From the summit of the hill, looking down a tract of woodland
at a considerable distance, so that the interstices between the trees
could not be seen, their tops presented an unbroken level, and seemed
somewhat like a richly variegated carpet. The prospect from the hill is
wide and interesting; but methinks it is pleasanter in the more immediate
vicinity of the hill than miles away. It is agreeable to look down at
the square patches of cornfield, or of potato-ground, or of cabbages
still green, or of beets looking red,--all a man's farm, in short,--each
portion of which he considers separately so important, while you take in
the whole at a glance. Then to cast your eye over so many different
establishments at once, and rapidly compare thorn,--here a house of
gentility, with shady old yellow-leaved elms hanging around it; there a
new little white dwelling; there an old farm-house; to see the barns and
sheds and all the out-houses clustered together; to comprehend the
oneness and exclusiveness and what constitutes the peculiarity of each of
so many establishments, and to have in your mind a multitude of them,
each of which is the most important part of the world to those who live
in it,--this really enlarges the mind, and you come down the hill
somewhat wiser than you go up.
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