10 
THE ORIENTAL ANNUAL. 
the business of life, and not for the more secret 
mysteries of our nature, which, while they concen- 
trate and absorb, are too deep and too subtle to he 
brought at will to the surface, and made tangible. 
Perhaps the much quoted saying of the late Prince 
of Diplomatists may be true in a more hidden sense 
than is displayed in its ordinary acceptation, that 
the chief, that is the common, use of words is to 
disguise the thoughts — for how seldom do we find 
words capable of truly rendering the more refined 
and abstract reasonings of the mind, the profound 
emotions of the heart. If then words fail to convey 
a true reflection of these, they serve but to disguise 
that which they are intended to portray. 
The summit of the farthest range over which our 
route lay was at last attained, and down its undulating 
sides, beautiful and gay with verdant slopes and 
richly flowered hollows, we beheld once more the 
handiwork and the dwellings of man ; far, far below 
us, in a smiling cultivated valley, lay the pretty little 
town of Praya, its white houses, out-topped by the 
sombre monastic piles, stretching to the very edge 
of the fortified bay. In this snug village, shut out 
by sea and mountain from all the world, what was 
our surprise to receive the warm welcome of a resident 
English physician ! The cheerful benevolence of his 
countenance and his frank demeanour alike belied 
our first suspicion that some wayward misanthropy 
had led him to this secluded retreat; but our good 
