er, with its traitor flag floating high in air, has
extricated itself from the beach, and is steaming down the coast as fast
as it can go. The golden opportunity is lost--was lost when the morning
hour was spent in unnecessary discussion, eating, and drinking. Still
they try to make up for lost time by rapid firing now, for she may be
taking in a precious and comforting cargo of arms and other stores of
war. The shots fall close about her, but a little short. Whitworth guns
protect her as she goes, for our steamers dare not venture too near
land, lest some long-range ball smash through their steam chests. The
batteries from which the rebels fired were mostly erected after the
steamer ran ashore, and seemed to consist principally of field pieces
and guns hastily drawn to the spot, with no earthworks to protect them.
This speedy work of theirs was in strong contrast to our slow motions.
With a spyglass we could see telegraph poles stretched along the shore.
The steamer had probably not been ashore one hour, when eight miles
south to the fort, and eight or ten miles north to Wilmington, the news
had spread of its arrival, and busy hands bestirred themselves, dragging
up guns and ammunition to cover their stranded prize. As soon as
sunlight lit up the beach, squads of men were seen pulling at ropes to
work the vessel off the sandy beach. While they were thus engaged,
breakfast was being quietly eaten on board our vessels! We kept up our
fire till the steamer got under the guns of the fort and out of our
reach, and then retired; and so ended our chase in nothing but noise and
smoke.

We have given the reader a clue to a little of the inefficiency of the
Wilmington blockade. In our next paper, we shall endeavor to picture
some of the effects of naval life on character, and the strange
experiences one can have on shipboard, even in the monotony of life on a
blockader.

BUCKLE, DRAPER; CHURCH AND STATE.

_FOURTH PAPER._

In the first paper of this series, reference was made to the Principles
of _Unity_ and _Individuality_ as dominating over distinctive epochs of
the world's progress; and certain characteristics of each epoch were
pointed out which may be briefly recapitulated. Up to a period of time
which is commonly said to commence with the publication of Lord Bacon's
_Novum Organum_, the preponderating tendency in all the affairs of
Society--in Government, in Religion, in Thought, in Practical
Activities--was _c