Thus, too, was it with the corporal. Unless courage, and other
military qualities, were manifested precisely in the way in which HE
had been trained, they were not courage and military qualities at
all. Every virtue has its especial and conventional accessories,
according to this school of morals; nothing of the sort remaining as
it came from above, in the simple abstract qualities of right and
wrong. On such feelings and principles as these, do men get to be
dogmatical, narrow-minded, and conceited!
Our three white men pursued their way back to the "garrison,"
conversing as they went, much in the manner they did in the dialogue
we have just recorded. Neither Parson Amen nor the corporal seemed
to apprehend anything, not-withstanding the extraordinary scene in
which one had been an actor, and of which the other had been a
witness. Their wonder and apprehensions, no doubt, were much
mitigated by the fact, that it was understood Peter was to meet a
large collection of the chiefs in the Openings, and the minds of all
were, more or less, prepared to see some such assemblage as had that
night got together. The free manner in which the mysterious chief
led the missionary to the circle, was, of itself, some proof that HE
did not desire concealment; and even le Bourdon admitted, when they
came to discuss the details, that this was a circumstance that told
materially in favor of the friendliness of his intentions.
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