Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1860-09-07
[Froln the Atlantic for septembcr.l
CUL TURE.
ny RA LPM WALDO EMERSON.

Akin to the benefit of foreign travel, the
aesthetic value of railroads is to unite the
advantages of town and country life nci-
thcr of which we can spare. y man
should live in or near large town, be-
cause, let his own genius be what it may,
it will rcpel quite as much of agreeable
and valuable talent as it draws, and, in
city, the total attraction of all the citizens
is sure to conquer, first or last, every re-
pulsion, and drag the most improbable
hermit within its walls some day in the
year In town he can find the swimming
school, the gymnasium, the dnncing-mas-
ter, the shooting gallery, opera, theatre,
and panorama, the chemists shop, the
museum of natural history, the gallery of
fine arts, tic national orators in their turn,
foreign travellers, the libraries, and his
club. In the country he can find solitude
and reading, manly labor, cheap living,
and his old shOes,-moors for game, hills
for geology, and groves for devotion. Au-
6rey writes, 81 have heard Thomas Hobbies
say, that in the Earl of Devon's house in
Derbyshire, there was q good library and
books enough for him, and his LOrdship
stored the library with what books lie
thought fit to be bought. But the want of
good conversation WIS Il very great incon-
rcnicncc, and, though he conceived he
could order his thinking as we'll as anoth.
er, yet he found Il great defect. In the
country, in long time, for want of good
conversation, ones understanding and in
vention contract moss on them, like an
old paling in an orchard"
Cities give us collision. 'Tis said Lon
don and New York take the nonsense out
of a man. a great part of our education
is sympathetic and social. Boys ard
girls who have been brought up with we'll
informed and superior people show in
their manners an cstimNble grace. Fuller
says, that 'William, Earl of Nassau, won
a subject from the King of Spain every
time he put off his hat" You cannot
have one well-bred man without whole
society of such. They keep each other up
to any high point. Especially women it
requires great many cultivated women,
saloons of bright, elegant, reading wo-
men, accustomed to ease and refinement,
to spectacles, pictures, sculpture, poetry,
and to elegant sOclety,-in order that you
should have one Madame de Stael The
| head of Il commercial house, or a leading
lawyer or politician, is brought into daily
contact with troops of men from all parts
OF the country,-and those, too, the driv
ing-wheels, the businessmen of each sec
tion,-and one can hardly suggest for an
apprehenslvc man a more searching cul-
| LuAS" OCSIOcS1 we uluSL remember tue
high social possibilities of million of
men. The best bribc which London offers
to-day to the Imagination is, that in such
vast variety of people and conditions,
one can believe there is room for persons
of romantic character to exist, and that
the poet, the mystic, and the hero may
hope to confront their counterpnrts.
wish cities would teach their best les
sons1-of quiet manners. 1t iS,the foible
especially of American youth,-prcten-
ton. He does. not make n speech, he
takes low business-tone avoids all brag
is nobody, dresses plainly, promises not at
all, performs much, speaks in mouoSylla-
bles, hugs his fact. He calls his employ
ment by its lower name, and so takes from
evil tongues their SharpeSt weapon. His
conversation clings to the weather and
news, yet he allows himself to be sur
priSed into thought, and the unlocking of
his learning and philosophy. How the
Imagination is piqued by anecdotes of
some great man passing incognito, as a
king in gray clothes !-of Napoleon af-
fecting plain suit nt his glittering
levees !-of Burns or Scott, or Beethoven,
or Wellington. or Goethe, or any container
of transcendenta power, passing for no.
body !-EpAminondas, twho never says
anything, but will listen, eternally /" of
Goethe, who preferred trit1ing subjects
and common expressions in intercourse
with strangers, worse rather than better
clothes, and to appear little more ca
pricious than he was There are advan-
tages in the old hat and box coat. have
heard that, throughout this country, a GER
tain respect is paid to good broadcloth;
but dress U:akes- "a little restraint; men will
not commit themselves. But the. .b6xs coat
is like wine; it unlOcks the tongue, and
men say what they think. An old poet
says:
go and go sraring: =!
For You'll find ir certain, .ll-,. ~ u. z