But as the eye receded from the
cluster of buildings, the signs of more recent inroads on the wilderness
became apparent, until the view terminated with openings, in which piled
logs and mazes of felled trees announced the recent use of the axe.
At that early day, the American husbandman like the agriculturists of most
of Europe, dwelt in his village. The dread of violence from the savages
had given rise to a custom similar to that which, centuries before, had
been produced in the other hemisphere by the inroads of more pretending
barbarians, and which, with few and distant exceptions, has deprived rural
scenery of a charm that, it would seem, time and a better condition of
society are slow to repair. Some remains of this ancient practice are
still to be traced in the portion of the Union of which we write, where,
even at this day, the farmer often quits the village to seek his scattered
fields in its neighborhood. Still, as man has never been the subject of a
system here, and as each individual has always had the liberty of
consulting his own temper, bolder spirits early began to break through a
practice, by which quite as much was lost in convenience as was gained in
security.
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