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To come to the point at once. I beg to say that I have not the least belief in the 'noble savage'.
I call him a 'savage' and I call a savage a something highly desirable to be civilised off the face of the Earth.
He is cruel, false, fiendish, murderous. Addicted more or less to grease, entrails and beastly customs. A wild animal with the questionable gift of boasting.
We have no greater justification for being cruel to the miserable object than for being cruel to a William Shakespeare.
But he passes away before an immeasurably better and higher power, and the world will be all the better when this place knows him no more.
Source unknown. Quoted in 'Sunday features: The meeting of minds - The Berlin Conference 1884', BBC Radio 3, 14 Nov 2004.
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