migrating nations, full of instinct, which is thy faith, in this
backward spring, turned adrift, and perchance knowest not where
men do _not_ dwell, where there are _not_ factories, in these
days. Armed with no sword, no electric shock, but mere Shad,
armed only with innocence and a just cause, with tender dumb
mouth only forward, and scales easy to be detached. I for one am
with thee, and who knows what may avail a crow-bar against that
Billerica dam?--Not despairing when whole myriads have gone to
feed those sea monsters during thy suspense, but still brave,
indifferent, on easy fin there, like shad reserved for higher
destinies. Willing to be decimated for man's behoof after the
spawning season. Away with the superficial and selfish
phil-_anthropy_ of men,--who knows what admirable virtue of
fishes may be below low-water-mark, bearing up against a hard
destiny, not admired by that fellow-creature who alone can
appreciate it! Who hears the fishes when they cry? It will not
be forgotten by some memory that we were contemporaries. Thou
shalt erelong have thy way up the rivers, up all the rivers of
the globe, if I am not mistaken. Yea, even thy dull watery dream
shall be more than realized. If it were not so, but thou wert to
be overlooked at first and at last, then would not I take their
heaven. Yes, I say so, who think I know better than thou canst.
Keep a stiff fin then, and stem all the tides thou mayst meet.

At length it would seem that the interests, not of the fishes
only, but of the men of Wayland, of Sudbury, of Concord, demand
the levelling of that dam. Innumerable acres of meadow are
waiting to be made dry land, wild native grass to give place to
English. The farmers stand with scythes whet, waiting the
subsiding of the waters, by gravitation, by evaporation or