Page:Journey to Pennsylvania.djvu/17



HE value of this little book does not consist in elegant diction according to the rules of composition, but in its remarkable contents. The former will not be expected from the author, who is not a scholar. On the other hand his narrative, which, however, is quite readable, is to the reader a guaranty of his sincerity, not to mention the fact that he writes for the most part as an eye-witness. As he did not strictly aim at relating all matters of the same kind consecutively, his work has received some variety which is, perhaps, more agreeable to the reader. What the author narrates with simplicity and without ornamentation of the various Europeans and the American savages, their manners and customs, their laws, domestic and religious institutions, is for the most part new and of such a nature that thinking readers will be glad to perceive in it a special mingling of the European and American climate, of the customs of the Old and the New World, and of a civilized people living in part in natural freedom. (11)