The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
HUMAN NATURE / DESTRUCTIVE TENDENCIES IN
The Political Progress is a work of value and of a singular
complexion. The author's eye seems to be a natural achromatic,
divesting every object of the glare of color. The former work of the
same title possessed the same kind of merit. They disgust one, indeed,
by opening to his view the ulcerated state of the human mind. But to
cure an ulcer you must go to the bottom of it, which no author does
more radically than this. The reflections into which it leads us are
not very flattering to the human species. In the whole animal kingdom
I recollect no family but man, steadily and systematically employed in
the destruction of itself. Nor does what is called civilization
produce any other effect, than to teach him to pursue the principle of
the
bellum omnium in omnia on a greater scale, and instead of the
little contest between tribe and tribe, to comprehend all the quarters
of the earth in the same work of destruction. If to this we add, that
as to other animals, the lions and tigers are mere lambs compared with
man as a destroyer, we must conclude that nature has been able to find
in man alone a sufficient barrier against the too great multiplication
of other animals and of man himself, an equilibrating power against
the fecundity of generation. While in making these observations, my
situation points my attention to the warfare of man in the physical
world, yours may perhaps present him as equally warring in the moral
one.
to James Madison, 1 January 1797
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