264 FEAR OF EACH OTHER. 



would sit down quietly till I wrote an answer. The boy 

 was amazed, but was very respectful ever after. His 

 master told me nothing had ever mortified him so much, 

 and, at the same time, done him so much good; but, when 

 I asked why he had never set the boy right himself, he 

 gave me no reply. On telling the matter to an American 

 lady of my acquaintance, however, she asked me imme 

 diately &quot; Were you not afraid to speak to the boy in 

 that way ? That boy may be president of the United 

 States yet.&quot; &quot; And what then ? &quot; &quot; Why, he might do 

 you a great deal of harm.&quot; It was now my turn to look 

 amazed. It is not a persuasion that it is best for the boy 

 which restrains reproof, but a fear that it may be worse 

 for the reprover. This fear of one another, I was assured 

 by various persons, amounts often to a species of tyranny 

 throughout this Union. 



Jan. 19. We have so often heard at home of the Shakers, 

 as a sect distinguished only for odd customs and forms of 

 worship, that I was here rather surprised on being in 

 formed a that the only localities in this State in which 

 farming is carried on systematically, on a large scale, are 

 the settlements of the Shakers.&quot; The peculiar organi 

 sation or domestic economy of the sect, among whom 

 marriage is prohibited, is favourable to a system of large 

 farming. They have plenty of land, and plenty of un 

 employed hands to till it ; and, therefore, if possessed of 

 sufficient skill, they are in a condition to try what agri 

 culture, in the State, can really do. As a community, 

 they are prosperous in their affairs, are rich, both in 

 money and in lands, are skilfully managed, and are in 

 creasing in the number both of their members and their 

 settlements. Though little could be done in the way of 

 looking at farms while the ground was deeply covered 

 with snow; yet, as I was anxious to see one of the homes 

 of the sect, I accepted the offer of my friend Mr Mac- 

 intyre to drive me out to-day in his sleigh to Watervliet, 



