THE MYTH OF THE NOBLE/GOOD SAVAGE "in the beginning man was made right with regular, pure affections." John Wesley, The founder of the Methodist Church. A noble savage is a literary stock character who embodies the concept of the indigene , outsider, wild human, an "other" who has not been "corrupted" by civilization , and therefore symbolizes humanity's innate goodness. This idea appears with the philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau during the 18th-century, who believed the original “man” was free from sin , and explained that “savages” were not brutal but noble . Through the 19th century, the idea of the noble savage receded and reverse negative stereotype of the dangerous, brutal savage prevailed. The ideal of the noble savage has led to considerable derision . But at the end the myth of the noble/good savage means that humans shloud be more happy in the nature, because civilisa