The march of civilisation with us, has a strong analogy to that of all coming events, which are known "to cast their shadows before." The gradations of society, from that state which is called refined to that which approaches as near barbarity as connection with an intelligent people will readily allow, are to be traced from the bosom of the States, where wealth, luxury and the arts are beginning to seat themselves, to those distant, and ever-receding borders which mark the skirts, and announce the approach, of the nation, as moving mists precede the signs of day.
Here, and here only, is to be found that widely spread, though far from numerous class, which may be at all likened to those who have paved the way for the intellectual progress of nations, in the old world.

The resemblance between the American borderer and his European prototype is singular, though not always uniform.

Both might be called without restraint; the one being above, the other beyond the reach of the law--brave, because they were inured to dangers--proud, because they were independent, and vindictive, because each was the avenger of his own wrongs.

It would be unjust to the borderer to pursue the parallel much farther.

He is irreligious, because he has inherited the knowledge that religion does not exist in forms, and his reason rejects mockery.
He is not a knight, because he has not the power to bestow distinctions; and he has not the power, because he is the offspring and not the parent of a system.