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EXTRACTS

FROM

LETTERS WRITTEN DURING MY TOUR.

BOSTON, 22d April, 1844.

On the first of April we came from London to Manchester; on the second to Liverpool. Commercial and manufacturing towns of this kind make a strong, and not altogether pleasing, but rather one-sided impression. The noise of the machines in the factories sounded in my ears more unmusical than ever; and the steam and smoke that obscured the sun, seemed to me, in comparison with, I will not say the Neapolitan, but the Berlin sky, quite intolerable.

For eighty-two pounds sterling-which rose on the way to eighty-six-we two obtained permission, on the fourth of April, to go on board the Royal Mail Steam-Packet Acadia. The weather was fine, and the number of passengers, all in good spirits, was over a hundred. On the deck there was more stir and bustle than was agreeable; so that some gentlemen and ladies who were promenading up and down could hardly thread their way through. A cheerful dinner enlivened our spirits, while the monster of a steam-engine impelled the large and heavily laden ship with ease out into the world of waters. Many of the passengers doubtless, like myself, cherished æsthetic and sentimental purposes, of watching and admiring the rising and setting of the sun and moon, the brilliancy of the stars, the glories of the heaving sea, &c. &c. But inexorable fate had otherwise determined. The wind was strong and against us, and unhappily continued so for the greater part of our voyage. In the night between Maundy Thursday and Good Friday (the 4th and 5th of April) the well known consequences overtook me also; and I was ashamed to feel no desire nor want but to Again and again I strove, by dint of thought and will, to raise myself to the dignity of man;—but in vain! I remained in "the penetrating sense of my own nothingness," and envied the portman

teaus that stood before me, quiet, unmoved, unmolested, and unrummaged. To make a sea-sick man believe that he is created in the image of God, would be a difficult undertaking. That in this depth of humiliation I by no means repented my plan of an American tour, must be regarded as a sign of firmness of character-or of great obstinacy.

My sea-sickness however lasted only about four and twenty hours; after which I had no relapse, although the sea often ran very high, and I was tossed to and fro in my berth like a bundle of old clothes. But this rendered me all the more conscious of other discomforts. Our little closet, or "cabin," contained two beds about the width of a coffin, placed after the well known fashion one above the other. In front of these beds was our "state-room," according to the elegant plan of the vessel. It might better have been called our standing-room; for after one portmanteau had been thrown outside, and the other set on end, there was a narrow space left beside the little wash-table just large enough for one person to stand in. The other must either lie in bed or stay in the door-way. Nay, it was quite impossible to put on pantaloons or boots, without opening the door and thrusting one's leg out into the narrow passage. All these things were far from being "comfortable;" inasmuch as each motion in the pitching vessel was ominous of a return of the sea-sickness, and it required a stern resolve, and was indeed a very great exertion, even to draw on a stocking.

At last the moaning and groaning, even with those who were longest sea-sick, came to an end; and I determined to pass away the time as well as I could, in eating and drinking. There was a first and second breakfast, a dinner, a tea, and supper for those who wished it,-enough in all conscience. The quality of the provisions, however, did not by any means compare with the quantity. Notwithstanding all allowances for being at sea, where no great variety at least of fresh provisions can be expect ed, the poverty of the English kitchen, so found fault with by K., was made doubly perceptible; it was far too heavy for an enfeebled stomach, and I was in no condition to enjoy the roast beef and mutton to which I have elsewhere given due honor and praise. The eatables were good in themselves; but the culinary art had done nothing to produce a variety by preparation, sauces, &c. The pies and tarts labored under the usual defects-underdone crust and bad butter. Besides, the food was brought up in two great courses all at once; so that, excepting the over-peppered soup, one was obliged to eat almost every thing cold. În drinking too I had no satisfaction: the sweetish ale I cannot

relish; brandy I detest; and all the wines, even the champagne, were strongly adulterated with spirit.

To beguile the period of my compulsory indolence (no dolce far niente, I assure you), I lay in bed as long as possible. You will ask, Why did I not seek more sociéty, and make that my amusement? I reply, The company was too numerous to become closely acquainted with; and consisted mostly of merchants and merchants' clerks, whose peculiar tendencies I will not blame, though not of a very interesting character. Besides, I was not "amusable," but disposed to taciturnity; and felt more inclined to brood over my own thoughts, than to collect statistic trifles by questioning. I observed that a young German merchant who ventured on a scientific discussion, confounded the "superlative" and the "imperative;" though he might have been able to show that both often coincide.

From thinking in bed, I would fall into dreams, in which the voyage and the motion of the vessel would take a part. In Berlin, for instance, I often fly in my dreams; but on board the Acadia I dreamt that my feet were turned uppermost, and that I ran about beneath the deck like a fly. Another time, when we were near the coast of America, I found myself in Charon's wherry; and he asked me, alive as I was, whether I wanted to cross over to the dead, or go back to the living. As I thought of departed parents, brothers, sisters, and friends, I hesitated between conflicting desires; till at length I awoke, and came to the common-place recollection, that I had to sail to America.

From morning till night, nay, the whole night through, there was play, play! One man lost all his money, and got into debt besides. One pair began with mutual abuse, threw the cards in each other's faces, gave each other a hearty pommelling, and then-made it all up again!!

An American captain wished, I know not exactly why, that O'Connell was hanged; while an Irishman lauded him to the skies. This Irishman, who was about thirty years of age, had already thirteen children; his mother had twenty-two.

People at sea are as eager for novelty as on land. If a few fish poked their heads above water, every one rushed to see the sight; and still more so, if a ship was perceived in the distance. How was our curiosity excited on the 15th of April, when we saw a ship bring to in order to communicate with us, and send a boat off to our steamer! Among many conjectures, that one seemed most natural which attributed their conduct to necessity of some kind, and most probably hunger. But when we saw that the sailors were in excellent condition, and that they had a large scal in the boat, every one was certain they came to sell the seal. On this business, as some would have it, the strange captain immediately entered into negotiation with ours. How astonished were we all,

as soon as he was gone, to see the latter put our steamer about, and set off in an easterly direction on the road back to Europe! He had been told, it appeared, that by keeping on our present course, we should infallibly find ourselves surrounded by icebergs and fields of ice. And sure enough, as we were thus creeping about to avoid the danger, large masses of ice appeared in sight, floating slowly and majestically along, some like vast plains of snow, some in all sorts of fantastic shapes, such as gigantic animals, stately swans, ships, churches, towns, sometimes illuminated with the most gorgeous colors, like the ice in the glaciers of Switzerland. I watched them with great delight till it grew dark, and then went to bed, and enjoyed profound repose; though many others, who had lost all courage, would not venture to undress, but kept wandering anxiously about the deck. Two days after, we entered the Newfoundland fog, which gave the timid cause for new alarm. This fog was certainly far less pleasant and poetical than the varicolored icebergs. Our discomforts were manifold: It was too narrow and confined in the standing-room, too hot and offensive by the chimney, too crowded and damp in the eating-room, too cold, wet, and stormy upon the deck. We thus tried one place after the other, from morning till evening; and so the day passed away. On the whole I found it impossible to remain lost in astonishment and admiration at the sea; on the contrary, I became something of an enthusiast in my dislike to it. Of its infinity, nothing need be said; in view of the smallest magnitudes of astronomy, it is only the negative infinity of monotony and tedium. The most barren tract of land offers beyond comparison more variety and change; and Thales was quite right in his idea that water may be the origin of all things, since in itself it is nothing. But even granting it to have an existence, the most acute teleologian would be puzzled to tell why to so small a portion of land there has been created such an immense quantity of brine. How active and poetical, on the contrary, is the air, or the ether! From the former, and from light, the water sometimes borrows a few colors; but the Atlantic itself mostly resembles dirty ink. The air has completely the upper hand of the water: it sets the latter in commotion; draws it up to itself; shapes it, by way of pastime, into manifold, particolored, fantastic clouds; and then, when wearied with the sport, flings it back in the form of rain, hail, or snow, into the great seething caldron. I may be reminded of Neptune, Amphitrite, the Nereids, and their palaces and feasts. But who can imagine them sitting down there all in the water, while the nasty liquid runs into their poor mouths, noses, and ears, and makes them keep coughing and snorting like whales? No; they float lightly above the billows, or have below them their crystal water-proof

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