KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



271 



he can retreat from his relations to others — 

 where he can withdraw the influence of his exis- 

 tence upon the moral destiny of the world : every- 

 where his presence or absence will be felt ; every- 

 where he will have companions who will be better 

 or worse for his influence. It is an old saying; 

 and one of fearful and fathomless import, that 

 we are forming characters for eternity* Forming 

 characters! — whose? Our own? or others? Both; 

 and in that momentous fact lie the peril and 

 responsibility of our existence. 



Who is sufficient for the thought ? thousands 

 of my fellow-beings will yearly enter eternity, with, 

 characters differing from those they would have 

 carried thither had I never lived. The sunlight 

 of that world will reveal my finger-marks in their 

 primary formations, and in their successive strata 

 of thought and life. And they, too, will form 

 other characters for eternity; until the influence 

 of my existence shall be diffused through all 

 future generations of the world, and through all 

 that shall be future to a certain point in the world 

 to come. 



As a little silvery, circular ripple, set in motion 

 by the falling pebble, expands from its inch of 

 radius to the whole compass of the pool ; so there 

 is not a child — not an infant Moses — placed, 

 however softly, in his bullvush ark upon the sea 

 of time, whose existence does not stir a ripple, 

 gyrating outward and on, until it shall have 

 moved across and spanned the whole ocean of 

 God's eternity. " To be, or not to be" — is that 

 the question? — No! we are; and whether we 

 live or die, we are the Lord's. We belong to His 

 eternity, and henceforth His moral universe will 

 be filled with our existence. — E. B. 



[These observations are from the pen of a true 

 philosopher. Let them be read over some half 

 dozen times; and they will be^fomid to contain 

 many very forcible, very solemn, very momen- 

 tous truths.] 



* We have recently shown this, in our re- 

 marks upon the " cheap Weekly Penny Press," 

 whose baneful influence on the middle and lower 

 ranks of society are fearfully developed in our 

 social system day by day. The wretched men 

 who conduct these periodicals, may not possibly 

 be aware of the great moral evil they have a 

 hand in ; still are they contaminating the pure 

 streams of knowledge; and so " ruling the des- 

 tiny of the moral universe." It is a fearful 

 thought!— Ed. K. J. 



DAYS WITHOUT NIGHTS. 



There is nothing that strikes a stranger 

 more forcibly, if he visits Sweden at the 

 season of the year when the days are the 

 longest, than the absence of night. Our 

 countryman, Dr. Baird, tells us he had no 

 conception of the effect produced, before his 

 arrival at Stockholm, 500 miles distant from 

 Guttenberg. He arrived in the morning, 

 and, in the afternoon, went to see some 

 friends. He had not taken notes of time, and 

 returned about midnight ; it was as light as it 

 is here half an hour before sun-down. You 

 could see distinctly. But all was quiet in 



the streets ; it seemed as if the inhabitants 

 were gone away, or were dead. No signs of 

 life ; stores closed. 



The sun in June goes down at Stockholm 

 at a little before ten o'clock. There is a great 

 illumination all night, as the sun passes round 

 the earth towards the north pole ; and the 

 refraction of its rays is such that you can 

 see to read at midnight, without artificial 

 light. There is a mountain at the head of 

 Bothnia, where, on the 2lst of June, the sun 

 does not go down at all. Travellers go there 

 to see it. A steam-boat goes up from Stock- 

 holm for the purpose of carrying those who 

 are curious, to witness the phenomenon. It 

 occurs only one night. The sun goes down 

 to the horizon, you can see the whole face 

 of it, and in five minutes it begins to rise. 



At the North Cape, latitude 72 degrees, 

 the sun does not go down for several weeks. 

 In June it would be about 25 degrees above 

 the horizon at midnight. The way the 

 people there know it is midnight, is — they see 

 the sun rise. The changes in these high 

 latitudes, from summer to winter, are so 

 great, that we can have no conception of 

 them at all. In the winter time, the sun 

 disappears, and is not seen for weeks. Then 

 it comes and shows its face. Afterwards, it 

 remains for ten, fifteen, or twenty minutes, 

 and then descends ; and finally it does not 

 set at all, but makes almost a circle 

 around the heavens. Dr. Baird was asked, 

 how they managed in regard to hired persons, 

 and what they consider a day ? He could 

 not say, but supposed they worked by the 

 hour, and twelve hours would be considered 

 a day's work. 



Birds and animals take their accustomed 

 resi>at the usual hours. The doctor did not 

 know how they learnt the time, but they 

 had ; and go to rest whether the sun goes 

 down or not. The hens take to the trees 

 about seven o'clock, p.m., and stay there 

 until the sun is well up in the morning ; and 

 the people get into this habit of late rising 

 too. The first morning Dr. Baird awoke 

 in Stockholm, he was surprised to see the 

 sun shining into his room. He looked at his 

 watch, and found it was only three o'clock ! 

 the next time he awoke, it was five o'clock ; 

 but there were no persons in the street. The 

 Swedes in the cities are not very industrious, 

 owing, probably, to the climate. 



NEYER LESS ALONE, THAN WHEN ALONE. 



There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, 

 There is a rapture on the lonely shore, 

 There is society where none intrudes 

 By the deep sea, and music in its roar. 

 I love not man the less, but nature more, 

 From these our interviews, in which I steal 

 From all I may be or have been before, 

 To mingle with the universe, and feci 

 What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal. 



