EAST AND WEST. 377 



RELATIONS OF THE EAST AND WEST. 



An Address before the Franklin Society. 



BY HON. GEORGE S. BOUTWELL. 



I will not deceive myself nor attempt to mislead you, by as- 

 suming; that the West is not a region of great fertility and 

 abundant harvests. Equally fortunate is it for the East, as for 

 the West, that it is so. I shall only venture to indicate that 

 the West is not in every respect superior to the East, and that 

 we have some compensations for the hardness of New England 

 soil and the rigor of our northern climate. Our opinion of a 

 foreign land does not rest so much upon its soil and climate as 

 upon the character of its men. We well know that Egypt and 

 Ireland are among the favored portions of the globe ; yet we 

 respect the perpetual enemies of Russia in the mountains of 

 Caucasus more than we do the inhabitants of the Nile, and 

 would sooner cast our lot in Sweden, Norway, or Iceland even, 

 than cultivate the bogs of the Shannon or the moors of Done- 

 gal. One of the cultivated and useful men of Massachusetts 

 asks me in a letter what opportunity the vicinity of my own 

 residence furnishes for a home, when he shall be relieved from 

 his present cares and labors. And he says, "what I most of 

 all seek is a home among warm hearts and active souls, where 

 there is pure air, pure water, and mountain scenery." We 

 respect hills, mountains, forests, waterfalls, and the ocean. 

 There is not only an inspiration in these, the grandest works of 

 nature, but there is a religion in them also. The dweller 

 among mountains, the wanderer in the forest, or upon the 

 shore of the ocean, is a continual worshipper. God has made 

 him so. Nature is not the same everywhere, and what nature 

 is, man, to a great extent, is also. Indeed, without seeking for 

 the reason or principle of the law, we expect the mountaineer 



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