ld become a true
squire,--a real landowner, not the mere lord of a desert. Now
then, dear sir, advise me how I may, with such qualities as I
possess, arrive at that capital--ay, and before it is too late--so
that money-making may not last till my grave.

Turning in despair from this civilized world of ours, I have cast
my eyes to a world far older,--and yet more to a world in its giant
childhood. India here, Australia there,--what say you, sir, you
who will see dispassionately those things that float before my eyes
through a golden haze, looming large in the distance? Such is my
confidence in your judgment that you have but to say, "Fool, give
up thine El Dorados and stay at home; stick to the books and the
desk; annihilate that redundance of animal life that is in thee;
grow a mental machine: thy physical gifts are of no avail to thee;
take thy place among the slaves of the Lamp,"--and I will obey
without a murmur. But if I am right; if I have in me attributes
that here find no market; if my repinings are but the instincts of
nature that, out of this decrepit civilization, desire vent for
growth in the young stir of some more rude and vigorous social
system,--then give me, I pray, that advice which may clothe my idea
in some practical and tangible embodiments. Have I made myself
understood?

We take no newspaper here, but occasionally one finds its way from
the parsonage; and I have lately rejoiced at a paragraph that spoke
of your speedy entrance into the Administration as a thing certain.
I write to you before you are a minister, and you see what I seek
is not in the way of official patronage. A niche in an office,--
oh, to me that were worse than all! Yet I did labor hard with you,
but,--that was different. I write to you thus frankly, knowing
your warm, noble heart, and as if you were my father. Allow me to
add my humble but earnest congratulations on Miss Trevanion's
approaching marriage with one worthy, if not of her, at least of
her station. I do so as becomes one whom you have allowed to
retain the right to pray for the happiness of you and yours. My
dear Mr. Trevanion, this is a long letter, and I dare not even read
it over, lest, if I do, I should not send it. Take it with all its
faults, and judge of it with that kindness with which you have
judged ever,

Your grateful and devoted servan