The Kalida venture. [volume] (Kalida, Ohio) 1841-1865, 1853-08-05
SYDENnAM, near Philadelphia
~ March &c. 2S53.

SyDENmAM, near Philadelphia.
d a a March 26, 2s53,
MY Dear Sir:-Employment in plan.
ing and transplantlng trees tnd shrubs
upon my grounds, and in such like usual
work for a week or two--a species OF
work, however small the scale Of il, moi
to be postponed at this season of the
year-has prevented my earlier ackuowl-
edgment oftl,e copy of your interesting
lettor to the people of Missouri, on the
central national highway from the Miss
issippi TO the Pacific, which you had ;he
goodness to send me. In sitting down
to acknowledge it now, do so not with
any the less cordially and thankfulness,
but perhaps more, as the delay hasglven
me more time 10 think of il. ! read the
whole pamphlet when ii first came; and
found it refreshing as we'll as inslruc-
tive paslime. itaclS like an intellectual
tonic. The statement of Mr. Lero1x,
with Col. Fremont's letter, made me
think that The route you recommend is
the bcst, frankly owning that have had
my attention little drawn hitherto TO the
other routes. But what maks me chief
ly and largely your debtor on The occa-
sion are the parts that follow this state
ment and letter, good as both of them
seem TO me TO be. Louis the XIV. once
asked the Duke Of Vivonge, plump and
fine looking gentleman of his court what
was the benefi, Of reading9 The spright-
~ duke replied that it had the same effect
upon his mind that his majesty's pa'rd>
ges had upon his cheeks made il plump.
So when you burst upon US with The re-
fleciions, illustrations, and facts almost
astounding, old as they are, when revived
and applied in connection with your sub
iec', that are 10 be seen on page eight
and onward Of your inVigorating pamph-
let; it plumps up the mind. 1t rouses it
out of the common place lazy thoughts
into which all of US are prone to slide
until strong happer comes. It fires US
with desire 10 do great things; by bring
ing back 10 our contemplation the grea,
things tha; have been done,
When you tell US of the city Alexan-
der the great built to supercede Tyre, the
main street of which was five miles long,
one thousand feet wide, with colonade
and covered footway Of hundred feet
on each side; when you remind US that
the pyramids were standing long before
that time; jog our memories with the au>
lhentic realities of the vast cham Of COM
munication throughout the Roman empire
by highways stretching more than four
thousand miles in length, going through
mountains which they perforated, and
crossing the broadcast and most rapid
streams on bold arches thrown over them,
the middle of this grand highway being
raised into a terrace commanding the
adjacent country, and paved with stone
in manner so solid that paris of il still
exist to challenge our curiosity and ad.
mira,ior: when you remind US furihet
from our own prescott's glowing pages,
that even the Peruvians, before Spain got
possession there, had road from fifteen
hundred TO two thousand miles long, con-
Quoted over painless sierras buried in
snow, with galleries cut for leagues thro'
the living rock, and over rivers crossed
by bridges that swung suspended in the
air, and over ravines of hideous depth
which were filled up with solid masonry.
besides overcoming other difficulties and
obstacles to have appalled, the most cour-
ageous engineers of modern limes--when
you carry US back to all these things OF
the past, it seems to unhnge ones rea>
son. Startling moments come over us.
1t makes US half afraid lest in our days
we have dwlndled down 10 pguIies, be-
come set of Rip Van Wrinkles, young
Rips and old Rips, all together, with lit
tie hope of our ever being wound up TO
the bodness and grandeur Of those old
fellows who lived so long before us, and
who, if they could revisit the earth, might
be very much disposed to laugh at us all.
To be serious, le, US follow up The mat
ter little, for it is full Of piih.
If the Macedonians, Egyptians, Ro-
mans and even the semI-ciyilized Peru
vians, could do all that you SO wildly and
perlnently recall, without the steam en-
gine for land or water, or the electric
telegraph to let each other know in a
twinkling what was goiGg on, or the
thousand and one modern Inventions in
machinery for cheapening and expediting
labor and multiplying SO prodigiously its
products, what would they not have done
| if, like ourselves, they had had all these
too? l, is enough to make us blush to
think of it. But rather lei US take less
ons from it. In the spirit of progress,
le, us determine TO improve in The reso>
luton Of our own will. 1t is never too
late to learn, however long we mag have
been basking in the delusions Of already
attained perfection. DR.. Franklin taught
himself 10 wlits a good hand, which
somehow or other had got spoiled, by
asking himself to write copy every day
aiter he had passed forty, and Cato frs:
learned Greek at sixty Why should
we not wake up to whatwe are capable