Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/400

Rh which the New World would erect its dominion, such the means by which the New Man is to be brought forth. Thus far has the popular consciousness advanced in the New World, no farther, at least, with a perfect consciousness.

The consciousness has arisen most clearly and with most strength in the States of New England, the oldest home of the Pilgrims. Unwearied and fearless endeavours for the development of the life of the State and the elevation of the more indigent classes of society, the endeavour to produce a perfectly harmonious human community, characterise the life of these States. The idea of a Christian State, a Christian community, evidently forms the basis of all this. The doctrines of Christ; the honour of labour; the right of all, and the well-being of all; everything for all! are the battle-cries which one hears. The harps of the poets have called forth the moral ideal of man and of society!

From these States I proceeded in the month of March, whilst frost and snow covered the ground, to the Southern States of North America, and spent about three months in the Palmetto States, South Carolina, and Georgia. There the sun was warm. And though I found slavery there, and saw its dark shadow on the sun-bright earth, saw its fetters contract the moral and political development of these States, I still enjoyed my life, as I had not done in those intellectual, upward-striving, restlessly-labouring Northern States. I had more repose, and I was better in health. The soft beauty of the air and the climate at this season, the luxuriance of the vegetation, the beautiful new flowers, the odours, the fruits, the magnificence of the primeval forest along the banks of the Red river; the glow of the fire-flies in the dusk, warm nights; my rambles beneath the gothic arcades of the live-oaks, hung with their long, swaying, masses of moss, a spectacle at once novel and