Yes, Perhaps I May Never Revisit
Those Fields Which I Have Cleared, Those Trees Which I Have Planted,
Those Meadows Which, In My Youth, Were A Hideous Wilderness, Now
Converted By My Industry Into Rich Pastures And Pleasant Lawns.
If
in Europe it is praise-worthy to be attached to paternal
inheritances, how much more natural, how much more powerful must the
tie be with us, who, if I may be permitted the expression, are the
founders, the creators of our own farms!
When I see my table
surrounded with my blooming offspring, all united in the bonds of
the strongest affection, it kindles in my paternal heart a variety
of tumultuous sentiments, which none but a father and a husband in
my situation can feel or describe. Perhaps I may see my wife, my
children, often distressed, involuntarily recalling to their minds
the ease and abundance which they enjoyed under the paternal roof.
Perhaps I may see them want that bread which I now leave behind;
overtaken by diseases and penury, rendered more bitter by the
recollection of former days of opulence and plenty. Perhaps I may be
assailed on every side by unforeseen accidents, which I shall not be
able to prevent or to alleviate. Can I contemplate such images
without the most unutterable emotions? My fate is determined; but I
have not determined it, you may assure yourself, without having
undergone the most painful conflicts of a variety of passions; -
interest, love of ease, disappointed views, and pleasing
expectations frustrated; - I shuddered at the review! Would to God I
was master of the stoical tranquillity of that magnanimous sect; oh,
that I were possessed of those sublime lessons which Appollonius of
Chalcis gave to the Emperor Antoninus! I could then with much more
propriety guide the helm of my little bark, which is soon to be
freighted with all that I possess most dear on earth, through this
stormy passage to a safe harbour; and when there, become to my
fellow passengers, a surer guide, a brighter example, a pattern more
worthy of imitation, throughout all the new scenes they must pass,
and the new career they must traverse. I have observed
notwithstanding, the means hitherto made use of, to arm the
principal nations against our frontiers. Yet they have not, they
will not take up the hatchet against a people who have done them no
harm. The passions necessary to urge these people to war, cannot be
roused, they cannot feel the stings of vengeance, the thirst of
which alone can compel them to shed blood: far superior in their
motives of action to the Europeans, who for sixpence per day, may be
engaged to shed that of any people on earth. They know nothing of
the nature of our disputes, they have no ideas of such revolutions
as this; a civil division of a village or tribe, are events which
have never been recorded in their traditions: many of them know very
well that they have too long been the dupes and the victims of both
parties; foolishly arming for our sakes, sometimes against each
other, sometimes against our white enemies.
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