X DOMESTIC SCENEET OF NEW ENGLAND. 



fares of commerce, and to emblem tlie progress and enterprise 

 of man. But the beauties of the river are little shallows of 

 still water covered with aquatic flowers, and green masses of 

 shrubbery that afford a harbor to the singing-birds. These 

 quiet and flowery inlets, fed by the stream, but not joining in 

 its motion, represent the rural hamlets described in this essay. 

 They are nurtured by the arts and refined by the culture, but 

 not corrupted by the vices, nor disturbed by the ambition, of 

 the great world. Were it not for the river's moving mass of 

 waters these quiet inlets of beauty could not exist ; and with- 

 out this impetuous tide of commerce and the arts, these remote 

 hamlets would not have attained civilization. But as the 

 world moves onward, its learning and culture, its virtue and 

 happiness, turn aside and linger in these rural retreats. 



When passing over the old roads of New England, you must 

 take heed that you are not led out of their course by some 

 new and shorter cut. The road that winds around the hill or 

 the meadow is the path you must follow. On the improved 

 road you will see gravel and loam, nice new houses and 

 painted fences, with stiff spruces in their enclosures, and per- 

 haps a formal clipped hedge-row in front. The old road is 

 bordered with wild shrubbery, groups of trees of bold and 

 irregular growth, and here and there a solitary standard, always 

 charmingly out of place. There is no sameness in your jour- 

 ney. You wiU hardly travel a furlong through the woods be- 

 fore you arrive at an open space that exposes to view some 

 beautiful meadow, lying several feet below the level of the 

 winding road. A small river flows in an irregular course 

 along the interval, often passing out of sight behind some 

 wooded eminence, then reappearing, its surface radiant with 

 purple and amethyst, now smooth as a mirror, then gleaming 

 and sparkling from a thousand rippling waves. Nothing can 

 surpass the grouping of the woods in these natural openings, 

 enlivened with an occasional farm-house, its barns and sheds 

 and peaceful flocks, and revealing in the distance the church- 

 spire of a neighboring hamlet. As the trees consist chiefly of 

 maple, ash, and tupelo, with a few oaks, and a border growth 



