Were I To Begin Life
Again, I Would Prefer The Country Of Kennebeck To The Other, However
Bewitching; The Navigation
Of the river for above 200 miles, the
great abundance of fish it contains, the constant healthiness of the
climate,
The happy severities of the winters always sheltering the
earth with a voluminous coat of snow, the equally happy necessity of
labour: all these reasons would greatly preponderate against the
softer situations of Carolina; where mankind reap too much, do not
toil enough, and are liable to enjoy too fast the benefits of life.
There are many I know who would despise my opinion, and think me a
bad judge; let those go and settle at the Ohio, the Monongahela, Red
Stone Creek, etc., let them go and inhabit the extended shores of
that superlative river; I with equal cheerfulness would pitch my
tent on the rougher shores of Kennebeck; this will always be a
country of health, labour, and strong activity, and those are
characteristics of society which I value more than greater opulence
and voluptuous ease.
Thus though this fruitful hive constantly sends out swarms, as
industrious as themselves, yet it always remains full without having
any useless drones: on the contrary it exhibits constant scenes of
business and new schemes; the richer an individual grows, the more
extensive his field of action becomes; he that is near ending his
career, drudges on as well as he who has just begun it; nobody
stands still. But is it not strange, that after having accumulated
riches, they should never wish to exchange their barren situation
for a more sheltered, more pleasant one on the main? Is it not
strange, that after having spent the morning and the meridian of
their days amidst the jarring waves, weary with the toils of a
laborious life, they should not wish to enjoy the evenings of those
days of industry in a larger society, on some spots of terra firma,
where the severity of the winters is balanced by a variety of more
pleasing scenes, not to be found here? But the same magical power of
habit and custom which makes the Laplander, the Siberian, the
Hottentot, prefer their climates, their occupations, and their soil,
to more beneficial situations, leads these good people to think,
that no other spot on the globe is so analagous to their
inclinations as Nantucket. Here their connections are formed; what
would they do at a distance removed from them? Live sumptuously, you
will say, procure themselves new friends, new acquaintances, by
their splendid tables, by their ostentatious generosity, and by
affected hospitality. These are thoughts that have never entered
into their heads; they would be filled with horror at the thought of
forming wishes and plans so different from that simplicity, which is
their general standard in affluence as well as in poverty. They
abhor the very idea of expending in useless waste and vain luxuries,
the fruits of prosperous labour; they are employed in establishing
their sons and in many other useful purposes:
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