have been more interested in the housekeeping of this
magnificent state, in the education she is giving her children, in their
prospects.

Illinois is, at present, a by-word of reproach among the nations, for
the careless, prodigal course, by which, in early youth, she has
endangered her honor. But you cannot look about you there, without
seeing that there are resources abundant to retrieve, and soon to
retrieve, far greater errors, if they are only directed with wisdom.

[Illustration: ROLLING PRAIRIE OF ILLINOIS]

Might the simple maxim, that honesty is the best policy be laid to
heart! Might a sense of the true aims of life elevate the tone of
politics and trade, till public and private honor become identical!
Might the western man in that crowded and exciting life which develops
his faculties so fully for to-day, not forget that better part which
could not be taken from him! Might the western woman take that interest
and acquire that light for the education of the children, for which she
alone has leisure!

This is indeed the great problem of the place and time. If the next
generation be well prepared for their work, ambitious of good and
skilful to achieve it, the children of the present settlers may be
leaven enough for the mass constantly increasing by emigration. And how
much is this needed where those rude foreigners can so little understand
the best interests of the land they seek for bread and shelter. It would
be a happiness to aid in this good work, and interweave the white and
golden threads into the fate of Illinois. It would be a work worthy the
devotion of any mind.

In the little that I saw, was a large proportion of intelligence,
activity, and kind feeling; but, if there was much serious laying to
heart of the true purposes of life, it did not appear in the tone of
conversation.

Having before me the Illinois guide-book, I find there mentioned, as a
"visionary," one of the men I should think of as able to be a truly
valuable settler in a new and great country--Morris Birkbeck, of
England. Since my return, I have read his journey to, and letters from,
Illinois. I see nothing promised there that will not surely belong to
the man who knows how to seek for it.

Mr. Birkbeck was an enlightened philanthropist, the rather that he did
not wish to sacrifice himself to his fellow men, but to benefit them
with all he had, and was, and wished. He thought all the creatures of a
divine love ought to be ha