After suggesting the various inducements to different occupations, Mr. Johnston advises farming, and adds:
You might connect this with some other pursuits, such as those of a literary or political kind. The former is full of interest and pleasure, but the country-life lacks excitement to keep it up; as to the latter, it is replete with disgust and disappointment.This last sentence is remarkable, as the utterance of a man of cheerful temper, who, from early manhood to the day of his death, continually advanced in popular favor without a single reverse. After discussing the advantages and disadvantages of planting in Louisiana, the strong fraternal feeling and confident spirit of the man break out thus:
I can only say I shall be most happy to render you any assistance; and that, with the support of Harris and myself, you could not fail in any enterprise.He continues:
You think you are too old to study a profession. That is a mistake; you could never read with greater advantage. If you could devote all your leisure to law, history, and literature, it would not only give you excellent habits, good taste, and much valuable information, but would qualify you for any duty to which you may be called. I can, from my own experience, say that books are the source of the purest and most rational pleasures. They are the most durable, and, unlike almost all others, increase with age, as the taste for others diminishes. To a gentleman this taste is essential; in the country it is necessary, to avoid ennui and tedium of life; and this is equally true of both sexes. . . . Military talents are held in high estimation all over the world, less perhaps than they deserve in this country; but no one knows how long we shall be peaceful neighbors. You may live to see not only war among the States, but civil and perhaps servile war, in which all your military skill and experience may be put in requisition.This seems written in the spirit of prophecy, but it was only the calm reading of the signs of the times by the experienced eye of a veteran statesman. There are several other letters indicating Mr. Johnston's natural desire that his brother should cast his lot in the community where he himself had been so fortunate and so much honored; still this is not urged upon him unduly. The following extracts are from his last letter to Lieutenant Johnston:
