Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY AND EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD LITERATURE
You cannot know, till you are what I am, what deep, what all-absorbing interest
I have in the success of my tutorship on this occasion. Most joyfully would I embrace
a thousand deaths, rather than that you should prove a recreant. The consequences
of any failure in your integrity will, it is true, be fatal to yourself: but there are some
minds, of a generous texture, who are more impatient under ills they have inicted
upon others, than of those they have brought upon themselves; who had rather
perish, themselves, in infamy, than bring infamy or death upon a benefactor.
Perhaps of such noble materials is your mind composed. If I had not thought
so, you would never have been an object of my regard, and therefore, in the motives
that shall impel you to delity, sincerity, and perseverance, some regard to my
happiness and welfare will, no doubt, have place.
And yet I exact nothing from you on this score. If your own safety be insucient
to controul you, you are not t for us. There is, indeed, abundant need of all possible
inducements to make you faithful. The task of concealing nothing from me must
be easy. That of concealing every thing from others must be the only arduous
one. The rst you can hardly fail of performing, when the exigence requires it,
for what motive can you possibly have to practice evasion or disguise with me?
You have surely committed no crime; you have neither robbed, nor murdered, nor
betrayed. If you have, there is no room for the fear of punishment or the terror of
disgrace to step in, and make you hide your guilt from me. You cannot dread any
further disclosure, because I can have no interest in your ruin or your shame: and
what evil could ensue the confession of the foulest murder, even before a bench of
magistrates, more dreadful than that which will inevitably follow the practice of
the least concealment to me, or the least undue disclosure to others?
You cannot easily conceive the emphatical solemnity with which this was spoken.
Had he xed piercing eyes on me while he spoke; had I perceived him watching
my looks, and labouring to penetrate my secret thoughts, I should doubtless have
been ruined: but he xed his eyes upon the oor, and no gesture or look indicated
the smallest suspicion of my conduct. After some pause, he continued, in a more
pathetic tone, while his whole frame seemed to partake of his mental agitation.
I am greatly at a loss by what means to impress you with a full conviction of
the truth of what I have just said. Endless are the sophistries by which we seduce
ourselves into perilous and doubtful paths. What we do not see, we disbelieve, or we
heed not. The sword may descend upon our infatuated head from above, but we who
are, meanwhile, busily inspecting the ground at our feet, or gazing at the scene around
us, are not aware or apprehensive of its irresistible coming. In this case, it must not
be seen before it is felt, or before that time comes when the danger of incurring it is
over. I cannot withdraw the veil, and disclose to your view the exterminating angel.
All must be vacant and blank, and the danger that stands armed with death at your
elbow must continue to be totally invisible, till that moment when its vengeance is
provoked or unprovokable. I will do my part to encourage you in good, or intimidate
you from evil. I am anxious to set before you all the motives which are tted to
inuence your conduct; but how shall I work on your convictions?
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