h side of
the immense cabin, running right fore and aft; three other rows in the
centre, each of these five rows having three bed-places, one over the
other. There were upwards of five hundred people, lying in every
variety of posture, and exhibiting every state and degree of repose--
from the loud uneasy snorer lying on his back, to the deep sleeper
tranquil as death. I walked up and down, through these long ranges of
unconsciousness, thinking how much care was for the time forgotten. But
as the air below was oppressive, and the moon was beautiful in the
heavens, I went on deck, and watched the swift career of the vessel,
which, with a favouring tide, was flying past the shores at the rate of
twenty miles an hour--one or two people only, out of so many hundreds on
board of her, silently watching over the great principle of locomotion.
The moon sank down, and the sun rose and gilded the verdure of the banks
and the spires of the city of New York, as I revelled in my own thoughts
and enjoyed the luxury of being alone--a double luxury in America, where
the people are gregarious, and would think themselves very ill-bred if
they allowed you one moment for meditation or self-examination.

VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER FIVE.

Stepped on board of the Narangansett steam-vessel for Providence. Here
is a fair specimen of American travelling:--From New York to Providence,
by the Long Island Sound, is two hundred miles; and this is
accomplished, under usual circumstances, in thirteen hours: from
Providence to Boston, forty miles by railroad, in two hours--which
makes, from New York to Boston, an average speed of sixteen miles an
hour, stoppages included.

I was, I must confess, rather surprised, when in the railroad cars, to
find that we were passing through a _church-yard_, with tomb-stones on
both sides of us. In Rhode Island and Massachusetts, where the
pilgrim-fathers first landed--the two States that take pride to
themselves (and with justice) for superior morality and a strict
exercise of religious observances--they look down upon the other States
of the Union, especially New York, and cry out, "I thank thee, Lord,
that I am not as that publican." Yet here, in Rhode Island, are the
sleepers of the railway laid over the sleepers in death; here do they
grind down the bones of their ancestors for the sake of gain, and
consecrated earth is desecrated by the iron wheels, loaded with
Mammon-seeking mortals. And this in the puri