At the risk of giving a shock to the prejudices of artificial 
      society, I have ever been ready to pay homage to the aristocracy 
      of nature; under a conviction that vigorous human-heartedness is 
      the constituent principle of true taste. It may still, however, be 
      satisfactory to have prose testimony how far a Character, employed 
      for purposes of imagination, is founded upon general fact. I, 
      therefore, subjoin an extract from an author who had opportunities 
      of being well acquainted with a class of men, from whom my own 
      personal knowledge emboldened me to draw this portrait.
<BR><BR>
        "We learn from Caesar and other Roman Writers, that the 
      travelling merchants who frequented Gaul and other barbarous 
      countries, either newly conquered by the Roman arms, or bordering 
      on the Roman conquests, were ever the first to make the 
      inhabitants of those countries familiarly acquainted with the 
      Roman modes of life, and to inspire them with an inclination to 
      follow the Roman fashions, and to enjoy Roman conveniences. In 
      North America, travelling merchants from the Settlements have done 
      and continue to do much more towards civilising the Indian 
      natives, than all the missionaries, papist or protestant, who have 
      ever been sent among them.
<BR><BR>
        "It is farther to be observed, for the credit of this most 
      useful class of men, that they commonly contribute, by their 
      personal manners, no less than by the sale of their wares, to the 
      refinement of the people among whom they travel. Their dealings 
      form them to great quickness of wit and acuteness of judgment. 
      Having constant occasion to recommend themselves and their goods, 
      they acquire habits of the most obliging attention, and the most 
      insinuating address. As in their peregrinations they have 
      opportunity of contemplating the manners of various men and 
      various cities, they become eminently skilled in the knowledge of 
      the world. 'As they wander, each alone, through thinly-inhabited 
      districts, they form habits of reflection and of sublime 
      contemplation'. With all these qualifications, no wonder that they 
      should often be, in remote parts of the country, the best mirrors 
      of fashion, and censors of manners; and should contribute much to 
      polish the roughness and soften the rusticity of our peasantry. It 
      is not more than twenty or thirty years since a young man going 
      from any part of Scotland to England, of purpose to 'carry the 
      pack', was considered as going to lead the life and acquire the 
      fortune of a gentleman. When, after twenty years' absence in that 
      honourable line of employment, he returned with his acquisitions 
      to his native country, he was regarded as a gentleman to all 
      intents and purposes."
<dd>"Heron's Journey in Scotland," vol. i. p. 89.