sons of this class; who are ever for
dragging all things down to standards created by their own ignorance;
and who, slaves of the basest and meanest passions, reason as if they
were possessors of all the knowledge, sensibilities and refinements of
their own country and times. Of this class of men, comes the ordinary
demagogue, a wretch equally incapable of setting an example of any of
the higher qualities, in his own person or practice, and of
appreciating it when exhibited by others. Such men abound under all
systems where human liberty is highly privileged, being the moral
_fungi_ of freedom, as the rankest weeds are known to be the
troublesome and baneful productions of the richest soils.

It was no unusual thing for the people of the Hutted Knoll to be
collected, in the manner we have described. We are writing of a period,
that the present enlightened generation is apt to confound with the
darker ages of American knowledge, in much that relates to social
usages at least, though it escaped the long-buried wisdom of the Mormon
bible, and Miller's interpretations of the prophecies. In that day, men
were not so silly as to attempt to appear always wise; but some of the
fetes and festivals of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors were still tolerated
among us; the all-absorbing and all-_swallowing_ jubilee of
"Independence-day" not having yet overshadowed everything else in the
shape of a holiday. Now, captain Willoughby had brought with him to the
colonies the love of festivals that is so much more prevalent in the
old world than in the new; and it was by no means an uncommon thing for
him to call his people together, to make merry on a birth-day, or the
anniversary of some battle in which he had been one of the victors.
When he appeared on the lawn, on the present occasion, therefore, it
was expected he was about to meet them with some such announcement.

The inhabitants of the manor, or the estate of the Hutted Knoll, might
be divided into three great physical, and we might add moral
categories, or races, viz: the Anglo-Saxon, the Dutch, both high and
low, and the African. The first was the most numerous, including the
families of the millers, most of the mechanics, and that of Joel
Strides, the land-overseer; the second was composed chiefly of
labourers; and the last were exclusively household servants, with the
exception of one of the Plinys, who was a ploughman, though permitted
to live with his kinsfolk in the Hut. These div