LIX. The Swamp—A discovery 312 LX. Mrs. Schuyler’s view of continental 318 politics LXI. Description of the breaking up of the 321 ice on the Hudson river LXII. Departure from Albany—Origin of the 325 state of Vermont LXIII. General reflections 331 LXIV. Reflections continued 338 LXV. Sketch of the settlement of Pennsylvania 344 LXVI. Prospects brightening in British 351 America—Desirable country on the interior lakes, &c. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ INTRODUCTION. ------- To —— DEAR SIR, OTHERS as well as you have expressed a wish to see a memoir of my earliest and most valued friend. To gratify you and them I feel many inducements, and see many objections. To comply with any wish of yours is one strong inducement. To please myself with the recollection of past happiness and departed worth, is another; and to benefit those into whose hands this imperfect sketch may fall, is a third. For the authentic record of an exemplary life, though delivered in the most unadorned manner, or even degraded by poverty of style or uncouthness of narration, has an attraction for the uncorrupted mind. It is the rare lot of some exalted characters, by the united power of virtues and of talents, to soar above their fellow-mortals, and leave a luminous track behind, on which successive ages gaze with wonder and delight. But the sweet influence of these benign stars that now and then enlighten the page of history, is partial and unfrequent. Those to whom the most important parts on the stage of life are allotted, if possessed of abilities undirected by virtue, are too often “Wise to no purpose, artful to no end,” that is really good and desirable. They, again, where virtue is not supported by wisdom, are often, with the best intentions, made subservient to the short-sighted craft of the artful and designing. Hence, though we may be at times dazzled with the blaze of heroic achievement, or contemplate with a purer satisfaction those “awful fathers of mankind,” by whom nations were civilized, equitable dominion established, or liberty restored; yet, after all, the crimes and miseries of mankind form such prominent features of the history of every country, that humanity sickens at the retrospect, and misanthropy finds an excuse amidst the laurels of the hero, and the deep-laid schemes of the politician: “And yet this partial view of things Is surely not the best.”—_Burns._