penetrate to tlie interior. It does sometimes appear as 

 if travellers in the West and the inhabitants there, were 

 a httle giddy upon their great plains, lakes, and rivers. 

 I have thought proper, then, to devote the moments of 

 this day assigned to me, to some reflections upon the 

 influence of hills, mountains, and tiie ocean, upon lakes, 

 and prairies, the dependence of agriculture upon com- 

 merce, and the relations of the East to the West, that, 

 if possible, some of our young men may be bound by 

 stronger ties to the land of their nativity. 



I will not, however, deceive myself nor attempt to 

 mislead you, by assuming that the West is not a region 

 of great fertility and abundant harvests. Equally for- 

 tunate is it for the East, as for the West, that it is so. 

 I shall only venture to indicate that the West is not in 

 every respect superior to the East, and that we have 

 some compensations for the hardness of New England 

 soil and the rigor of our northern climate. Our opin- 

 ion of a foreign land does not rest so much upon its 

 soil and climate as upon the character of its men. We 

 well know that Egypt and Ireland are among the fa- 

 vored portions of the globe, yet we respect the perpet- 

 ual enemies of Russia in the mountains of Caucasus 

 more than we do the inhabitants of the Nile, and would 

 sooner cast our lot in Sweden, Norway, or Iceland 

 even, than cultivate the bogs of the Shannon or the 

 moors of Donegal. One of the cultivated and useful 

 men of Massachusetts asks me in a letter what oppor- 

 tunity the vicinity of my own residence furnishes for a 

 home, when he shall be relieved from his present cares 

 and labors. And he says, " what I most of all seek is 

 a lionie among warm hearts and active souls, where 

 there is pure air, pure water, and mountain scenery." 



