owing to disinclination, than to the bonds of the heathen. Valiant and skillful hast thou proved thyself in
the conflict, and I hereby thank thee, before proceeding to discharge other and more important duties,
because thou hast proved thyself well worthy of a Christian's praise.
The thing is but a trifle, and what you may often see if you tarry long among us, returned the scout, a
good deal softened toward the man of song, by this unequivocal expression of gratitude. I have got
back my old companion, killdeer, he added, striking his hand on the breech of his rifle; and that in itself
is a victory. These Iroquois are cunning, but they outwitted themselves when they placed their firearms
out of reach; and had Uncas or his father been gifted with only their common Indian patience, we should
have come in upon the knaves with three bullets instead of one, and that would have made a finish of
the whole pack; yon loping varlet, as well as his commerades. But 'twas all fore-ordered, and for the
best.
Thou sayest well, returned David, and hast caught the true spirit of Christianity. He that is to be saved
will be saved, and he that is predestined to be damned will be damned. This is the doctrine of truth, and
most consoling and refreshing it is to the true believer.
The scout, who by this time was seated, examining into the state of his rifle with a species of parental
assiduity, now looked up at the other in a displeasure that he did not affect to conceal, roughly interrupting
further speech.
Doctrine or no doctrine, said the sturdy woodsman, 'tis the belief of knaves, and the curse of an honest
man. I can credit that yonder Huron was to fall by my hand, for with my own eyes I have seen it; but
nothing short of being a witness will cause me to think he has met with any reward, or that Chingachgook
there will be condemned at the final day.
You have no warranty for such an audacious doctrine, nor any covenant to support it, cried David who
was deeply tinctured with the subtle distinctions which, in his time , and more especially in his province,
had been drawn around the beautiful simplicity of revelation, by endeavoring to penetrate the awful mystery
of the divine nature, supplying faith by self-sufficiency, and by consequence, involving those who reasoned
from such human dogmas in absurdities and doubt; your temple is reared on the sands, and the first
tempest will wash away its foundation. I demand your authorities for such an uncharitable assertion (like
other advocates of a system, David was not always accurate in his use of terms). Name chapter and
verse; in which of the holy books do you find language to support you?
Book! repeated Hawkeye, with singular and ill-concealed disdain; do you take me for a whimpering boy
at the apronstring of one of your old gals; and this good rifle on my knee for the feather of a goose's
wing, my ox's horn for a bottle of ink, and my leathern pouch for a cross-barred handkercher to carry my
dinner? Book! what have such as I, who am a warrior of the wilderness, though a man without a cross,
to do with books? I never read but in one, and the words that are written there are too simple and too
plain to need much schooling; though I may boast that of forty long and hard-working years.
What call you the volume? said David, misconceiving the other's meaning.
'Tis open before your eyes, returned the scout; and he who owns it is not a niggard of its use. I have
heard it said that there are men who read in books to convince themselves there is a God. I know not
but man may so deform his works in the settlement, as to leave that which is so clear in the wilderness
a matter of doubt among traders and priests. If any such there be, and he will follow me from sun to
sun, through the windings of the forest, he shall see enough to teach him that he is a fool, and that the
greatest of his folly lies in striving to rise to the level of One he can never equal, be it in goodness, or be
it in power.
The instant David discovered that he battled with a disputant who imbibed his faith from the lights of
nature, eschewing all subtleties of doctrine, he willingly abondoned a controversy from which he believed
neither profit nor credit was to be derived. While the scout was speaking, he had also seated himself,