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By Root 15995 0

man-bats and other living objects supposed to be seen. He speaks of seeing their entire bodies; but is it not clearly demonstrable that he could only have perceived the diameter of their heads? They would have appeared, to the observer, as flies upon a ceiling, heels up and head down; but no mention of this fact is made at all; although it would have been the first phenomenon which (from its oddness) would have arrested the attention of a real spectator. The fact is, that, however rich the fancy displayed in this ingenious fiction, it was sadly deficient in the execution of its details — in vraisemblance, and analogical truth. That the public were misled by it, even for an instant, merely proves the prevalent ignorance of Astronomy.

LETTER 5

Correspondence of the Spy.

NEW-YORK.

New-York. June 12, 1844.

Brooklyn has been increasing with great rapidity of late years. This is owing, partly, to the salubrity of its situation; but chiefly to its vicinity to the business portion of the city; the low price of ferriage, (two cents); the facility of access, which can be obtained at all hours, except two in the morning; and, especially, to the high rents of New-York. Brooklyn, you know, is much admired by the Gothamites; and, in fact, much has been done by Nature for the place. But this much the New-Yorkers have contrived very thoroughly to spoil. I know few towns which inspire me with so great disgust and contempt. It puts me often in mind of a city of silvered-gingerbread; no doubt you have seen this article of confectionary in some of the Dutch boroughs of Pennsylvania. Brooklyn, on the immediate shore of the Sound, has, it is true, some tolerable residences; but the majority, throughout, are several steps beyond the preposterous. What can be more sillily and pitiably absurd than palaces of painted white pine, fifteen feet by twenty? — and of such is this boasted “city of villas.” You see nowhere a cottage — everywhere a temple which “might have been Grecian had it not been Dutch” — which might have been tasteful had it not been Gothamite — a square box, with Doric or Corinthian pillars, supporting a frieze of unseasoned timber, roughly planed, and daubed with, at best, a couple of coats of whitey-brown paint. This “pavilion,” has, usually, a flat roof, covered with red zinc, and surrounded by a balustrade; if not surmounted by something nondescript, intended for a cupola, but wavering in character, between a pigeon-house, a sentry-box, and a pig-sty. The steps, at the front-door, are many, and bright yellow, and from their foot a straight alley of tan-bark, arranged between box-hedges, conducts the tenant, in glory, to the front gate — which, with the wall of the whole, is of tall white pine boards, painted sky-blue. If we add to this a fountain, giving out a pint of real water per hour, through the mouth of a leaden cat-fish standing upon the tip-end of his tail, and surrounded by a circle of admiring “conchs,” (as they here call the stonebuses [[strombuses]]), we have a quite perfect picture of a Brooklynite “villa.” In point of downright quiet [[iniquity]] — of absolute atrocity — such sin, I mean, as would consign a man, inevitably, to the regions of Pluto — I really can see little difference between the putting up such a house as this, and blowing up a House of Parliament, or cutting the throat of one’s grandfather.

The street-cries, and other nuisances to the same effect, are particularly disagreeable here. Immense charcoal-waggons infest the most frequented thorough-fares, and give forth a din which I can liken to nothing earthly, (unless, perhaps, a gong), from some metallic, triangular contrivance, within the bowels of the “infernal machine.” This is a free country, I have heard, and wish to believe if I can; but I cannot perceive how it would materially interfere with our freedom to put an end to these tintamarres. A man may do what he pleases with his own (and the principle applies as well to a man’s waggon, as to a man’s snuff-box, or wife,) provided, in so doing, he incommode not his neighbor; this is