chamber table, he found an abridgment of Newton's Philosophy, and discovered that his landlord, a surveyor by profession, and incessantly occupied in measuring land, was well versed in Physics. The Marquis, after thus journeying through the northern section of the country, observing its peculiarities, seeking the acquaintance of its leading men, and visiting the scenes of the war, yet fresh in association and destined to become memorably historical, rejoined the French army then stationed at Newport, R. I., whence, after a brief interval, he started on a Southern expedition.

says:

The Marquis thus records his method of setting out on a journey into Virginia, eighty-four years ago: "On the eighth of the month I set out with Mr. Lynch, then my aide-de-camp and adjutant, now general; Mr. Frank Dillon, my second aide, and Mons. la Chevalier d'Oyrè, of the engineers, six servants, and a led horse composed our train; so that our little caravan consisted of four masters, six servants, and eleven horses." At the very outset of the expedition he notes that capricious state of the climate which in our country so often blends the aspect of different seasons; writing of the month of April, he "I regretted to find summer in the heavens, while the earth afforded not the smallest appearance of spring;" the devastations of war were yet fresh; he sojourned at a house which "had been pillaged by the English; they had taken the very boots off the owner's legs." On this journey he first made acquaintance with a mocking bird, and gives a lively description of its performance: "Apparently delighted at having an auditor, it kept hopping from branch to branch, and imitated the jay, lapwing, raven, cardinal, &c." He finds "a garden in the English style;" court houses usually in the centre of counties; daughters of the isolated planters, "pretty nymphs, more timid and wild than Diana ;" and, approaching the South, observes a different kind of popular amusement and of traffic than prevailed in New England, especialy cock fighting and horse trading; he is struck with the conjugal epithet of his landlord, who calls his wife "honey," which he regards as synonymous with the French term of endearment-mon petit

cœur, with him the transition from gallant to economical details is easy, and, traversing the then sparsely inhabited region comprised within and around the State of Virginia, he observes the frequent instances, among the inhabitants, of "patriarchal agriculture, which consists in producing only what is sufficient for their own consumption;" and remarks that "nails are the articles most wanted in these new colonies; for the axe and saw can supply every other want." He visits Monticello, a name signifying little mountain, though he finds it a big one, and the house of Jefferson "in the Italian style, and more architectural than any in the country;" while the master thereof elicits all his enthusiasm: "Let me describe," he writes, "a man not yet forty-tall, and with a mild and pleasant countenance; but whose mind and understanding are ample substitutes for every exterior grace; an American who, without ever having quitted his own country, is at once a musician, skilled in drawing, a natural philosopher, legislator, and statesman. Before I had been two hours with him, we were as intimate as if we had passed our whole lives together; walking, books, but, above all, conversation always varied and interesting, made four days pass away like so many minutes." The twain grew eloquent about Ossian over a bowl of punch, and speculated upon the genus of American deer, which Jefferson fed with Indian corn, and the Marquis describes as half roebuck and half English deer. They also engaged in a meteorological discussion, and expatiated on the advantages for observations in this then embryo science, afforded by the extent and variety of the American climate. Jefferson stated some interesting results of his observations as to the effect of woods in breaking clouds and absorbing exhalations. Political and social questions were not forgotten by the two philosophers: "A Virginian," writes the Marquis, "never resembles a European peasant; he is always a freeman, participates in the government, and has the command of a few negroes, so that, uniting in himself the two qualities of citizen and master, he perfectly resembles the bulk of individuals who formed what

were called the 'people' in the ancient republics." He also expresses the conviction that "the dignity of man is relative;" and is struck with the superior riflemen of the Virginia militia; he finds novel sport in shooting a wood hen, and discovers quite an ideal rustic in the person of a handsome miller: "He was a young man, twenty-two years of age, whose charming face, fine teeth, red lips, and rosy cheeks recalled to mind the pleasant portrait which Marmontel gives of Lubin." The alternation of pastoral, patriarchal, and aristocratic manners, the aboriginal traditions, the grand economical resources observed, and frequent personal discomfort experienced, offered to his thoughtful, susceptible, and adventurous mind constant subjects of interest-a vivid contrast with the society and condition of the Old World, a freshness and freedom combined with hardihood and privation, an originality of character and vast promise for humanity; the primitive and the cultivated elements of life were brought into frequent contact; and the urbane and intelligent French officer seems to have had an eye and a heart for all around him suggestive of the past or prophetic of the future. By a most toilsome and perplexing access, he visited the Natural Bridge of Virginia; delighted with this wonderful structure, he measured its dimensions with care, and speculated upon its formation with curiosity; it excited in his mind a kind of "melancholy admiration."

Another characteristic scene which impressed him was a conflagration in the woods-a feature of the landscape which, to his European vision, was ever fraught with interest; he records his appreciation of the "strong, robust oaks and immense pines, sufficient for all the fleets of Europe," which "here grow old and perish on their native soil." He is much struck with the cheerful spirit with which emigration goes on in the New World, when he encounters, in the lonely wild, a buoyant adventurer "with only a horse, saddle bags, cash to buy land, and a young wife;" of the latter he observes: 66 'I saw, not without astonishment, that her natural charms were even embellished by the serenity of her mind." The

importance to a traveller of a love of nature and an eye for character, is signally manifest in the American travels of Chastellux. To one destitute of these resources the journey thus described would have been irksome, through its monotony and discomfort. But the vivacious and amiable French officer found novelty in the wild creatures, the vegetation, and the people he encountered; he was constantly alive to the fact that he was traversing a new country, and therefore bound to observe all its phases; it is surprising how much he discovered to awaken pleasant memories of his studies and experience in Europe; how the charms of nature suggested reminiscences of art, and the individuality of character recalled the celebrities of other eras and climes. A vulgar mind, an ignorant man, would have hastened through the rude domain, and sought amusement only in the more settled and populous districts; but the resources and character of the country, the eminent among its inhabitants, their sacred. struggle for freedom, and the vast possibilities incident to such an extent of territory and to a great political experiment, quickened the sympathies and enlisted the careful observation of the cultivated soldier. The rabbit that runs across his woodland path, the delicate pink blossoms of the peach trees in a settler's orchard, the novel sight of a marmoset caught by the way, a fat and original landlord, tobacco "as a circulating medium," and the magnificent prospect from the summit of the Blue Ridge, suffice to occupy and interest. A fair Virginian recalls to his mind "those beautiful Virgins of Raphael;" he is agreeably surprised at the opportunity of practising Italian with a cook of that nation he finds in a Richmond inn, and is eloquent in describing the humming bird, and precise in delineating the sturgeon; repeats the story of Pocahontas amid the local traditions that endear her memory, and thinks one "must be fatigued with hearing the name of Randolph while travelling in Virginia." It would appear that "young America" was as real then as now: "The youth of both sexes," he says, 66 are more forward and ripe than with us; and our maturity is more prolonged." Still he finds

special charms in the Old Dominion, and thinks the inhabitants of Virginia best situated of all the colonists under the English Government. "The Government," he adds, "may" become democratic at the present moment; but the national character, the spirit of the Government itself, will always be aristocratic; it was originally a 'company' composed of the men most distinguished for their rank and birth." He appreciates the diversity of political origin and local character in the different sections of the country; observing that New England was settled "to escape arbitrary power "-New York and the Jerseys by necessitous Dutchmen, “who occupied themselves more about domestic economy than the public government;" that of Pennsylvania he considers a "government of property-feudal, or, if you will, patriarchal." He describes the domestic luxury of the Virginians as consisting in "furniture, linen, and plate, in which they resemble our ancestors, who had neither cabinets nor wardrobes in their castles, but contented themselves with a well-stored cellar and a handsome buffet." In analyzing their domestic life, he makes the just and suggestive remark, "they are very fond of their infants, but care little for their children," which trait, in a measure, explains the facility with which families disperse, and the early separation of households, wherein our civilization is so different from that of the Old World. It is both curious and instructive, at this moment, when her soil has been stained and furrowed by contending armies, which rebellious slaveholders evoked by violence because of an indirect and legitimate interference with "property in man," to note the calm statement of this disinterested traveller, after free intercourse with all classes of Virginians, eighty years ago: "They seem afflicted," he writes, "to have any slavery, and are constantly talking of abolishing it, and of contriving some other means of cultivating their estates;" the motives thereto, he says, are various-young men being thus disposed from "justice and the rights of humanity," while "fathers complain that the maintenance of their negroes is very expensive."