one dark, and of tremendous
color. It seemed, as I looked at it, as if the ground shook at their
tread, and the air was darkened by their grief.

* * * * *

=_279._= ORIGINALITY OF MIND.

An original mind is rarely understood until it has been _reflected_ from
some half dozen congenial with it; so averse are men to admitting the
true in an unusual form; whilst any novelty, however fantastic, however
false, is greedily swallowed.

* * * * *

=_James K. Paulding, 1779-1860._= (Manual, p. 510.)

From "Letters from the South."

=_280._= CHARACTER OF THE DUTCH AND GERMAN SETTLERS.

In almost every part of the United States where I have chanced to be,
except among the Dutch, the Germans, and the Quakers, people seem to
build everything extempore and pro tempore, as if they looked forward
to a speedy removal or did not expect to want it long. Nowhere else, it
seems to me, do people work more for the present, less for the future,
or live so commonly up to the extent of their means. If we build houses,
they are generally of wood, and hardly calculated to outlast the
builder. If we plant trees, they are generally Lombardy poplars, that
spring up of a sudden, give no more shade than a broom stuck on end, and
grow old with their planters. Still, however, I believe all this has
a salutary and quickening influence on the character of the people,
because it offers another spur to activity, stimulating it not only
by the hope of gain, but the necessity of exertion to remedy passing
inconveniences. Thus the young heir, instead of stepping into the
possession of a house completely finished, and replete with every
convenience--an estate requiring no labor or exertion to repair its
dilapidations, finds it absolutely necessary to bestir himself to
complete what his ancestor had only begun, and thus is relieved from the
tedium and temptations of idleness.

But you can always tell when you get among the Dutch and the Quakers,
for there you perceive that something has been done for posterity. Their
houses are of stone, and built for duration, not for show. If a German
builds a house, its walls are twice as thick as others--if he puts down
a gate-post, it is sure to be nearly as thick as it is long. Every
thing about him, animate and inanimate, partakes of this character of
solidity. His wife even is a jolly, portly dame, his children
chubby rogues, with legs shaped like