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us improve our opportunities; then; before the evil days come。







What is it that makes it so hard sometimes to determine whither

we will walk? I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in

Nature; which; if we unconsciously yield to it; will direct us

aright。 It is not indifferent to us which way we walk。 There is a

right way; but we are very liable from heedlessness and stupidity

to take the wrong one。 We would fain take that walk; never yet

taken by us through this actual world; which is perfectly

symbolical of the path which we love to travel in the interior

and ideal world; and sometimes; no doubt; we find it difficult to

choose our direction; because it does not yet exist distinctly in

our idea。



When I go out of the house for a walk; uncertain as yet whither I

will bend my steps; and submit myself to my instinct to decide

for me; I find; strange and whimsical as it may seem; that I

finally and inevitably settle southwest; toward some particular

wood or meadow or deserted pasture or hill in that direction。 My

needle is slow to settle;varies a few degrees; and does not

always point due southwest; it is true; and it has good authority

for this variation; but it always settles between west and

south…southwest。 The future lies that way to me; and the earth

seems more unexhausted and richer on that side。 The outline which

would bound my walks would be; not a circle; but a parabola; or

rather like one of those cometary orbits which have been thought

to be non…returning curves; in this case opening westward; in

which my house occupies the place of the sun。 I turn round and

round irresolute sometimes for a quarter of an hour; until I

decide; for a thousandth time; that I will walk into the

southwest or west。 Eastward I go only by force; but westward I go

free。 Thither no business leads me。 It is hard for me to believe

that I shall find fair landscapes or sufficient wildness and

freedom behind the eastern horizon。 I am not excited by the

prospect of a walk thither; but I believe that the forest which I

see in the western horizon stretches uninterruptedly toward the

setting sun; and there are no towns nor cities in it of enough

consequence to disturb me。 Let me live where I will; on this side

is the city; on that the wilderness; and ever I am leaving the

city more and more; and withdrawing into the wilderness。 I should

not lay so much stress on this fact; if I did not believe that

something like this is the prevailing tendency of my countrymen。

I must walk toward Oregon; and not toward Europe。 And that way

the nation is moving; and I may say that mankind progress from

east to west。 Within a few years we have witnessed the phenomenon

of a southeastward migration; in the settlement of Australia; but

this affects us as a retrograde movement; and; judging from the

moral and physical character of the first generation of

Australians; has not yet proved a successful experiment。 The

eastern Tartars think that there is nothing west beyond Thibet。

〃The world ends there;〃 say they; 〃beyond there is nothing but a

shoreless sea。〃 It is unmitigated East where they live。



We go eastward to realize history and study the works of art and

literature; retracing the steps of the race; we go westward as

into the future; with a spirit of enterprise and adventure。 The

Atlantic is a Lethean stream; in our passage over which we have

had an opportunity to forget the Old World and its institutions。

If we do not succeed this time; there is perhaps one more chance

for the race left before it arrives on the banks of the Styx; and

that is in the Lethe of the Pacific; which is three times as

wide。



I know not how significant it is; or how far it is an evidence of

singularity; that an individual should thus consent in his

pettiest walk with the general movement of the race; but I know

that something akin to the migratory instinct in birds and

quadrupedswhich; in some instances; is known to have affected

the squirrel tribe; impelling them to a general and mysterious

movement; in which they were seen; say some; crossing the

broadest rivers; each on its particular chip; with its tail

raised for a sail; and bridging narrower streams with their

deadthat something like the furor which affects the domestic

cattle in the spring; and which is referred to a worm in their

tails;affects both nations and individuals; either perennially

or from time to time。 Not a flock of wild geese cackles over our

town; but it to some extent unsettles the value of real estate

here; and; if I were a broker; I should probably take that

disturbance into account。



   〃Than longen folk to gon on pilgrimages;

   And palmeres for to seken strange strondes。〃



Every sunset which I witness inspires me with the desire to go to

a West as distant and as fair as that into which the sun goes

down。 He appears to migrate westward daily; and tempt us to

follow him。 He is the Great Western Pioneer whom the nations

follow。 We dream all night of those mountain…ridges in the

horizon; though they may be of vapor only; which were last gilded

by his rays。 The island of Atlantis; and the islands and gardens

of the Hesperides; a sort of terrestrial paradise; appear to have

been the Great West of the ancients; enveloped in mystery and

poetry。 Who has not seen in imagination; when looking into the

sunset sky; the gardens of the Hesperides; and the foundation of

all those fables?



Columbus felt the westward tendency more strongly than any

before。 He obeyed it; and found a New World for Castile and Leon。

The herd of men in those days scented fresh pastures from afar;



  〃And now the sun had stretched out all the hills;

  And now was dropped into the western bay;

  At last HE rose; and twitched his mantle blue;

  Tomorrow to fresh woods and pastures new。〃



Where on the globe can there be found an area of equal extent

with that occupied by the bulk of our States; so fertile and so

rich and varied in its productions; and at the same time so

habitable by the European; as this is? Michaux; who knew but part

of them; says that 〃the species of large trees are much more

numerous in North America than in Europe; in the United States

there are more than one hundred and forty species that exceed

thirty feet in height; in France there are but thirty that attain

this size。〃 Later botanists more than confirm his observations。

Humboldt came to America to realize his youthful dreams of a

tropical vegetation; and he beheld it in its greatest perfection

in the primitive forests of the Amazon; the most gigantic

wilderness on the earth; which he has so eloquently described。

The geographer Guyot; himself a European; goes fartherfarther

than I am ready to follow him; yet not when he says: 〃As the

plant is made for the animal; as the vegetable world is made for

the animal world; America is made for the man of the Old

World。。。。 The man of the Old World sets out upon his way。 Leaving

the highlands of Asia; he descends from station to station

towards Europe。 Each of his steps is marked by a new civilization

superior to the preceding; by a greater power of development。

Arrived at the Atlantic; he pauses on the shore of this unknown

ocean; the bounds of which he knows not; and turns upon his

footprints for an instant。〃 When he has exhausted the rich soil

of Europe; and reinvigorated himself; 〃then recommences his

adventurous career westward as in the earliest ages。〃 So far

Guyot。



From this western impulse coming in contact with the barrier of

the Atlantic sprang the commerce and enterprise of modern times。

The younger Michaux; in his Travels West of the Alleghanies in

1802; says that the common inquiry in the newly settled West was;

〃'From what part of the world have you come?' As if these vast

and fertile regions would naturally be the place of meeting and

common country of all the inhabitants of the globe。〃



To use an obsolete Latin word; I might say; Ex Oriente lux; ex

Occidente FRUX。 From the East light; from the West fruit。



Sir Francis Head; an English traveler and a Governor…General of

Canada; tells us that 〃in both the northern and southern

hemispheres of the New World; Nature has not only outlined her

works on a larger scale; but has painted the whole picture with

brighter and more costly colors than she used in delineating and

in beautifying the Old World。。。。 The heavens of America appear

infinitely higher; the sky is bluer; the air is fresher; the cold

is intenser; the moon looks larger; the stars are brighter the

thunder is louder; the lightning is vivider; the wind is

stronger; the rain is heavier; the mountains are higher; the

rivers longer; the forests bigger; the plains broader。〃 This

statement will do at least to set against Buffon's account of

this part of the world and its productions。



Linnaeus said long ago; 〃Nescio quae facies laeta; glabra plantis

Americanis〃 (

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