The listeners got some such insights into their past lives, as one gets into the darker parts of the woods, when a stray gleam of sunshine finds its way down to the roots of the trees.

I've heard it said that there are men who read in books to convince themselves there is a God. I know not but man may so deform his works in the settlements, as to leave that which is so clear in the wilderness a matter of doubt among traders and priests.

Systems are to be appreciated by their general effects, and not by particular exceptions.

A soul,--a spark of the never-dying flame that separates man from all the other beings of earth.

Individuality is the aim of political liberty. By leaving to the citizen as much freedom of action and of being as comports with order and the rights of others, the institutions render him truly a freeman. He is left to pursue his means of happiness in his own manner.

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore.

Death is appalling to those of the most iron nerves, when it comes quietly and in the stillness and solitude of night.