after having been guided by the mildest doctrine, they die just as peaceably as those who being educated in more pompous religions, pass through a variety of sacraments, subscribe to complicated creeds, and enjoy the benefits of a church establishment.  These good people flatter themselves, with following the doctrines of Jesus Christ, in that simplicity with which they were delivered:  an happier system could not have been devised for the use of mankind.  It appears to be entirely free from those ornaments and political additions which each country and each government hath fashioned after its own manners.

At the door of this meeting house, I had been invited to spend some days at the houses of some respectable farmers in the neighbourhood.  The reception I met with everywhere insensibly led me to spend two months among these good people; and I must say they were the golden days of my riper years.  I never shall forget the gratitude I owe them for the innumerable kindnesses they heaped on me; it was to the letter you gave me that I am indebted for the extensive acquaintance I now have throughout Pennsylvania.  I must defer thanking you as I ought, until I see you again.  Before that time comes, I may perhaps entertain you with more curious anecdotes than this letter affords.- -Farewell.  I——­N Al——­Z.

LETTER XII

DISTRESSES OF A FRONTIER MAN

I wish for a change of place; the hour is come at last, that I must fly from my house and abandon my farm!  But what course shall I steer, inclosed as I am?  The climate best adapted to my present situation and humour would be the polar regions, where six months day and six months night divide the dull year:  nay, a simple Aurora Borealis would suffice me, and greatly refresh my eyes, fatigued now by so many disagreeable objects.  The severity of those climates, that great gloom, where melancholy dwells, would be perfectly analogous to the turn of my mind.  Oh, could I remove my plantation to the shores of the Oby, willingly would I dwell in the hut of a Samoyede; with cheerfulness would I go and bury myself in the cavern of a Laplander.  Could I but carry my family along with me, I would winter at Pello, or Tobolsky, in order to enjoy the peace and innocence of that country.  But let me arrive under the pole, or reach the antipodes, I never can leave behind me the remembrance of the dreadful scenes to which I have been a witness; therefore never can I be happy!  Happy, why would I mention that sweet, that enchanting word?  Once happiness was our portion; now it is gone from us, and I am afraid not to be enjoyed again by the present generation!  Whichever way I look, nothing but the most frightful precipices present themselves to my view, in which hundreds of my friends and acquaintances have already perished:  of all animals that live on the surface of this planet, what is man when no longer connected with society; or when