At Home And Abroad | Page 9

once from the demesne of coarse utilities into that of picture.
All trades, all callings, become picturesque by the water's side, or on
the water. The soil, the slovenliness, is washed out of every calling by
its touch. All river-crafts, sea-crafts, are picturesque, are poetical. Their
very slang is poetry.
_M._ The reasons for that are complex.
_J._ The reason is, that there can be no plodding, groping words and
motions on my water as there are on your earth. There is no time, no
chance for them where all moves so rapidly, though so smoothly;
everything connected with water must be like itself, forcible, but clear.
That is why sea-slang is so poetical; there is a word for everything and
every act, and a thing and an act for every word. Seamen must speak
quick and bold, but also with utmost precision. They cannot reef and
brace other than in a Homeric dialect,-- therefore--(Steamboat bell
rings.) But I must say a quick good-by.
_M._ What, going, going back to earth after all this talk upon the other
side. Well, that is nowise Homeric, but truly modern.
J. is borne off without time for any reply, but a laugh--at himself, of

course.
S. and M. retire to their state-rooms to forget the wet, the chill, and
steamboat smell, in their just-bought new world of novels.
Next day, when we stopped at Cleveland, the storm was just clearing
up; ascending the bluff, we had one of the finest views of the lake that
could have been wished. The varying depths of these lakes give to their
surface a great variety of coloring, and beneath this wild sky and
changeful light, the waters presented a kaleidoscopic variety of hues,
rich, but mournful. I admire these bluffs of red, crumbling earth. Here
land and water meet under very different auspices from those of the
rock-bound coast to which I have been accustomed. There they meet
tenderly to challenge, and proudly to refuse, though, not in fact repel.
But here they meet to mingle, are always rushing together, and
changing places; a new creation takes place beneath the eye.
The weather grew gradually clearer, but not bright; yet we could see the
shore and appreciate the extent of these noble waters.
Coming up the river St. Clair, we saw Indians for the first time. They
were camped out on the bank. It was twilight, and their blanketed forms,
in listless groups or stealing along the bank, with a lounge and a stride
so different in its wildness from the rudeness of the white settler, gave
me the first feeling that I really approached the West.
The people on the boat were almost all New-Englanders, seeking their
fortunes. They had brought with them their habits of calculation, their
cautious manners, their love of polemics. It grieved me to hear these
immigrants, who were to be the fathers of a new race, all, from the old
man down to the little girl, talking, not of what they should do, but of
what they should get in the new scene. It was to them a prospect, not of
the unfolding nobler energies, but of more ease and larger accumulation.
It wearied me, too, to hear Trinity and Unity discussed in the poor,
narrow, doctrinal way on these free waters; but that will soon cease;
there is not time for this clash of opinions in the West, where the clash
of material interests is so noisy. They will need the spirit of religion
more than ever to guide them, but will find less time than before for its

doctrine. This change was to me, who am tired of the war of words on
these subjects, and believe it only sows the wind to reap the whirlwind,
refreshing, but I argue nothing from it; there is nothing real in the
freedom of thought at the West,--it is from the position of men's lives,
not the state of their minds. So soon as they have time, unless they
grow better meanwhile, they will cavil and criticise, and judge other
men by their own standard, and outrage the law of love every way, just
as they do with us.
We reached Mackinaw the evening of the third day, but, to my great
disappointment, it was too late and too rainy to go ashore. The beauty
of the island, though seen under the most unfavorable circumstances,
did not disappoint my expectations.[A] But I shall see it to more
purpose on my return.
[Footnote A: "Mackinaw, that long desired, sight, was dimly discerned
under a thick fog, yet it soothed and cheered me. All looked mellow
there; man seemed to have worked in harmony with Nature instead of
rudely invading her, as in most Western towns. It seemed possible, on
that spot, to lead a