No. iL 



A Dream — yet not a Dream^ 



333 



tusks of elephants from Africa ; the varnish 

 was from India ; the hinges from Birming- 

 ham, and the wliole were wrought into their 

 present form at the world-renowned estab- 

 lishment of Messrs, Chickering & Co., Wash- 

 ington street, Boston. 



"While I was musing on the singular 

 fact that the four quarters of the globe had 

 been ransacked for the materials of which 

 to construct this single instrument, I heard 

 an extraordinary rattling in the china closet. 

 On opening the door and looking in, I beheld 

 with amazement, every article — plates, 'plat- 

 ters, bowls and tumblers, casters and cream 

 pots, salvers and salt dishes — attitudinizing, 

 as if inspired with some extraordinary emo- 

 tion. All began to speak at onca, and a con- 

 fusion, worse than that of Babel, saluted my 

 ears. Amid the din, I could gather only a 

 few detached sounds. The set of phials in 

 the caster-stand seemed to have the advan- 

 tage of lungs, and I therefore gathered the 

 following sentences: 'I,' said Mustard, 'was 

 raised by an old woman in France, and man- 

 ufactured in Paris.' 'And I,' said Pepper, 

 'was cultivated by the swarthy Malays of 

 Sumatra, and made a voyage half round the 

 world to get here!' 'And I,' said Ketchup, 

 'came into existence as a mushroom, and 

 was pickled by Underwood, of Boston.' 

 'And I,' said Soy, 'was reared and manufac- 

 tured in Japan I' 'And I,' said Sweet Oil, 

 'carne from the sunny climes of Italy.' 

 'And I,' said Vinegar, with a scowl and a 

 scream, ' I came from hard cider !' 



" Bewildered by the clamors of the china 

 closet, I shut the door in the face of the in- 

 surgents; but if I silenced one source of an- 

 noyance, another was before me. The car- 

 pet rose and fell like waves beneath my feet, 

 and at length one of the large circular fig- 

 ures stood erect, and with goggling eyes and 

 enormous mouth, addressed me as follows : — 

 'I was born on the backs of sheep that were 

 fed in Asia Minor; I was spun by those who 

 pray five times a day to Mahomet, thfe co- 

 lours that decorate me were gathered from 

 the three kingdoms of nature, and I was 

 woven in a machine, the invention of which 

 consumed twenty centuries !' 



" Scarcely was this speech ended, when I 

 saw the mirror swaying rapidly back and 

 forth, and after a moment it exclaimed : 

 ' Listen to me ! The glass which forms my 

 face was once the waste sand of the pit: 

 this was purified and exalted by fire. 1 was 

 tlien polished by the artisans of Paris. The 

 quicksilver which gives me my magical 

 power, was dug from the mines of Almaden, 

 a thousand feet below the surface of tho 

 earth : the gold which gilds my frame was 

 washed from the Mountains of the Moon by 



the Niger, and having passed through the 

 purse of the king of Ashantee, was beaten 

 to the thinness of the thirty thousandth part 

 of an inch.' Hardly was this burst of rhe^ 

 toric ended, when the Argand lamp declared 

 that its oil once dwelt in the head of a whale 

 seventy feet in length, and which had plough- 

 ed the Pacific for half a century. A book 

 that lay upon the table, spoke of containing 

 in its leaves a variety of rags, gathered from 

 the four winds, each of v^jhich could tell a 

 tale : and a sofa said something of hair from 

 the tails of wild horses, caught on the Pam- 

 pas of South America, and lofty trees of 

 mahogany cut down amid the mighty forests 

 of Campeachy. The scene grew more and 

 more bewildering — and as each object seem- 

 ed to be endowed with a fiercer aspect and 

 a louder tone, my heart beat violently, and 

 I awoke ! Looking around, I saw before 

 me a note from the printing office, which 

 ran thus : 



" Dear Sir, — Please furnish us copy for 

 the preface to the 'Enterprise, Industry, 

 and Art of Man.' 



Yours, J. R. 



"If the kind and considerate reader will 

 bear in mind that a preface, though placed 

 at the beginning, is the last thing writ- 

 ten ; and if, moreover, he has the patience 

 to peruse the following pages, he may come 

 to the conclusion that the preceding dream 

 was neither unnatural, nor a very unapt in- 

 terpretation of the contents of the volume." 



Tlie pages which succeed this fanciful in- 

 troduction are designed to exhibit the enter- 

 prise, still continues the Gazette, industry 

 and art of man, as displayed in fishing, 

 hunting, commerce, navigation, mining, ag- 

 riculture and manufactures. The}^ are re- 

 plete with entertaining sketches, likely de- 

 scriptions, and striking reflections. We make 

 two or three extracts, which will be read with 

 interest, and give some id^a of the scope of 

 the subject, and the happy style in which it 

 is treated by the author. 



Whale Fishery. — But if the dangers and 

 privations of the whale fishery are great, its 

 beneficial results are an adequate compen- 

 sation. It is impossible to compass in a sin- 

 gle view the blessings bestowed upon man- 

 kind by this branch of enterprise. There is 

 ho member of society who is not indebted 

 to this source for many of his enjoyments. 

 Let the ladies consider that the perfection 

 of their stays is derived from whalebone, 

 and let him who carries an umbrella, make 

 a similar reflection. Let the traveller who 

 glides along twelve miles an hour in a 

 steamboat, or twenty-five in a locomotive, 

 consider that he is under obligation to the 



