Editorial note — BOOK II. OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY. (continued 7)
Reading edition
N. Our first parents, placed in Paradise, were fed from the hand of God, and freed by the constitution of their nature, from every uneasy animal desire. Since the fall, the whole human species have been employed in contriving and executing methods for relieving the wants which are the consequences of such desires.
Hence I conclude, that had the fall never taken place, the pursuits of man would have been totally different from what they are at present. May I be allowed to suppose, that in such a happy state, he might have been endowed with a faculty of transmitting his most complex ideas with the same perspicuity with which we now transmit those relating to geometry, numbers, colours, &c. From this I infer, there would have been no difference of sentiment, no dispute, no competition between man and man. The progress in acquiring useful knowledge, the pleasure of communicating discoveries, would alone have provided a fund of happiness, as inexhaustible as knowledge itself.
Mankind, therefore, set out upon a system of living without labour, without industry, without wants, without dependence, without subordination; consequently, had they remained in that state, the lapse of time would have produced no change upon any thing, but the state of knowledge. Banished from Paradise, man began to plow the ground, consequently to change her surface: he built houses, made bridges, traced roads, and by degrees has come, in different ages, to please and gratify his inclinations, by numberless occupations and pursuits, constantly dictated to him by his wants; that is, by his imperfections, and by the desires which they inspire. When these are satisfied, his physical happiness is carried as far as possible; but as mankind seldom remain in a state of contentment, and that our nature constantly prompts us to add something new to our former enjoyments, so it naturally happens, that societies once established, and living in peace, pass from one degree of refinement to another, that is to say, man daily becomes more laborious.