NEW YORK, AUGUST, 1841. CROW NEST. Is the neighborhood of Undercliff, from which the present view is taken, this beautiful mountain is beheld to the greatest advantage. Around its shaggy base sweep the waters of the Hudson, while far as the eye can wander, stretches the blue line of the Catskills. To the south lies West Point, and immediately above it rises Mount Independence, crowned with the ruins of Fort Putnam, while on every hand some delightful object of the picturesque and beautiful greets the sight of the traveller. What a myriad of hallowed associ ations do the surrounding objects create in the heart of every American, objects on which the foot has trodden and the eye has rested, of those illustrious men who risked their lives in the cause of their country's independence. On these very plains has the Father of our freedom gazed, and planned the extrication of his native land from the fetters of oppression. Here, too, have the self-proffered friends of liberty, Lafayette and Kosciusko, wandered, and here, also, have the plans of treason been meditated upon by the villain, Arnold, for West Point, the key of the Hudson, as it is correctly designated, was then the grand object on which the British had placed their hearts, and in which, had they succeeded, would, perhaps, for ever have sealed the subjugation of America, but an all gracious Providence, in whose hand are weighed the destinies of nations in his plenitude of mercy, saw fit to blast the plans of villany, and preserve our country from the foe. Independent of these thrilling associations, in a poetical quality it is also curious and interesting, as being the scene in which Drake's beautiful poem of "The Culprit Fay" is laid, and certainly a more fitting haunt for the genii of fancy, is not to be found in the realms of creation. Who that has gazed upon it in the silent hour of night, under the star gemmed canopy as we have done "When the moon Like to a silver bow new bent in heaven" casts its mellow radiance on the landscape-when the breathing world is bound in repose, and Peace weaves her spell of silence over all, but must at once acknowl edge the exquisite description of the lamented poet "Tis the middle watch of a summer's night; But the moon and the stars and the cloudless sky, The stars are on the moving stream, And the plaint of the wailing whip-poor-will, "Till morning spreads her rosy wings, And earth and sky in her glances glow. From the silver tops of moon-touch'd trees, They had driven him out by elfin power, With glittering ising-stars inlaid, Their little minim forms arrayed, In the tricksy pomp of fairy pride." Such is the opening of perhaps the most poetical poem of America-imagery, metaphor, and simile, are to repletion, throughout the whole of it, recalling to our mind the fertile and fanciful genius of the Ettrick Shepherd. Indeed, it is a fitting compeer to Kelmeny of the Scottish bard, while it conveys to the reader a most valuable description of American scenery. We cannot refrain from again quoting from the poem once more. It is the description of the Sylphid Queen in slumber in her palace. "But oh! how fair the shape that lay Beneath a rainbow bending bright, She seemed to the entranced Fay The loveliest of the forms of light; That veils the vestal planet's hue, Set floating in the welkin blue; Her hair is like the sunny beam, And the diamond gems which round it gleam, That ne'er have left their native heaven." Beyond this inimitable and graphic description, all other illustration is useless, so we must content ourselves with briefly recommending a trip to this delightful scene, as one that will amply repay the visitor in all that is rich in the picturesque and beautiful. R. H. Original. THE GOOD FARMER.* greatly to perfect his toils, is not more regular in his rising and his setting. He knows no fluctuations of resolve-his duties are designated from week to week, BY THE AUTHOR OF THE YEMASSEE,' 'THE KINSMAN,' and month to month, and season to season; full of 'GUY RIVERS,' ETC. THE Earth is ours as a sacred trust, and we must put it to good interest. It is to go through the hands of our variety, but always the same, and going on as certainly Of wisdom-vast, unwieldly, burdensome; By weakest subtleties ?" The Good Farmer knows that he can only be successful by a constant, patient, undeviating adherence to his daily duties. Nor, pursuing them with patience, will he ever find them wearisome. There is nothing in nature sons, and the changing, and all lovely, aspects which they, in turn, effect upon the earth. From the world of forensic strife-from the cup of social scandal-from the loud laugh of the lively coterie-from the toils of the city and the camp-all men, turn, at length, for relief and restoration, to the unsophisticated face of nature, and find solace and refreshment; and he who contemplates her daily, discovers even in her seeming uniformities, and pure and placid transitions, the progress of a change, as constant as that of the magician's glass, and far more wonderful than any in Arabian story. sons, and our sons' sons—it is to be their patrimony, and is to provide the portions of our daughters. Originally yielded to man as a garden, shall we return it to the Giver as a wilderness? Not if we feel the solemnity of our trusts-not if we are true to ourselves and faithful to our children. The Good Farmer will shrink from none of his obligations, but, in their cheerful acknowledgment, he will bring back the golden ages of the world! He will address himself to his labors with a zeal which will prove him equally sensible to his duties and his fortunes. He, above all men, will be soonest likely to learn obe-less monotonous than the aspect of the progressing seadience to that stern religious truth, which teaches, that it is only by treading always in the path of duty, that we can promote our substantial interests. I have depicted, in my mind's eye, the noble character of a perfect agriculturist-perfect, I mean, within the limits of our human capacity for perfection. I assume him to be taught in his art from the earliest moment of his boyish performances. His eyes have first opened upon the fields of green in Summer, and have seen their maturing progress to the golden fruition of the Harvest. His earliest tasks have been to follow the husbandman, and to imitate, within his strength, the toils that he beholds. The exactions of a judicious parent subject him to the daily duties which belong to his lot in life, and to the profession which he is required to pursue. Taught thus, by early habit and education, to subdue his duties to the narrow limits in which his lot has been cast, the approach of manhood is marked by no violent transitions of his moral nature. The appetite which craves for change and various excitement, has no longer a power over his performances; and he passes into his new condition of superior trust and duty, with no other feeling than one of an increased human responsibility. The course of tuition to which he has been subjected, admirably subdues the presumption which is but too much the characteristic of all inexperienced intellect. He has learned to obey, as the grand initial lesson in the task of governing. He beholds around him the few paternal acres which bound his fortunes, and which, he wisely resolves, shall bound his appetites also. Commanded to toil, by the direct decree of God, and equally by the obvious moral and physical advantages which result from daily labor, he addresses himself to this necessity with a smiling countenance, a manly energy, a cheerful heart, and a steady resolution. His neighbor salutes him with tidings of great gain in the cities by trade and speculation-of fortunes made in the twinkling of an eye, and by the mere motion of lips or finger-but he remains unseduced. The sun, which contributes so * From an agricultural oration, delivered November last, before the Barnwell Agricultural Society of South Carolina, and never yet published. The Good Farmer stands in the sight of God, in a three-fold aspect. As a subject of his power and his bounty-dependent upon his indulgence, and commanded by his laws-as the citizens of a community, variously composed, but of creatures having alike nature with himself, governed by like necessities and supplied by like weaknesses-and as an individual man, having a duty to himself not inferior to any of the rest, and, under the guidance of just laws of reflection, happily harmoni. zing with all their requisitions. In his first relation, the Good Farmer will seek to know, and endeavor to perform, all the obligations of religion. The first of these is labor, that being the first law ever delivered by the Deity to expatriated man. He will know, that, without industry, all his prayers and painstaking, all his gifts to the church, and all his forbearances to his fellow, will still leave incomplete those performances which the Divine decree has pronounced to be essential. He will avoid all immoral contact and drive evil passions from his thoughts. For these, indeed, there will be little or no room in the heart of one who prosecutes his daily duties with energy and zeal. Such a man seldom departs from his estate, and only in compliance with the requisitions of society and the laws. No foreign attractions can beguile him from those fields, which, through long cultivation, he at length learns to regard with something of the same affection which he feels for the children of his loins. In truth, the children of his thoughts, and hopes, and labors, are every where around him. The old walks grow natural to his footsteps-the old trees wear the faces of familiar friends. He loves to linger as he traverses the daily paths; to rest beside the || missioned in his service, even as the beast whom he fountain, or beneath the tree, and surrender himself to subjects by his arts, and the savage whom he overcomes peaceful meditations. It is in this way that the choice by his valor? humanities grow up and gather about his heart. It is In the economy of his plantation the Good Farmer by this sort of contemplation that his soul feels the force insists upon obedience. The responsibility is his, and of that Divine benediction which is written on the wide || the authority is necessarily his also. This, he promptly face of universal nature; 64 peace on earth, and good will enforces, without faltering and without delay; and in to all men!" and higher musings than these arouse him this way, and by this only, can he avoid the humiliating to loftier if not to lovelier desires. The growth of the necessity and pain of punishment. He regards his sertender plant, the tiny shaft of grass, or the pale blue vants as so many children, entrusted to his guardian flower of the spring time, awakens him to thoughts management, whom he is to subdue to obedience, and and fancies, which, if they were less vague and myste- instruct in the regular toils of industry. He compels rious, would be less true to the cravings of his immortal their labor in moderation, and rejoices to increase their spirit. The progress of the infant plant and flower car- comforts, and to behold their growing improvement. ries him away from themselves to their mighty original, Upon this depends equally their happiness and his own. and his mind wanders among mysterious apprehensions His example is such as must contribute daily to raise of those yet more wondrous mysteries, the Future and the their respect for his authority, and increase their attachEternal! These musings naturally arise to the thoughts ment to his person. He is, himself, industrious, of one who contemplates, long and earnestly, the fluctu- methodical in all his proceedings, and inflexibly temations of the seasons-the beautiful forms of birth, and perate. Just in his dealings with all men, he exhibits the scarcely less beautiful aspect of decay, in the vegeta- to all an example of justice which must be felt, and will ble nature. It is surely no less wonderful than beautiful inevitably be followed in time by all in his neighborhood. to behold the first shoot, the small green spear of the The seeds of good are never entirely lost-the germ is infant plant, as it pierces, in April, the cold and heavy || indestructible—though they ripen slowly, and perhaps, clod, which vainly strives to bar its progress into life only in the shade. He incurs no debt which may be and light. The Good Farmer, is, in some sort, the avoided, and is thus secure from those harrassing cares, creator of that plant; and this conviction is well calcu- and wretched annoyances, which so certainly pursue the lated to fill his mind with religious musings. To be a debtor-drive him from his labors, subject him to all Good Farmer, he must, indeed, be something of a sorts of shifts and subterfuges, and, finally, hunt him religious man. If he has properly attended to his daily down to infamy and ruin. He rises among the first at concerns, he must have acquired a habit of contempla- morning and lies down among the last at night. He tion which suffers nothing in the visible world to escape finds sufficient employment for all the intervening hours. his sight, and subjects all that he sees to the action of an Time never hangs wearily upon his hands. He has no equally vigilant thought. The most silent and unobtru- yawning exercises. He knows nothing of that cowardly sive changes of the season, command his attention and temper which skulks from the sight of the industrious, awaken his solicitude. He beholds, with serious eye, and shrinks from the manly toils which the moral citizen when the forest, casting its green mantle, wraps itself in delights to grapple. He suffers none of those gnawing robes of the still gorgeous but melancholy autumn. The miseries which dog the steps of the profligate and idle. sombre tone of the wintry heavens deepen the shadow His slumbers are instantaneous and refreshing. He upon his countenance, as, in the progress of the year to springs from his couch with the cheerfulness of the bird, its close, he is reminded of the shortness of life and its that darts upward to Heaven with the first blush of melancholy termination: nor is the change in his reflec- sunlight, and bathes its enthusiastic wings in the soft tions unnatural and unbecoming, when, with the opening blaze of its dawning splendor. His habits of dress and of another spring, he glows in sympathetic rejoicing with diet are uniformly simple. His carriage and manners that sun, whom he now beholds, comparisoned like a are direct but gentle, frank but unobtrusive. His mind bridegroom, and preparing to run his fresh career of is prompt and lively, while the regularity of his exercises strength and youth and loveliness. The slightest changes renders his body healthful and his spirits elastic. He in the woods, or upon the fields, awaken his intelligence loves amusements for their own sake, and for the vast and invigorate his industry; and like the sailor, to whom moral good which their employment engenders—but his loneliness of life teaches a habit of contemplating the amusements, like those of the ancient Greeks, are such minutest aspect of the uncertain world in which he as interfere with no duties, produce no physical evils, wanders, he learns to study the face of the heavens, and and tend either to the exercise of manliness, skill, or the language of the winds, and to trace, in the motion ingenuity. He does not, because he is a laboring man, of clouds, and the pale but lovely light of different and fancy that books are no part of his business. He knows distant stars, that knowledge, imperfect but still of use, better. He knows that they are essential to his duties. which warns him of the approach of foul, and counsels He knows that knowledge is virtue and power-that him to take advantage of favorable weather. The repre- ignorance is beastliness and shame, and that books consentative of God on earth-the especial agent of his tain those lessons of wisdom and experience-scarcely will-selected from all other animals to receive his laws, desirable from any other source within the seventy years and carry out to their fit completion, his divine purposes of human struggle on earth—which, if rightly studied, on earth-can it be doubted that the elements are com- will enable him to increase, equally, his virtues, his worth, his knowledge and his interests. He knows, besides, || We have very few really good farmers. Nature, the that, in our country, and in the present state of the world,|| universal and blessing mother, has heretofore left us there is no excuse for ignorance. The means of know-little to prepare. But we have tasked her indulgence ledge are comparatively easy of attainment, and if there too far, and the necessities of our condition, under the be difficulties, the love of knowledge will find it easy to wasteful manner of our cultivation, and the increasing overcome them all, even were they twice as great, as numbers of our population, are forcing upon us, provinumerous and strong. Ignorance is, prima facie, evi- || dently, the tastes of superior labor, industry, and ingedence, of a slothful temper, a mind disposed to low nuity. It is becoming more and more necessary, with indulgences, and a moral sense that will not often the progress of each day's experience, to make our scruple, if temptation be obvious and the prospect of toils more general, to make our tillage more thorough, impunity strong. For his children, in particular, the more analytical, and, in consequence, more intellectual. Good Farmer will carefully provide all the means of The business of a Good Farmer is not that of the hodeducation. Not those vicious helps in the shape of man. He must think as well as plough. He must carry juvenile keys, guide books, vocabularies, etc., intended to into the cultivation of his fields a spirit of inquiry and a make the road to knowledge a royal one, which is the habit of research, such as necessity has already forced pernicious sin of book-making in the present age-but into nearly every other department of human occupation. those humble and much neglected books of the olden The topics of inquiry and discovery are not less numerous time, which first showed the way to the beginner, in Agriculture than in Commerce, Mechanics, Manufacfurnished him with a helping hand 'till he could step tures, and those nobler arts, which refine the manners, fairly, and then left him to rough out the rest, by dint of elevate the mind, and subdue the heart to love, forbearhis own diligence and unremitting perseverance. The ance, and that rational temper, which makes us delight Good Farmer feels the importance of knowledge for his in seeking, and rejoice in finding, all the thousand conchildren, to be far greater now than it was in his boy- cealed forms of beauty which God has every where hood, for the world every where around him is growing scattered around us, in waiting for our search. The wiser and stronger, and the child who grows up in igno- Good Farmer will seek for these. He will cultivate rance to day, will fall an easy prey to the sharper, whose with care the lovely objects of his own land—he will activity necessarily keeps pace in every country with the require from the hands of Commerce the gifts, the activity of the national mind. Besides, there are among fruits, the flowers of other countries. He is, however, us, more honorable reasons for his education. It is the first supposed to inquire what the genius of the place in virtue of democratic institutions to lift the humble into which he lives demands. What will best grow under hope to elevate the worthy-to subdue the arrogant- the climate and in the soil which he designs for tillage. to stimulate and force modest merit into performance || He clears the sufficient quantity of land, estimated with and noble purpose. The honors of the country are free due reference to the labor he resolves to bestow upon it to the poorest son of the soil. The only distinctions which they require are those of virtue and intelligence. Such, at least, is the theory, and such will be the working of that theory, whenever education shall so far lift the laboring and the poor, as to make them superior to the glazing artifices of smooth demagogues and lying prophets. Shall he, who has the largest interest in the soil, its honors and responsibilities-shall he be the last || to bring forward his sons in their contemplation? Shall they alone be excluded, by his indifference, from the high dignities and proud trusts to which the institutions of their country invite? Will he, who has so large an interest in their pride, their glory and their future happiness-cut them off from the honorable toils of that competition, which may confer upon the family name a lasting reputation, transmitting it to future generations in fortunate connection with that of the Franklins, the Pinckneys, the Hamiltons, and the many illustrious beside of that glorious catalogue, whose titles to immortality, are contained in the same charter which established || he tills-and labor, regular but in moderation, will prothe liberties of the country? He would be a most unnatural father who could consider this misfortune, and recognize it as the sure result of his own wilfulness or indifference. and, at the outset, as he designs to preserve his woods from waste, he proceeds, by the only agent through which he can hope to accomplish this object, to make manure as an essential part of his annual crop. This is the grand essential which, until lately, has been grossly disregarded in our country. For this object, he preserves the brush, the stubble, the leaves, and all that easily destructible matter which his more profligate neighbor consumes. There is very little mystery in the preparation of manure. An observing mind will soon adopt the best method. All matter which goes rapidly to decay, is proper for this purpose. How beautifully does nature, herself, suggest the adoption of this economy, when she every where provides, contiguous to the soil, the substance, whether of marle, clay, lime, or leaves, which is to maintain its fecundity and preserve it from decay. There is not an element of prosperity, in the whole history of the earth's cultivation, which he may not gather from a close analysis of the land which duce the necessary exercise of thought and scrutiny, which leads inevitably and equally to his own, and the improvement of his soil. He very soon perceives and venerates that provision of maternal Nature that causes the tree to cast its leaf on the approach of winter, that In the cultivation of his fields, the Good Farmer, in our country, is not often to be found. The providence of God has been so heedful of the wants of man, that the though applicable to the general history of agriculture in our creature has grown heedless and improvident for himself.country, was yet particularly intended for a Southern audience. * It must be remembered by the reader, that this address, |