we snuffed the hot and fetid breath of the great metropolis, and Monday morning saw us re-entering the shades of Hawkins & Smith. A word to Jack and a stare at me were the only greetings of the junior partner, as he passed through the salesroom.
“Ah, boys!” said the cheery Hawkins, “glad to see you; look as if you’ve been having a good time. Plenty of bone, muscle, and brown skin, eh? I guess Mr. Smith will think that it pays to give you such a rest. You haven’t been wasting your money at Long Branch or Saratoga, I’ll bet.”
Thus ended our summer vacation; and if we did not have enough adventure to pass for heroes, or bag enough game for sportsmen, or see enough sights for artists, or recall enough of the past for antiquarians, or measure miles and heights enough for the scientific—in short, if we appear as two vulgar and thoroughly commonplace clerks, smoking and boating through our holiday—take note, dear reader, that even such as we can take delight in Lake George; then, go and make the trip after your own fashion, and see if you can enjoy it more or better.
THE ELEMENTS OF OUR NATIONALITY.
The diversity of race to be found in this republic, like its rapid and stupendous physical and mental development, is unparalleled in history. Great nations, such as Austria, Prussia, and Russia, it is true, have been called into existence in times comparatively modern, but they have been aggregations of smaller kindred states already established, attracted towards each other by mutual interests and tastes, or coerced into union by force of arms. With us, growth and greatness, originating at different times and at places widely separated, have been the result in the first instance of the establishment of a wise and comprehensive system of government, the benefits of which we were willing to share generously with the people of all nations; and next, to the alacrity and sincerity with which those people, acting on an impulse common to humanity, have accepted the advantages thus presented.
Looking back to the history of the migration of mankind from the cradle of the human race, we find that colonies, afterwards to become nations and the nuclei of distinct families, thrown off from the centre, presented each a unity of language and affinity of which the originators of our country had not the advantage. Even Greece, the graceful daughter of dusky Egypt, soon ceased to be Hellenic, and became, notwithstanding her many subdivisions, thoroughly Greek, and her colonies in Europe and Asia, when they ceased their connection with the mother country, were quickly absorbed in the surrounding peoples. The Roman Empire had no nationality,
being simply the creature of force, and no matter how widely its boundaries were spread, all authority was lodged in Rome, and its subjects outside the walls of that city were comparatively or positively slaves, without any voice in the management of their own affairs, or a nationality to which they could lay claim. As the legions were withdrawn to the capital, the empire crumbled, and the disintegrated parts gradually resumed their original character. So with the splendid but short-lived empire of Charlemagne, The Goths, Vandals, Huns, and other European and Asiatic conquerors who from time to time overran different parts of Europe and founded dynasties, were simply waves of conquest overcoming and enslaving the previous inhabitants, subjecting them to the yoke of their own crude customs and laws, and building upon the ruins of one nation the greatness of another.
Far different was the origin of our republic. At the beginning, we had on our shores voluntary immigrants from the then four great maritime nations of Europe—Spain, France, Holland, and England. The colonists of each, from fortuitous circumstances, or led by peculiar predilections, selected for settlement certain portions of the continent, established themselves therein, and, while adhering to their parent country and following its laws, speaking its language, and practising its religion, early assumed a state of semi-independence.