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I would, for the first thing, throw myself towards the mighty West, into the almost boundless Wisconsin or Iowa, or even across the continent, beyond the eternal bulwark of the mountains, into the New World of Oregon or California, there to hew out for myself, in some way, or in some path (in a New World there are always ways & paths enough); a name and an inheritance among the sons of men, a place to employ, for the good of myself and my fellow beings, the "one talent" that my God has given me: I would do this, I say, if it were not, that I like not, myself to separate myself, thus so greatly from those to whom God and nature have bound me by the ties of birth & affection. As Joseph wrote to me once, if Relatives and Friends were given to us as blessings, we ought not, rashly at least, to throw them away, or throw ourselves from them. But in New England prospects are certainly slim, in almost any path of life, for Young Men of Moderate Abilities, ? all the tastes & habits of educated life. What shall I do -- I cannot well be a Physician; I am not fit for a Minister; I should probably starve to death as a lawyer; and I see no chance of getting an office! You say you are going to be lonely there after Lucy is gone. Why need you to be? I expect you will fret yourself merely because you do not have every thing to do yourself! Why can not you be contented, after having done your share of Labor, to sit, and look on, and see most anybody else do it, even if they could not do it quite as well as you could? At any rate I wish you would occupy yourself a little more in writing to your children! Do write frequently. Aff. Son I.S. Metcalf