solitary path across lots will turn out the higher way of the two.

  Men rush to California and Australia as if the true gold were to
be found in that direction; but that is to go to the very opposite
extreme to where it lies. They go prospecting farther and farther away
from the true lead, and are most unfortunate when they think
themselves most successful. Is not our native soil auriferous? Does
not a stream from the golden mountains flow through our native valley?
and has not this for more than geologic ages been bringing down the
shining particles and forming the nuggets for us? Yet, strange to
tell, if a digger steal away, prospecting for this true gold, into the
unexplored solitudes around us, there is no danger that any will dog
his steps, and endeavor to supplant him. He may claim and undermine
the whole valley even, both the cultivated and the uncultivated
portions, his whole life long in peace, for no one will ever dispute
his claim. They will not mind his cradles or his toms. He is not
confined to a claim twelve feet square, as at Ballarat, but may mine
anywhere, and wash the whole wide world in his tom.

  Howitt says of the man who found the great nugget which weighed
twenty-eight pounds, at the Bendigo diggings in Australia: "He soon
began to drink; got a horse, and rode all about, generally at full
gallop, and, when he met people, called out to inquire if they knew
who he was, and then kindly informed them that he was 'the bloody
wretch that had found the nugget.' At last he rode full speed
against a tree, and nearly knocked his brains out." I think,
however, there was no danger of that, for he had already knocked his
brains out against the nugget. Howitt adds, "He is a hopelessly ruined
man." But he is a type of the class. They are all fast men. Hear
some of the names of the places where they dig: "Jackass Flat"-
"Sheep's-Head Gully"- "Murderer's Bar," etc. Is there no satire in
these names? Let them carry their ill-gotten wealth where they will, I
am thinking it will still be "Jackass Flat," if not "Murderer's
Bar," where they live.

  The last resource of our energy has been the robbing of graveyards
on the Isthmus of Darien, an enterprise which appears to be but in its
infancy; for, according to late accounts, an act has passed its second
reading in the legislature of New Granada, regulating this kind of
mining; and a correspondent of the "Tribune" writes: "In the dry
season, when the weather will permit of the country being properly
prospected, no doubt other rich guacas [that is, graveyards] will be
found." To emigrants he says: "do not come before December; take the
Isthmus route in preference to the Boca del Toro one; bring no useless
baggage, and do not cumber yourself with a tent; but a good pair of
blankets will be necessary; a pick, shovel, and axe of good material
will be almost all that is required": advice which might have been
taken from the "Burker's Guide." And he concludes with this line in
Italics and small capitals: "If you are doing well at home, STAY
THERE," which may fairly be interpreted to mean, "If you are getting a
good living by robbing graveyards at home, stay there."

  But why go to California for a text? She is the child of New
England, bred at her own school and church.

  It is remarkable that among all the preachers there are so few moral
teachers. The prophets are employed in excusing the ways of men.
Most reverend seniors, the illuminati of the age, tell me, with a
gracious, reminiscent smile, betwixt an aspiration and a shudder,
not to be too tender about these things- to lump all that, that is,
make a lump of gold of it. The highest advice I have heard on these
subjects was grovelling. The burden of it was- It is not worth your
while to undertake to reform the world in this particular. Do not
ask how your bread is buttered; it will make you sick, if you do-
and the like. A man had better starve at once than lose his
innocence in the process of getting his bread. If within the
sophisticated man there is not an unsophisticated one, then he is
but one of the devil's angels. As we grow old, we live more
coarsely, we relax a little in our disciplines, and, to some extent,
cease to obey our finest instincts. But we should be fastidious to the
extreme of sanity, disregarding the gibes of those who are more
unfortunate than ourselves.

  In our science and philosophy, even, there is commonly no true and
absolute account of things. The spirit of sect and bigotry has planted
its hoof amid the stars. You have only to discuss the problem, whether
the stars are inhabited or not, in order to discover it. Why must we
daub the heavens as well as the earth? It was an unfortunate discovery
that Dr. Kane was a Mason, and that Sir John Franklin was another. But
it was a more cruel suggestion that possibly that was the reason why
the former went in search of the latter. There is not a popular
magazine in this country that would dare to print a child's thought on
important subjects without comment. It must be submitted to the
D.D.'s. I would it were the chickadee-dees.

  You come from attending the funeral of mankind to attend to a
natural phenomenon. A little thought is sexton to all the world.

  I hardly know an intellectual man, even, who is so broad and truly
liberal that you can think aloud in his society. Most with whom you
endeavor to talk soon come to a stand against some institution in
which they appear to hold stock- that is, some particular, not
universal, way of viewing things. They will continually thrust their
own low roof, with its narrow skylight, between you and the sky,
when it is the unobstructed heavens you would view. Get out of the way
with your cobwebs; wash your windows, I say! In some lyceums they tell
me that they have voted to exclude the subject of religion. But how do
I know what their religion is, and when I am near to or far from it? I
have walked into such an arena and done my best to make a clean breast
of what religion I have experienced, and the audience never