Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/163

Rh which no winter destroys, amid which flutter sun-bright humming-birds, and which screen from the heat of the sun beautiful but pale women; their fire-flies shining forth like points of light in the night; their pine-woods, where blossoming azaleas stand like angels of light among the dark trees, in which sing thrushes, and the “hundred-tongued birds;” and for the rest, those peculiar vegetable growths which are the natural productions of these States,—cotton (particularly in the beautiful islands along the coasts), rice, and so on, the cultivation of these, as well as the mixed population. But I must stop. It is presumption to attempt a description of the life and peculiar characteristics of the States, when I know that every single State in the Union is like a perfect realm, with almost all the various circumstances and resources of a European kingdom in fertile fields, metallic mountains, navigable rivers, forests, and besides these many natural gifts and beauties which as yet are unknown, and not turned to account. Yes, it excites at the same time both joy and despair, to know that there is on all hands so much that is new, and so much which is yet unknown, and so much which I never shall know. Fortunately, however, for this country, it possesses, in its very subdivision and form of government, a great and effective means of becoming acquainted with itself. Each separate State is like an independent individual existence, and feels itself excited to emulate its sister-states (with which it sometimes wrangles and quarrels, as sisters will sometimes do in their younger years), and to become a full-grown human being on its own account. And for this purpose all its powers are called into action, and all its peculiar ways and means are examined into. Hence it is that in this land of liberty there is no limitation to experimental attempts. Everything, even the very maddest of all, may be attempted, and proved whether there is anything available in it or not. Everything, even