Chap. I. WESTEKN PHILOSOPHY. 209 
horizontal limestone strata cropping out here and there. 
Alternately right and left lay a, beautiful plain on the 
concave side of the river bends. We occasionally passed 
some commencement of a village, consisting of a few 
houses, or a single house, with a small plot of cultivated 
land. The shores were generally wooded. Oaks and elms, 
with occasionally pines, appeared to be the predominant 
trees. The next morning we had before us flat shores, 
with groves of poplars, succeeded on the left side, below the 
mouth of the Wabash, by hills, which continued as far as 
Paduca, toward the mouth of the Tennesee. On the Ohio 
I observed no other animals than a large dark-grey heron, 
some carrion vultures, and numerous small white gulls. In 
the evening, after sunset, we reached Cairo, and ran into 
the Mississippi. 
I was interested by a conversation I overheard between 
two of my travelling companions, a Kentucky farmer, and 
a methodist preacher from Indiana. It began with the 
subject of steamboats, and passed on to that of flying- 
machines; which led the farmer — a shrewd little old 
man, with a bald pate and white curls behind his ears — 
to speak of the flight of angels and spirits. The preacher 
said he had heard of the invention of a machine which 
was propelled "by electricity, like the flight of the 
eagle." 
"What is your idea, sir, of the spirits of men after 
death ?" asked the little farmer. " Do you think they 
will be able to move with extraordinary velocity from one 
place to another ? " 
" Unquestionably," answered the preacher. 
" Well," continued the farmer, " but as to the angels 
there's a difficulty I can't get over, and I am curious, sir, 
to know your opinion on the subject. You will allow that 
p 
