account of this part of the world and its
productions.

Linnaeus said long ago, "Nescio quae facies laeta, glabra plantis
Americanis" (I know not what there is of joyous and smooth in the aspect
of American plants); and I think that in this country there are no,
or at most very few, Africanae bestiae, African beasts, as the Romans
called them, and that in this respect also it is peculiarly fitted for
the habitation of man. We are told that within three miles of the
center of the East-Indian city of Singapore, some of the inhabitants
are annually carried off by tigers; but the traveler can lie down in
the woods at night almost anywhere in North America without fear of wild
beasts.

These are encouraging testimonies. If the moon looks larger here than
in Europe, probably the sun looks larger also. If the heavens of America
appear infinitely higher, and the stars brighter, I trust that these
facts are symbolical of the height to which the philosophy and poetry
and religion of her inhabitants may one day soar. At length, perchance,
the immaterial heaven will appear as much higher to the American mind,
and the intimations that star it as much brighter. For I believe that
climate does thus react on man--as there is something in the mountain
air that feeds the spirit and inspires. Will not man grow to greater
perfection intellectually as well as physically under these influences?
Or is it unimportant how many foggy days there are in his life? I trust
that we shall be more imaginative, that our thoughts will be clearer,
fresher, and more ethereal, as our sky--our understanding more
comprehensive and broader, like our plains--our intellect generally on a
grander seale, like our thunder and lightning, our rivers and mountains
and forests-and our hearts shall even correspond in breadth and depth
and grandeur to our inland seas. Perchance there will appear to the
traveler something, he knows not what, of laeta and glabra, of joyous
and serene, in our very faces. Else to what end does the world go on,
and why was America discovered?

To Americans I hardly need to say--

"Westward the star of empire takes its way."

As a true patriot, I should be ashamed to think that Adam in paradise
was more favorably situated on the whole than the backwoodsman in this
country.

Our sympathies in Massachusetts are not confined to New England; though
we may be estranged from the South, we sympathize with the West. There
is the home of the y