No herd of humans would consider themselves inferior to another herd

There exists no herd or nation of humans so unfortunate as to think itself inferior to the rest of humans and few are even willing to put up with the claim to equality. Their excellent is first in their own opinion, and give others consideration only when they approach their own condition. Any herd or nation is vain of the personal character, or of the learning, of a few of its members; another, of its policy, its wealth, its tradesmen, its gardens, and its buildings; and they who have nothing to boast, are vain, because they are ignorant. The Russians, before the reign of Peter the Great, thought themselves possessed of every national honor, and held the dumb nations, (bestowed on their western neighbors of Europe), in a proportional degree of contempt. China's map of the world was a square plate, the greater part of which was occupied by the provinces of this great empire, leaving on its skirts a few obscure corners, into which the wretched remainder of humans were supposed to be driven. 'If you have not the use of our letters, nor the knowledge of our books,' said the learned Chinese to the European missionary, 'what literature, or what science, can you have?