Editing Noble savage (section)

===Romantic primitivism===
In the 1st century CE, in the book ''[[Germania (book)|Germania]]'', Tacitus ascribed to the Germans the cultural superiority of the ''noble savage'' way of life, because Rome was too civilized, unlike the savage Germans.<ref>Lovejoy, A. O. and Boas, G. ''Primitivism and Related Ideas in Antiquity'', Baltimore, I, 1935. pp. 0000.</ref> The art historian [[Erwin Panofsky]] explains that:

{{blockquote|text=There had been, from the beginning of Classical speculation, two contrasting opinions about the [[state of nature|natural state of man]], each of them, of course, a "Gegen-Konstruktion" to the conditions under which it was formed. One view, termed "soft" primitivism in an illuminating book by Lovejoy and Boas, conceives of primitive life as a golden age of plenty, innocence, and happiness — in other words, as civilized life purged of its vices. The other, "hard" form of primitivism conceives of primitive life as an almost subhuman existence full of terrible hardships and devoid of all comforts — in other words, as civilized life stripped of its virtues.<ref>Erwin Panofsky, "Et in Arcadia Ego", in ''Meaning in the Visual Arts'' (New York: Doubleday, 1955).</ref>|author=Et in Arcadia Ego: Poussin and the Elegiac Tradition (1936)}}

In the novel ''[[The Adventures of Telemachus|The Adventures of Telemachus, Son of Ulysses]]'' (1699), in the “Encounter with the Mandurians” (Chapter IX), the theologian [[François Fénelon]] presented the ''noble savage'' stock character in conversation with civilized men from Europe about possession and ownership of [[Nature]]:

{{blockquote|text=On our arrival upon this coast we found there a savage race who {{omission}} lived by hunting and by the fruits which the trees spontaneously produced. These people {{omission}} were greatly surprised and alarmed by the sight of our ships and arms and retired to the mountains. But since our soldiers were curious to see the country and hunt deer, they were met by some of these savage fugitives.<br>

The leaders of the savages accosted them thus: “We abandoned for you, the pleasant sea-coast, so that we have nothing left, but these almost inaccessible mountains: at least, it is just that you leave us in peace and liberty. Go, and never forget that you owe your lives to our feeling of humanity. Never forget that it was from a people whom you call rude and savage that you receive this lesson in gentleness and generosity. {{omission}} We abhor that brutality which, under the gaudy names of ambition and glory, {{omission}} sheds the blood of men who are all brothers. {{omission}} We value health, frugality, liberty, and vigor of body and mind: the love of virtue, the fear of the gods, a natural goodness toward our neighbors, attachment to our friends, fidelity to all the world, moderation in prosperity, fortitude in adversity, courage always bold to speak the truth, and abhorrence of flattery. {{omission}}<br>

If the offended gods so far blind you as to make you reject peace, you will find, when it is too late, that the people who are moderate and lovers of peace are the most formidable in war.”|author=Encounter with the Mandurians|source=''The Adventures of Telemachus, Son of Ulysses'' (1699)<ref>François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon, Encounter with the Mandurians, in Chapter IX of ''Telemachus, Son of Ulysses'', Patrick Riley, translator (Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 130–131; Riley's translation is based on the translation by Tobias Smollett, 1776 (op. cit. p. xvii).</ref>}}

In the 18th century, British intellectual debate about Primitivism used the Highland Scots as a local, European example of a mythical ''noble savage'' people, as often as the American Indians were the example. The English cultural perspective scorned the ostensibly rude [[Etiquette|manners]] of the Highlanders, whilst admiring and idealizing the toughness of person and character of the Highland Scots; the writer [[Tobias Smollett]] described the Highlanders:

{{blockquote|They greatly excel the Lowlanders in all the exercises that require agility; they are incredibly abstemious, and patient of hunger and fatigue; so steeled against the weather, that in traveling, even when the ground is covered with snow, they never look for a house, or any other shelter but their plaid, in which they wrap themselves up, and go to sleep under the cope of heaven. Such people, in quality of soldiers, must be invincible. . . .|''The Expedition of Humphry Clinker'' (1771)<ref>Smollett, Tobias, ''[[The Expedition of Humphry Clinker]]'' (1771) London: Penguin Books, 1967, p. 292.</ref>}}In the Kingdom of France, critics of the Crown and Church risked censorship and summary imprisonment without trial, and primitivism was political protest against the repressive imperial règimes of [[Louis XIV of France|Louis XIV]] and [[Louis XV of France|Louis XV]]. In his travelogue of North America, the writer [[Louis-Armand de Lom d'Arce de Lahontan, Baron de Lahontan]], who had lived with the Huron Indians ([[Wyandot people]]), ascribed [[deist]] and [[Egalitarianism|egalitarian]] politics to Adario, a Canadian Indian who played the role of noble savage for French explorers:

{{blockquote|text=Adario sings the praises of [[natural religion|Natural Religion]]. {{omission}} As against society, he puts forward a sort of [[primitive Communism]], of which the certain fruits are Justice and a happy life. {{omission}} [The Savage] looks with compassion on poor civilized man — no courage, no strength, incapable of providing himself with food and shelter: a degenerate, a moral ''cretin'', a figure of fun in his blue coat, his red hose, his black hat, his white plume and his green ribands. He never really lives, because he is always torturing the life out of himself to clutch at wealth and honors, which, even if he wins them, will prove to be but glittering illusions. {{omission}} For science and the arts are but the parents of corruption. The Savage obeys the will of Nature, his kindly mother, therefore he is happy. It is civilized folk who are the real barbarians.|author=Paul Hazard|source=''The European Mind''<ref>See Paul Hazard, ''The European Mind (1680–1715)'' ([1937], 1969), pp. 13–14, and passim.</ref>}}

{{blockquote|text=Interest in the remote peoples of the Earth, in the unfamiliar civilizations of the East, in the untutored races of America and Africa, was vivid in France in the 18th century. Everyone knows how [[Voltaire]] and [[Montesquieu]] used Hurons or Persians to hold up the [looking] glass to Western manners and morals, as Tacitus used the Germans to criticize the society of Rome. But very few ever look into the seven volumes of the [[Abbé Raynal]]'s ''History of the Two Indies'', which appeared in 1772. It is however one of the most remarkable books of the century. Its immediate practical importance lay in the array of facts which it furnished to the friends of humanity in the movement against [[Atlantic slave trade|negro slavery]]. But it was also an effective attack on the Church and the sacerdotal system. {{omission}} Raynal brought home to the conscience of Europeans the miseries which had befallen the natives of the New World through the Christian conquerors and their priests. He was not indeed an enthusiastic preacher of Progress. He was unable to decide between the comparative advantages of the [[state of nature|savage state of nature]] and the most highly cultivated society. But he observes that "the human race is what we wish to make it", that the felicity of Man depends entirely on the improvement of legislation, and {{omission}} his view is generally optimistic.|author=J.B. Bury|source=''The Idea of Progress: an Inquiry into its Origins and Growth''<ref name="theideofprogress">{{cite book |title=The Idea of Progress: an Inquiry into its Origins and Growth|author=J.B. Bury |location=New York |edition=second |publisher=Cosimo Press |year=2008 |page=111}}</ref>}}