“Good or bad, I wish there were fewer of them, and that they were farther off.  This man Peter is a mystery to me:  sometimes he seems quite friendly; then, ag’in, he appears just ready to take all our scalps.  Do you know much of his past history, Mr. Amen?”

“Not as much as I wish I did,” the missionary replied.  “No one can tell me aught concerning Peter, beyond the fact of his being a sort of a prophet, and a chief of commanding influence.  Even his tribe is unknown; a circumstance that points us to the ancient history of the Jews for the explanation.  It is my own opinion that Peter is of the race of Aaron, and that he is designed by Divine Providence to play an important part in the great events on which we touch.  All that is wanting is, to persuade him into this belief, himself.  Once persuade a man that he is intended to be something, and your work is half done to your hands.  But the world is so full of ill-digested and random theories, that truth has as much as it can do to obtain a sober and patient hearing!”

Thus is it with poor human nature.  Let a man get a crotchet into his head—­however improbable it may be, however little supported by reason or fact, however ridiculous, indeed—­and he becomes indisposed to receive any evidence but that which favors his theory; to see any truths but such as he fancies will harmonize with his truths; or to allow of any disturbing causes in the great workings of his particular philosophy.  This notion of Parson Amen’s concerning the origin of the North American savage, did not originate with that simple-minded enthusiast, by any means.  In this way are notions formed and nurtured.  The missionary had read somewhat concerning the probability that the American Indians were the lost tribes of Israel; and possessed with the idea, everything he saw was tortured into evidence in support of his theory.  There is just as much reason for supposing that any, and all, of the heathen savages that are scattered up and down the earth have this origin, as to ascribe it to our immediate tribes; but to this truth the good parson was indifferent, simply because it did not come within the circle of his particular belief.

Thus, too, was it with the corporal.  Unless courage, and other military qualities, were manifested precisely in the way in which he had been trained, they were not courage and military qualities at all.  Every virtue has its especial and conventional accessories, according to this school of morals; nothing of the sort remaining as it came from above, in the simple abstract qualities of right and wrong.  On such feelings and principles as these, do men get to be dogmatical, narrow-minded, and conceited!