I think it would impress you, as it does me, that these
scenes are truly sublime. I have a sensation of vastness which I have
sought in vain among high mountains. Mountains crowd one sensation on
another, till all is excitement, all is surprise, wonder, enchantment.
Here is neither enchantment or disappointment, but expectation fully
realized. I have always had an attachment for a plain. The Roman
Campagna is a prairie. Peoria is in a most lovely situation. In fact I
am so delighted that I am as full of superlatives as the Italian
language. I could, however, find fault enough, if you ask what I
dislike."
But no one did ask; it is not worth while where there is so much to
admire. Yet the following is a good statement of the shadow side.
"As to the boasts about the rapid progress here, give me rather the firm
fibre of a slow and knotty growth. I could not help, thinking as much
when I was talking to E. the other day, whom I met on board the boat. He
quarrelled with Boston for its slowness; said it was a bad place for a
young man. He could not make himself felt, could not see the effects of
his exertions as he could here.--To be sure he could not. Here he comes,
like a yankee farmer, with all the knowledge that our hard soil and
laborious cultivation could give him, and what wonder if he is surprised
at the work of his own hands, when he comes to such a soil as this. But
he feeds not so many mouths, though he tills more acres. The plants he
raises have not so exquisite a form, the vegetables so fine a flavor.
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