Add to this the finest weather, and such country as I had never seen, even in my dreams, although these dreams had been haunted by wishes for just such a one, and you may judge whether years of dulness might not, by these bright days, be redeemed, and a sweetness be shed over all thoughts of the West.

The first day brought us through woods rich in the moccason-flower and lupine, and plains whose soft expanse was continually touched with expression by the slow moving clouds which

  “Sweep over with their shadows, and beneath
  The surface rolls and fluctuates to the eye;
  Dark hollows seem to glide along and chase
          The sunny ridges,”

to the banks of the Fox River, a sweet and graceful stream.  We readied Geneva just in time to escape being drenched by a violent thunder-shower, whose rise and disappearance threw expression into all the features of the scene.

Geneva reminds me of a New England village, as indeed there, and in the neighborhood, are many New-Englanders of an excellent stamp, generous, intelligent, discreet, and seeking to win from life its true values.  Such are much wanted, and seem like points of light among the swarms of settlers, whose aims are sordid, whose habits thoughtless and slovenly.[A]

[Footnote A:  “We passed a portion of one day with Mr. and Mrs. ——­, young, healthy, and, thank Heaven, gay people.  In the general dulness that broods over this land where so little genius flows, and care, business, and fashionable frivolity are equally dull, unspeakable is the relief of some flashes of vivacity, some sparkles of wit.  Of course it is hard enough for those, most natively disposed that way, to strike fire.  I would willingly be the tinder to promote the cheering blaze.”—­Manuscript Notes.]

With great pleasure we heard, with his attentive and affectionate congregation, the Unitarian clergyman, Mr. Conant, and afterward visited him in his house, where almost everything bore traces of his own handiwork or that of his father.  He is just such a teacher as is wanted in this region, familiar enough, with the habits of those he addresses to come home to their experience and their wants; earnest and enlightened enough to draw the important inferences from the life of every day.[B]

[Footnote B:  “Let any who think men do not need or want the church, hear these people talk about it as if it were the only indispensable thing, and see what I saw in Chicago.  An elderly lady from Philadelphia, who had been visiting her sons in the West, arrived there about one o’clock on a hot Sunday noon.  She rang the bell and requested a room immediately, as she wanted to get ready for afternoon service.  Some delay occurring, she expressed great regret, as she had ridden all night for the sake of attending church.  She went to church, neither having dined nor taken any repose after her journey.”—­Manuscript Notes.]

A day or two we remained here, and passed some happy hours in the woods that fringe the stream, where the gentlemen found a rich booty of fish.