Part, this juice of the apple shall be sufficient.' - Two
hours now elapsed, without any one uttering a word. - The Indian had by
this time drunk two large gallons of cider; and recollecting in an
instant, he had signed away his lands and wigwam, some days before, for a
_mere trifle_, he became at once outrageous; his rage heightened to
an alarming degree of extravagance by the strong fumes of the liquor he
had swallowed. - '_It is enough_,' said he; '_my house and lands are
departed: I will speak a word in favour of suicide_.
"'Tis all in vain! These flowers, these streams, these solitary shades,
are nothing to me. I shall not offend the spirit of truth when I say, they
are odious in my eyes. Sixty times has the sun performed his journey of a
year, since I was first struck with the beauty of his yellow rays. Could I
be a witness of sixty yet to come, would there be any thing new, or which
I had not seen before? It is high time we should intrude ourselves into
the invisible abodes, when all things satiate and grow stale upon us here
below. I will this very night enclose myself in my wigwam, and, setting it
on fire, depart with the thin vapour that shall arise from the dried wood
of the forest, when piled around me - No, no,' continued he, tasting the
remains of his cider '_there is nothing new_; all is _old, stale;
and insipid_.'
"At this instant an Indian trader alighted at the door. He appeared to
have come a considerable distance, and now proffered to barter a keg of
_french brandy_ for some beaver skins, he saw hanging out a post.
"French brandy!' cried Tomo cheekily 'that must be something _new_.'
"It is surely such,' replied the wandering trader, 'at least in this
remote wilderness.'
"I will taste it, by Heaven,' said the Indian.
"But will it not prove the falsehood of your position and assertion,'
interrupted I, 'that there is nothing _new under the sun? To him that
exists through all ages nothing can be strange or novel; with the
transitory race of man, the case is wholly different. Art and Nature are
combined in perpetually composing new forms and substances for his use and
amusement on the ocean of life_.'
"The Divinity himself must surely reside in that precious liquor!'
exclaimed the Indian, after tasting it a second time; 'take all my skins
and furs; and when the dawn of the morning appears, return home, stranger,
and bring a fresh supply of this celestial beverage. My existence had
indeed begun to be a burden: I was meditating, to extricate myself by the
shortest method.
