Had this common sense depended upon the information of any "one of the five external senses, I should have had no difficulty in admitting Dr. Reid's account of it, inasmuch as the perceptions they afford are the same, in their nature, in all healthy men, and in all ages and countries. But to suppose it to be an inferior degree, or the first act of reason, and afterwards to suppose it to be universal, is to contradict every thing that history and observation teach us of human nature.*

In matters addressed to our reason, the principal business. of reason is to correct the evidence of our senses. Indeed, the perception of truth, in philosophy, seems to consist in little else than in the refutation of the ideas acquired from the testimony of our senses. In the progress of knowledge, when the exact connection between the senses and reason is perfectly understood, it is probable that the senses and reason will be in unison with each other, and that mankind will as suddenly connect the evidence of all the senses with the decisions of reason, as they now connect, with certainty, the distance of objects with the evidence of the eyes. This general unison between the senses and reason, as in the case of vision, must be the result only of experience and habit.

I cannot dismiss this subject without adding the following remark.

Mankind are governed, says Mr. Bayle, by their prejudices, and not by their principles. To do them good, we must, in some measure, conform to those prejudices; hence we find

The King of Prussia, in his posthumous works, says, "Reason never did any thing great," by which he must have ment the commnen degrees of it, or what is called, by Dr. Reid, common sense.

the most acceptable men in practical society, have been those who have never shocked their cotemporaries, by opposing popular or common opinions. Men of opposite characters, like objects placed too near the eye, are seldom seen distinctly by the age in which they live. They must content themselves with the prospect of being useful to the distant and more enlightened generations which are to follow them. Galileo, who asked pardon of the Pope, on his knees, for contradicting the common sense of the church, respecting the revolution of the earth, and Dr. Harvey, who lost all his business by refuting the common sense of former ages, respecting the circulation of the blood, now enjoy a reputation for their opin ions and discoveries, which has in no instance ever been. given to the cold blood of common sense.

April 3d. 1791.

AN ACCOUNT OF THE VICES PECULIAR TO THE INDIANS OF

NORTH AMERICA.

IT

chris

T has become fashionable of late years for the philosophers of Europe to celebrate the virtues of the savages of America. Whether the design of their encomiums was to expose tianity, and depreciate the advantages of civilization, I know not; but they have evidently had those effects upon the minds of weak people. Without contradicting the accounts that have been published by those gentlemen, of the virtues of the Indians in North America, I shall briefly add an account of some of their vices, in order to complete their natural history. My information shall be taken from the travels of Charlevoi Hennepen-Carver-Romans and Bartram, and from sations with persons of veracity who have resided among them.

The first vice I shall name, that is universal among our savẻ ages, is UNCLEANNESS. They are, in general, stran gers to the obligations both of morality and decency, as far as they relate to the marriage bed.The exceptions to this remark, have been produced among those nations chiefly, who

have had an occasional intercourse with civilized nations.

2. NASTINESS is another Indian vice. This is exemplified in their food—drinks-dress-persons--and above all, in their total disregard to decency in the time-place-and manner of their natural evacuations.

S. DRUNKENNESS is a more general vice among savages than among civilized nations.-Whole Indian tribes have been destroyed by it. Indeed they glory in their fondness for strong liquors, and consider it as a part of their character. A countryman who had dropt from his cart a keg of rum, rode back a few miles in hopes of finding it. On his way he met an Indian who lived in his neighbourhood, whom he asked if he had seen his keg of rum on the road? The Indian laughed in his face, and addressed him in the following words. "What a fool you are to ask an Indian such a question. Don't Co you see I am sober? Had I met with your keg, you would "have found it empty on one side of the road, and Indian "Tom drunk and asleep on the other."

4. GLUTTONY is very common among Indians. To this their long abstinence, produced by their idleness, naturally tempts them. It is very common to see them stretch themselves on the ground after a full meal, and grunt there for several hours till they recover from the effects of their intemperance. Mr. Bartram tells us, that they sometimes rise in the middle of the night, in order to gratify their appetites for eating.

5. TREACHERY is another Indian vice. Who ever trusted to an Indian treaty ?They generally begin their wars, with professions of peace and perpetual friendship.

6 The CRUELTY of Indians is well known. They consider compassion as a mark of effeminacy. Their treatment of their prisoners, shews them to possess a spirit of revenge, which places them upon a footing with infernal spirits.

7 IDLENESS is the universal vice of savages. They are not only too lazy to work, but even to think. Nothing but the L 1

powerful stimulus of hunger, or revenge, is sufficient to rouse them into action.

8. THEFT is an Indian vice. The Indians not only steal from their civilized neighbours, but from each other. A horse —a gun—or spirits, have charms in the eyes of an Indian that no restraints can prevent his stealing, whenever they come in his way.

9. GAMING belongs in an eminent degree to the Catalogue of indian vices.

It is well

10. But the infamy of the Indian character is completed by the low rank to which they degrade their women. known that their women perform all their work. They not only prepare their victuals, but plant, hoe and gather their corn and roots. They are seldom admitted to their feasts, or share in their conversation. The men oblige them to lie at their feet, when they sleep without fire; and at their backs when they sleep before a fire. They afford them no assistance in the toil of tending, feeding, and carrying their children. They are even insensible of the dangers to which their women are often exposed in travelling with them. A gentleman from Northumberland county, informed me, that he once saw a body of Indian men and women wading across the river Susquehannah. The men arrived first on the opposite shore, and pursued their journey along the river. The women, some of whom had children on their backs, upon coming to a deep and rapid current, suddenly cried out for help, and made signs to their husbands and fathers to come to their assistance. The men stood for a few minutes and after attentively surveying their distress, bursted out a laughing, and then with a merry indifference, walked from them along the shore.