SOCIAL LIFE OF JSTASSAU. 289 



surrounds the island upon which it is situated, divides and sepa- 

 rates. This isolation has very naturally tended to foster some 

 degree of self-exaltation, which could not have existed had its 

 people been brought in closer contact with the great tides of 

 human life and activity thousands of miles away. 



It is proper, however, to suggest that our observations of the 

 social life of Nassau were taken from an outside stand-i3oint, so 

 that the reader may very properly allow a wide margin for mis- 

 takes and imperfections. We did not plant our feet upon a sin- 

 gle round of Nassau's social ladder, but, like Jacob of old, we 

 occasionally saw as we supposed, the angels ascending and de- 

 scending upon it. Had we been permitted by a kind Providence 

 to climb, as some were to crawl, up the dizzy heights of official 

 and social life in that little colonial capital, and been sufficiently 

 calm and self-possessed to have observed with an undazed eye, 

 and to take notes with a steady hand, we should be better quali- 

 fied to reflect back upon our readers a little of that intoxicating 

 pleasure, which, like a philter, is supposed to pervade that upper 

 and truly aristocratic air. But, landing upon one of the wharfs 

 of Nassau utter strangers to her people, we had no letters of 

 introduction that opened for us the door of a single private 

 dwelling. The Royal Victoria Hotel, with its numerous guests, 

 varied and constantly changing, was a little miniature world in 

 which we Avere satisfied to live and revolve, making but few out- 

 side acquaintances, and those slight and casual. We had no 

 desire to commence a fresh set of books for new and short-lived 

 friendships, nor to gratify an idle curiosity by crossing the thresh- 

 olds of hospitality; but as one can learn much, and all he desires 

 to know, about a gale of wind without being exposed to its fury, 

 so a close and careful observer upon the outer margin of society 

 sees many things — feathers in the air — that disclose to him much 

 cf the ' ' true inwardness " of a high life of fashion and folly, 



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