A POPULOUS COMMUNITY. 97 



This, and much more, though nothing perhaps altogether 

 new, is to be seen " under the sun '' in the highways of this 

 extensive city ; and there are also other things (alas ! not new 

 either) going on in the shade and the bye-ways thereof. There 

 murder is boldly stalking, or slily lurking. The strong are 

 preying on the weak. Members of one society, nay, of one 

 family, are openly attacking or secretly injuring each other; 

 while greedy parasites are for ever preying on the substance 

 of those by whom they live. 



Now, shutting our eyes on the creations of Fancy, let us 

 open them on the realities of Nature. Where are we ? Our 

 populous city, like Aladdin's palace, has disappeared, and in 

 its stead stands, in solitary grandeur, a stately oak-tree. How ! 

 exclaims, perhaps, some plodding follower of our wandering 

 lucubrations ; have we been all this while led astray by pre- 

 tended descriptions of what has no existence, save in the 

 realms of imagination ? By no means, we can assure you. 

 We may have given, indeed, both to our structures and their 

 inhabitants something of the form fantastic, such as is assumed 

 by the boughs of yonder oak, as they mount in airy evolutions 

 to the clouds ; but like those, also, they rest on solid bases, 

 and spring from vital roots. The oak itself, with certain of 

 its usual occupants, has stood, in fact, for our opening sketch. 

 The objects have been traced precisely as they exist. Let us 

 only fill up their outlines, and give to each a name, and we 



