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Cooper, James Fenimore, 1789-1851

"The Wept of Wish-Ton-Wish"

There, the arts of life have been the fruits of an intelligence
that has progressively accumulated with the advancement of civilization;
while here, improvement is, in a great degree, the consequence of
experience elsewhere acquired. Necessity, prompted by an understanding of
its wants incited by a commendable spirit of emulation, and encouraged by
liberty, early gave birth to those improvements which have converted a
wilderness into the abodes of abundance and security, with a rapidity that
wears the appearance of magic. Industry has wrought with the confidence of
knowledge, and the result has been peculiar.
It is scarcely necessary to say that, in a country where the laws favor
all commendable enterprise, where unnecessary artificial restrictions are
unknown, and where the hand of man has not yet exhausted its efforts, the
adventurer is allowed the greatest freedom of choice, in selecting the
field of his enterprise. The agriculturist passes the heath and the
barren, to seat himself on the river-bottom; the trader looks for the site
of demand and supply and the artisan quits his native village to seek
employment in situations where labor will meet its fullest reward.


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