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104 TRAVELS
their profound flumber. They not only fleep with their doors
wide open, but fo foundly, that it is not eafy to roufe them. The
fact is, that they are not expofed to any kind of danger or difturb-
ance—they are far removed from the anxieties and fears that at-
tend envied poffeffions ; and the only wild beafts that could poflibly
give them any alarm or uneafinefs are, the wolves and bears. But
thefe animals never attack houfes, as they procure fufficient
nourifhment by following the wandering Laplanders with their
rein-deer. There are no venomous animals in thofe rude countries ;
and as to men, they all live in the moft perfect innocence.
Here the neceffity of government, for the diftribution of juftice,
and the equal protection of the people, exifts not. A {mall num-
ber of inhabitants, difperfed over immenfe tracts of lands, have
little inducement to make aggreffions on each other ; and the ge-
neral equality of condition that prevails, and above all, the con-
ftitutional feeblenefs of paffion, and equanimity of temper, pre-
vent not only infliction of injuries, but refentment. Though the
Laplanders are defencelefs, yet the rigours of their climate, and
their poverty, fecure them from invafion ; and thus they exift with-
out combination or protection, and without bending with fubmif-
fion to fuperiors. Here the melancholy examples, which exift in
all hiftories, of the great tyrannizing over the meaner fort, are not
to be found, nor the falfehood and perjury which generally prevail
among rude and barbarous nations.
In one of the families we vifited, we witnefled a very tender and
affecting f{cene, which convinced us that fenfibility is not banifhed
from
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