Chap. I.] THE INDIAN CHARACTER. 43 



taken a lesson from the grave solemnity of an 

 Indian council. In the midst of his family and 

 friends, he hides affections, by nature none of the 

 most tender, under a mask of icy coldness ; and 

 in the torturing fires of his enemy, the haughty 

 sufferer maintains to the last his look of grim 

 defiance. 



His intellect is as peculiar as his moral organiza- 

 tion. Among all savages, the powers of perception 

 preponderate over those of reason and analysis ; 

 but this is more especially the case with the Indian. 

 An acute judge of character, at least of such parts 

 of it as his experience enables him to comprehend ; 

 keen to a proverb in all exercises of war and the 

 chase, he seldom traces effects to their causes, or 

 follows out actions to their remote results. Though 

 a close observer of external nature, he no sooner 

 attempts to account for her phenomena than he in- 

 volves himself in the most ridiculous absurdities; 

 and quite content with these puerilities, he has not 

 the least desire to push his inquiries further. His 

 curiosity, abundantly active within its own narrow 

 circle, is dead to all things else ; and to attempt 

 rousing it from its torpor is but a bootless task. He 

 seldom takes cognizance of general or abstract 

 ideas ; and his language has scarcely the power to 

 express them, except through the medium of fig- 

 ures drawn from the external world, and often 

 highly picturesque and forcible. The absence of 

 reflection makes him grossly improvident, and unfits 

 him for pursuing any complicated scheme of war 

 or policy. 



