First Impressions of the Colony. 
By W. Arthur Savtell. 
¥y I is usual to disparage first impressions. They 
| are deceitful, says the proverb, andthe majority 
y= oof mankind, being slaves to aphoristic dogma, 
have no good word to say of them. They are regarded 
as a kind of necessary evil, like the measles and other 
infantile disorders. Everybody gets them, but they are 
to be spoken of with an apology and never dwelt upon as 
an interesting or a profitable topic. And yet in a sense 
every impression that our minds receive is a first impres- 
sion. Each new conception, each fresh conclusion— 
though it may displace a train of others relating to the 
same objeét—is only another impression resulting from 
a previously undiscovered point of view. One stand- 
point ought to be as good as another, but it is the ac- 
cepted verdiét that the impressions gained from the 
earlier one are worthy of no consideration. Hence arise 
the exaggerated value placed upon the judgment of age, 
and the equally excessive disparagement of the opinions of 
youth. Most men are content to take all their philosephy 
second-hand from the copy-books, and Experentia docet 
has long been deemed an axiom far beyond the range of 
argument. Much, however, depends upon the scholar, 
and, further, the lessons of experience are frequently 
not worth learning. Many men lose all sap and 
vitality in that rigorous school, and have nothing more 
than vanitas vanitatum wherewith to cheer themselves 
at the end. The callow youth, with all his ignorance of 
