Page:The Present State and Prospects of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales.djvu/96

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PRESENT STATE AND PROSPECTS

Many people who left home formerly were apt to imagine that it was a matter of little consequence to them what might be the character of the population, or how society might he constituted ui the country to which they were about to emigrate—that they were to go there for a certain time to make a fortune, and then return to England to spend it. Nothing could well be more injurious to the colony than this idea, and the depression of the times has at least done this service, that it has totally eradicated this notion, so true is it that

"There is some soul of goodness in things evil,
Would men observingly distil it out."

No man should emigrate to a country which he does not intend to make his home; and before taking the most important step which he can possibly take in not only choosing a home for himself, but a country for his children, he should calmly and dispassionately consider with himself what it is he gives up, and what he is likely to gain by the change, and not fall into the mistake of imagining that because he is discontented in England, he must be content when out of it. If upon such a consideration he should find that the advantages are likely far to preponderate, he should form an unwavering resolution, from which he should allow nothing to divert him. There are sacrifices which he must make in leaving home, and there are things which no new country can supply, were it Paradise itself. He must sacrifice the friendships of his youth and the associations of his childhood, much of the pleasure of society, and the intercourse olished