32 



materials are borne in upon us from fresh sources in 

 every land. You show us how such matter may be 

 subordinated to mind. A thousand years hence, and 

 things will be much simpler. Nations have been able 

 to preserve their individuality in spite of the march 

 of armies from one end of the Continent to the other. 

 Since the great epoch of Columbus and Grama, when 

 one quarter, nay, one hemisphere, of the globe made 

 acquaintance with the other, that restless element, the 

 sea, has made the ubiquity of a certain species of 

 civilization, that of Western Europe, a possibility. 

 Across each boundary line of the firm earth new man- 

 ners, new beliefs, new wants force their way among 

 the most isolated clusters of remote lands. Are not 

 the South .Sea Islands already Protestant parishes? 

 A floating battery, a single man-of-war, changes the 



fate of Chili 



The Princess Helene, by her sweet grace and intel- 

 lectual superiority, achieved, yesterday, the mastery 

 over much rude and stubborn matter. It was most 

 absurd to see how some people strove to look solemn, 

 dignified, and silly. I am especially delighted 

 that she goes to her new home with the greatest 

 cheerfulness. I wish she were crossing the Ehine 

 with a less retinue. Her mother is a worthy, well- 

 educated lady, but timid ; and as to the others who 

 figure in her suite, there would be no great loss if 

 they remained on this side the stream. Fortunately, 

 the great Trench world is free from the petty jeering 

 and fault-finding which reign paramount in Berlin 

 and Potsdam, where empty-headed folk keep pecking 

 for months together at a caricature drawn by their 

 own feeble imagination. 



