XXX 
MEMOIR OF 
thing American, — a good deal, perhaps, upon the principle 
of the fox who had lost his tail. His first letter, dated July, 
1794, contains the following observations:- — “ But let 
no man, who is stout or healthy, and has a mind to come 
to this country, be discouraged. If he is a weaver, and can’t 
get employment at his own business, there are a thou- 
sand other offers, where he will save, at least, as much 
as he can in Scotland, and live ten times better. Where 
I am at present, which is eleven miles to the northeast 
of Philadelphia, nobody could wish for a more agreeable 
spot. Fruit of almost every kind, peaches, apples, walnuts, 
wild grapes, I can pull at pleasure, by only walking a 
short stone’s-throw from the house, and these not enclosed 
by high walls, and guarded by traps and mastiffs.” Next 
year he again reverts to the same subject : — “ Assure all 
my friends that this is a good country. The transplanting 
a tree or flower checks its growth for a little ; but let 
them persevere, and they will finally prosper, be indepen- 
dent, and wealthy and happy if they will. When I look 
round me here on the abundance which every one enjoys, 
— when I see them sit down to a table loaded with 
roasted, boiled, fruits of different kinds, and plenty of 
good cider, and this only the common fare of the common 
people, I think on my poor countrymen, and cannot help 
feeling sorrowful at the contrast.” 
On returning from his travels in New Jersey, he 
abandoned, finally, his old employments of weaver and 
pedlar, and betook himself to the not less laborious, but 
more refined one, of schoolmaster. It cannot be supposed 
that this was an occupation to which his previous un- 
settled manner of life had given him any predilection ; yet 
the opportunities it presented of prosecuting his studies 
must have recommended it powerfully to one whose chief 
enjoyments had always been mental. Being dissatisfied 
with the situation of his first school, near Frankford, 
in Pennsylvania, he removed to Milestown, and taught 
