skirting on our
trail, and, as you well know, there is some reason to fear yonder
thicket contains a sight that may horrify a woman's mind. Are you man
enough to look death in the face; or shall I run the risk of the hounds
raising an outcry, and go in myself? You see the pup is willing to run
with an open mouth, already."

"Am I man enough! Venerable trapper, our communications have a recent
origin, or thy interrogatory might have a tendency to embroil us
in angry disputation. Am I man enough! I claim to be of the class,
mammalia; order, primates; genus, homo! Such are my physical attributes;
of my moral properties, let posterity speak; it becomes me to be mute."

"Physic may do for such as relish it; to my taste and judgment it is
neither palatable nor healthy; but morals never did harm to any living
mortal, be it that he was a sojourner in the forest, or a dweller in
the midst of glazed windows and smoking chimneys. It is only a few hard
words that divide us, friend; for I am of an opinion that, with use and
freedom, we should come to understand one another, and mainly settle
down into the same judgments of mankind, and of the ways of world.
Quiet, Hector, quiet; what ruffles your temper, pup; is it not used to
the scent of human blood?"

The Doctor bestowed a gracious but commiserating smile on the
philosopher of nature, as he retrograded a step or two from the place
whither he had been impelled by his excess of spirit, in order to reply
with less expenditure of breath, and with a greater freedom of air and
attitude.

"A homo is certainly a homo," he said, stretching forth an arm in an
argumentative manner; "so far as the animal functions extend, there are
the connecting links of harmony, order, conformity, and design, between
the whole genus; but there the resemblance ends. Man may be degraded
to the very margin of the line which separates him from the brute,
by ignorance; or he may be elevated to a communion with the great
Master-spirit of all, by knowledge; nay, I know not, if time and
opportunity were given him, but he might become the master of all
learning, and consequently equal to the great moving principle."

The old man, who stood leaning on his rifle in a thoughtful attitude,
shook his head, as he answered with a native steadiness, that entirely
eclipsed the imposing air which his antagonist had seen fit to assume--

"This is neither more nor less than mortal wickedness! Here have I been
a dweller