€6 CAXANDAIGUA. 



particular attention. j\Iany a persGn with whom 

 I have held coii\ersatio!is, has undoubtedly for- 

 gotten the subject, as well as the company. In 

 the desultory and rapid mani^er in which such 

 conferences are generally managed, a stranger is 

 liable to mistake names and titles of office. I 

 jiave no doubt but this has been my case frequent- 

 ]y : I may have styled a major a colonel, and a 

 sheriff a judge, and if so, I assure you without 

 ilie most distant idea of giving offence. 



'• Cjisd be the verse however sweet it flow, 

 \Vhich tends to make one Wortliy man my foe ; 

 Give virtue scandal, iunocence a tear, 

 I Or from tlie meek ey'cl virgin draw a tear." 



Volney told me in Paris, that he travelled all 

 over the west on foot. My countrymen Dr. 

 IVf'Nevin and Dr. Goldsmith, perambulated a. 

 great portion of Europe ; and Wilson, the father 

 of American Ornithology, was almost always a 

 pedestrian traveller. How cautious ought peo- 

 ple to be when in company with strangers. I 

 have heard folly from the mouths of lawgivers, 

 and ribaldry in the conversations of the notables 

 of the land. Unnoticed, unobserved, reclining on 

 my chair in the bar room, I have seen human na- 

 ture without disguise — the artificial great man 

 exhibiting his importance — the humble under^ 

 strapper listening like a blacksmith to a tailor's 



