258 
WANDERINGS IN 
fourth did not on that account condemn its vigorous neigh¬ 
bours, and put down a memorandum that the woods 
were bad ; on the contrary, I made allowances : a 
thunder-storm, the whirlwind, a blight from heaven 
might have robbed it of its bloom, and caused its 
present forbidding appearance. And, in leaving the 
forest, I carried away the impression, that though 
some few of the trees were defective, the rest were an 
ornament to the wilds, full of uses and virtues, and 
capable of benefiting the world in a superior degree. 
A man generally travels into foreign countries for 
his own ends; and I suspect there is scarcely an 
instance to be found of a person leaving his own 
home solelv with the intention of benefiting those 
amongst whom he is about to travel. A commercial 
speculation, curiosity, a wish for information, a 
desire to reap benefit from an acquaintance with our 
distant fellow-creatures, are the general inducements 
for a man to leave his own fire-side. This ought 
never to be forgotten; and then the traveller will 
journey on under the persuasion that it rather be¬ 
comes him to court than expect to be courted, as his 
own interest is the chief object of his travels. With 
this in view, he will always render himself pleasant 
to the natives ; and they are sure to repay his little 
acts of courtesy with ample interest, and with a fund 
of information which will be of great service to him. 
While in the United States, I found our western 
brother a very pleasant fellow; but his portrait has 
been drawn in such different shades, by different 
travellers who have been through his territory, that 
