Lake George 
Lilies of France. © Here forts and palisades 
went up, opposing trenches were dug, and 
mines sprung. But now all sign of bloodshed 
and strife has passed away, and the hapless vic- 
tims are forever at rest.’ Beneath the waters, 
too, at different points, the relics of those warring 
times can still be seen—the sunken wrecks of 
many a transport ship and gun-boat, the very 
uncertainty of whose precise history only serves 
to deepen the impression, as one looks down 
through the peculiarly clear water upon the 
buried hulks quietly reposing for almost a hun- 
dred and fifty years. 
Civilization consists largely in the multipli- 
cation of our wants; and the numerous small re- 
sorts scattered along these shores can be heartily 
recommended to anyone wishing to shuffle off, 
for a season, this artificial commodity or em- 
barrassment. A few weeks’ residence in such 
a region is more convincing than all verbal 
argument, that man really wants but little here 
below. It is an instinct in our nature to de- 
sire to do whatever is being done around us ; 
and probably this accounts for the fact that, 
after being here a little while, amid forests, 
grass, fruits, and grains, one awakes to the fact 
that he has himself also begun to vegetate. 
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