194 Dr. ^.ujh on the Progrefs of 



There are inftances likewife where the firft 

 fettlement has been improved by the fame family 

 in hereditary fucceflion, till it has reached the 

 third ftage of cultivation. There are many fpa- 

 cious ftone houfes, and highly cultivated farms, 

 in the neighbouring counties of the city of Phila- 

 delphia, which are poflefled by the grandfons 

 and great grandfons of men who accompanied 

 William Penn acrofs the ocean, and who laid the 

 foundation of the prefent improvements of their 

 pofterity, in fuch cabins as have been defcribed. 

 I dare fay this pafTion for migration, which I 

 have defcribed, will appear ftrange to an European . 

 To fee men turn their backs upon the houfes in 

 which they drew their firft breath — upon the 

 churches in which they were dedicated to God — 

 upon the graves of their anceftors — upon the 

 friends and companions of their youth — and 

 upon all the pleafures of cultivated fociety, and 

 expofing themfelves to all the hardfhips and ac- 

 cidents of fubduing the earth, and thereby efta- 

 blifhing fettlements in a wildernefs, mufl ftrike a 

 philofopher, on your fide the water, as a pifture 

 of human nature that runs counter to the ufual 

 habits and principles of adtion in man. But this 

 paflion, ftrange and new as it appears, is wifely 

 calculated for the extenfion of population in 

 America; and to this'it contributes, not only by 

 promoting the increafe of the human fpecies in new 

 fettlements, but in the old fettlements likewife. 



While 



