peruse the notes: there he will find instruction blended with entertainment. He will be amazed at the critical acumen, political sagacity, historical research, and philosophical profundity, which will be there displayed. The following observations are copied from the American Daily Advertiser. MR. POULSON, A small publication entitled "The Savage," fell into my hands a few days since. I have read it with careful attention, but I cannot give it the sanction of my approbation. Whatever has a tendency to render man discontented with his condition, and to excite repinings at the dispensations of Providence, must be injurious. The virtuous man would, no doubt, wish to see each individual equally virtuous with himself-but however ardently he may desire it, it is certainly questionable whether he would obtain his wishes by becoming a savage. Men of cultivated minds have existed in all times, to whom civilized society has not afforded any gratification. This arises perhaps from too great a sensibility, which is not able to bear "The stings and arrows of outrageous fortune.” -Hence we find the pictures they draw of such society deeply tinged with the melancholy which unhappily preys upon their spirits. It is a circumstance much to be regretted; because society loses in every instance the good which those talents properly directed would be capable of producing. The savage, Piomingo, is a present and strong instance of a brilliant imagination and improved understanding thus strangely perverted. What language does he use! How perspicuous! Strength and harmony are blended in his sentences. He strews the paths he treads with flowers of every varied hue: he deludes the judgment with his fascinations. But sir, his views of that happy constitution of things, which has arisen from divine revelation and the wisdom and experience of ages, will not bear examination. It is true, man is a frail being. His faults are numerous: nor is there one, who can so far govern his appetites and passions as to be free from error. Prejudices will prevail over his reason. They grow with his growth and strengthen with his years, to whatever society, whether savage or civilized, he may belong. Must he therefore shut himself out from all society? His systems of education may be wrong; but they are improvable.-Another direction might be given to his thoughts: his views might be more extended: his imagination raised to heaven. But were he to divest himself of the opportunities he has of acquiring knowledge; were he to burn his cities and flee to the woods; expose himself to the inclemencies of the seasons, and to a dependence upon the precarious supply which the chase or the snare might procure him-would his errors be rectified? The pictures which Piomingo draws of savage life are executed with a master's hand. They are well calculated to lead the unwary into a belief, that what they. represent is true. But like the paintings of many other disgustful objects, the stench and the filth are left out. "I pity the man," says Sterne, "who can travel from "Dan to Beersheba, and cry, all is barren. And so it is; " and so is all the world to him, who will not cultivate "the fruit it offers." To this observation of Sterne some poetic genius has affixed a few lines which display a philosophy in consonance with the sentiment. Allow me, sir, to offer them to Piomingo as a most invaluable present. Perhaps they may serve to soothe his wounded spirit: completely to tranquillize it, can only be effected by a reliance on that gospel, which he affects to treat with contumely. "Away with complaints of distress, Induc'd by false notions of life; And reflect-('twill make trouble seem less,) As the storms of the ocean, which fill with alarm, "What is it gives nature its grace? Why is hope the sweet source of delight? By contrast alone are their beauties display'd, And the sceptic, when taught to believe; Feel the change in their prospects hath power to bless "If griefs then your journey pursue; If flocks, herbs, and fields be laid waste; Make honey more sweet to the taste: And around you when darkness and tempests appear A. The ingenious author of the foregoing remarks seems to have mistaken the views of the Savage. We entertain no presumptuous hopes of effecting a revolution in the minds of men. We are not Quixotic enough to imagine that we can undo the work of ages, and bring back man to a state of barbarism. This, however desirable such a change might be, is impossible, unless by the means of some tremendous convulsion of nature: which Heaven avert! The utmost of our ambition is to afford entertainment by the novelty of our remarks; and we are afraid that even that is not within the limits of our power. There are but two species of writing that the men of the present day are disposed to read: something that they can turn to immediate profit, and slanderous aspersions against their neighbors. Now as we are disposed to gratify neither of these propensities we have very faint hopes indeed that our Savage will become popular. But, if it be asked, what will be the effect of our remarks in a moral point of view; we answer, that the tendency cannot be immoral. We are the friend of virtue, and advocate her cause. We are the enemy of every species of vice; and we endeavor to draw aside her veil and show her to men in all her native deformity. We have no desire "to excite repinings at the dispensations of Providence;" nor do we conceive that our remarks can have that tendency. Could we render men discontented with their vices and follies, the consequencès could not be deplorable; but we are not led away by any such extravagant expectations. This sordid calculating moneymaking generation would not be disturbed in their operations even "should one rise from the dead;" and we have no hopes that they will attend to "the voice of one crying in the wilderness." Of that happy constitution of things which might have arisen from divine revelation, had not the seed fallen among thorns which have sprung up and choked it, we can form some idea; but of the boasted wisdom and experience of ages, we entertain a different opinion. By this wisdom and this experience men are subjected to dangers, difficulties and misfortunes, of which their savage fathers had no conception. Where are the beneficial effects of this knowledge? Have men learned to conquer disease, or retard the approaches of death? Does their refinement give firmness and health to old age, or lengthen out the period of youth? Are the mass of mankind more benevolent, more just, more enlightened, than they were formerly? A few prejudices, which happened to have no connexion with selfinterest, have been discarded; but others, much more pernicious, have been guarded by our teachers as the "apple of their eye." The crimes of the moderns are less glaring than those of the antients, but all their actions are systematically vitious. They are not the victims of a moral plague or pestilence; but a sordid leprosy has infected the blood; and they are become unclean "from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot." The canker of avarice has poisoned the constitution of society; and its moral health, as far as we can perceive, is irretrievably lost. This one evil smothers every young and generous inclination, and has erected a tomb for all the virtues. This one passion is the source of all the evils which afflict humanity: it has withstood the efforts of the friends of man in every age, and rendered of none effect the revelation of God. It is painful for us to answer the last allegation that is brought against us: "that of affecting to treat the gospel with contumely." We never have treated christianity with contempt. We never have attempted to ridicule its rites or its ceremonies, or deny the divine authority of its precepts. We have always expressed our admiration of its maxims of morality; and we revere, with pious enthusiasm, its divine founder; but we are not disposed to eulogize all those who call themselves by his name. We blame not their christianity, if they have any, but their departure from the line of conduct marked out by the precepts of the gospel. Hereafter, when we say any thing against those who are called christians, let it not be supposed that we oppose the doctrines which they affect to believe: we only complain of the want of conformity between their professions and practice. It has been said that a historian, in order to be faithful and unprejudiced should be of no country and no religion; why may it not be supposed necessary for our savage to have the same negative qualifications? With Piomingo, personally, the public have no concern: he is a savage by nature, and so, we suppose, he must remain. His observations are before the world: if they will not "bear examination," let them fall. Piomingo is not solicitous about their fate. He once cherished a hope of literary fame, but that hope, with many others, is extinguished. He feels grateful to "A" for the philosophy contained in the verses; but has no great règard for any observations of Sterne. Prudence Hall, Oct. 5, 1809. PIOMINGO, are you a bona fide savage? By my conscience, I would be glad to see you. Where the devil have you built your wigwam? I have been looking for it, these three or four days, all along the banks of Schuylkill, and over in Hamilton's woods; but my labor has been in vain. I went into half a hundred dismal dirtylooking hovels on the Commons, where, by my soul, I saw savages enough, but no Indians. Where have you disposed of yourself? I am extremely anxious to see you; but not altogether through idle curiosity. If you will favor me with an interview, I have something to propose that will prove greatly advantageous to us both. |