The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-11-24
WASHINGTON, ID. C..
NovEMBER 4, Is

that left you in the incipient stages of a sum-
mer journey. Now, if you fancy me to have
been roaming ever since, like wandering Jew,
or the fitting ghosts that vainly bewail their
dishonored bodies to pitiless Charon, it will
perhaps be relief to you to learn that did,
at length, get there. Where?" Never mind,
my pet A place where the sun shines, and
lavender-hued clouds whirl in craggy, defiant,
thunderous masses, around imperturbable noun
tain tops, and lush vapors, pearly and amber
tinted, float softly among the valleys; and
evening skies fling out banner of pink, and
purple, and pale-green glory and stars throb,
and glow, and fash, with radiant life that is
not of the earth where great rivers have not
yet put on the majesty of manhood, but trill
over pebbles, and curl around rocks, and ripple
against banks, and waltz little eddies, and
spread dainty pools-for gay little trout, and
make love to golden-hearted lilies, and dash up
saucy spray into the eyes of bending ferns, and
mock the frantic struggles of lost flowers and
twigs, tantalizing them with hope of rest
that never comes, and leap headlong, swirling
and singing with thousand silver tongues,
down Granny and ravine in all the wild winsome-
ness of unchecked youth; land flowing with
maple molasses and square cakes of brown sugar,
and cider applesauce, and cheese new and old,
and baked beans and three sermons on Sundays,
besides Sabbath-school at noon, and no time to
60 home and wagons with three seats, Mem.
Always choose the back seat, if you wish to Sc
cure reputation for amiability, and three on
a seat, and two horses, and colt trotting
gravely beside his mother; and roads all sand
in the hollows and all ruts on the hills, blocked
up by snow in the winter, and washed away by
thunder-showers in the summer land where
carpets are disdain ed, and latches are of wood
and thieves unknown, and wainscots and wells
Gu naturel, and women are as busy as bees all
day, and knit in the chinks, and men are invis-
ibe till evening, and girls braid hats and have
beaux, and everybody goes to bed and TO sleep
at nine o'clock, and gets up nobody knows
when, and cooks, eats, and "clears away"
breakfast before other people have fairly rubbed
their eyes open; and all the town are neigh
bors for ten miles round, and know your out
goings and incomings without impertinence
and gossip without sting, and are intelligent
without pretension, sturdy without rudeness,
honest without effort, and cherish an ortho
doxy true as steel, straight as a pine, unim-
peachable in quality, and unlimited in guam
tity. God bless them Late may they return
to heaven, and never want man to stand be-
fore the Lord forever
My dear friend, it is so delightful to do any
thing when you " feel like it," and not do it
when You don't. Doubtless, duty is very fine
thing, (f it isn't talked to DEATH but the "look
of it" depends somewhat on the observers
standpoint. Duty done is exquisite satisfac-
ton. Duty TO be done is often hugely disagree
able, Notwithstanding the moral philosophers
After laying down which general proposition, l
proceed to the remark that when duty and incl
nation pull together, it makes what "Down-
casters" call "a whole team, and the dog
under the wagon" Delightful are green falls
and overhanging trees and the shadow of great
rocks, and the clover-scents of summer morn
ings but when not only your soul signs for
them, but your conscience bids you walk
among them, loiter-and ramble and daily at
your own sweet will-ah what martinez you
become! How impervious to temptation How
firmly and intensely virtuous
Vice is a nloasier OF so frightful mien,
Moral Going into the country must be an
excellent remedy for spiritual dyspepsia. If
your weak digestion cannot dispose of tough
duty take an easy, pleasant one first, and so
proceed by short journeys from milk to meat
At any rate, l am quite willing to follow my
own prescriptions, which is more than most
doctors do.
Some people have conscientious scruples
about fishing. | respect them. L had then
once, myself. Wantonly to destroy, for mere
sport, the innocent life that hoated, and DATED,
and quavered, and cleaned, in lake and river,
seemed TO me cruelty and shane. But
people must fish. Man is, indubaably, an
angling animal. Now, then, how shall your
theory and practice be harmonizzd? Practice
can't yield. Plainly, theory must. I'll tell
you how | did it. A year 40, went out on
a rock in the Atlantic oceSn, held hne-Just
10 see how it seemed, and caught eight-hshes,
not lines-and every tipe fish came up, scru-
pie went down. Thy weren't very large-tbe
fishes mean stip not the scruples, though
the same adiectiye might, perhaps, not unjust
", be applied - both-and don't know that
the enormity II the sin depends at all upon the
size of the Ssh but if it did, so entirely had
nv success convinced me of mans lawful do
minion o,er the fish of the sea, that | verify
Z believe. If a whale had hooked himself on the
without a pangl
I don't insist that you shall accept my system
of ethics. / can conceive that deplorable re-
suits might follow its practical application in
every imaginable case. / do not defend the
process by which / arrived at the truth. l
simply state facts, leaving the thoughtful
reader to generalize from them whatever code
he pleases.
Which facts will partially account for the
eagerness with which /, one morning, seconded
a proposal to go a6shing in river about four
teen miles away. One wanted the scenery,
another the drive, third a chowder, and so
on-but l. l may as well confess, wanted the
excitement, the fishes, the opportunity of dis
playing my piscatery prowess. / enjoyed in
anticipation the masculine admiration and
feminine chagrin that would accompany the
beautiful, fat, shining, speckled prismatic trout
into nv basket, while other rods waited in vain
for nibble" resolved to be magnanimous.
Modesty should lend to genius a heightened
charm. would win hearts by my humility, as
well as laurels by my dexterity. / would dis
claim superior skill, attribute success to fortune,
and offer to distribute my spoil among the dis
com6ted. Glory, not pelf was my object
You may imagine my disgust on finding at the
end of our journey that there was only one rod
for the whole party. Plenty of lines, but no
rods. What was to be done? 1t was proposed
to improvise rods from the trees. "No," said
the female element. We don't care. We
shouldn't catch any fish. We'd just as soon
stroll about" l bubbled up, if I didn't boil
over. We shouldn't, should soef Pray speak
for yourselves! Didn't catch eight cod-6shes
In the Atlantic Ocean, last summer? Answer
me that !" / was indignant that they should
so easily be turned away, by the trivial circum
stance of there being no rods, from the noble