and with words
in their mouths of whose objectionable character they are
unaware,--about the common people, mob government, the encroachment of
the poor upon the rich, and so on. Such partial intercourse is fatal to
the observations of a traveller; but it is less perplexing and painful
at the time than the better process of going from one set of people to
another, and hearing what all have to say. No traveller in the United
States can learn much of the country without conversing equally with
farmers and merchants, with artizans and statesmen, with villagers and
planters; but, while discharging this duty, he will be so bewildered
with the contrariety of statements and convictions, that he will often
shut his note-book in a state of scepticism as to whether there be any
truth at all shining steadily behind all this tempest of opinions. Thus
it is with the stranger who traverses the streets of Warsaw, and is
trusted with the groans of some of the outraged mourners who linger in
its dwellings; and then goes to St. Petersburg, and is presented with
evidences of the enlightenment of the Czar, of his humanity, his
paternal affection for his subjects, and his general superiority to his
age. At Warsaw the traveller called him a miscreant; at Petersburg he is
required to pronounce him a philanthropist. Such must be the uncertainty
of judgment when it is based upon the testimony of individuals. To
arrive at the facts of the condition of a people through the discourse
of individuals, is a hopeless enterprise. The plain truth is--it is
beginning at the wrong end.

The grand secret of wise inquiry into Morals and Manners is to begin
with the study of THINGS, using the DISCOURSE OF PERSONS as a commentary
upon them.

Though the facts sought by travellers relate to Persons, they may most
readily be learned from Things. The eloquence of Institutions and
Records, in which the action of the nation is embodied and perpetuated,
is more comprehensive and more faithful than that of any variety of
individual voices. The voice of a whole people goes up in the silent
workings of an institution; the condition of the masses is reflected
from the surface of a record. The Institutions of a nation,--political,
religious, or social,--put evidence into the observer's hands as to its
capabilities and wants which the study of individuals could not yield in
the course of a lifetime. The Records of any society, be they what they
may, whether architectura