I believe neither you nor I shall ever atone to the world for the
mischief we have done it.

_Alexander_--Leave me. Take off his chains, and use him well. Are we,
then, so much alike? Alexander like a robber? Let me reflect.




LESSON XIII

THE AMERICAN INDIAN

Not many generations ago, where you now sit, surrounded with all that
makes life happy, the rank thistle nodded in the wind, and the wild fox
dug his hole unscared. Here lived and loved another race of beings.
Beneath the same sun that rolls over your heads, the Indian hunter
pursued the panting deer; he gazed on the same moon that smiles for
you, and here too the Indian lover wooed his dusky mate.

Here the wigwam blaze beamed on the tender and helpless, the council
fire glared on the wise and daring. Here they warred; and when the
strife was over, here curled the smoke of peace.

Here, too, they worshiped; and from many a dark bosom went up a pure
prayer to the Great Spirit. He had written His laws for them, not on
tables of stone, but He had traced them on the tables of their hearts.
The poor child of nature knew not the God of revelation, but the God of
the Universe he acknowledged in everything around.