| Columbus alleged
as a reason for seeking a continent in the West, that the harmony
of nature required a great tract of land in the western hemisphere,
to balance the known extent of land in the eastern; and it now appears
that we must estimate the native values of this broad region to redress
the balance of our own judgments, and appreciate the advantages opened
to the human race in this country, which is our fortunate home.
The land is the appointed remedy for whatever is false
and fantastic in our culture. The continent we inhabit is to
be physic and food for our mind, as well as our body. The land,
with its tranquilizing, sanative influences, is to repair the errors of
a scholastic and traditional education, and bring us into just relations
with men and things.
The Young American, A Lecture read before the Mercantile Library Association, Boston, February 7, 1844, by Ralph Waldo Emerson |