amongst all people, is very analogous to the prophecy of Miller,
that the material world is to be rolled up as a garment, and shrivelled
in the fire on the thirteenth day of some month next year, _or_ the year
after.

These fulminations are very semblable to those of the popes--harmless
corruscations--a sort of aurora borealis, erratic and splendid, but very
unreal and very unsearchable as to cause and effect.

There can be, however, very little doubt in the mind of a person whose
intellects have been carefully developed, and who has used them quietly
to reason on apparent conclusions, that the form of government in the
United States has answered a purpose hitherto, and that a wise one; for
the impatience of control which every new-comer from the Old World
naturally feels, when he discovers that he has only escaped the dominion
of long-established custom to fall under the more despotic dominion of
new opinions, prompts him, if he differs, and he always naturally does,
where so many opinions are suddenly brought to light and forced on his
acquiescence, to move out of their sphere. Hence emigration westward is
the result; and hence, for the same reasons, the old seaboard States,
where the force of the laws operates more strongly than in the central
regions, annually pour out to the western forests their masses of
discontented citizens.

The feeling of old Daniel Boone and of Leather Stockings is a very
natural one to a half-educated or a wholly uneducated man, and no doubt
also many quiet and respectable people get harassed and tired of the
caucusing and canvassing for political power, which is incessantly going
on under the modern system of things in America, and take up their
household gods to seek out the land flowing with milk and honey beyond
the wilderness.

No person can imagine the constant turmoil of politics in the Northern
States. The writer already quoted says, that there is "one singular
proof of the general energy and capacity for business, which early
habits of self-dependence have produced;--almost every American
understands politics, takes a lively interest in them (though many
abstain under discouragement or disgust from taking a practical part),
and is familiar, not only with the affairs of his own township or
county, but with those of the State or of the Union; almost every man
reads about a dozen newspapers every day, and will talk to you for
hours, (_tant bien que mal_) if you will listen to him,