Excerpt from California, Its Characteristics and Prospects: From the New Englander for February, 1858 Whoever wishes, for health's sake or for any other reason, to change the sceneries or the objects and associations of his life, should set off, not for Europe, but for California. And this the more certainly, if he is a loving and sharp observer of nature; for nature meets us here in moods entirely new; so that we have even to make her acquaintance over again; going back, as it were, to be started in a fresh childhood. All our common, or previously formed impressions, calcula tions and weather-wisdoms are at fault. We find that we really understand nothing and have everything to learn. We begin to imagine, for example, that her way is to be thus, or thus; or that her operations are to be solved in this, or that manner, but we very soon discover that it will not hold. Our guess must be given up and we must try again. A person who is at all curious, in the study of natural phenomena, will be held in a puzzle thus for whole months, and will nearly com plete the cycle of the year, before he seems to himself to have come into any real understanding with the new world he is in; just as if he were on a visit to Jupiter and wanted to sail round the sun with him, for at least once, and feel out his year, before he can be sure that he understands a single day. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.