means of publishing the little Charles Emerson left as a mark
of his noble course, and, though it lies in fragments, all who
read will be gainers.'

* * * * *

'1840.--Since the Revolution, there has been little, in
the circumstances of this country, to call out the higher
sentiments. The effect of continued prosperity is the same
on nations as on individuals,--it leaves the nobler faculties
undeveloped. The need of bringing out the physical resources
of a vast extent of country, the commercial and political
fever incident to our institutions, tend to fix the eyes of
men on what is local and temporary, on the external advantages
of their condition. The superficial diffusion of knowledge,
unless attended by a correspondent deepening of its sources,
is likely to vulgarize rather than to raise the thought of a
nation, depriving them of another sort of education through
sentiments of reverence, and leading the multitude to believe
themselves capable of judging what they but dimly discern.
They see a wide surface, and forget the difference between
seeing and knowing. In this hasty way of thinking and living
they traverse so much ground that they forget that not the
sleeping railroad passenger, but the botanist, the geologist,
the poet, really see the country, and that, to the former,
"a miss is as good as a mile." In a word, the tendency
of circumstances has been to make our people superficial,
irreverent, and more anxious to get a living than to live
mentally and morally. This tendency is no way balanced by the
slight literary culture common here, which is mostly English,