in its rudest and simplest
form. The colonist knows them in this primitive state, and watches
their progress step by step. In this manner he acquires an intimate
knowledge of the philosophy of improvement, which is almost
unattainable by an individual who has lived from his childhood in
a highly complex and artificial state of society, where everything
around him was formed and arranged long before he came into the
world; he sees the effects, the causes existed long before his time.
His place in society - his portion of the wealth of the country - his
prejudices - his religion itself, if he has any, are all more or less
hereditary. He is in some measure a mere machine, or rather a part
of one. He is a creature of education, rather than of original
thought.
The colonist has to create - he has to draw on his own stock of
ideas, and to rouse up all his latent energies to meet all his wants
in his new position. Thus his thinking principle is strengthened,
and he is more energetic. When a moderate share of education is
added to these advantages - for they are advantages in one sense - he
becomes a superior being.
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