sea-birds were flitting over the water, only visible at moments, when
they turned their white bosoms towards me,--as if they were then first
created. The sunshine had a singular effect. The clouds would interpose
in such a manner that some objects were shaded from it, while others were
strongly illuminated. Some of the islands lay in the shade, dark and
gloomy, while others were bright and favored spots. The white lighthouse
was sometimes very cheerfully marked. There was a schooner about a mile
from the shore, at anchor, laden apparently with lumber. The sea all
about her had the black, iron aspect which I have described; but the
vessel herself was alight. Hull, masts, and spars were all gilded, and
the rigging was made of golden threads. A small white streak of foam
breaking around the bows, which were towards the wind. The shadowiness
of the clouds overhead made the effect of the sunlight strange, where it
fell.


September.--The elm-trees have golden branches intermingled with their
green already, and so they had on the first of the month.

To picture the predicament of worldly people, if admitted to paradise.

As the architecture of a country always follows the earliest structures,
American architecture should be a refinement of the log-house. The
Egyptian is so of the cavern and mound; the Chinese, of the tent; the
Gothic, of overarching trees; the Greek, of a cabin.

"Though we speak nonsense, God will pick out the meaning of it,"--an
extempore prayer by a New England divine.

In old times it must have been much less customary than now to drink pure