490 Natural History Tmir 



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. T. W. 



Letter I. 



My dear B. — It is just a month short of four years since 

 I arrived in New York. But of this beautiful city, and 

 very flourishing sea*port, I have already communicated every 

 thing which I believed 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. Yon 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 1 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 



