has been persisted in because it was national, it has reached even elevated characters, and the young and inexperienced have been brought up, fed with black and heinous sentiments, which doubtless have exercised the most injurious influence not only on the mind, but on the heart. True, there are not a few who think that inveterate prejudices contribute to patriotism; persuade they say, an Englishman that he can beat three Frenchmen, and he will do it. What, knowledge which increases the thousand bonds of mutual interest and dependence, of attachment and esteem, of affection and gratitude between an individual and those among whom providence has placed him, will extinguish his love for them?

We omit to mention the great advantage that industry and learning may derive from the rapid and friendly passage of thought from country to country. Whoever has studied the history of any branch of learning, whoever knows the present state of any science whatever or of a single division of it, in different countries, is in possession of convincing proofs for our assertion. But it is perhaps not so generally felt that the most thoroughly handled question, sometimes even after having emanated from us, may return to us, newly elucidated, not because more amply but because differently discussed and elaborated in the variously prepared minds of foreignIt seems to us that sufficient weight is not laid upon the circumstance that by early and national education minds are moulded into a shape which they often preserve through life. This, however, explains how highly cultivated-Italians, for instance-can firmly entertain opinions which here the most common mind would confidently reject as absurd. May that not in particular respects be true of all nations?

ers.

The progress of civilization, that product of the union of individuals and nations, to be correctly appreciated, must be considered, not in its immediate often disappointing effects, but in its general bearings and ends. That will teach to distinguish vain, ill-understood efforts, from effectual measures, the deluded enthusiast from the active promoter. The presence before the mind of a vast design, in which, however, many can co-operate because it bears its instantaneous reward, will assign the place, the propriety, the relative utility of each act. But the field is immense, the paths of error every where open, and it is not given to many, to follow with reason the flights of imagination and feeling, to recall them when straying, to lead them, still always to remain animated and supported by them.

Soundness of knowledge, severity of reasoning, cautiousness and courage, deep penetration with great ends, too earnest to break out in dazzling declamation, but eloquent by dint of truth and seriousness, the careful distinction of the timely and the untimely, and of

Quid valeant humeri, quid ferre recusent,

deep rooted tolerance and calm energy: these would be the principal traits in the picture which we might draw of the man whom we should judge worthy of a distinguished place among those who in all countries lead the present generation in her advances to improvement.

We know that there are not a few whose sympathy and interest reaches not beyond their immediate contact. But many there are also-and the diffusion of knowledge and the expansion of mind which follows it, will continually increase their number-who love to follow the stream of time

and believe that, as instinct bids the animal to provide for those that come after it, so reason bids man, the only being improvable through himself and capable of transmitting his improvements, to contribute to the amelioration of his race. And far from regretting the labour they thus bestow upon those they shall never see, they will feel satisfied that they could not better fill the time which care for those whom nature rendered dependent upon them, left vacant and unemployed.

And do such exertions not react upon the mind, not elevate it? Will such a mind fall into weariness? Do not such occupations bring them near to those they most esteem? Does not every act add to the store of their ennobling retrospect? Do they not create to themselves a world of unceasing interest, a world of 'hopes? Hopes which make up so great a part of the sum of our enjoyments? And when they reflect how much easier the acquisition of knowledge will be, with better methods, completer systems, without errors to unlearn; what dangerous pleasures the pleasures of knowledge will supersede; that knowledge impels to virtue because it unveils the hatefulness and falseness of vice; how astonishingly it increases the active powers and even prolongs the physical existence of man; when knowledge appears before them as a building indestructible, though never perfect, never finished, yet always drawing nearer to divine perfection; when they follow the prospect of human perfectibility of which their reason cannot assign the limits;-will they not be left in wonder, will they not be prouder of the imperishable mind which can create, express and transmit such ideas of undying beauty and harmony?

The true philosopher who will not disdain to descend into the recesses of application, who will carefully avoid to divert the attention or overreach the capacity of the wavering tyro, by abstractions, may occasionally be allowed to indulge in these encouraging and elevating reflections. So, the valiant Teucer, before he bent his way to seek a new Salamis, did not know, where it was, how far it was-but certain he was to find it, certus enim promisit Apollo! So, ere he abandoned his bark to the waves, he cheered up his tried companions to seek in the joy of the moment, strength and fortitude for the dangers of the voyage.

O fortes pejoraque passi

Mecum sæpe viri: nunc vino pellite curas,

Cras ingens iterabimus æquor!

We return, in our final remarks, once more to the original subject of this article. That national prejudices, the parody of patriotism, are more exclusive, more inveterate, more self-deluding in Englishmen than in men of equal education and patriotism in other countries, cannot be denied. Since, therefore, America has the privilege to possess, as common property with England, the riches of a glorious literature, she owes, on the other hand, to her own dignity, not to transplant on her genial soil the rank luxuriance of growth, the sad offspring of past strifes, of bad feelings in which she need not share, and of jealousies which, in America, are not fostered by wounded and fearing self-interest. Otherwise foreign prejudices and enmities might be superadded to those which, in a limited degree, in an infinitely smaller degree than the English, hardly any nation can help imbibing from her collision with foreign interests.

Whence those prejudices arose, who may be charged with their origin and their heinous effects, may hereafter be matter of curious history. To us it seems a theme little inviting. We shall not put the brand of recollection to a dying flame. For we confidently assert, dying it is, although we well know, it never can be entirely extinguished, no more than ignorance which more than any thing else gives it life and nourishment. But we hope we shall be seen more and more to approach the day when those prejudices will be recognized and stigmatized like presumptuous ignorance.

A TOUR.

CINCINNATI, OCTOBER, 1829, Dear Sir,-Returned from an excursion of two thousand miles, I fulfil my promise to give you some account of it. The public, I know, has been fed upon tours and travels to satiety, and would probably shed no tears in being withholden from my chronicle of moving accidents by flood and field. Yet it can hardly happen, that a traveller, with his eyes open, and his heart not ossified, can pass from this place up the many hundred miles of the Ohio, traverse the wide range of the Alleghanies and the Atlantic country, from Washington to Boston, in the constant changes of the modes of travelling by river and sea steam boats, and alternating them with stages, and almost as often changing his companions as the aspects of nature, shifting under his eye, and not have many new thoughts elicited by variety of adventures, sodality and cir cumstances, can hardly avoid deriving some information, which, how ever trite to the dwellers on one part of his route, may be entirely new to those on another. I certainly saw scenery, public works, and public institutions, fresh lions, and various odd fishes, not to mention the Siamese boys, which were entirely new to me, who have been, so far as regards American space and scenery, rather a hackneyed traveller. Wheth er I amuse, and instruct you and the public or not, I at least fulfil my promise, and unburden my conscience. On you be the guilt, if I inflict penance. To the W. M. be the advantage and glory, if I impart either profit or pleasure.

On the eighth of August I began to ascend the beautiful Ohio. The weather had been, for some days preceding, unusually sultry. But as soon as the buckets of our little steamer, the Amulet, were in play, the fresh water Naiads began to fan the silver wave with the bland and cool south-west, yielding us its delightful ventilation all the way to Wheeling.

Much of the discomfort and unpleasantness of travelling, as every one must have observed, arises from the jealousy of fellow travellers, thus brought together, that their claims, on the score of dignity and self estimation, will not be duly allowed. If it were not on the whole annoying, it would be amusing, to see the strangers, so united, draw themselves up in their imagined consequence, and assuming a belligerent air and countenance, regarding all those, whom chance has thus associated with them, as they were spies, engaged in contemplating the nakedness of the land;

when, perhaps, after the acquaintance of a day, they will find themselves on the footing of friends. Such is the native pride and jealousy of human nature, that the term stranger, even now, that all the world is on their travels, is but another name at first for enemy. Pity, that we cannot every where carry with us a sufficient fund of reliance upon our innate dignity, and of love for our species, to regard every individual, when seen for the first time, neither with jealousy nor ill will, but with complacency and good feeling. This single capability would infinitely enhance the pleasure of travelling.

On the second evening of my passage on the river, a passenger of the cloth seemed disposed to enter into conversation; and as the evening candles were lighting, and the customary card tables preparing in the cabin, we began to confabulate. I discovered, that the gen leman was unconscious, who it was, that was conversing with him. In discussing matters and things in our city, I soon became, as I had foreseen would happen, the theme of his remarks. The uncertainty of the light enabled me to command my countenance beyond the fear of betrayal. In a conversation of a good long hour 'by the Worcester clock,' I had the advantage from my good natured friend, of hearing my posthumous and historical valuation addressed to the conscious and concrete flesh and blood, as though it had been an abstract thing without parts, or passions. Wo is me! May our friends annoint us, while we live, with their most bland and precious oil; for on our cold stone such rencounters teach us we may expect little but the true caustic acid. The gentleman was a zealous religionist, regarding my views of religion, as heretical; and you may imagine what kind of a portrait I obtained from this patient and protracted sitting. But we of the West, who have seen alligators, felt blisters, and tasted calomel, learn not to make wry faces at swallowing a bitter potion. Nevertheless, when I informed him, that I was the gentleman, whom he had condescended to discuss, I would have preferred, for the moment, to have been the subject, rather than the painter.

I crossed the mountains on the national road from Wheeling to Baltimore, and once more experienced mixed emotions, in looking back, from the table eminence of the first mountain, upon the dim and interminable blue of the Ohio valley, which I had left behind me. Under my eye were patches of the road, by which we had wound to the summit, like a winding russet ribband traced through the forests. Below me were outstretched towns, farms, houses, smokes, a wide section of the course of the Monongahela, and a world beyond, of which, even the nearer extremity was lost in the haze. Among its forests and prairies were still a million dwellers in log cabins. Peace to your secluded homes!

'Let not ambition mock their useful toil, "Their homely joys, and destiny obscure.' Imagination travels rapidly, and what is better, unexpensively. My thoughts traversed the immense spaces, in all points of this vast valley, where my footsteps had been impressed, and where I had received my appointed measures of joy and sorrow. The thought of its seclusion, simplicity and sheltered freshness was not less pleasant to view, now that I was bound to more opulent, populous and cultivated regions.

It gave me no small pleasure, to find this most important of all the passes over the mountains repairing. In common with thousands of our state and Kentucky, I had feared, that this once noble road would be sacrificed to the pitiful spirit of party politics. Nor was it without gratified emotions, that I perceived the capitol at Washington, both in its exterior and interior, much improved, since last year. The disjointed and unfinished aspect of the grounds around it has disappeared. The fronts are nearly completed; the terraces are beautiful; and it appears that unique and magnificent and imposing edifice, which is fit emblem of the majesty of the nation.

From Washington to Boston, as things now are, is a rapid, and beaten flight. I pass over the occurrences of a few days stay in the intervening capitals. With you I surveyed once more the country, the friends and the home of the morning of my life. Together we looked back upon the scenes, through which we had passed together, now receiving the mellow hues of distance and memory. It was a sober sadness, by which, I trust, our hearts were made better, to reflect, how few such interviews could possibly be in reserve for us in the future.

I spent, as you know, more than a week, in a detailed survey of your metropolitan city of granite palaces. The simple grandeur of the churches impressed me. The blending of the noble and useful in Tremont house, places it, I presume, out of comparison with any other hotel in the United States. The market strikes me, as one of the most beautiful buildings, I ever saw. Massachusetts Hospital, in the neatness and airiness of its apartments, in its arrangement for the comfort and restoration of its resident invalids, far exceeds any infirmary, which I have ever visited, and may well be shewn, as a proud monument of the charity of the state, at once economical, wise, and munificent. What a scene is witnessed in the house of correction! alas! if such, and so many are the victims brought up in this city of order and good institutions, what a spectacle must the Magdalens of more immoral and dissolute regions present. Here the tatters, the shame and the broken down guilt of humanity, spread in individual cases over the community, is grouped in the revolting aggregate under the eye. I regretted that I could not comply with the invitation of some kind friends, to see the mode, in which the prisoners in the state prison are recently disposed, in their new arrangement of golitary cells. It seems to be generally conceded, that the necessity of this improvement was suggested by experience, and will have a clear tendency to the moral improvement of the unhappy felons. I surveyed with delight, not unmixed with astonishment, the noble dock yard at Charlestown. What a giant has man become, since he has strengthened his arms with the mechanic powers! with what facility the huge stones are wielded, and deposited in their beds. By the politeness of a resident officer, I was shown over the ship Columbus. How much more majestic is the plainness and simplicity of the cabins and staterooms in this formidable floating city, than the flaunty gaudiness of a New-York and Liverpool packet, or the gorgeous and fiery red drapery of one of our steam boats. From this vast ship with its stores of iron and fire my thoughts naturally went forth to the meeting of two such hostile ships on the tempestuous and illimitable brine! what a sublime idea of human daring, power, contrivance and triumph of art over nature; and what an