194 NORTH KENNEBEC SOCIETY. 



sun sliinc on a goodlier valley, or on lovelier prospects ; no- 

 where are the advantages in resources, more numerous, open^ 

 or inviting, to the eye of enterprise, or the vision of industry. 

 Why strain your sight in trying to see beyond your own horizon ? 

 Are you not pleased with tlie highlands and the lowlands, the 

 hills, the fields, and the meadows, within this limit? Do you 

 not see, here, the many shades of green upon the woods, in the 

 summer, the golden and the scarlet hues of the elms, the liirches^ 

 and the maples, interblendcd with tlie emerald of the firs and 

 and the pines, in the autumn, and the brilliant display of frosty 

 limbs and icy twigs, as far as the eye can reach, in the winter ? 

 And do you never gaze with animation and delight, or dwell 

 with an open and charmed eye, upon the splendor of our lakes^ 

 the serpentine length of the Messalonskee, the forest-shadowed 

 current of the Sebasticook, and the deeper, broader and stronger 

 tide of the Kennebec ? And have you never considered, that 

 love of country, of one's native land, is a virtue, and that the 

 pride, enterprise, industry, taste and perseverance, growing out of 

 this virtue, oftener lead to thrift and success at home, than the 

 most ambitious schemes and endeavors abroad ? When General 

 Scott was preparing for the Mexican war, he proposed how he 

 should " conquer a peace " in Mexico. It should be the aim of 

 those, who, in feelings and in speech, are at war with their 

 homes in this fair region, and who think there is nothing here 

 to live for, and, therefore, they must go to the broader and 

 richer lands in the west, to call into action the lofty attributes of 

 patriotism, to work with resolution and hope in the face of tlie 

 sternest difficulties, and to "conquer a peace " in their own 

 hearts. Their most formidable foes, are their own infidelity, 

 faithlessness and discontent. Let these characteristics be sub- 

 dued, and though this valley were a wilderness, they could, in 

 conjunction with their neighbors and kindred, make it blossom 

 like the rose. The Swiss need not leave his mountains for the 

 more fertile domain of Italy; the Scot need not forsake his 

 highlands for the vineyards of "sunny France;" the Briton 

 need not bid farewell to his sterile moors, and noisome marshes, 

 for the rich islands of the Gulf of Mexico. In this day, in either 

 case, the exchange could not be made without an immense loss. 

 The Yankee need not hate his native hills and valleys, and 



