The hydraulic press. (North San Juan, Nev. Co., Cal.) 1858-18??, 1858-10-23
D6The sentiment of attachment

tial to happiness. Its existence proves
contentment, which is proverbially
the parent of felicity. The lack of
this sentiment on the part of Califor-
mans is doubtless the cause of that
unhappiness which characterizes them.
California, to be sure, is part of their
common country, but it is not the land
of their birth they do not find here
the cultivated hills, the clear roman
tic streams, the thick forests Of sac
charine and nut-bearing trees, the
linked sisterhood of lakes, the ocean
wide prairies, the park-like oak-open-
ings, the mammoth rivers, and the
fair plantations amid which they were
born, and reared, and grew to man.
hood. All these are divided from
them by higher than Chinese walls,
and the balmy airs of the Pacific con-
sole them not for the separation. The
unclouded skies, the healthful climate
and the productive soil of their adop-
ted home cannot remove, though they
may weaken the clinging remem-
bIances which bind their hearts to
the place of their first pulsation.
Perhaps the individual man no.
where else on earth enjoys the same
degree of independence, combined
with material abundance and an
equality which is almost perfect, as
California affords her crowds of UNI
grateful adventures. Perhaps in no
other country can comfortable homes
be so speedily obtained under such
glorious armament, and with such
chances of long enjoyment. But this
malade du pays-this natural, but
most unfortunate inconsistencies" in>
tervenes between us and felicity. and
we 60 dragging about with US through
this lovely land the burden of our
discontents and our longings. 1t is
impossible to make these source of
reproach, for they are a part Of the
poetry which renders human nature
lovely insensibility to them might
justify reproach; and so we can only
swell the multitude of regrets by la
mentlng over our lack of content
ment. No, we can do more than
that. We can acquire the sweet con-
tent which flows from the conscious
ness of duties psrformed-we can OK
tract felicity from the execution of
unselfsh labors, and allay these strong
instructive yearnings by thus realizing
that " wherever We are useful, there
our home is" Nor will this be diff
fcult task. We have only to act
here, to-day, and all the time, as we
would act were we cat home" to
see crop of rewards and pleasures
springing up all around US and ma
king our arid lives verdurous.
Good deeds are not like real estate,
liable to depreciation, and that can
not be carried about with US they
arc personal property-money at in
terest, and silently accumulate deep
joys for US, as the coral insect builds
in the sea, and may even raise to US
above the waters of oblivion an in
destructible monument. We have
no wish to deprecate the desire for
material wealth which brought US all
to the Pacific shores and is now link
ing them to eastern civilization, for
its results are conservative of free
dom by Strengthening the individual.
But there are spiritual wants, such as
have been indicated, which are even
more essential to private and public
welfare than material abundance.
Perhaps California will never pos
sess a homogene Gus population, at
tached to the soil on which they live,
until that distant day whom she shall
have . native population, and when
the old men and the old women of the
pioneer era are fast dropping into
their graves, still thinking of their
trans-montane homes. The native
generations will grow up in harmony
with the stately pines, their thoughts
uplifted to the circling peaks which
form our narrow horizon, no longing
for any other land weakening their
love for this, and felicitating them
selves that they have for a heritage a
country as charming as the Happy
Valley of Rasselas. Then, these
pleadings for a more unsel6sh exist.