Page:The American Democrat, James Fenimore Cooper, 1838.djvu/194

188 reduce all the factitious inequalities of station, condition, wealth and knowledge, to a state as natural as comports with civilization, and beyond this it exceeds the power of man to go, without returning to the condition of the savage. Let him, then, on whom the world bears hard, seek his consolation in that source which is never drained, and where more contentment is to be found than shadows a throne, or smiles on riches and power. If it be a positive thing to be a gentleman, or a lady, and as much a folly to deny it as to deny that a horse is an animal, it is equally positive that we carry in us a principle of existence that teaches us, however good and pleasant may seem the outward blessings of the world, that there are still blessings of infinitely greater magnitude, that have the additional merit of being imperishable.

The limits and objects of this work neither require, nor admit of very profound dissertations, but a few words on the peculiarities of religion and of religious feeling in America, may not be misplaced.

The causes which led to the establishment of the principal American colonies, have left a deep impression on the character of the nation. In some respects this impression has been for good, in others for evil. Our business is with the latter.

Fanaticism was the fault of the age, at the time our ancestors took possession of the country, and its exaggerations have entailed on their descendants many opinions that are, at the best, of a very equivocal usefulness. These opinions are to be detected by the contracted nations of those who entertain them, and by a general want of that charity and humility, which are the most certain attendants of the real influence of the meek and beneficent spirit of Christ.

In America the taint of sectarianism lies broad upon the land. Not content with acknowledging the