tellectual superiors, is a task from which the timidity of genius will ever shrink; and can only be performed by minds hardened by practice, or insensible from natural stupidity. The result of this timidity on one hand, and hardihood on the other, is, that in the great cities genius sinks too frequently into hopeless despondency; while the strong-nerved blockhead, who despises the opinions of his superiors, not because he feels himself above them, but because he don't feel at all, rises, in spite of his destiny, to notice and independence.

The young lawyer, therefore, who would rise into consequence and wealth, before his head grows gray with age, would do well to emigrate to some one of the new states, instead of running to seed in the cities, or supporting a precarious existence by watching the docks, to incite sailors to go to law; diving into stews for assaults and batteries, or haunting the quarter-sessions to get a fee of five dollars from some wretched bridewell bird. There they would take root with the first planting of the community, and grow up with the growth of numbers, wealth, and business. They would soon afford to take an office by themselves, instead of joining stocks, and hunting in couples, as they are forced to do in cities, for want of gallant enterprise to emigrate to the glowing west, where talent and industry are the sure forerunners of an independent fortune and political consequence. Thus riches and honour beckon him to pursue for whatever may be thought of these matters upon Change, it has lately occurred to me, in

the course of my experience, that a judge, or a member of congress, is nearly as important a personage as a president of an insurance company, a bank director, or even a rich money broker. To you, who have lately seen ten times the interest excited by the election of the Directors of the United States Bank that there was during the election of a President of the United States, this may appear absurd. And so it would be, if all the rest of this country were like the great cities, where not only they worship the divinity of gold, but adore a spurious counterfeit in rags; where respect is paid to little else, and where the value of money is splendidly demonstrated by its power to elevate the lowest reptile to the rank of man, and to an association with human beings. In such a place, where so large a portion of those with whom you associate, and whose opinions influence your own, are more or less dependent for existence on banks, a bank director may indeed be the depository of incalculable dignity; but where the invincible money-getting demon has not yet worked his way into the human heart, like a worm in a chestnut, men derive their dignity, respect, and consequence, from sources far more pure, noble, and elevated. They must possess talents; and if destitute of principle, must at least affect what they do not feel, and thus pay homage to the shrine which they have deserted. Thus even hypocrisy may become useful by showing how valuable that virtue must be, the mere counterfeit of which is thus cherished and rewarded. Farewell.

LETTER XXX.

DEAR FRANK,

IN ranging up the valley from Staunton to W. where I now am, we passed though a fine country of limestone, abounding in gay meadows, and pure springs, and bordered on all sides by mountains. The distance is about one hundred miles, and there are several towns in the way, which, however, do not exhibit any great appearance of growth or prosperity. They are generally the county seats, and depend, in a great degree, on the expenditures of those who are brought there by law business, and the employment given to the tradesmen of different kinds, by a circle of the surrounding country, of which each town forms a sort of centre. As new towns are founded in various places, this circle of course diminishes; and as new roads are made, or obstructions in the rivers removed, the little trade they enjoy is carried very often in another direction. Hence it is that our little towns are so apt to grow up prematurely for awhile, when they are all at once arrested in their growth by neighbouring rivals, or by a change given to the course of business, and often decay with the same rapidity they arose. The truth is, that we have too many towns; and so it will ere long be found, if I am not mistaken. We have too many VOL. II-G 2

traders of various kinds, at least in the Atlantic States, who will ere long be obliged to turn to some other profession, or emigrate to the new states. It appears sufficiently evident to me, in the complaints we begin to hear, of the want of business and of employment among all classes of people in the cities, which is in some degree owing to the general pacification of the world, which has turned millions of soldiers into other directions, and enabled millions of people to supply their own wants, who before depended upon others. The people thus thrown out of employment in the cities and towns must emigrate, as I said before, or resort to new professions, or become paupers, and eat soup at other people's expense. It is a shame to our country, whose peculiar boast it was to be free in so great a degree from pauperism, to see the deplorable increase of this fatal disease, which saps the foundation of freedom, by creating a set of men dependent for their support, not on their own exertions, but the bounty of others; and, consequently, the mere tools of those who keep them from starving. These are the kind of people who make instruments in the hands of the rich for the destruction of freedom. When once men have lost the honest pride which shrinks from receiving charity from any human being, they lose the best support of their nature, and the most powerful motive to exertion. It may sound harsh; but the penalty of begging, as a profession, should ever be,-to be universally despised; in order to render it the very last means to which man will resort for his support.

any

But to return. I was saying, that we have too many people living in cities, in proportion to our farmers, who, after all, are the backbone of every country, whence originates its solid riches and its solid strength. At a time when every other class of labourers are crying out in the streets of our cities about hard times, and many of them forced to beg work, or starve, we don't hear of the farmer suffering inconvenience; or if he suffers, you don't hear him complain. If it is urged, that the high price of all his produce is a sufficient reason for his not grumbling, I will answer, that he gives as high a price for what he must buy, as he gets for what he sells, so the balance is even, It is not this. It is because the farmers in every country, except one, where they have fallen victims to the accumulated numbers of commerce and manufactures, and to a system of inordinate expenditure, are the most independent of all men, and most emphatically so in this country. Here we have yet an unpeopled world, a blooming, and almost uninhabited Eden in the west, whose bosom is opened to the industrious and enterprising, and where millions of men may set themselves down without creating a famine, since they will ever be able to derive from the earth more than is sufficient for their support.

Yet still our people cling to the towns and cities, attracted by the hope of sudden wealth, and despising the slow, yet sure, rewards of agriculture, which, without leading a man to inordinate riches, secure him for ever from the chances of sinking into beggary