Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 8).djvu/121

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highest sphere of genius; and it is the sphere where the heart becomes the great magician of intellectual life. Men are indebted to woman for what they possess of this principle; and until she made them acquainted with it they were barbarians.

Wherever I stopped, in my course through the settled parts of the country, I was much pleased {19} with the interest which my appearance excited in little children. There was a conflict exhibited in their countenances between the fears implanted by domestic education, and the native fondness of man for the hunter state. By my assuming, however, the aspect and the smile of civilization, they would come to my arms of fur, and listen attentively to the simple stories of the chase. Afterwards, they would reward my kindness to them by more solid attentions to my dogs.

In travelling from Connecticut River to Bennington, I passed through a part of Marlborough, Wilmington, Reedsbury, Stanford, and Woodford. Whilst in the latter place the weather was severe beyond a parallel. When, however, in Brattleborough, which lies immediately upon the river, the weather was much more moderate.

Whilst upon the Green Mountains my thoughts were particularly directed to the days of the Revolution, when, in the language of a British Chief, the sons of New-Hampshire and Vermont hung like a cloud upon his left. Here too I remembered that thunderbolt of war, the veteran Stark, in whose heart dwelt the very genius of his country, and who discomfited her enemies by the strength of his native hills.

On these mountains my attention was attracted by the appearance of a thick fall of snow during a clear sunshine. This appearance is not common here; and proceeds, I presume, from the little influence which the sun produces