morbid or languid state of the individual, so, in the statistics 

 of nations, locomotion is productive, in the highest degree, 

 of public enjoyment, power, and prosperity. Of these, 

 indeed, it may be considered, empirically speaking, as afford- 

 ing one of the most accurate tests. During the Augustan 

 period, Horace informs us that he and his party performed, 

 in fourteen days and a half, the journey from Rome to Brun- 

 dusium, a distance of 360 miles, being at the rate of twenty- 

 four miles per day. A century later, the voyage of St. Paul 

 from Judea to Eome ( 1900 miles) appears to have occupied 

 about four months. It is true that, owing to the lateness 

 of the season, a delay of three months took place at Malta, 

 where the Apostle of the Gentiles suffered shipwreck. But 

 the skill of modern navigators would have altogether ob- 

 viated both the shipwreck and the delay. Five and twenty 

 years ago, this voyage would have been made by a British 

 sailing vessel in ten or twelve days, with ordinary weather; 

 but a steamer of the present day can accomplish the distance 

 in eight. Happening in the year 1H17 to be at Antwerp, 

 I observed a small steamer lying in the river Scheldt. T 

 made the tour of Holland, and, returning to Antwerp, 

 found the vessel still remaining in the same place. On 

 inquiry, it turned out that this, which was one of the 

 earliest steamers trading to the Continent, and the first 

 which had found her way to Belgium, had sustained some 

 little damage in one of her paddle-wheels, and was waiting 

 the arrival of an engineer from England, who had been 

 sent for to make the repairs. 



" At the present time there is scarcely a maritime coast 

 or river of Europe, which is not daily visited bv steamers. 

 Twenty years have scarcely elapsed since the Mississippi and 

 its tributary streams rolled their mighty waters in almost 

 solitary grandeur to the ocean. Over the broad expanse 

 scarcely did a single ship appear for many miles together, 

 and of the few vessels or rafts which floated down the stream. 



