ABSTRACT
CONSIDERING how many fine feelings and good feelings adorn the interior of the human heart, it is curious to observe with what facility we can put them all to sleep, or, if they won't sleep, stupify ourselves, at any moment when it becomes inconvenient tons to listen to their friendly admonitions. All the while mailing, coaching, and posting were in fashion, every man's countenance beamed-every person's tongue gabbled freely as it cle* scribed not only u the splendid rate " (say ten miles an hour) at which lie had travelled, but the celerity with which no sooner had the words " First turn-out!" been exclaimed by the scout, who vanished as soon as lie had uttered them, than four horses in shining harness had appeared half hobbling half trotting from under the archway of the Keel Lion, the Crown, or the Three Bells, before which the traveller had from a canter been almost suddenly pulled up, to receive various bows, scrapes, and curtsies from the landlord and his rosy-faced cap-beribboned wife. But, although we could all accurately describe our own enjoyments, and, like Johnson, expatiate on u the delightful sensations" we experienced in what we called fast travelling, who among us ever cared to ascertain, or even for a single moment to think of, the various arrangements necessary for watering, feeding, cleaning, and shoulder-healing all the poor horses whose " brilliant" performances we had so much admired ? Whether they slept on straw or on stones-indeed, whether they slept at all-what was their diet-what, if any, were their enjoyments-what were their sufferings-and, lastly, how and where they eventually died-it w ould have been deemed exceedingly vulgar to inquire; and so, after with palpitating flanks and panting nostrils they had once been unhooked from our splinter-bars,
In a similar way we now chloroform all kindly feelings of inquiry respecting the treatment of the poor engine-drivers, firemen, and even of the engine that has safely conveyed us through tunnels and through storms at the rate of thirty, forty, and occasionally even fifty miles an hour-
and in fact scarcely do we deign to look at them. Indeed even while in the train, and most especially after we had left it, we should feel bored to death by being asked to reflect for a moment on any point or any person connected with it. We have therefore, we feel, to apologise at least to some of our readers for intruding upon them, in bringing " betwixt the wind and their nobility " the following uninteresting details.
