iv Preface. 



forming. Several of our legislatures have evidenced encou- 

 raging signs of a participation in the laudable patriotism, 

 which, more than has heretofore been witnessed, animates 

 our citizens. Long may this cheering prospect continue to 

 brighten ; and never again may it be clouded by apathy and 

 inattention to the most momentous of all worldly objects 

 which should engage the anxieties of a well informed com- 

 munity. However great in amount be the pecuniary and other 

 moveable and fugacious possessions of civilized men, there 

 seems to be an inherent desire, in every individual, also to 

 own some portion of the earth, to which, finally, he must re- 

 turn. Let every one, therefore, bear a part in rendering its 

 surface a source of happiness and comfort, not only to him- 

 self, but to every member of the community with whom he 

 enjoys its blessings. A prominent difference between savage 

 and civilized man is, that the latter, by his skill and acquir- 

 ed intelligence, produces plentiful supplies from a small sur- 

 face of soil, for the support of a multitudinous population : 

 but the former requires regions of wilderness, for the scanty 

 subsistence of a few. It is the distinguishing characteristic 

 of savages to revolt against separate appropriations, or agri- 

 cultural improvement, of land. They roam the forest, in 

 common with the beasts devoted as their prey; and when they 

 do not prowl for each others destruction, their fellow- ten ants 

 of the wilderness are the objects of their toilsome and exter- 

 minating amusements in the chase. Their fondness for beads, 

 trinkets, and other baubles, is quite as rational as is the cu r 

 pidity of those in civilized life, who amass money for the mere 

 gratification of increasing their hoards ; or circulate what they 

 have, for the sole purpose of swelling the amount of their stock ; 

 without using it for promoting the most worthy of all pursuits, 

 that of employing, instructing, and thereby eminently benefit- 

 ing their fellow men. Among these pursuits, the most general- 

 ly advantageous are those which encourage and promote the 

 culture, improvement, and embellishment of a country. Gold 

 and silver, amassed with no public object, or laudable private 



