THE GROWTH OF SUFFOLK COUNTY 



IK 



POPULATION, WEALTH AND COMFORT. 



BY 



fipHER "S®^HITAKER, S. S. 



THERE is very generally a close relation between the character and 

 condition of men and the soil on which they dwell, which they culti- 

 vate; and whose products afford them food and sustenance. 



The climate in which they live, the air which they breathe, whether 

 cold or hot, dry or moist, rare or dense, must also greatly affect their in- 

 crease in number, as well as their health, longevity, thrift and comfort. 



It would be vain to seek among the grand and lofty mountains for 

 men of softness and delicate sensibilities. Mountaineers are generallv 

 courageous, resolute, often harsh and stern. It is the dwellers upon 

 broad, fertile, sunny plains, who have feeble frames, smooth features, in- 

 ,ert habits, and subtle and sensuous dispositions. Those who live neigh- 

 bors to the sea, may feel the attractions of its grandeur and vastness, and 

 be as venturesome and daring as those who dwell amid the sublime 

 heights of the mountains. They may be even more enterprising. But 

 there is, none the less, a difference between the highlanders and those 

 whose home is upon the level slope by the shore of the ocean. 



Considerations of this kind may be kept in mind in regarding the 

 character and consequent growth of the population of our county for the 

 last two hundred years. 



In all the higher forms of life upon the earth, much also depends 

 upon race and blood. No sportsman attempts to train a St. Bernard to 

 point birds, nor a greyhound to recover game from the water; and just as 

 little does a horseman undertake to train a Shetland pony to distance all 

 racers on the course. Blood is not only thicker than water; it is also 

 stronger than training. 



Man's connection with the inferior creatures that serve him, is inti- 

 mate enough for him to show, in unlike races, the same difference of apt- 

 itudes and abilities for various employments and ends, which characterize 

 them. " One touch of Nature makes the whole \vorld kin." But it is 

 Nature herself that makes men differ in form, size, strength and quickness; 

 in language, and alertness' of body and mind; in all those manifold dis- 

 parities and unlikenesses among races which afford not the sameness and 

 unison, but the diversity and harmony of tones in the universal anthem of 

 mankind. The one blood, of which all men are made, shows its richness 

 in producing that variety in unity which is the essential condition, or even 

 the source and soul of beauty. 



