Alexander—Still, what are you but a robber,—a base, dishonest robber?
Robber—And what is a conqueror? Have not you too gone about the earth like an evil genius, plundering, killing without law, without justice, merely to gratify your thirst for dominion? What I have done in a single province with a hundred followers, you have done to whole nations with a hundred thousand. What; then, is the difference, but that you were born a king, and I a private man; you have been able to become a mightier robber than I.
Alexander—But if I have taken like a king, I have given like a king. If I have overthrown empires, I have founded greater. I have cherished arts, commerce, and philosophy.
Robber—I too have freely given to the poor what I took from the rich. I know, indeed, very little of the philosophy you speak of, but I believe neither you nor I shall ever atone to the world for the mischief we have done it.
Alexander—Leave me. Take off his chains, and use him well. Are we, then, so much alike? Alexander like a robber? Let me reflect.
LESSON XIII
THE AMERICAN INDIAN
Not many generations ago, where you now sit, surrounded with all that makes life happy, the rank thistle nodded in the wind, and the wild fox dug his hole unscared. Here lived and loved another race of beings. Beneath the same sun that rolls over your heads, the Indian hunter pursued the panting deer; he gazed on the same moon that smiles for you, and here too the Indian lover wooed his dusky mate.
Here the wigwam blaze beamed on the tender and helpless, the council fire glared on the wise and daring. Here they warred; and when the strife was over, here curled the smoke of peace.
Here, too, they worshiped; and from many a dark bosom went up a pure prayer to the Great Spirit. He had written His laws for them, not on tables of stone, but He had traced them on the tables of their hearts. The poor child of nature knew not the God of revelation, but the God of the Universe he acknowledged in everything around.