10 THE OVERLAND ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. 



has enabled to read the 1 great book of nature, and to 

 interpret the signs of the wilderness correctly. If 

 hostile natives are hovering round the , party, he alone 

 can detect the faintly marked traces of their presence. 

 All other learning will then appear as so much dross, 

 even the untutored savage looking down with open 

 scorn upon the mere man of letters, who without his 

 aid and guidance would be helpless as a child. And 

 thus it often comes to pass, that a journey of consider- 

 able duration across wide plains, such as used to be 

 common in the great west, in the days of the Cali- 

 fornian emigrant trains, some 30 or 40 years ago, has 

 frequently been known to affect the whole character 

 and cast of thought of a man's subsequent life. 



Before the long march, then of months' duration, has 

 come to an end, he has acquired a spirit of resource and 

 self-reliance, habits of trained observation which he never 

 afterwards loses, and which frequently prove invaluable 

 to him in after years, if he uses his opportunities aright. 



In the turmoil of life in a great city, fashion exer- 

 cises so powerful an influence that men actually be- 

 come like a flock of sheep, which u follow their leader." 

 Each man blindly falls in with the prevalent custom, 

 whatever it may be, without questioning and hence 

 it comes, most probably, that there is perhaps not 

 one man in a thousand who ever exercises the faculty 

 of original thought. In general his ideas are simply 

 a reflexion of the passing craze of the hour, or of 

 his social clique, party, or sect. Hence, we often find 

 in old established communities a particular set of 

 opinions handed down in succession from father to 

 son for many generations, as if they were pieces of 

 family plate, or parcels of real estate. 



