too, date from what interests them most. It is important to learn what
this is. The major date of American citizens is the Revolution; their
minor dates are elections, and new admissions into the Union. The people
at Amsterdam date from the completion of the Stadt Huis; the Spaniards
from the achievement of Columbus; the Germans from the deed of Luther;
the Haytians from the abduction of Toussaint L'Ouverture; the Cherokees
from treaties with the Whites; the people of Pitcairn's Island from the
mutiny of the Bounty; the Turks, at present, from the massacre of the
Janissaries; the Russians from the founding of St. Petersburgh and the
deaths of its monarchs; the Irish (for nearer times than the battle of
the Boyne) by the year of the fever, the year of the rebellion, the year
of the famine. There is a world of instruction in this kind of fact; and
if a new species of epoch, of which there is a promise, should
arise,--if the highest works of men should come to be looked upon as the
clearest operations of Providence,--if Germany or Europe should date
from Goethe as the civilized world does from Columbus,--this sole test
might reveal almost the entire moral state of society.

* * * * *

The treatment of the Guilty is all-important as an index to the moral
notions of a society. This class of facts will hereafter yield
infallible inferences as to the principles and views of governments and
people upon vice, its causes and remedies. At present, such facts must
be used with great caution, because the societies of civilized countries
are in a state of transition from the old vindictiveness to a purer
moral philosophy. The ancient methods, utterly disgraceful as they are,
must subsist till society has fully agreed upon and prepared for better
ones; and it would be harsh to pronounce upon the humanity of the
English from their prisons, or the justice of the French from their
galley system. The degrees of reliance upon brute force and upon public
opinion are yet by no means proportioned to the civilization of
respective societies, as at first sight might be expected, and as must
be before punishments and prisons can be taken as indications of morals
and manners.

The treatment of the guilty in savage lands, and also in countries under
a despotism, indicates the morals of rulers only,--except in so far as
it points out the political subservience of the people. It is true that
the Burmese must needs be