WHAT MY CRITICS WILL SAY. 41 



to buy my lard a little cheaper at our country 

 store. By sitting in his counting-room three 

 hundred days out of the year and eight hours 

 of the day he gives me my lard a little cheaper, 

 and he finds pleasure in it. The operation gives 

 him a big stone house to live in, a carriage which 

 his wife rides in, for he never finds any time, an 

 opera box which his wife and daughters may 

 enjoy, for he has no knowledge of music ; he 

 has never had any time to learn any thing be- 

 yond the quotations of lard in different parts of 

 the world. If these noble men devoted to lard 

 and other commercial operations, if they like 

 it, I am only too delighted. If I thought they 

 were breaking themselves down, losing year 

 after year of oystering and wood-cutting in 

 order to give me my lard one eighth of a cent a 

 pound cheaper than I should otherwise have it, 

 it would cast a shadow over my sports ; I should 

 hate to think that I'was reaping while they were 

 laboring. 



Seriously, does any one contend that the life 

 of to-day is any happier, any more rational, any 

 more healthy, than the life in the American colo- 

 nies one hundred years ago ? So far as material 

 prosperity goes, it seems that there was far less 



