490 Natural History Tour 
tice. ‘To make the whole as interesting as possible to the 
general reader, anecdotes and common incidents are mixed 
with personal adventure. 
These letters were formerly addressed to a female friend, 
and will be transcribed now, as they were then sent, from my 
note-book. I am, Sir, &c. 
Liverpool, Sept. 1829. ae Wa 
Letter I. 
My dear B. — It is just a month short of four years since 
{ arrived in New York. But of this beautiful city, and 
very flourishing sea-port, I have already communicated every 
thing which I believ ed would interest you; and hence one of 
my motives for leaving it: in my peregrinations farther I may, 
perhaps, again collect something for your amusement and 
instruction. You know I had always a strong inclination to 
ramble; and your remonstrances have more than once laid 
waste my plans. When I informed you of my idea of taking 
a transatlantic trip, you thought it would be a wild-goose 
adventure ; and that in the end, if I tried the experiment, I 
would be miserably disappointed in my expectations. I did 
not, however, go abroad with more anticipation of enjoyment 
than what would render time agreeable ; and disappointments 
in affairs which could not mar my happiness, nor defeat the 
object of my sojournment, were considerations of no moment 
to dwell upon. But you thought it no crime to laugh at my 
ideal philosophy, as you termed it; and sought to repress it 
by representations of danger, the endurance of constant and 
excessive fatigue, and every species of deprivation, without 
the possibility of reaping adequate advantage, or the expect- 
ation of any real benefit. 
Men’s minds are unlike other productions; to wit, the ve- 
getable kingdom, which makes the most luxuriant growth, 
and finest display of its colours and natural beauties, in an 
indigenous soil. The germ of genius may be warmed, and 
even the scion nursed, where it first sprang; but the beauty 
by which its maturity is to be illumined, and the extent of 
its intellectual exhibitions, will materially depend on its being 
lopped by society, and subjected for a season to the keen edge 
of the world’s pruning-knife. 
When lopp’d and pruned, trees do flourish fair.” 
I pray you not to understand by this that I hold all men 
to be fools who have not travelled into other climes; that, 
indeed, would be going into the opposite extreme: yet the 
case is sometimes even so; for 
