April 2. —­ Spoke to-day the magnetic cutter in charge of the middle section of floating telegraph wires.  I learn that when this species of telegraph was first put into operation by Horse, it was considered quite impossible to convey the wires over sea, but now we are at a loss to comprehend where the difficulty lay!  So wags the world.  Tempora mutantur —­ excuse me for quoting the Etruscan.  What would we do without the Atalantic telegraph? (Pundit says Atlantic was the ancient adjective.) We lay to a few minutes to ask the cutter some questions, and learned, among other glorious news, that civil war is raging in Africa, while the plague is doing its good work beautifully both in Yurope and Ayesher.  Is it not truly remarkable that, before the magnificent light shed upon philosophy by Humanity, the world was accustomed to regard War and Pestilence as calamities?  Do you know that prayers were actually offered up in the ancient temples to the end that these evils (!) might not be visited upon mankind?  Is it not really difficult to comprehend upon what principle of interest our forefathers acted?  Were they so blind as not to perceive that the destruction of a myriad of individuals is only so much positive advantage to the mass!

April 3. —­ It is really a very fine amusement to ascend the rope-ladder leading to the summit of the balloon-bag, and thence survey the surrounding world.  From the car below you know the prospect is not so comprehensive —­ you can see little vertically.  But seated here (where I write this) in the luxuriously-cushioned open piazza of the summit, one can see everything that is going on in all directions.  Just now there is quite a crowd of balloons in sight, and they present a very animated appearance, while the air is resonant with the hum of so many millions of human voices.  I have heard it asserted that when Yellow or (Pundit will have it) Violet, who is supposed to have been the first aeronaut, maintained the practicability of traversing the atmosphere in all directions, by merely ascending or descending until a favorable current was attained, he was scarcely hearkened to at all by his contemporaries, who looked upon him as merely an ingenious sort of madman, because the philosophers (?) of the day declared the thing impossible.  Really now it does seem to me quite unaccountable how any thing so obviously feasible could have escaped the sagacity of the ancient savans.  But in all ages the great obstacles to advancement in Art have been opposed by the so-called men of science.  To be sure, our men of science are not quite so bigoted as those of old:  —­ oh, I have something so queer to tell you on this topic.  Do you know that it is not more than a thousand years ago since the metaphysicians consented to relieve the people of the singular fancy that there existed but two possible roads for the attainment of Truth!  Believe it if you can!  It appears that long, long ago, in the night of Time, there lived a Turkish philosopher