LOVE OF CHANGE. 165 



prairie, growing less and less to the view, until he became 

 like a speck in the distance, and then vanished from my 

 sight. There was a solemn sort of feeling stole over me, as 

 this lonely hunter wended his way into the deep solitudes of 

 the prairies, to be alone with nature, communing only with 

 himself and the things scattered around him by the great 

 Creator. He seemed to be contented and happy. How 

 different were his tastes from yours or mine, my friends ; 

 and yet I felt as though it would have been easy for me to 

 have been like him, an isolated and solitary man, had cir- 

 cumstances in early life thrown me into a position to have 

 followed the original bent of my nature." 



"And yet," said Spalding, "if you will look into the 

 philosophy of the matter, you will see that this diversity of 

 tastes, as you call it, is not so great after all ; that is, that 

 the origin of the impulse which sends some men away from 

 society among the solitudes of the wilderness, and of that 

 which holds others in constant communion with the busy 

 scenes of life, is very nearly the same. It is the love of 

 adventure, of excitement, a restlessness for something new, 

 a desire for change. This impulse is controlled, shaped by 

 circumstances of early life, by education and association ; 

 but the foundation of it at last is the thirst for excitement, 

 the love of adventure. One man wanders away into the 

 wilderness in pursuit of it. Another plunges into society in 

 pursuit of the same thing. These hardy men who are here 

 with us, who were reared on the borders of civilization, 

 enjoy the solitudes of their wilderness quite as much, and 



