_From an Englishman in this country to his Friend at home._
(Communicated for the Rural Magazine.)
No. II.
_Philada. Sept. 16, 1819._
My Dear G.
You know how very apt persons are to form an opinion of other
persons with whom accident or design makes them acquainted, either
on the _very_ wise principles of Lavater, or the _still wiser_
principles of Doctor--what's his name--(I wish I could forget as
easily the labour I lost in studying him)--who first conceived
craniology. You know also that I had every predisposition to
the study of both these abstruse sciences, and the consequent
deductions; so you will not be much surprised when I tell you that I
have employed the time that has elapsed since the date of my last,
in observing the physiognomy of Philadelphia. I did this, before
I trespassed on the good-will, the hospitality, or the politeness
of any of its citizens. You will observe I am perfectly distinct
in my classification, and I beg of you to remember this, when you
peruse any of my rambling epistles hereafter. My letters would, I
hope, have commanded the civil attention of any person to whom they
were addressed, independent of any particular kindness to which the
recommendation of our venerable Quaker friend D---- of London would
on the principle of reciprocity entitle me. But before I penetrated
like Asmodeus in "Le Diable Boiteaux," into the domestic circle,
the parlour, the halls, the tables, or the toilettes, or (shall I
say it) to the counter and the desk. I wished to see the roofs, at
least, if I could not see through them. So for the last week I have
been studying physiognomies. There can be no need of apology to you
my friend, who, (Heaven be praised) have never had occasion to leave
the precincts of your ancient patrimony for any thing but pleasure,
for dilating on a city that so far as it regards myself, has
hitherto been on a par with Herculaneum or Pompeia. Some manuscripts
and some printed accounts I _have_ seen, but like those saved from
the lava of Vesuvius, they were hardly worth unfolding. Indeed, I
always pitied poor Sir Humphrey for so incomprehensible a task. He
had better have staid at home, and made experiments in separating
the brick and mortar from the old ruins lord L---- boasts of having
been in his family, at the smallest calculation from William Rufus.
I do wonder what it could have been that the ancients took such care
of.
Well--I have _seen_ Philadelphia.--And if it were not for the dull
monotony of its right angles--the wide streets that throw such an
immense space between your lodgings and any desired object--the want
of all the cries I have been used to in all the popular cities I
have frequented, except, indeed, the solitary halloo of a _sweep_,
(and then only before one gets up in a morning) and the everlasting
_gong_ that wakes me from my sweetest slumber, and dreams of home,
with all its indefinable attractions, I would say that Philadelphia
was a very decent, orderly, well arranged, and handsome city. But
give me Hogarth's line of beauty; I hate your everlasting parallels
that run together to infinity, and never unite. By the way I am told
that I shall be amply gratified in this respect in New York and
Boston. There is only one street in this city, called Dock street,
that is entitled to any claim to my fancy; and that is too broad,
and nobody lives in it--all shops and warehouses.
The weather is remarkably fine,--every body complains of a want
of rain:--for my part I must confess I had enough at home; and if
I must find fault with the climate, it is too hot. Yet I do not
find the lassitude I expected, consequent on exercise in the open
air. Notwithstanding a mid-day sun, that in England we should
have thought intolerable, a young gentleman with whom I formed an
acquaintance at our excellent hotel, prevailed upon me to take
a promenade along the Philadelphia Bond street, which here is
denominated Chesnut street. We saw some mansions that would not have
disgraced one of our fashionable squares;--some ladies that would
have honoured the very first equipage that sports in Hyde Park. Only
a few could boast of our Saxon complexion; but their forms were cast
in a superior mould;--this I apprehend is aboriginal--and although
I cannot learn that any are willing to acknowledge their derivation
from the native Indians, several circumstances induce me to believe
there has been a greater mixture with the first occupants of this
vast continent than has been generally supposed. But more of this
hereafter--if in my contemplated visit next summer to the falls of
Niagara, I should meet with some of the _deer_ skinned heroes and
heroines of this western hemisphere. I have laid all those of the
sock and buskin on the shelf, and am enthusiast enough to expect
perfection among the savages of North America. Why should I not?
Through all the obloquy that has been thrown upon them by their
ruthless despoilers,
"More savage still than they,"
through all that inveteracy of feeling which those who injure
universally entertain--and "they who injure never pardon," you may
still find a confession, or rather an admission of their virtues
and their talents, of their magnanimity of character, and their
elevation of soul. Not merely that indifference to privation and
bodily suffering which we have been taught, was characteristic of
savage life, but in spite of the natural principle of retaliation
and revenge, (and I will maintain that it is a natural principle)
they have evinced that virtue which the Bible has never taught many
of us who have had access to it--_forgiveness of our enemies_.
Do not, however, think that I have lost myself in the interminable
forests which still remain to the original proprietors of this
continent--or that I have assumed the rifle and the moccasin. I
should even prefer taking up my residence in this place which you
know we have always considered one of the advanced posts in the
march of civilization. It is true I have not yet descended from the
roofs as aforesaid, to see what kind of an animal a Philadelphian
really is in his own family circle, and shall have to defer a
picture of this non-descript till opportunity of observation occurs.
I have as yet seen only the outside. I have seen the Pennsylvania
hospital externally; I have seen the figure of old William Penn
standing like a good old fashioned broad brimmed sentinel before
the door of the edifice, like all sentries exposed to the wind
and the weather, with his head as it were drooping over the fine
hot-house plants that surround him. But a bronze statue of the old
gentleman I must confess seemed rather _outre_, although he richly
deserved an equipment in that same costume from the perseverance
which history tells us he evinced in the strife with the bailiffs
that beset him in our old island. But let that pass; I would consent
to be surrounded by tipstaves all my life to leave such a character
as he did behind.--I have seen the Academy of Fine Arts, most
modestly retiring from public view, behind a range of buildings
that some of the cits have unconscionably erected on the front of
the street, thus clearly evincing their disposition, to use the
words of my Chesnut street friend, to throw the fine arts in the
_back ground_. By the way the good people here are said to be (by
the New Yorkers at least) most intolerably given to _punning_, and
I must admit that some of the gentlemen who attend our excellent
ordinary, have put off a few attempts at that vile species of wit,
of a most contemptible character. I should, however, be very sorry
to pass an opinion on the whole genus by the few specimens I have
seen. Philadelphia is really a very handsome city; yet to take a
panoramic view of it, _you_ would be exceedingly disappointed. There
are no steeples, or rather there is _one_, and that a very decent
one--the architecture of which is by no means contemptible; but then
there is _but one_ steeple in a city of upwards of fifteen thousand
houses, principally constructed of brick. If there were only a
standard or ensign appended to its spire, which is about 200 feet
from the ground, and that standard in proportion to its height, this
goodly town would look like one grand encampment. Few of the houses
exceed three stories, of about ten or twelve feet each. The city is
however, flanked by two shot towers, one in the southeast, the other
in the northwestern extremity; which afford some relief to the dead
uniformity in the general aspect of the town. How successful the
proprietors of these said towers may have been in the pursuit of
their vocation, I know not; but for ornament to this place, I would
not give one steeple, like that which is bottomed in the good old
diocesan episcopal church for a thousand of them.
You see I have obeyed the injunction laid on me at parting, to
express every thing as it presented itself to my observation, but in
nothing can you find more sincerity of feeling than when I assure
you neither time nor distance has diminished the warmth of affection
with which I continue to be your friend.
_Treatise on Agriculture._