328 LAHONTAN. 



this to solace me, that I enjoy in England a sort of liberty that is 

 not met with elsewhere. For one may justly say that of all the 

 countries inhabited by civilized people, this alone affords the greatest 

 perfection of liberty. Nay, I do not except the liberty of the mind," 

 he says, "for I am convinced that the English maintain it with a 

 great deal of tenderness. So true it is that all degrees of slavery are 

 abhorred by this people, who shew their wisdom in the precaution 

 they take to prevent their sinking into a fatal servitude." 



It would not be fitting to discuss here the contents of a certain 

 dialogue in the strain of Lucian, to be found only in the English 

 edition of Lahontan's Letters. We simply note that the interlocu- 

 tors are Lahontan himself and a Huron chief, Adario, popularly 

 known among the contemporary Lower Canadian French as the Rat. 

 The subjects handled are (1) Religion as set before the Indians by 

 the Jesuits ; and (2) the Laws, Morals, and Customs of Civilized 

 Life, as represented by the France of the period of Louis XI Y. 

 (Adario is supposed to have travelled in Europe). Lahontan acts 

 the part of apologist on the side of the Jesuits and French conserva- 

 tives generally ; but he puts into the mouth of the observant savage 

 some criticisms that are very trenchant. The preface to the English 

 edition of Lahontan's Letters makes us acquainted with the rather 

 interesting circumstance that the Count de Frontenac had examined 

 this dialogue, and had, in some degree, assisted in its composition 

 and arrangement. One allusion occurs in it to the writer's personal 

 affairs. Adario speaks of what he has heard of corrupt judges in 

 the French courts. Lahontan replies, ironically of course : " The 

 bad judges you speak of are as uncommon as white beavers ; it is a 

 question if there are four such in all France. [He could have 

 named, perhaps with pleasure, the persons glanced at.] Our judges 

 are men that love virtue, and have souls to be saved as well as thou 

 and I," &c. " They curb libertinism, they redress disorders, and do 

 justice to all that sue for it, without the least regard to what we call 

 interest. As for my own part," Lahontan then adds, "I have lost 

 my whole estate by being cast in three or four lawsuits in Paris; but 

 I would be loth to believe that the judges are in fault, notwithstand- 

 ing that my adversaries found both money and friends to back bad 

 causes. It was the Law that gave it against me, and I take the 

 Law to be just and reasonable, imputing my surprise upon the mat- 



