very similar, being both
crowded with lumber and pretty girls.

I went out to see the Shakers at Niskayuna. So much has already been
said about their tenets that I shall not repeat them, further than to
observe that all their goods are in common, and that, although the sexes
mix together, they profess the vows of celibacy and chastity. Their
lands are in excellent order, and they are said to be very rich. [I
should be very sorry to take away the character of any community, but,
as I was a little sceptical as to the possibility of the vow of chastity
being observed under circumstances above alluded to, I made some
inquiries, and having met with one who had seceded from the fraternity,
I discovered that my opinion of human nature was correct, and the
conduct of the Shakers not altogether so. I must not enter into
details, as they would be unfit for publication.]

We were admitted into a long room on the ground-floors where the Shakers
were seated on forms, the men opposite to the women, and apart from each
other. The men were in their waistcoats and shirt-sleeves, twiddling
their thumbs, and looking awfully puritanical. The women were attired
in dresses of very light striped cotton, which hung about them like full
dressing-gowns, and concealed all shape and proportions. A plain mob
cap on their heads, and a thick muslin handkerchief in many folds over
their shoulders, completed their attire. They each held in their hands
a pocket-handkerchief as large as a towel, and of almost the same
substance. But the appearance of the women was melancholy and
unnatural; I say unnatural because it required to be accounted for.
They had all the advantages of exercise and labour in the open air, good
food, and good clothing; they were not overworked, for they are not
required to work more than they please; and yet there was something so
pallid, so unearthly in their complexions, that it gave you the idea
that they had been taken up from their coffins a few hours after their
decease: not a hue of health, not a vestige of colour in any cheek or
lip;--one cadaverous yellow tinge prevailed. And yet there were to be
seen many faces very beautiful, as far as regarded outline, but they
were the features of the beautiful in death. The men, on the contrary,
were ruddy, strong, and vigorous. Why, then, this difference between
the sexes, where they each performed the same duties, where none were
taxed beyond their strength, and all we