worthy reader is doubtless like the great and good peter himself with the idea that his feelings will no longer be by details of stolen horses broken heads and all the other catalogue of heart that dis these border wars but if he should indulge in such expectations it is a proof that he is but little in the ways of to convince him of which i his serious attention to my next chapter wherein i will show that peter has already committed a great error in politics and by a peace has materially the tranquillity of the province chap iii containing various speculations on war and � showing that a treaty of peace is a great national evil it was the opinion of that poetical philosopher that war was the original state of man whom he described as being a savage beast of prey engaged in a constant state of hostility with his own species and that this ferocious spirit was tamed and by society the same opinion has been by the learned nor have there been wanting many other philosophers to admit and defend it for my part though fond of these valuable speculations so complimentary to human nature yet in this instance i am inclined to take the proposition by part i chap history of believing with that though war may hare been originally the favourite amusement and industrious employment of our yet like many other excellent habits so far from being it has been cultivated and confirmed by refinement and civilization and in exact proportion as we approach towards that state of perfection which is the ne of modern philosophy the first conflict between man and man was the mere exertion of physical force by weapons � his arm was his his fist was his and a broken head the catastrophe of his the battle of strength was succeeded by the more rugged one of stones and clubs and war assumed a aspect as man advanced in refinement as his faculties expanded and his became more exquisite he grew rapidly more ingenious and experienced in the art of his fellow beings he invented a thousand devices to defend and to assault � the the and the the sword the dart and the prepared him to the wound as well as to the blow still urging on in the brilliant and career of invention he and his powers of defence and injury � the the the and the give a horror and to war and its glory by increasing its desolation still though armed with machinery that seemed to reach the limits of destructive invention and to yield a power of injury even with the desires of revenge � still deeper must be made in the with furious zeal he into the ac et post hot sat l i s new york of the earth he toils midst poisonous and deadly � the sublime discovery of the world � and finally the dreadful art of fighting by seems to the demon of war and this indeed is grand � this indeed marks the powers of mind and that divine of reason which us from the animals our the brutes content themselves the native force which providence has assigned them the angry bull with his horns as did his before him � the lion the and the tiger seek only with their and their to gratify their fury and even the subtle serpent the same and uses the same as did his before the flood man alone blessed with the mind goes on from discovery to discovery � and his powers of destruction the tremendous weapons of deity itself and tasks creation to assist him in his brother worm in proportion as the art of war has increased in has the art of preserving peace advanced in equal and as we have discovered in this age of wonders and inventions that is the most formidable engine in war so have we discovered the no less ingenious mode of maintaining peace by perpetual a treaty or to speak more correctly a therefore according to the of experienced learned in these matters is no longer an attempt to accommodate differences to ascertain rights and to establish an exchange of kind offices but a contest of skill between two powers which shall and take in the other it is a cunning endeavour to obtain by peaceful and the of those advantages which a nation would otherwise have v history of by force of arms in the manner that a conscientious and becomes an excellent and praise worthy citizen himself with his neighbour out of that property he would formerly have seized with open violence in fact the only time when two nations can be said to be in a state of perfect is a is open and a treaty then as there are no entered into no bonds to restrain the will no specific limits to awaken that jealousy of right in our nature as each party has some advantage to hope and expect from the other � then it is that the two nations are so gracious and friendly to each other their ministers the highest mutual regard exchanging making fine speeches and indulging in all those little and that do so the good humour of the respective nations thus it may be said that there is never so good an understanding between two nations as when there is a little misunderstanding and that so long as they are on no terms they are on the best terms in the world i do not by any means pretend to claim the merit of having made the above political discovery it has in fact long been secretly acted upon by certain enlightened and is together with divers other notable theories privately copied out of the commonplace book of an illustrious gentleman who has been member of and enjoyed the unlimited confidence of heads of department to this principle may be ascribed 