the bear, which the Great Spirit, who loves us as well as you, gave us for food and clothing: who dug up the hatchet of war, while they smoked with us the calumet of peace; he is unworthy to live, his blood will be acceptable to us, and must flow."-"Hear me," said L——, "it is true, I am a White, but I am also the friend of Indians. He (looking to me) is a friend to me, and to you also. You are right in saying the Great Spirit loves you as well as us; he loves all his children equally; he is alike the friend of the Indian and the European. It is we ourselves who become unnatural enemies to each other, instead of constituting an universal band of brothers, sons of a common parent. It is we, who foolishly suffering our bodies and minds to be enslaved, our feelings to be infuriated to madness more envenomed than the serpent, are set in array to shed each other's blood in the worst of causes, or for none, at the instigation of the tyrants of our species; of wicked men more crafty than the tiger, like him wallowing in blood, destroying in wanton sport. Men who elevate their hands yet reeking with gore, to implore blessings from the Deity for their work of slaughter; who blasphemously chaunt praises to Him for supposed assistance in the premature destruction of the works of his hands, in narrowing the span which he has stretched, crying, 'not unto us, but unto thy name, be the praise given!' And yet God is not unjust; it is Man who is unjust to himself; who will not justify the nature bestowed on him. Upon their own showing, these monsters in human shape are condemned; they say, in braggart mood, 'Man is a free agent, he is free to stand or fall; he can distinguish between good and evil.' Good, very right, well-said, ye hypocrites. Then if so it be (and so it is) ought the Supreme to interfere on every occasion, when man oversteps the demarcation between good and evil chalked out to him by his nature; when fooled by his fellows he embrues his hands in fraternal blood! They tell us of some portions of the great family of the human race being natural enemies, incapable of brotherly alliance; by heaven! they foully lie; are your beavers naturally hostile and solitary? And what special gift enables man to reject the evil and to choose the good, to prefer pleasure to pain, if left to inherent bias? Is it, or is it not, that property of reason which they stifle, or affect to despise? If reason be useless lumber, why do we inherit it? But it is not so; whatever is, is useful and right; nothing is given in vain And they add, 'We have received the gift of a truth which reason could never attain; but observe, although we assert that it was received for the common weal, we intend, and take special care, it shall depend on our leisure and caprice, for universal diffusion: wait ye our good pleasure.' If then they have received a gift so extraordinary, so plainly out of course, why do they disagree so furiously among each other as to its essential properties and effects, its mode of operation? Why do they fight and tear like dogs about this truth, like beasts who possess not reason? "But enough of this; let us reason together as men, as rational free agents, with calmness and moderation; let us take warning from the awful example presented to us by the disciples of Ignorance and Fanaticism, and beware of abusing the good gifts entrusted to our care. Listen to what I am going to say: I and your countryman are come to dwell among you; the earth is large enough if fairly appropriated and apportioned: but there is no room for us in my country; the arm of honest industry is paralysed there. You have more than sufficient, more than you can use and enjoy; and yet, even now, you faint from want of food. Why is this? Because you and your forefathers have followed a precarious mode of subsistence; you are continually subject to the alter nate extremes of famine and repletion. Would it not be better, that each of you should hold and cultivate as much ground as will produce sufficient food for himself and his children through every season, without risk of the want you are now pining under? Or if you hesitate to make the experiment first, grant to us two a portion just sufficient for the purpose; we ask no more: watch our progress, and see if we shall not be more at ease, more vigorous, and more contented than you. See whether we shall seek to drown our senses in intoxication from the brandy of Europeans, and wake from the potion more sorrowful and exhausted.-Mark well, if our children will grasp the scalping knife; and having made these observations, consider whether your mode of life, or ours, be best and happiest.” He paused; and the people looking at each other with smiles of confidence, a murmer of applause filled my ears. They threw down their weapons, and advanced to us with open arms; but as I leaned to your embrace, the vision swung and faded, and I awoke. LETTER XII. "To-day,” L—— said, "we will proceed in our examination into the effects of the last catastrophe I have mentioned, as causes which gave rise to the unequal division of that which was, for a time, common to all. "The inhabitants of the earth, or rather of those parts which were the theatre of this revolution in Nature (for I suggest, that the notion of exclusive tenancy of surface obtains not, or with much less force, in the countries which were not visited by its operation) were greatly reduced in number, and vast tracks left in an unoccupied state by that event. Thus it was, that the immense forests of your country grew up in the soil filled by the hand of Nature, with the seeds of their existence. The regions there now repeopling, have been before inhabited by a race to whom the arts unknown to you were familiar: else how came the Tumuli, the ancient forts of the West Country, and the ruins of a city in the southern parts of your continent, constructed in knowledge of the mechanical powers? For you |