That moral amalgam
which we call society, and which recognises a mutual and perfectly
equal condition of dependence, and a common necessity, as the great
cementing principles of the human family, had not yet taken place;
and it was still too much the custom, in that otherwise lovely
region, for the wild man to revenge his own wrong, and the strong
man to commit a greater with impunity. The repose of social order
was not yet secured to the great mass, covering with its wing,
as with a sky that never knew a cloud, the sweet homes and secure
possessions of the unwarlike. The fierce robber sometimes smote
the peaceful traveler upon the highway, and the wily assassin of
reputation, within the limits of the city barrier, not unfrequently
plucked the sweetest rose that ever adorned the virgin bosom
of innocence, and triumphed, without censure, in the unhallowed
spoliation.
But sometimes there came an avenger;--and the highway robber fell
before the unexpected patriot; and the virgin was avenged by the
yet beardless hero, for the wrong of her cruel seducer. The story
which we have to tell, is of times and of actions such as these.
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