in his pocket; but when I began to explain the secrets of the profession, he rejected my offers with disdain. He gravely asserted that he could not reconcile it to his conscience (his conscience! only think of that! the black rascal pretended to have a conscience!) to engage in the prosecution of my plan; that it was cruel to sport with the miseries of our fellow creatures; that it was wicked to take advantage of the weaknesses and follies of mankind; that our medicines would never do good, and might do much harm; that we should prevent the afflicted from applying to those who might be able to afford them relief; that we should destroy the constitutions of the healthy, and hurry the feeble out of the world when they might otherwise have lived for years"What," cried I, "Quassia, are you mad? Is it not a law of nature that the strong should prey upon the weak? that the tiger should lie in wait for the stag? and that the great fishes should devour the small? Dear Quassia, only think of that all destroying animal, man; does he not make a prey of every creature that is subject to his power? But you must know that men not only take advantage of the weakness of all inferior animals; but of the frailties and misfortunes of their own species. Only look through the world and see how they delude, destroy, and tyrannize over each other. There is no right but might; there is no law but power." Thus I attempted to reason with him; but in vain. He was stubborn as a mule; and I was obliged to dismiss him.

Since that time I have never attempted to renew my project until the present moment. You, Piomingo, are advanced in years and consequently know the world. Let us join our forces and go forth to battle. We arę sure of victory; and great will be the spoil.

I have the honor to be &c.

EPHRAIM HEADWORK.

We were struck dumb with astonishment at the impudence of the scoundrel in making such a proposal to us. In the first transports of our fury we started up with a full determination to search him out and offer him up

as a sacrifice to our insulted honor; but reflection soon showed us the folly of our passion. There was no great probability that we could find him; and if we should, very possibly we might not be able to chastise him. We therefore calmed our agitated spirits, and resolved to rest satisfied with exposing to the world the projects of Mr. Headwork; and this we have fully done by publishing his letter.

The epistle, we have had the honor of receiving, sheds a blaze of light on a subject which, before, appeared to us to be involved in the greatest obscurity. We had long observed advertisements in the public papers which announced infallible remedies for every disease. Cures innumerable, authenticated by the most respectable names, demanded our implicit belief: yet still we heard the frequent tolling of the bells, which proclaimed the daily departure of souls, and we met in the streets the melancholy herse which conveyed the lifeless body to the grave! We were amazed at the obstinacy of the people. Why should they die, when health and life courted their acceptance? Ephraim Headwork's letter has explained the mystery.

But is it not strange that an enlightened and civilized people should suffer themselves to be deluded, in a matter of such consequence, by every arrogant pretender? When a watch or any other machine of the like nature is damaged by any casualty, it is sent to some skilful mechanic who understands its structure, and is therefore qualified to rectify that which is wrong: and when the human body, a most complex piece of machinery, becomes deranged in its parts, or disordered in its operations, how can we expect to have it regulated by the hand of daring and unprincipled ignorance?

A multitude of laws is one of the distinguishing characteristics of civilization: why then are there no laws against quackery? Shall property be protected by innumerable statutes, and life and health be left at the mercy of every one who has the hardihood to assert and persist in a falsehood?

THE SAVAGE-NO. VI.

VIRTUE.

IT has already been proved, that the direct tendency of what is called civilization is to create and perpetuate a disparity among men; and, that as civilization progresses, the number of the refined is diminished and that of the debased and degraded part of the community increased in the like proportion. The great majority of the people, therefore, never become sharers in this refinement which is so highly eulogized by authors who understand not the subject they have undertaken to discuss. They have said much in favor of the diffusion of knowledge; but knowledge can never be generally diffused under the present constitution of society. How can men acquire knowledge who are condemned, by their necessities, to neverending labor? Much may be said in favor of those arts which humanize the mind, and soften the ferocious passions of man; but it is not considered that this humanized and softened being requires the assistance and servitude of a dozen beings, who are brutalized and degraded in the same proportion that he is refined and exalted.

Hereafter we will endeavor to form a proper estimate of the enjoyments of the polished luxurious man who requires that others should be miserable and wretched that he may become splendid and great: at present we will confine our ideas to that immense majority of mankind, the laboring poor.

Are they virtuous?

When a man of this description becomes capable of reflection, he immediately perceives the disadvantages of his situation: there are privileges to which he must not aspire; there are enjoyments of which he must not partake. He finds himself necessitated to labor continually for a wretched subsistence, while others enjoy leisure, amusement and pleasure without any exertion of their own. These circumstances have a natural tendency to sour and imbitter his mind. Envy and malignity take up their residence in his heart; but as he sees no opportunity of improving his situation, he becomes as

stupid as an "ass couching down between two burdens." He is despised by the world; and he despises himself. When he sees that he is utterly contemptible in the estimation of others, how is it possible that he should value himself, or retain any idea of personal importance or dignity of character? It is not possible.

Honor is a powerful incentive to virtuous actions; but honor has no influence with the wretch that I describe. Shame, in certain societies, will prevent a man from falling into vitious pursuits; but shame has no power over this victim of refinement. He is already Contemptible, degraded, miserable: what more can he fear?

When you have destroyed, by your boasted civilization, every motive to virtue, and every preventive of vice, in the great body of the people, do you, notwithstanding, expect to find them virtuous? We will undertake to say, that you are very unreasonable in your expectations; and that you will most assuredly be disappointed. We assert with confidence that the great body of the poor, in every civilized society, are not only degraded but wicked and malignant. Whence arises the multiplicity of your laws, but from the multitude of crimes that are found in the mass of the community? They are necessarily vitious, yet the circumstances of society require that they should be punished. And all this collection of miseries and crimes is created and supported by the sickly and effeminate refinement of a few who have deserted nature and sought out for themselves factitious and enervating enjoyments at the expense of the virtue and happiness of millions of their species.

Those who will not take time to reflect, may suppose that we exaggerate when we affirm that the indigent man is compelled by the circumstances of his situation to practise continual dissimulation. He dare not, he cannot, approach his superior with the easy confidence of virtue. He must not speak what is true, but what he supposes will be agreeable. His neighbor is rich and Consequently powerful; he must therefore, as far as he is able, endeavor to countervail this ascendency, by flat

tery and dissimulation. He asks justice as a favor, and begs the contemptible pittance he receives for his labor with the whining tone of a mendicant.

There is no object in nature so disgusting as to see one man crawling to and fawning on another. We may pity the base grovelling wretch, but we must and do despise him. Can this creature be virtuous? He may be deterred from atrocious crimes by the terrors of the law; but his mind is necessarily and radically depraved.

The necessity that the indigent man is under, of receiving favors from the hand of opulence, humbles and enervates his mind. One man may safely receive benefits from another if he have it in his power to make a suitable return; but the moment he incurs an obligation from which he cannot disengage himself at pleasure, that moment he becomes a slave. His mind is brought into thraldom, and his soul is obliged to acknowledge a master. The supposed benefactor may insult him with impunity. He can turn neither to the right hand nor to the left without sullying the purity of his virtue. If he should resent an injury, he is ungrateful; if he submit in silence, it is imputed to baseness and cowardice of spirit. And every thing poverty receives from wealth is accounted a favor. If we lend a rich man a few dollars, it is considered merely as an act of common courtesy, and we think of it no more; but if we lend half the sum to a man who is in want; what then? Why we conceive that we lay him under an eternal obligation and should he ever after refuse to comply with our demands, however unjust or unreasonable, we publish to the world his baseness and ingratitude, and extol to the skies our own humanity and beneficence.

Should an indigent neighbor pass through our field and accidentally do some slight damage to our property; if we do not prosecute him for a trespass, we are loud in the praise of our own lenity and forbearance: but if the trespasser be opulent, though the damage be much greater, we are pleased that he has presumed upon our good nature, and thank him for the liberty he has taken.

Does a person of figure and genteel address accost us in the street and desire some information concerning a