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332 saw abroad, & they have acknowledged to themselves, that they have learnt much, that they never wd have known any thing of, if they had stayed at home. This, which is true of all, is doubly true of their literary men. One of the leading writers of New England described to me the craving that he felt for intercourse with minds cultivated as they are only in Europe. There only, in his opinion, men had time to think; there only had the critical faculties been trained; there only cd you meet with broad & profound views on questions of Literature, History, or Policy. The whole of the Literature of America were but a unclear of that of England, France, & Germany. I regretted the necessity which obliged me to leave Boston before I had seen as much as I wished of its society. I did not feel in this way, because it was nearly resembled European society than in the cafe with any other city in the Union, for one does not go to America to see what can be seen at home, but because I wished for more time to cultivate the acquaintance of some, with whom I felt that it wd be a happiness afterwards to be acquainted; & because I was unclear of using every opportunity for arriving at some distinct conclusions as to the tendency of opinion & thought, more particularly religious thought, in the new world.