To every question they gave such an answer as would please the inquirer ; or, if they despaired of pleasing, such a one as would not provoke him. Fear was, apparently, the only passion by which they were animated. The power of volition seemed to have deserted them. They were not civil, but obsequious ; not obliging, but subservient. They yielded with a kind of apathy, and very quietly, what you asked, and what they supposed it impossible for them to retain. If you treated them Hindly, they received it coldly ; not as a kindness, but as a compensation for

» .SpafTord's Gazetteer of N. Y. Upon the evacuation of New York by the British forccfi, Nov. 2^, 178.3, the Governor of the Stqite and Commander-in-chief were escorted by a body of Westchester Light horse, commanded by Captain Delavan." -- Editor.

t Dr, Timothy Dwight's Travels, 3d vol.

INTRODUCTION. xvii

injuries done them by others. When you spoke to them, they answered you without either good or ill nature, and without any appearance of reluctance or hesitation ; but they subjoined neither questions nor remarks of their own ; proving to your full conviction, that they felt no interest either in the conversation or yourself. Both their countenances and their motions had lost every trace of animation and of feeling. The features were smoothed, not into serenity, but apathy ; and, instead of being settled in the attitude of quiet thinking, strongly indicated that all thought beyond what was merely instinctive, had fled their minds for ever.