midnight
_ To do this with effect , you must make him a profound metaphysician , and thus transfer him at once from his wild and original state to a very advanced stage of intellectual progression ; whether that progression be towards good or evil , I leave you and our friend Foster to settle between you . _ Mr Escot . _ I wish to make no change in his habits and feelings , but to give him , hypothetically , so much mental illumination , as will enable him to take a clear view of two distinct stages of the deterioration of his posterity , that he may be enabled to compare them with each other , and with his own more happy condition . The Indian , dancing round the midnight fire , is very far deteriorated ; but the magnificent beau , dancing to the light of chandeliers , is infinitely more so . The Indian is a hunter : he makes great use of fire , and subsists almost entirely on animal food . The malevolent passions that spring from these pernicious habits involve him in perpetual war . He is , therefore , necessitated , for his own preservation , to keep all the energies of his nature in constant activity : to this end his midnight war-dance is very powerfully subservient , and , though in itself a frightful spectacle , is at least justifiable on the iron plea of necessity .