New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1853-10-26

upon main road; we missed the yiirl and the
uproar, the tunlult and the agitation, which
continually thcken and thicken throughout the
last dozen miles before you reach the suburbs
Already, at the three stages distance, (say
forty miles from London,) upon some Of the
greatest roads, the dim presenhrnent Of some
vast capital reaches you obscurely, and like q
mgiying The blind sympathy with mighty
nut unseen OBJECT, some vast magnetic range of
Alps, in your neigborhood, continues to in
ereases you know not how. Arrived at the last
station for changing horses, Barnet, suppose, on
one Of the north roads, or 1Iounslow on the
western, you no longer think tas in all other
places Of naming the next stage; nobody says,
on pulling up, Horses On to London that
would sound ludcrous; one mighty idea broods
over ali minds, making it impossb Die TO suppose
any other destination. Launched upon the
final stage, You soon begin to feel yourself en-
tering the stream Us if itwere Of a Norwegian
maelstrom and the stream at length becomes
the rush Of a cataract What is meant by the
Latin word trepidatiot Not anything pecu-
liarly connected with panic; it belongs to the
huIrying to and fro Of common battle, as Of
coming fight; to marriage festival as much
as to massacre agitation is the nearest
English word. The trepidation increases both
audibly and visibly at every half mile pretty
much as one may suppose the roar Of Niagara
and the thrilling Of the ground to grow upon
the senses in the last ten miles of approach,
with the wind in its favor, until at length il
would absorb and extinguish all other sounds
whatsoever.
Finally, for miles before you reach the sub
urb Of LONDON, such as Islngton, for instance,
last great sign and augury of the irnmensity
which belongs to the coming metropolis forces
itself on the dullest observer, in the growing
sense of his utter insignfcance Everywhere
else in England, you, yourself, horses, carriage,
(.
ed with attention, perhaps even curiosity; at
all events you are seen But after passing the
final post-house on every avenue to London, for
the latter ten or twelve miles you become aware
that you are no longer noticed nobody regards
you nobody hears you; nobody regards you
you do not even regard yourself. In fact, how
should you, at the moment Of first ascertainine
| your own total unimportance in the sum Of
things-a poor shivering unit in the aggregate
of human life Now, for the first time, what
ever manner of man you were, or seemed to be
at starting, squire or ''squireen lord or lord
| ling, and however related to that city, hamlet,
| or solitary house, from which yesterday or to-
| day you slipped your cable--beyond disguise
you find yourself but one wave in total At
| lantic, one plant (and parasitical plant be-
sides, needing alien props in forest of America.
J. These are feelings which do not belong by pre-
| ference to thoughtful people-far less to people
I
| himself the first time in the streets, as yet IN
| known. Of London, but he must have been sad
dened and mortified, perhaps terrified, by the
| sense Of desertion and utter loneliness which be-
| longs to his situation No loneliness can be like
that which weighs upon the heart in the centre
Of faces never ending without voice or utterancs
for him eyes innumerable, that have " ne
speculation in their orbs which he can under
stand; and hurrying figures of men and womer
weaving to and fro, with no apparent purpose
| Ineligible to a stranger, seeming like masl
| Of maniacs, or, eftentimes, like a pageant o
| phantoms. The great length of the streets il
many quarters Of London the continual open
ing Of transient glimpses into other vstas equally
far-stretching, going on at right angles to th'
one to which you are traversing and the murky
atmosphere which. settling upon the remotel
end Of every long avenue, wraps its termination
in gloom and uncertainty; all these are circum
stances aiding that sense of vastness and illimit
able proportions which forever brood over tn
| aspect of London in its interior. IDe Quincy
4 ezz4- Z