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in its direction but without success. Bp. Polk
has struck out the right plan and devised the
right measures and hit upon precisely the
proper & most propitious time. If others will work
with him it is not extravagant to say that with God's
blessing success is certain. In so vast an undertaking
various departments are to be filled. Like the evolutions of
a mighty host, the whole may be controlled by one master
mind, but the direction of the different parts must be un=
=der the immediate orders of subordinates and who may
be better qualified to execute specific plans than the
commander in chief. The general view which you have
taken of the whole subject is very admirable and will
I am sure tell effectually upon the public mind. I have
but one offset to place against this approbatory criticism.
It is that your communication is too long. It would have been
well had it been divided into three or four distinct
articles. But good sense, -- sound, home-spun, common
sense ( as we say ) fringed with images of beauty flow from
your pen, like {insert symbol}the light of morning spread upon the moun=
=tains ; and therefore it will cost your scarcely an effort
to take up and continue one branch of this subject, for
the treatment of which few are so well qualified as your=
=self. And it is to call your attention to this that I have
made bold to write to you. From my earliest childhood
I have been an enthusiatic admirer of nature and I feel
that I should be a better man every day of my life, if every day I
could gaze upon the mountains -- "the everlasting hills" -- best,
most sublime & unchangeable emblem of eternity. I can now recall
moments when, while yet a little boy, I have laid me down
for hours on the green carpets of the meadows fringing the