who is now going between her mother and her aunt to try the fortune of her wit and beauty, suspects no fallacy in the gay representation. She believes herself passing into another world, and images London as an elysian region, where every hour has its proper pleasure, where nothing is seen but the blaze of wealth, and nothing heard but merriment and flattery; where the morning always rises on a show, and the evening closes on a ball; where the eyes are used only to sparkle, and the feet only to dance.

Her aunt and her mother amuse themselves on the road, with telling her of dangers to be dreaded, and cautions to be observed. She hears them as they heard their predecessors, with incredulity or contempt. She sees that they have ventured and escaped; and one of the pleasures which she promises herself is to detect their falsehoods, and be freed from their admonitions.

We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know, because they have never deceived us. The fair adventurer may perhaps listen to the Idler, whom she cannot suspect of rivalry or malice; yet he scarcely expects to be credited when he tells her that her expectations will likewise end in disappointment.

The uniform necessities of human nature produce in a great measure uniformity of life, and for part of the day make one place like another; to dress and to undress, to eat and to sleep, are the same in London as in the country. The supernumerary hours have indeed a great variety both of pleasure and of pain. The stranger, gazed on by multitudes at her first appearance in the Park, is perhaps on the highest

summit of female happiness; but how great is the anguish when the novelty of another face draws her worshippers away! The heart may leap for a time under a fine gown; but the sight of a gown yet finer puts an end to rapture. In the first row at an opera two hours may be happily passed in listening to the musick on the stage, and watching the glances of the company; but how will the night end in despondency when she that imagined herself the sovereign of the place, sees lords contending to lead Iris to her chair! There is little pleasure in conversation to her whose wit is regarded but in the second place; and who can dance with ease or spirit that sees Amaryllis led out before her? She that fancied nothing but a succession of pleasures, will find herself engaged without design in numberless competitions, and mortified without provocation with numberless afflictions.

But I do not mean to extinguish that ardour which I wish to moderate, or to discourage those whom I am endeavouring to restrain. To know the world is necessary, since we were born for the help of one another; and to know it early is convenient, if it be only that we may learn early to despise it. She that brings to London a mind well prepared for improvement, though she misses her hope of uninterrupted happiness, will gain in return an opportunity of adding knowledge to vivacity, and enlarging innocence to virtue.

NUMB. 81. SATURDAY, November 3, 1759.

As the English army was passing towards Quebec

along a soft savanna between a mountain and a lake, one of the petty chiefs of the inland regions stood upon a rock surrounded by his clan, and from behind the shelter of the bushes contemplated the art and regularity of European war. It was evening, the tents were pitched: he observed the security with which the troops rested in the night, and the order with which the march was renewed in the morning. He continued to pursue them with his eye till they could be seen no longer, and then stood for some time silent and pensive.

Then turning to his followers,

66

My children (said he) I have often heard from men hoary "with long life, that there was a time when our "ancestors were absolute lords of the woods, the

meadows, and the lakes, wherever the eye can "reach or the foot can pass. They fished and "hunted, feasted and danced, and when they "were weary lay down under the first thicket, "without danger, and without fear. They changed "their habitations as the seasons required, con"venience prompted or curiosity allured them; "and sometimes gathered the fruits of the moun

"tain, and sometimes sported in canoes along the

"coast.

66

Many years and ages are supposed to have "been thus passed in plenty and security; when, "at last, a new race of men entered our country "from the great ocean. They inclosed themselves "in habitations of stone, which our ancestors "could neither enter by violence, nor destroy by "fire. They issued from those fastnesses, some"times, covered like the armadillo with shells, "from which the lance rebounded on the striker, "and sometimes carried by mighty beasts which "had never been seen in our vales or forests, of "such strength and swiftness that flight and op

66

position were vain alike. Those invaders ranged

over the continent, slaughtering in their rage "those that resisted, and those that submitted, in "their mirth. Of those that remained, some were "buried in caverns, and condemned to dig metals "for their masters; some were employed in tilling "the ground, of which foreign tyrants devour the

66

produce; and, when the sword and the mines "have destroyed the natives, they supply their place by human beings of another colour, brought "from some distant country to perish here under "toil and torture.

66

"Some there are who boast their humanity, and " content themselves to seize our chaces and "fisheries, who drive us from every track of ground "where fertility and pleasantness invite them to "settle, and make no war upon us except when we "intrude upon our own lands.

"Others pretend to have purchased a right of "residence and tyranny: but surely the insolence "of such bargains is more offensive than the avowed "and open dominion of force. What reward can "induce the possessor of a country to admit a

66

66

stranger more powerful than himself? Fraud or "terror must operate in such contracts; either they promised protection which they never have "afforded, or instruction which they never impart"ed. We hoped to be secured by their favour "from some other evil, or to learn the arts of Eu"rope, by which we might be able to secure our"selves. Their power they never have exerted in "our defence, and their arts they have studiously "concealed from us. Their treaties are only to "deceive, and their traffic only to defraud us. They have a written law among them, of which "they boast as derived from Him who made the "earth and sea, and by which they profess to be"lieve that man will be made happy when life shall "forsake him. Why is not this law communicated "to us? It is concealed because it is violated. For "how can they preach it to an Indian nation, when "I am told that one of its first precepts forbids "them to do to others what they would not that "others should do to them?

66

"But the time perhaps is now approaching when "the pride of usurpation shall be crushed, and the "cruelties of invasion shall be revenged. The sons

of rapacity have now drawn their swords upon each "other, and referred their claims to the decision of "war; let us look unconcerned upon the slaughter, "and remember that the death of every European,