OUR HOMES. 67 



circumstances, whirling- them ofi' to localities thousands of miles 

 away. 



Is all this to be viewed as an accident in the economy of na- 

 tions ? If design, it is a stupendous one, planned ages back among 

 a complication of causes, and projecting itself far forward to con- 

 nect itself with other events, it may be, of more, importance to the 

 race than any that this age has seen. 



We here in Maine have always been active partners in this de- 

 pleting business, moving west ; and I have concluded it is time 

 the partnership was closed. I believe we can now afford to stand 

 by Maine as she is, till we can transform her into our ideal of 

 what she should be. Let the stream of restless humanity go past 

 us ; their task to carve out their homes at the west will be harder 

 than ours. 



I have looked over the whole domain as carefully and impar- 

 tially as I am able without a personal inspection of its several 

 acres, and I am here to report my observations in a general way 

 as bearing upon the question, " where shall we make our homes ?" 



(I feel a degree of embarrassment in attempting to present this 

 subject in a digested connection, in so much as I had occasion 

 last winter to deal with the matters of the physical geography of 

 the country, its climate, forests, &c., in a Memorial to the Legis- 

 lature of this State ; and as that paper is now in print, I desire 

 here to avoid a repetition of any of its positions.) 



The influence of man in changing the physical condition of a 

 country, has passed into an axiom, requiring no further argument. 

 Withdraw man, and the principal disturber of all law is removed. 

 Where his acts have injuriously disturbed the harmonies of na- 

 ture, his first duty is in the direction of the restoration of that har- 

 mony. Connected with the knowledge that our acts affect climate 

 .in an appreciable degree, is the further knowledge that we can be- 

 become the architects of our own abiding place; and that the 

 character of our selected home may be fashioned upon, as our ma- 

 terial habitation, and improved beyond the impi-ess of nature so 

 as favorably to affect our physical, moral and intellectual being. 



If a place could be found in the zone to which we are adapted, 

 where nature in her bountiful provisions had left nothing out to be 

 desired, where roving, restless, migratory man had nothing to 

 do but enter into possession, and dispose himself in a manner 

 most favorable to the nursing of the little spark of a thing 

 called laziness that may unfortunately have been dropped into 



