THE UPRIGHT SOUL. BY J. H. PERKINS. Late to our town there came a maid, It was not any thing she did; Her little motions when she spoke, We saw it in her laughing eye; A reverence for the true, the pure, Forever, did I say? O, no! The time must come when she will look And find it in God's book. That as she trod her path aright, THE INFLUENCE OF STEAM. All those yet referred to are but the interior circles of the influences already perceptible from the disturbing action of this one new force. It does not confine itself to nationalizing each several race, but it cosmopolizes nations. This result is more noticable in Europe than in America. Since 1830 all the world travels.— Already the whole Caucasian race looks alike and talks alike, and is rapidly growing to live alike and to think alike. We mix and mingle, until there is no strangeness left. Those of middle life yet remember Paris and London in the days of the diligence and the stage coach; many of them have seen it in the present year of grace, and such at least realize a change.As to Rome, she has come directly within the influence of railroads only within the last six vears. Did the world ever before witness a revolution so complete? The mushroom cities of America, in their very brick and mortar,in the architecture of their buildings and the age of their walls,-are the same in appearance, and just as ancient, as modern London or Paris. We dream of England as old; we dwell upon the descriptions of English humorists, and picture to ourselves the quaint rambling inns and familiar streets of Dickens,-the haunts of Dr. Johnson and of Boswell,-the spots made familiar by Irving and his great progenitor, who showed old Sir Roger the sights of the town; we insensibly associate with moderu London, in childish fancy, the familiar scenes of English literature, from Prince Hal and Jack Falstaff at the Boar's Head Inn to Mr. Pickwick snuffing the morning air in Goswell street. We still go to the city rather expecting to find the quaintness we imagine; at any rate, we do not look for what we left behind us in America. Probably some of this quaintness did linger about London until within a few years. But though 1829 did not work all its changes at once, the old and quaint went out with the stage coaches. To day we might as well look for traces of the Indians on Boston Common, or of the renowned Wouter Van Twiller on Manhattan Island.London is, in all essentials but size, like Boston; Paris, like New York. Paris and London have yielded to the new influence, and are giving up their distinctive characteristics, to become the stereotyped railroad centres of the fuIt is a living ministry that begets a living ture. Rome, thanks to the Papacy, has resistpeople; and by a living ministry, at first, we were ed the revolution a little longer; and there reached and turned to the truth. It is a living travellers can yet taste some of the old novelty ministry that will still be acceptable to the and aesthetic enjoyment of travel. There one church, and serviceable to its members. It is can yet dwell a moment with the past, and enan excellent virtue in ministers, a seal and con-joy an instant's forgetfulness of the wearying firmation of their ministry, to be found in the march of progress. But even there the shrill practice of that which they preach to others; scream of the steam whistle breaks the silence such can in boldness say with the apostle, "Be of the Campagna, and the steam-engine has ye followers of us as we follow Christ."-Ex-possession of the palace of the Cenci. All this, tract from the Testimony concerning John Banks. too, is but the beginning. It is at most but the Has from Him powers of healing. COMING PLEASURES. Like a rose, as soft and brief; Bringing heavenly angels down. change of a single half-century. What, then, may not the same influence accomplish in the eternal course of the future? Judging from accomplished results, how can the whole world avoid being cosmopolized? German until so few years ago. Since 1830 the nations are woven together by the network of iron, and all thoughts and results of thought are in common. The same problems perplex at once the whole world, and from every quarAt home, too, we notice similar change. ter light floods in upon their solution. This Within the last twenty years, the old New Eng- very question of the relation between commu-land country town and its inhabitants have nities and their railroad systems is now preequally disappeared. The revolutions of these senting itself to all the nations at once, and the few years have swept away the last vestiges of best solution will result from common expecolonial thoughts and persons. Who that has rience. The law of competition is brought to ever lived in a New England country town does bear on national thought. But increased comnot remember its old quiet and dulness its in- muuication has not alone quickened and intendustry, and the slow, steady growth of its pros-sified thought-it has revolutionized its properity, the steadiness of its inhabitants? In the cess. The great feature of the future, if the village church and the village street you seemed present view of the influences of the agents at to see more gray heads than now, and more rev-work is correct, will be the rapid uprising of erence was paid them. In the country, you met numerous new communities. Of all such coma class of men now wholly gone, dull, solid, el-munities questioning is a leading characteristic. derly men, men of some property and few ideas, They have neither faith in, nor reverence for -the legitimate descendants of the English that which is old. On the contrary, with them broad-acted squires. They were the country age is prima facie evidence of badness, and they geutry-the men who went up to the General love novelty for novelty's sake. This mental Court, and had been members of the Governor's inclination will ultimately apply the last test to Council; they were men of formal manners and of formal dress,--men who remembered Governor Hancock, and had a certain trace of his manners. To-day this class is as extinct as the dodo. Railroads have abolished them and their dress and their manners,-they have abolished the very houses they dwelt in. The race of hereditary gentry has gone forever, and the race of hereditary business men has usurped its place. Shrewd, anxious, eager, over-worked, the men of to-day will accomplish vast results, and immensely accelerate the development of the race. They represent the railroad, as the earlier type did the stage-coach. Whether the existing type is as happy as the extinct, is a question yet to be decided. truth, for error has its full chance and is sure of a trial. The burden of proof seems likely to be shifted from the innovator to the couservator. In the rising passion for change, the question seems likely to be, not, Is the proposed innovation an improvement? but, Is the existing condition certainly better than that proposed?-North American Review. ORIGIN OF THE FLOATING ICEBERGS IN The valleys of Greenland are all filled with glaciers, of which some have an enormous extent. They are always in motion, gliding downward like rivers of nearly solid matter, which have their outlet in the sea, only their motion is exThe same phenomena are witnessed in the ceedingly slow, not exceeding about 100 feet for regions of thought. It is bolder than of yore. the whole summer season. The lower extremiIt exerts its influence with a speed and force ties of these glaciers, reaching the ocean, are equally accelerated. The newspaper press is buoyed up by the deep water, and then are broken the great engine of modern education, and off from the rest of the mass, when they slowly that press, obeying the laws of gravitation, is drift away to the south. They sometimes have every where centralized,-the rays of light once an extent of several miles, and are really mounscattered are concentrated into one all-power- tains of ice-icebergs--of which about sevenful focus. To-day's metropolitan newspaper, eighths is in the water and less than one-eighth printed by a steam press, is whirled three hun- exposed above the surface. These floating icedred miles away by a steam engine before the mountains often carry enormous blocks of rock, day's last evening edition is in the hands of the torn from the mountain side along which they carrier. The local press is day by day fighting have moved, and drop those rocks when and a losing cause with diminished courage, while where the iceberg is finally lost. In this way the metropolitan press drives it out of circula- geologists explain how boulders and erratic rocks tion and draws from it its brain. Thought happen to be found where there are no similar draws to intellectual centres as trade draws to formations--namely, by icebergs, at a time before commercial centres, and all our railroad cen- the present surface of the continents were uptres. Thoughts are quickly exchanged, and act heaved from the depths of the ocean. It is upon each other. Nations can no longer, known that this is one of Agassiz's favorite theoexcept wilfully, persist in national blunders.ries; he supposes that the whole earth was covLiteratures can no longer lie hid as did the ered with glaciers. For Friends' Intelligencer. April .........3 795 March.........5.170 ..2.345 October......1-820 J. M. E. (less 13 days.) November....3.930 The facts embodied in the following statement are so valuable for future reference that the compiler of the "Reviews of the Weather," &c., furnished monthly for the Intelligencer, July3-770 herewith forwards it for publication in advance August........1920 of his regular review, in order to avoid making September...7.165 a single article too lengthy: 8th mo. 23d, 1867. "The rain which fell on the 15th inst. was the heaviest that has visited this city for the last fifty years, the record kept at the Pennsylvania Hospital showing the unprecedented large amount of 6 680 inches. The next heaviest rain within the last half century was in September, 1838, when the gauge showed 6-011 inches to have fallen, which has not been exceeded until the present visitation. The pluriamater at the Hospital is kept accurately and regularly, and its records date back every day to the year 1824. In addition to this they have the records for some twenty years preceding that date, kept by a Mr. Lagrue, of Spring Mills, of Montgomery county, who took an interest in meterological and thermometrical matters, and although his records are not vouched for as strictly authentic, yet much confidence is placed in and respect held for them. The total amount of rain which fell during the present mouth, up to Saturday night last, was 11.850, exceeding anything on the record for a corresponding period of time. Of the entire month thus far there were only five days clear of rain, viz:-the 4th, 5th, 11th, 12th and 13th insts. Some, in their de sire to exaggerate, charge the month of July with having been also unusually showery and dampening to mortals; but this is a mistake, as, during that month there were only nine rainy days, averaging 2 387-quite a moderate return as compared with this good Eighth month, 1867. Of the rainy days we have had this month the record shows the amount to have fallen, respectively, as follows: 1st.................1·964 | 9th...................... 2d......... 3d............ 6th........ 7th................1 910 8th......... ......1-735 17th.. making, as we said, in all, 14 850. .112 115 -326 ...6.680 Total..... 46 001 56 500 It will be observed that the next greatest quantity to the present month, falling in any one month, was last June, and the greatest quantity on any given day herein was on the 17th of that month, the amount being 4.390 inches." From Chambers's Journal. Some thousands of miles across the Atlantic, you come to several green islands, of different size and shape. They are not situated off the stormy and inclement coasts of Newfoundland or Labrador, but far away to the south, where the cocoa-nut tree ripens its fruit, where the most luscious pine-apples exhale their delicious fragrance, and where the humming-bird finds a congenial home, with a flower-garden to ramble through, and honey-dew to sip. These islands, the smaller of which are called Cays, are situated just off the coast of Florida. which I am about to speak lies off the north coast of the large island of Abaco, which being almost uninhabited, is very slightly cultivated. The one of The smaller island of Green Turtle Cay has been settled for, I suppose, about fifty years, and has a population of about a thousand. It is five or six miles long, scarcely anywhere exceeds half a mile in width; is covered nearly all over with dense bush; has a fine natural harbor, protected from all winds; and is itself defended to a considerable extent by reefs of rock, which stem the heavy seas as they come In addition rolling over the North Atlantic. to the harbor just mentioned, there are two considerable inlets or sounds at each extremity of the island, which run in a longitudinal direction, each of them from half a mile to a mile in length. Situated in nearly twenty-six of north latitude, the island enjoys a very mild winter climate, while its summer is oppressively hot. 100 The means of support and occupation which 185 the islanders in this obscure spot possess, are not so limited as might be supposed; and, in fact, with a little fresh blood direct from England or America, a good deal might be made of the place and neighborhood. There is abundance of fish in the neighboring seas; and the weather being almost always fine, and the sea calm, the occupation of fishing can be For the information of our readers, who take an interest in such comparative matters, we will add that the amount of average rain which fell each month, and year, since January 1, 1864, according to ombrometrical register, was as follows: pursued at all times of the year There are they like, grow oranges for the New York maralso lobsters, craw fish, crabs, and occasionally ket. The land is cheap, and there is no tax on most delicious turtle. There are no oysters. produce; besides which government land is Prawns, which are caught in such plenty in Inoften occupied and cultivated without having dia, and form the basis of that finest of all dishes, prawncurry, are not found in the Bahamas. They appear, however, on the coast of the Windward Islands. been bought at all, or any rent being paid. A negro of my acquaintance told me that he occupied in this way a small plot of land of about an acre or two, on which last summer, with the help of his son, he grew three thousand six hundred pine-apples, for which he received thirty pounds. This plot of ground is on the island of Abaco, which the people usually call the Main. It is separated from the Cay by only two or three miles of delightfully calm and clear water. My black friend, having ac Lobsters are caught in a peculiar manner. They are found in plenty along the side of the inlets, which penetrate the Cays. A boat is rowed along the mangrove bushes which line the margin of the sounds, as they are called. One man is armed with a two-pronged spear; & water-glass is used to examine the bottom of the sea; and when a lobster is seen, he is saquired so much money for a few weeks' work, luted with the prongs, and hauled on board. When the tide is low, numbers are easily speared. Turtle is caught in a similar manner, but without the use of the water-glass. took, I believe, a long rest; in fact with the help of fish and molluscs, of which there is great plenty, he had no necessity to work any more for that year. Besides fishing, however, there is a far more Fruit is very cheap: one hundred limes were profitable occupation, in which nearly every offered me for sixpence, a few months ago. one on the island can take part. About fifty Pine-apples are abundant, and the finest in flamiles north-west, there is a splendid sponging-vor I ever tasted. The pine-apples are plucked ground, and several times a year, boats proceed before they are quite ripe, and shipped for New to this spot, and return after a few weeks, each York, which port they reach in perhaps eight boat bringing perhaps from three hundred to or ten days. There they are immediately sold five hundred dozen of sponges. These are sent to a dealer, who soon finds purchasers for them. to Nassau, and sold to the merchants, so that a The oranges come later in the season; they are considerable sum of money is periodically di-plucked green, and ripen during the voyage. vided among the islanders, from a source which There are two or three fruits on this island scarcely any other part of the world is in possession of. I have been informed that Nassau receives thirty thousand pounds a year from this trade. which I have not seen in other parts of the world; one of these is the alligator pear, which is of the shape of an English one, and grows on a small tree. It is not much of a fruit, but The water-glass is absolutely neceesary is very nice for breakfast in hot weather, when in collecting sponges, which often grow at a it is eaten with pepper and salt. It is one of considerable depth. A pole, from ten to twenty those fruits for which one acquires a liking in or thirty feet long, with a double claw fastened a short time. It is only in season in the sumto the end of it, is let down to the root of the mer. The sapadello is another fruit which is sponge, which is torn from the rock. The na- not found in any part of India that I am actives pretend this is very hard work: proba-quainted with. This is a very nice fruit, and bly, however, it would not compare with plough- resembles bread-pudding, but is very sweet. ing or other of our agricultural operations. The There are so many reefs and ledges, sounds and sponges, when collected, are found to be ten-sandbanks, in this part of the world, that wrecks anted by the worm, as it is called, and must therefore be placed in the sun, to allow the animal to die. Afterwards, they are well washed in water, until all the animal matter is got rid of, and the bad smell dissipated, when they are brought to market. A bead of sponges of about a dozen or more may be bought for three shillings on the island of Green Turtle Cay. are considered a regular source of income, and the most profitable of all. In fact, although I resided on the island scarcely six months, there were not less than seven wrecks within reach of our boats. The share for salvage which the natives obtain is about half the value of the goods saved; moreover, these being sold by auction in the town, the inhabitants are able to purchase at a cheap rate many of the neces These two branches of trade, with what the saries and even luxuries of life. In incidentally soil itself can yield-namely, bananas, sweet-alluding to the subject of wrecking, I approach potatoes, and perhaps Indian corn-might be a topic of great importance to the real and persupposed to be quite sufficient for the support of manent welfare of the Bahama Islands. It is the inhabitants, who consist of men of Euro- a matter which has engaged the serious attenpean and African origin, with a few of a mixed tion of the present governor, who is most laudaIn addition, however, to these sources of bly desirous of substituting some other occupalivelihood, the inhabitants can, all of them if tion more in accordance with the true interests of race. 1 the inhabitants, than the precarious and de- air, so still is he, whilst his wings are working moralizing trade of wrecking; and the gains with tremendous rapidity. Suddenly, he will from which are at times so great as to deprive tumble two or three feet down, and instantly be the natives of the necessary stimulus to those suspended in mid air, his wings giving forth industrial pursuits which their social wants in- their monotonous hum. Then approaching a culcate. The certainty of the occurrence of a flower, he inserts his long bill, still standing in shipwreck sooner or later, naturally diverts the the air, and having extracted its sweets, darts mind from the subject of horticulture, which off in another direction. ought to engage their attention. The temptation also to theft is very great, and too often yielded to. Numerous, however, as are the moral objections to the practice in question, not less so are the difficulties which stand in the way of its reform. There are several light-houses scattered over the Bahamas, and no doubt many more are required. Still it should be borne in mind that, to make them thoroughly efficient, the keepers should be placed beyond the temptation of a bribe. A salary of eighty poundsa year, with rations for one individual, is sadly insufficient for such a purpose. When residing in that part of the world, I accidentally heard of a keeper who, in spite of the severe economy inevitable with such a salary, contrived both to drink champagne and amass a fortune of several hundred pounds. One is reminded, in short, of the Frenchman's stone broth, which proved so delicious a repast. In spite of the advantages enjoyed by the natives of the island, there is no accumulation of wealth, as a general rule, by the negro population. They are improvident, and very deficient in regard to the payment of their debts. I confess I have formed the opinion, that a country inhabited by a negro peasantry would bear a very unfavorable comparison with one peopled by men of European race, unless, indeed, a prolonged moral culture under civilized institutions should develop a much more elevated character in future generations. In the beginning of February, another pleasing visitor makes his appearance-the mockingbird arrives. His song is something like that of the thrush. The natives of the Cay, however, do not appear to pay any regard to such visitants; all their interests centres in the sea; and the cry of "A wreck!" will send every man running to his boat. But the ocean has here attractions of another kind. The Bahamas are celebrated for their shells. Some very fine ones are occasionally found on this island, which entirely put to shame anything of the kind which is found on the coasts of India or England. A week's sojourn on the Cay, if they could be suddenly transported there, would be an immense treat to the frequenters of Scarborough or Brighton. The variety of bushes (some in flower), ferns, &c., would afford amusement to those of horticultural tastes; while the gyrations of the humming-bird, of which there are several species, would be a perpetual source of delight both to old and young. What a never-ending source of interest would be offered by that great treasure-store, the sea! What untiring pedestrians would circumambulate its shores! How persevering would be the idolaters of the little shrines, with their doorways of pearl, and their sculptured ornaments, fabricated by the creatures of these clear green waters. SPANISH HERMITS AND NUNS. Lady Herbert, in her "Impressions of Spain," gives an account of her visit to the hermitage in the Sierra Morena. There are at present seventeen hermits, all gentlemen, and many of high birth and large fortune. "They never see each other but at mass and in choir, or speak but once a month." The cabin of each recluse is fitted with " a bed composed of three boards, with a sheepskin and a pillow of straw; the rest of the furniture consisted of a crucifix, a The jug of water, a terrible discipline with iron points," and an Essay on Christian Perfection. One of the greatest evils connected with Green Turtle Cay is the painful uncertainty of communication. European letters are received at Nassau once a month by the mail from New York, and there they will remain for ten or twenty days, when at length, after patience is worn out from repeated disappointment, a schooner is seen approaching the island, the letters arrive, but cannot be answered until another mail has come from New York. natives of the place, however, care very littte for this uncertain communication, as they have no friends in Europe, and are not given to epistolary correspondence. They find amusement in their boats and schooners, and their daily round of occupation. At Green Turtle Cay I made my first acquaintance with the humming-bird. His power of wing is wonderful. You are puzzled to decide whether the marvellous little creature is perched on some small twig, or standing in the No linen is allowed, or stockings. They are not permitted to possess anything. They keep a perpetual fast on beans and lentils, only on high days being allowed fish. They are not allowed to write or receive letters, or to go into one another's cells, or to go out of the enclosure, except once a month, when they may walk in the mountains round, which they generally do together, reciting litanies. Seven hours of each day must be given to prayer, and they take the |