Even the polished Italian, distracted by jealousy, or tempted by a strong circumstance of advantage, draws his stiletto, and accomplishes his purpose. The Indian discovers his friend to be perfidious, and he kills him the wild Asiatic does the same the Turk, when ambition fires, or revenge provokes, gratifies his passion at the expence of life, and does not call it murder. Nature, uncontaminated by false refinement, every where acts alike in the great occurrences of life. While the refined Europeans boast a standard of honour, and a sublimity of virtue, which often leads them from pleasure to misery, and from nature to error, the simple, uninformed American follows the impulse of his heart, and obeys the inspiration of wisdom. “There are certain prejudices attached to the human mind which it requires all our wisdom to keep from interfering with our happiness certain set notions, acquired in infancy, and cherished involuntarily by age, which grow up and assume a gloss so plausible, that few minds, in what is called a civilized country, can afterwards overcome them.
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