Saying which, he
relapsed into his melancholy silence, and I betook myself once more to
the telescope. With a bosom throbbing with emotion, I saw that we were
descending towards the American continent. When we were about ten or
twelve miles from the earth, the Brahmin arrested the progress of the
car, and we hovered over the broad Atlantic. Looking down on the ocean,
the first object which presented itself to my eye, was a small
one-masted shallop, which was buffeting the waves in a south-westerly
direction. I presumed it was a New England trader, on a voyage to some
part of the Republic of Colombia: and, by way of diverting my friend
from his melancholy reverie, I told him some of the many stories which
are current respecting the enterprise and ingenuity of this portion of
my countrymen, and above all, their adroitness at a bargain.
"Methinks," says the Brahmin, "you are describing a native of Canton or
Pekin. But," added he, after a short pause, "though to a superficial
observer man appears to put on very different characters, to a
philosopher he is every where the same--for he is every where moulded by
the circumstances in which he is placed. Thus; let him be in a situation
that is propitious to commerce, and the habits of traffic produce in him
shrewdness and address. Trade is carried on chiefly in towns, because it
is there carried on most advantageously.
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