INDEPENDENCE. 



The private poor man hath cities, sSiips, canals, bridges, built for him. He goes 

 to the post-office, and the human race ran on his errands ; to the book-shop, and the 

 human race lead and write of all that happens for him ; to the court-house, and 

 nations repair his wrongs. He sets his house upon the road, and the human race go 

 forth every morning, and shovel out the snow, and cut a path for him. 



R. W. Emerson. 



SO^'IE men delight to vaunt of their independence, 

 and some "women, too, are not one whit behind 

 the other sex in their assertion of personal inde- 

 pendency. How often do we make use of words 

 and phrases in ordinary conversation which reflec- 

 tion would cause us either to repudiate or condemn. 

 " Independence " is one of these, for in reality there 

 is no such a thing as absolute independence in 

 creation. It is true that one man may flourish in 

 circumstances and conditions in which he is less 

 dependent upon the will and caprice of others ; but, 

 after all, his independence is only relative. There 

 is a very comfortable association of this word in the 

 announcement that such an one is "possessed of 

 independent means." Never having realized such 

 a consummation in our own proper persons, we 

 shall not call its realities in question, nor deem such 

 independence a myth ; relative though it may be, 

 its relations are good. It is easy enough in the 

 common affairs of life to observe how a man is 

 dependent upon the vicissitudes of trade, and the 

 deeds of other men ; how his own equanimity 

 depends upon the digestion of his dinner; how 

 much the quality of his beef has depended upon his 

 butcher; how his butcher has depended upon the 

 markets ; how the markets have depended upon a 

 hundred other circumstances linked together in a 

 chain ; and how tliis chain is woven into such a net- 

 work of dependence that small and remote events 

 exert their influences in all directions. The first 

 dead cow of the Rinderpest is now denouncing 

 independence with golden arguments drawn from 

 the pockets of thousands of beef-eaters. 



In the lower walks of life, amongst the humblest 

 of creatures, there are unceasing examples of 

 dependence. Early in the spring unusually large 

 numbers of queen wasps prognosticated a prolific 

 year, and yet the numbers have been so few that it 

 is likely to become an event worthy of remembrance. 

 Had the queens been independent, as queens are 

 supposed to be, we should have swarmed with wasps. 

 And the multiplicity of flies, again, with which we 

 have been favoured, is, in part at least, the conse- 

 quence of a minority of wasps. 



Ca'bbages and brocoli are vegetables which have 

 many foes. Some bipeds delight to devour them at 

 dinner, but a host of caterpillars struggle for their 

 share. If the stock of caterpillars should prepon- 

 derate, then the dinner-table must be left bare. 

 But the caterpillars are not independent. An army 

 of winged enemies puncture their bodies, which 

 become the ultimate home of a brood of Ichneu- 

 mons, destined to puncture and keep in check a 

 future race of caterpillars and protect the vegetables 

 for the table of man. In this instance the proud 

 and independent burgomaster owes his boiled 

 cabbage to the assiduity of a little fly. Reaumur 

 found that of thirty caterpillars of the Cabbage 

 Butterfly, twenty-five were destroyed by a species 

 of Microgaster. Yery recently the Archbishop of 

 Bordeaux has alluded publicly to the great dearth 

 of cabbages in that district, causing the vegetable 

 to disappear even from the tables of the rich, the 

 ultimate occasion of which he attributes to the 

 wholesale destruction of small birds. 



Li articles of clothing, as well as food, until we 

 return to the pristine simplicity of our first pro- 

 genitors, we must rest content to be dependent in 

 almost every direction. As it is, our hatter will 

 inform us that one insect furnishes the external 

 material, and another the scarcely less important 

 dressing for the body ; and that for a liat we are 

 dependent not only upon the larvs of the silk moth, 

 and the proper development of mulberry leaves, 

 but also upon the minute lac-insect which punctures 

 the branches of the fig and the jujube in the forests 

 of India. 



Shall we vaunt of independence when a prepon- 

 derance of hop mildew may rob us of our " bitter 

 beer;" when a prolific mould may spoil all our 

 potatoes ; when murrain or deficient root crops may 

 make beef scarce ; or an American quarrel double 

 the price of cotton. 



Neither can the fair sex give a much more 

 favourable account of their uidependence when the 

 ghosts of all the birds from whom they have plucked 

 feathers to adorn themselves arise to condemn them. 

 The little quadrupeds of the weasel tribe that have 



