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their native scenery seems calculated to inspire. The 

 mountain and the ocean are specially fitted to exert an 

 influence upon the character and physical constitution. 

 There are individual cases of eminent men who are 

 of inferior physical development ; but it is idle to 

 expect a race of such men. It is not necessary to 

 urge this view ; as a general truth it is agreed to. It 

 is not, however, to be assumed that mere greatness of 

 body is an index of greatness of mind ; but where a 

 race is well developed, you may be sure that it possesses 

 great original energy and is capable of cultivation and 

 refinement. You may see in State-street, Boston, at 

 one o'clock in the afternoon, as fine a class of mer- 

 chants and men as any city can boast ; but generally 

 they are immigrants from Cape Cod, Cape Ann, West- 

 ern Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire. 

 Now a great city and a great plain are ahke in one 

 respect : they must be constantly stimulated to industry 

 and re-invigorated by the infusion of new elements of 

 character from the country around. It is apparent then 

 that great plains can only be the abode of an elevated 

 and enlightened civilization, when they are so situated 

 as to receive new men from the mountains and shores 

 of the ocean, and have avenues of commerce which 

 draw away whatever is produced beyond the necessa- 

 ries of Kfe. This is indeed now, and for an indefinitely 

 long period of time to come, is hkely to be the condi- 

 tion of the West. But the view we have taken leads 

 me to consider what the efiect upon American charac- 

 ter would have been had it been possible to have settled 

 the plains of the West before the Atlantic slope was 

 occupied. It is possible that the heart of America 

 would have been, like the south of Russia and parts of 

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