"  Doctrine  or  no  doctrine,"  said  the  sturdy  woodsman,
"  'tis  the  belief  of  knaves,  and  the  curse  of  an  honest
man.  I  can  credit  that  yonder  Huron  was  to  fall  by
my  hand,  for  with  my  own  eyes  I  have  seen  it ;  but  noth-
ing short  of  being  a  witness,  will  cause  me  to  think  he
has  met  with  any  reward,  or  that  Chingachgook,  there,
will  be  condemned  at  the  final  day."

"  You  have  no  warranty  for  such  an  audacious  doc-
trine, nor  any  covenant  to  support  it,"  cried  David,  who
was  deeply  tinctured  with  the  subtle  distinctions  which,
in  his  time,  and  more  especially  in  his  province,  had  been
drawn  around  the  beautiful  simplicity  of  revelation,  by
endeavoring  to  penetrate  the  awful  mystery  of  the  divine
nature,  supplying  faith  by  self-sufficiency,  and  by  conse-
quence, involving  those  who  reasoned  from  such  human
dogmas  in  absurdities  and  doubt ;  "  your  temple  is  reared
on  the  sands,  and  the  first  tempest  will  wash  away  its
foundation.  I  demand  your  authorities  for  such  an  un-
charitable assertion.  (Like  other  advocates  of  a  system,
David  was  not  always  accurate  in  his  use  of  terms.)


1 66  The  Last  of  the  Mohicans

Name  chapter  and  verse;  in  which  of  the  holy  books  do
you  find  language  to  support  you  ?  "

"  Book !  "  repeated  Hawkeye,  with  singular  and  ill-
concealed  disdain ;  "  do  you  take  me  for  a  whimpering
boy  at  the  apron-string  of  one  of  your  old  gals;  and
this  good  rifle  on  my  knee  for  the  feather  of  a  goose's
wing,  my  ox's  horn  for  a  bottle  of  ink,  and  my  leathern
pouch  for  a  cross-barred  handkerchief  to  carry  my  din-
ner ?  Book !  what  have  such  as  I,  who  am  a  warrior  of
the  wilderness,  though  a  man  without  a  cross,  to  do
with  books?  I  never  read  but  in  one,  and  the  words
that  are  written  there  are  too  simple  and  too  plain  to
need  much  schooling;  though  I  may  boast  that  of  forty
long  and  hard-working  years."

"  What  call  you  the  volume  ? "  said  David,  miscon-
ceiving the  other's  meaning.
