288 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
py frame of mind, being relieved from all the harrassing cares 
and severe labors of professional life, and having all our nerves 
soothed and quicted by a most delightful climate, that while we 
were ready to heartily assent to one line of the poet that ‘every 
prospect pleases,” we were by no means willing to unite in the 
severe charge partially concealed and ambushed in the expression 
that ‘only man is vile.” But our eyes were neither blind nor 
bandaged, and no one tried to pull Bahama wool over them. 
Small communities are inclined to overestimate their impor- 
tance, magnify their merits, and to be unconscious of defects 
and foibles which immediately attract a stranger's attention. 
They often feel disturbed when unfavorably criticised, and the 
pen of the traveler sometimes leaves upon a thin and morbidly 
sensitive epidermis, an enduring mark. In our country, (which 
we are pleased to call ‘‘ The Great Republic,”) the inflated blad- 
der of conceit has often been remorselessly punctured by Eng- 
lish tourists. Across the wide and stormy Atlantic the derisive 
laugh has been distinctly heard. It has penetrated the depths 
of primeval forests, and embittered the perfumed air of the 
boundless prairies of the Great West. The people of the old 
world are amused and astonished to find their Yankee cousins so 
thin skinned. The latter are more vexed because they cannot 
successfully retaliate. Hoary with age, and rich with the vast 
accumulations of many centuries, the great countries of Europe 
know little and careless what may be published eongerning them 
in the New World. 
We found so much to enjoy and commend in the Bahamas, 
we trust its people will not consider us unfriendly if we allude 
to some few things which are less complimentary. 
. Completely isolated—an oasis in a wide waste of waters—Nas- 
sau is necessarily a little microscopic world, but slightly connect- 
ed with the great old and new worlds which the vast ocean, which 
