SOCIAL LIFE OF NASSAU. 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-point, 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 i. 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 were 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. 
25 
