But At The Same Time There Is Not An Operation Belonging To
It In Which I Do Not Find Some Food For Useful Reflections.
This is
the reason, I suppose, that when you was here, you used, in your
refined style, to denominate
Me the farmer of feelings; how rude
must those feelings be in him who daily holds the axe or the plough,
how much more refined on the contrary those of the European, whose
mind is improved by education, example, books, and by every acquired
advantage! Those feelings, however, I will delineate as well as I
can, agreeably to your earnest request.
When I contemplate my wife, by my fire-side, while she either spins,
knits, darns, or suckles our child, I cannot describe the various
emotions of love, of gratitude, of conscious pride, which thrill in
my heart and often overflow in involuntary tears. I feel the
necessity, the sweet pleasure of acting my part, the part of an
husband and father, with an attention and propriety which may
entitle me to my good fortune. It is true these pleasing images
vanish with the smoke of my pipe, but though they disappear from my
mind, the impression they have made on my heart is indelible. When I
play with the infant, my warm imagination runs forward, and eagerly
anticipates his future temper and constitution. I would willingly
open the book of fate, and know in which page his destiny is
delineated; alas! where is the father who in those moments of
paternal ecstasy can delineate one half of the thoughts which dilate
his heart? I am sure I cannot; then again I fear for the health of
those who are become so dear to me, and in their sicknesses I
severely pay for the joys I experienced while they were well.
Whenever I go abroad it is always involuntary. I never return home
without feeling some pleasing emotion, which I often suppress as
useless and foolish. The instant I enter on my own land, the bright
idea of property, of exclusive right, of independence exalt my mind.
Precious soil, I say to myself, by what singular custom of law is it
that thou wast made to constitute the riches of the freeholder? What
should we American farmers be without the distinct possession of
that soil? It feeds, it clothes us, from it we draw even a great
exuberancy, our best meat, our richest drink, the very honey of our
bees comes from this. privileged spot. No wonder we should thus
cherish its possession, no wonder that so many Europeans who have
never been able to say that such portion of land was theirs, cross
the Atlantic to realise that happiness. This formerly rude soil has
been converted by my father into a pleasant farm, and in return it
has established all our rights; on it is founded our rank, our
freedom, our power as citizens, our importance as inhabitants of
such a district. These images I must confess I always behold with
pleasure, and extend them as far as my imagination can reach:
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