and impelled its
possessors, to the dreary wilderness. Former homes, encircled by the
comforts of civilization, endeared by the grateful recollections of
by-gone days, and not unfrequently, consecrated as the spots where
their tenants had first inhaled the vital fluid, were readily
exchanged for "the variety of untried being, the new scenes and
changes," which were to be passed, before the trees of the forest
could be supplanted, by the fruits of the field, or society be reared
in the solitude of the desert. With a capability to sustain fatigue,
not to be subdued by toil; and with a cheerfulness, not easily to be
depressed; a patience which could mock at suffering and a daring which
nothing could daunt, every difficulty which intervened, every obstacle
which was interposed between them and the accomplishment of the
objects of their pursuit, was surmounted or removed; and in a
comparatively brief space of time, they rose to the enjoyment of many
of those gratifications, which are experienced in earlier and more
populous settlements. That their morals should, for a while, have
suffered deterioration, and their manners and habits, instead of [99]
approximating those of refined society, should have become perhaps,
more barbarous and uncouth, was the inevitable consequence of their
situation, and the certain result of circumstances, which they could
not control. When that situation was changed, and these circumstances
ceased to exist, a rapid progress was made in the advancement of many
sections of the country, to the refinements of civilized society.

The infantile state of all countries exhibits, in a greater or less
degree, a prevalence of barbarism. The planting of colonies, or
the formation of establishments in new countries, is ever attended
with circumstances unpropitious to refinement. The force with which
these circumstances act, will be increased or diminished in proportion
to the remoteness or proximity of those new establishments, to
older societies, in which the arts and sciences are cultivated; and to
the facility of communication between them. Man is, at all times,
the creature of circumstances. Cut off from an intercourse with his
fellow men, and divested of the conveniences of life, he will readily
relapse into a state of nature.--Placed in contiguity with the
barbarous and the vicious; his manners will become rude, his
morals perverted.--Brought into collision with the sanguinary and
revengeful; and his ow