"tain, and sometimes fported in canoes along the "coaft. "Many years and ages are fupposed to have "been thus paffed in plenty and fecurity; when, "at laft, a new race of men entered our country "from the great ocean. They inclosed themselves "in habitations of ftone, which our ancestors "could neither enter by violence, nor deftroy by "fire. They iffued from thofe faftneffes, fome"times covered like the armadillo with fhells, "from which the lance rebounded on the striker, "and fometimes carried by mighty beafts which "had never been feen in our vales or foretts, of fuch ftrength and fwiftnefs, that flight and op"pofition were vain alike. Those invaders ranged over the continent, flaughtering in their rage thofe that refifted, and those that fubmitted, in their mirth. Of thofe that remained, fome were "buried in caverns, and condemned to dig metals "for their mafters; fome were employed in tilling "the ground, of which foreign tyrants devour the "produce; and, when the fword and the mines "have deftroyed the natives, they fupply their 66 place by human beings of another colour, brought "from fome diftant country to perifh here under "toil and torture. "Some there are who boaft their humanity, and " content themfelves to feize themselves to feize our chaces and "fisheries, who drive us from every track of 66 ground where fertility and pleafantnefs invite "them to fettle, and make no war upon us except "when we intrude upon our own lands. "Others "Others pretend to have purchased a right of "refidence and tyranny; but furely the infolence "of fuch bargains is more offenfive than the avowed "and open dominion of force. What reward can "induce the poffeffor of a country to admit a ftranger more powerful than himself? Fraud or "terror must operate in such contracts; either they "promised protection which they never have af"forded, or inftruction which they never imparted. "We hoped to be fecured by their favour from "fome other evil, or to learn the arts of Europe, by which we might be able to fecure ourselves. "Their power they never have exerted in our de"fence, and their arts they have ftudiously con"cealed from us. Their treaties are only to de"ceive, and their traffick only to defraud us. They have a written law among them, of which "they boaft as derived from Him who made the "earth and fea, and by which they profefs to be"lieve that man will be made happy when life "shall forfake him. Why is not this law com"municated to us? It is concealed because it is violated. For how can they preach it to an "Indian nation, when I am told that one of its "first precepts forbids them to do to others "what they would not that others fhould do to "them? "But the time perhaps is now approaching "when the pride of urfurpation fhall be crushed, "and the cruelties of invafion fhall be revenged. "The fons of rapacity have now drawn their "fwords upon each other, and referred their "claims to the decifion of war; let us look un"concerned upon the flaughter, and remember "that the death of every European delivers the 66 country from a tyrant and a robber; for what "is the claim of either nation, but the claim of the "vulture to the leveret, of the tiger to the fawn? "Let them then continue to difpute their title to "regions which they cannot people, to purchase by danger and blood the empty dignity of do"minion over mountains which they will never "climb, and rivers which they will never pass. "Let us endeavour, in the mean time, to learn "their difcipline, and to forge their weapons; "and, when they fhall be weakened with mutual "flaughter, let us rufh down upon them, force "their remains to take fhelter in their fhips, and "reign once more in our native country." NUMB. NUMB. 82. SATURDAY, November 10, 1759. SIR, To the IDLER. laft etter my on the different practice of the Italian and Dutch painters, I obferved, that "the Italian painter at"tends only to the invariable, the great and gene"ral ideas which are fixed and inherent in univerfal "nature." DISCOURSING; inomhe alien a I was led into the fubject of this letter by endeavouring to fix the original caufe of this conduct of the Italian mafters. If it can be proved that by this choice they felected the most beautiful part of the creation, it will fhew how much their principles are founded on reafon, and, at the fame time, discover the origin of our ideas of beauty. I fuppofe it will be eafily granted, that no man can judge whether any animal be beautiful in its kind, or deformed, who has feen only one of that fpecies; that is as conclufive in regard to the human figure; fo that if a man, born blind, was to recover his fight, and the most beautiful woman was brought before him, he could not determine whether he was handfome or not; nor, if the most beautiful and moft deformed were produced, could he any better determine to which he should give the preference, having feen only those two. To diftinguish diftinguish beauty, then, implies the having feen many individuals of that fpecies. If it is afked, how is more skill acquired by the obfervation of greater numbers? I anfwer that, in confequence of having feen many, the power is acquired, even without seeking after it, of diftinguishing between accidental blemishes and excrefcences which are continually varying the furface of Nature's works, and the invariable general form which Nature most frequently produces, and always feems to intend in her produc tions. Thus amongst the blades of grafs or leaves of the fame tree, though no two can be found exactly alike, yet the general form is invariable: A naturalift, before he chofe one as a fample, would examine many, fince, if he took the first that occurred, it might have, by accident or otherwise, fuch a form as that it would fcarcely be known to belong to that fpecies; he felects, as the painter does, the most beautiful, that is, the moft general form of nature. Every fpecies of the animal as well as the vegetable creation may be faid to have a fixed or determinate form towards which nature is continually inclining, like various lines terminating in the center; or it may be compared to pendulums vibrating in different directions over one central point, and as they all cross the center, though only one paffes through any other point, fo it will be found that perfect beauty is oftener produced by nature than deformity; I do not mean than deformity in general, but than any one kind of deformity. To in ftance |