physically, and every one may be the artificer of his own fortune. And this is a great advantage. But circumstances are often so compulsory that even this liberty does not help much.
I leave Virginia grateful for the good which it has given me, in beautiful scenery, amiable friends, for this home full of kindness, and for the memory of a youth, from whose pure soul I derive new hope for the future of America; hope and anticipation from the youthful generation whose representative I see in him!
LETTER XL.
Since I last wrote, I have made some small excursions and had some small adventures.
I parted from my heartily kind entertainers at Richmond last Monday, and sailed down the St. James River to Baltimore in Maryland. The day was without a breath of air, and oppressively hot; and it became still more oppressive to me from a certain dogmatic rector, who took upon himself to be my spiritual cicerone, and as he instructed me in this, that, and the other, he stretched forth and made vehement demonstrations with his arms, as if he were preparing for a boxing match or for some important operation, which threw me into such a fever of anxiety as destroyed the effect, and the recollection of his teachings. A young, polite, and warm-hearted student of Charlotte's Ville was my refreshment. He had the prejudices of the Slave States in his head, but his heart was good and unspoiled, and I doubt not but that I shall find myself very well off at his father's
