COMMON DANGERS DESPISED. 221 



were exposed at all times to many overwhelming dangers, it 

 might have been thought,, though quite erroneously, that they 

 could hardly ever be exempt from the same uneasy rule. 



Daily and hourly were their lives in jeopardy from the jaws 

 of reptiles and the beaks of carnivorous birds, large enough to 

 swallow them by dozens at a meal. They were for ever liable 

 to be exterminated by the tread of feet so gigantic, as to put in 

 peril not only their persons, but their habitations. Fragments 

 of rock often crushed them in their fall, and they were fre- 

 quently borne away and drowned in rapids and cataracts pro- 

 duced by heavy rains. 



It was not, however, the fear of these, or of numerous other 

 common dangers, which ever discouraged the labours, or broke 

 the rest, or restrained the enjoyments of our busy republicans, 

 who, with energies usually in full play, built and planned 

 loved and warred gathered and feasted ; and, in pursuance of 

 all these varied objects, were accustomed to traverse their wide 

 and open territory with feelings of security, just as com- 

 fortable as those, we may suppose, indulged in by certain 

 insect hermits, sleek, white, and luxurious, who pass their 

 lazy lives for days and months successive, 



" Shut 

 Within the walled circumference of a nut.' 



It was not, we repeat it, the fear of Death always at hand, under 

 any one of his familiar shapes, that ever caused a moment's 

 reflection, much less uneasiness, to a people so entirely occu- 



