arts of the country where the arts of life have spread, and amid the
blessings of civilization, it becomes the foundation of a sentiment so
profound, that I do not wonder those adventurers-errant who are flying
about the face of the country, thrusting their hands into every man's
mess, have not been able to find it among their other superficial
discoveries. Nothing can be less like the ordinary cravings of avarice
than the feeling that is thus engendered; and I am certain that the
general tendency of such an influence is to elevate the feelings of him
who experiences it.

And there were men among us, high in political station--high as such men
ever can get, for the consequence of having such men in power is to draw
down station itself nearer to their own natural level--but men in power
had actually laid down propositions in political economy which, if
carried out, would cause me to sell all that estate, reserving, perhaps,
a single farm for my own use, and reinvest the money in such a way as
that the interest I obtained might equal my present income! It is true,
this theory was not directly applied to me, as my farms were to fall in
by the covenants of their leases, but it had been directly applied to
Stephen and William Van Rensselaer, and, by implication, to others; and
my turn might come next. What business had the Rensselaers, or the
Livingstons, or the Hunters, or the Littlepages, or the Verplancks, or
the Morgans, or the Wadsworths, or five hundred others similarly placed,
to entertain "sentiments" that interfered with "business," or that
interfered with the wishes of any straggling Yankee who had found his
way out of New England, and wanted a particular farm on his own terms?
It is aristocratic to put sentiment in opposition to trade; and TRADE
ITSELF IS NOT TO BE TRADE ANY LONGER THAN ALL THE PROFIT IS TO BE FOUND
ON THE SIDE OF NUMBERS. Even the principles of holy trade are to be
governed by majorities!

Even my uncle Ro, who never owned a foot of the property, could not look
at it without emotion. He too had been born there--had passed his
childhood there--and loved the spot without a particle of the grovelling
feeling of avarice. He took pleasure in remembering that our race had
been the only owners of the soil on which he stood, and had that very
justifiable pride which belongs to enduring respectability and social
station.

"Well, Hugh," he cried, after both of us had stood gazing at the grey
walls of th