Nature Hath Given You A Tolerable Share Of Sense, And That Is
One Of Her Best Gifts Let Me Tell You.
She has given you besides
some perspicuity, which qualifies you to distinguish interesting
objects; a warmth of imagination which enables you to think with
quickness; you often extract useful reflections from objects which
presented none to my mind:
You have a tender and a well meaning
heart, you love description, and your pencil, assure yourself, is
not a bad one for the pencil of a farmer; it seems to be held
without any labour; your mind is what we called at Yale college a
Tabula rasa, where spontaneous and strong impressions are delineated
with facility. Ah, neighbour! had you received but half the
education of Mr. F. B. you had been a worthy correspondent indeed.
But perhaps you will be a more entertaining one dressed in your
simple American garb, than if you were clad in all the gowns of
Cambridge. You will appear to him something like one of our wild
American plants, irregularly luxuriant in its various branches,
which an European scholar may probably think ill placed and useless.
If our soil is not remarkable as yet for the excellence of its
fruits, this exuberance is however a strong proof of fertility,
which wants nothing but the progressive knowledge acquired by time
to amend and to correct. It is easier to retrench than it is to add;
I do not mean to flatter you, neighbour James, adulation would ill
become my character, you may therefore believe what your pastor
says. Were I in Europe I should be tired with perpetually seeing
espaliers, plashed hedges, and trees dwarfed into pigmies. Do let
Mr. F. B. see on paper a few American wild cherry trees, such as
nature forms them here, in all her unconfined vigour, in all the
amplitude of their extended limbs and spreading ramifications - let
him see that we are possessed with strong vegetative embryos. After
all, why should not a farmer be allowed to make use of his mental
faculties as well as others; because a man works, is not he to
think, and if he thinks usefully, why should not he in his leisure
hours set down his thoughts? I have composed many a good sermon as I
followed my plough. The eyes not being then engaged on any
particular object, leaves the mind free for the introduction of many
useful ideas. It is not in the noisy shop of a blacksmith or of a
carpenter, that these studious moments can be enjoyed; it is as we
silently till the ground, and muse along the odoriferous furrows of
our low lands, uninterrupted either by stones or stumps; it is there
that the salubrious effluvia of the earth animate our spirits and
serve to inspire us; every other avocation of our farms are severe
labours compared to this pleasing occupation: of all the tasks which
mine imposes on me ploughing is the most agreeable, because I can
think as I work; my mind is at leisure; my labour flows from
instinct, as well as that of my horses; there is no kind of
difference between us in our different shares of that operation; one
of them keeps the furrow, the other avoids it; at the end of my
field they turn either to the right or left as they are bid, whilst
I thoughtlessly hold and guide the plough to which they are
harnessed. Do therefore, neighbour, begin this correspondence, and
persevere, difficulties will vanish in proportion as you draw near
them; you'll be surprised at yourself by and by: when you come to
look back you'll say as I have often said to myself; had I been
diffident I had never proceeded thus far. Would you painfully till
your stony up-land and neglect the fine rich bottom which lies
before your door? Had you never tried, you never had learned how to
mend and make your ploughs. It will be no small pleasure to your
children to tell hereafter, that their father was not only one of
the most industrious farmers in the country, but one of the best
writers. When you have once begun, do as when you begin breaking up
your summer fallow, you never consider what remains to be done, you
view only what you have ploughed. Therefore, neighbour James, take
my advice; it will go well with you, I am sure it will. - And do you
really think so, Sir? Your counsel, which I have long followed,
weighs much with me, I verily believe that I must write to Mr. F. B.
by the first vessel. - If thee persistest in being such a foolhardy
man, said my wife, for God's sake let it be kept a profound secret
among us; if it were once known abroad that thee writest to a great
and rich man over at London, there would be no end of the talk of
the people; some would vow that thee art going to turn an author,
others would pretend to foresee some great alterations in the
welfare of thy family; some would say this, some would say that: Who
would wish to become the subject of public talk? Weigh this matter
well before thee beginnest, James - consider that a great deal of thy
time, and of thy reputation is at stake as I may say. Wert thee to
write as well as friend Edmund, whose speeches I often see in our
papers, it would be the very self same thing; thee wouldst be
equally accused of idleness, and vain notions not befitting thy
condition. Our colonel would be often coming here to know what it is
that thee canst write so much about. Some would imagine that thee
wantest to become either an assembly-man or a magistrate, which God
forbid; and that thee art telling the king's men abundance of
things. Instead of being well looked upon as now, and living in
peace with all the world, our neighbours would be making strange
surmises:
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