ad with such
reference to system as to render it profitable. History, novels,
voyages and travels, and various specific treatises of fancy or fact,
invite perusal, and like a common acquaintance, it requires some moral
effort to negative their claims. "Judgment," says a celebrated critic,
"is forced upon us by experience. He that reads many books must compare
one opinion, or one style with another, and when he compares must
necessarily distinguish, reject, prefer."

_Sunday 8th_. Quintilian says, "We palliate our sloth by the specious
pretext of difficulty." Nothing, in fact, is too difficult to
accomplish, which we set about, with a proper consideration of those
difficulties, and pursue with perseverance. The Indian language cannot
be acquired so easily as the Greek or Hebrew, but it can be mastered by
perseverance. Our Indian policy cannot be understood without looking at
the Indian history. The taking of Fort Niagara was the first decisive
blow at French power. Less than three months afterwards, that is, on the
18th of October of that year, General Wolf took Quebec. Goldsmith wrote
some stanzas on this event, eulogizing the heroism of the exploit.
England's consolation for the loss of Wolf is found in his heroic
example, which the poet refers to in his closing line,

"Since from thy tomb a thousand heroes rise."

_11th_. Names are the pegs of history. Velasco, it is said, on visiting
the gulf which receives the St. Lawrence, and finding the country cold
and inhospitable, cried out _aca nada_--"there is nothing here." This is
said to be the origin of the word Canada. Nothing could be more
improbable: Did the Indians of Canada hear him, and, if so, did they
understand or respect the language of a foreigner hovering on their
coast? We must look to the Iroquois for the origin of this word. Jacques
Cartier, in 1534, evidently mistook the Indian word Canada, signifying a
town, for the whole country. The Indians have no geographical terms for
districts. They name a hill, a river, or a fall, but do not deal in
generics. Some _a priori_ reasoning seems constrained, where the facts
are granted, as this: All animals at Nova Zembla, it is said, are
carnivorous, because there is no grass.

_12th_. Snow covers everything. We are shut out from the civilized
world, and thrown entirely on our own resources. I doubt, if we were in
Siberia, or Kamschatka, if we could be so completely isolated.

_13th_. Ellis, in one of his no