I know not if this be the proper place to observe how much of the general order of society, and the happiness of a people, depend on marriage being early and universal among them; but of this more hereafter. The desire, (undiverted by any other passion,) of obtaining the object of their affection, was to them a stimulus to early and severe exertion. The enamoured youth did not listlessly fold his arms, and sigh over his hopeless or unfortunate passion. Of love not fed by hope, they had not an idea. Their attachments originated at too early an age, and in a circle too familiar, to give room for those first-sight impressions of which we hear such wonders. If the temper of the youth was rash and impetuous, and his fair one gentle and complying, they frequently formed a rash and precipitate union, without consulting their relations, when, perhaps, the elder of the two was not above seventeen. This was very quietly borne by the parties aggrieved. The relations of both parties met, and with great calmness consulted on what was to be done. The father of the youth or the damsel, whichever it was who had most wealth or fewest children, brought home the young couple; and the new married man immediately set about a trading adventure, which was renewed every season, till he had the means of providing a home of his own. Meantime the increase of the younger family did not seem an inconvenience, but rather a source of delight to the old people; and an arrangement begun from necessity, was often continued through choice for many years after. Their tempers, unruffled by the endless jealousies and competitions incident to our mode of life, were singularly placid, and that love of offspring, where children were truly an unmixed blessing, was a common sentiment which united all the branches of the family, and predominated over every other. The jarring and distrust—the petulance and egotism, which, distinct from all weightier considerations, would not fail to poison concord, were different families to dwell under one roof here, were there scarcely known. It is but justice to our acquired delicacy of sentiment to say, that the absence of refinement contributed to this tranquillity. These primitive people, if they did not gather the flowers of cultivated elegance, were not wounded by the thorns of irritable delicacy. They had neither artificial wants nor artificial miseries. In short, they were neither too wise to be happy, nor too witty to be at rest.