The Massachusetts spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1821-1823, 1821-08-08

how Immediately 1t tries the metal OF
other minds. In truth, know no peo-
pie who sooner make you sensible of
your own ignorance.
1t was finely answered by an Ameri-
can citizen to IA European, who, looking
round him, exclaimed" Yes; this is
all well You have all the vulgar and
the substantial, but | look in vain for
the Ornamental. Where are your ruins
and your poetry?' There are our ruins
replied the Republican, pointing to a
revolutionary soldier who was turning
up the glebe; and then extending his
hand over the plain that stretched be-
fore them, smiling with luxuriant farms,
and little villas, peeping out from beds
of trees there as our poetry
There is something truly sublime in
the water scenery of America. Her
lakes, spreading into inland seas-their
vast, deep and pure waters, rejecting
back the azure of heaven, untainted
with a cloud-her rivers, collecting the
waters of hills and plains interminable,
rolling their massy volumes for thou
sands of miles--now broken into Cata-
Facts TO which the noblest cascades of
the old hemisphere are those of rivu-
lets, and then sweeping down their
broad channels to the far-off ocean, the
treasures of world. The lakes and
rivers of this continent seem to despise
all foreign auxiharies of nature or art,
and trust to their own unassisted majes-
ty to produce effect upon the eye and
the mind. Without alpine mountains or
moss-grown ruins, they strike the spec
tator with awe. Extent, weight, depth
1t is by these intrinsick qualities, that
they affect him Their character is one
of simple grandeur. You stand upon
their brink, or traverse their bosom, or
| gaze. upon their rolling rapids and tum-
bling cataracts, and acknowledge at once
their power and immensely, and your
own insignifcance and imbecility. Oc-
casionally you meet with exceptions to
this rule. | recall at this moment the
beautiful shores of the Passaick; its
! graceful cascades, its walls of rock,
shelving into a CLASSY peaceful food,
its wooded hills. and rich and varied
landscape, all spread beneath sky of
glowing sapphires-a scene for Claude
/ to gaze upon. These northwestern
waters, however, have nothing of this
character you find them bedded in vast
level plains, bordered only by sable
i forests, from which the stroke of the
axe has but just startled the panther
and the savage
y
The mode in which the contents of
the post-bag are usually distributed
through the less populous districts, had
often before amused me. remember,
when taking cross cut in queer sort
of caravan, bound for some settlement
on the southern shore of Lake Erie, OBJ
serving with no small surprise the OPP
erations of cur charioteer-a paper
flung to the right hand, and anon a
paper flung to the left, where no sight
OF sound bespoke the presence Of hu-
man beings. asked if the bears were
curious of news. Upon which, | was in
formed, that there was settler in the
neighbourhood, who ought to have been
on the look out, or some Of his children
for him. 8: But when don't find them
ready, throw the paper under tree
and warrant you they'll look sharp
enough to find it they're always curl
Gus of news in these wild parts; y and
curious enough they seemed, for not a
cabin did we pass that newspaper was
not flung from the hand of this enlghten.
er of the wilderness. Occasionally
making halt at some solitary dwelling
the post-bag and its guardian descended
together when, if the assistance o
the farmer, who here acted as post
master, could be obtained, the whole
contents of the mail were discharged
upon the ground, and all hands and eyes
being put in requisition, such letters a:
might be addressed to the surrounding
district, were scrambled out from the
heap; which, being then again scram
T bled together, was once more shaker
into the leathern receptacle, and thrown
into the wagon but it sometimes hap
| pened, that the settler was from home
On one occasion, ] remember, neithe
man, woman nor child, was to be found
the stage-driver whistled and hallooed
: walked into the dwelling, and throug
) the dwelling, sprang the fence, travers
, ed the field of maize. and shouted int