Amongst the causes that have awakened the attention of the community in the Atlantic States, to this Great Valley, and excited the desires of multitudes to remove hither, may be reckoned the efforts of the liberal and benevolent to aid the West in the immediate supply of her population with the Bible, with Sunday Schools, with religious tracts, with the gospel ministry, and to lay the foundation for Colleges and other literary institutions. Hundreds of families, who might otherwise have remained in the crowded cities and densely populated neighborhoods of their ancestors, have had their attention directed to these States as a permanent home. And thousands more of virtuous and industrious families would follow, and fix their future residence on our prairies, and in our western forests, cultivate our wild lands,--aid in building up our towns and cities, and diffuse a healthful moral and intellectual influence through the mass of our present population, could they feel assured that they can reach some portion of the Western Valley without great risk and expense,--provide for their families comfortably, and not be swept off by sickness, or overwhelmed by suffering, beyond what is incident to any new country. The author's first book, "A GUIDE FOR EMIGRANTS," &c. was written in the winter and spring of 1831, to answer the pressing call then made for information of these western states, but more especially that of Illinois;--but many of its particulars, as to the character and usages of the people, manners and customs, modes of erecting buildings, general characteristics and qualities of soil, productions, &c. were applicable to the West generally. Since that period, brief as it has been, wide and rapid changes have been made, population has rapidly augmented, beyond that of any former period of the same extent;--millions of acres of the public domain, then wild and hardly explored, have been brought into market; settlements and counties have been formed, and populous towns have sprung up where, at that time, the Indian and wild beast had possession; facilities for intercommunication have been greatly extended, and distant places have been brought comparatively near; the desire to emigrate to the west has increased, and everybody in the Atlantic states has become interested and inquires about the Great Valley. That respectable place, so much the theme of declamation and inquiry abroad, "_The Far West_," has gone from this region towards the setting sun. Its exact locality has not yet been settled, but probably it may soon be found along the gulf of California, or near Nootka Sound. And if distance is to be measured by time, and the facility of intercourse, we are now several hundred miles nearer the Atlantic coast than twenty years since. Ten years more, and the facilities of railways and improved machinery will place the Mississippi within seven day's travel of Boston,--six days of Washington city, and five days of Charleston, S. C.