ound the venerable straw are wont to claim the empty
distinction of antiquity, regardless alike of the frailty of their
tenement and of the enjoyments of the numerous and vigorous swarms
that are culling the fresher sweets of a virgin world. But as this is a
subject which belongs rather to the politician and historian than to
the humble narrator of the homebred incidents we are about to reveal,
we must confine our reflections to such matters as have an immediate
relation to the subject of the tale.

Although the citizen of the United States may claim so just an ancestry,
he is far from being exempt from the penalties of his fallen race. Like
causes are well known to produce like effects. That tribute, which it
would seem nations must ever pay, by way of a weary probation, around
the shrine of Ceres, before they can be indulged in her fullest favours,
is in some measure exacted in America, from the descendant instead of
the ancestor. The march of civilisation with us, has a strong analogy
to that of all coming events, which are known "to cast their shadows
before." The gradations of society, from that state which is called
refined to that which approaches as near barbarity as connection with an
intelligent people will readily allow, are to be traced from the bosom
of the States, where wealth, luxury and the arts are beginning to seat
themselves, to those distant, and ever-receding borders which mark
the skirts, and announce the approach, of the nation, as moving mists
precede the signs of day.

Here, and here only, is to be found that widely spread, though far from
numerous class, which may be at all likened to those who have paved
the way for the intellectual progress of nations, in the old world. The
resemblance between the American borderer and his European prototype
is singular, though not always uniform. Both might be called without
restraint; the one being above, the other beyond the reach of the
law--brave, because they were inured to dangers--proud, because they
were independent, and vindictive, because each was the avenger of his
own wrongs. It would be unjust to the borderer to pursue the parallel
much farther. He is irreligious, because he has inherited the knowledge
that religion does not exist in forms, and his reason rejects mockery.
He is not a knight, because he has not the power to bestow distinctions;
and he has not the power, because he is the offspring and not the parent
of a system. In what manner t