er side
there were beautiful old trees wherein the birds were busy by the
hundred, and a number of quaint but substantial houses of singularly
comfortable appearance; they were situated in the midst of orchards and
gardens, and gave me an impression of great peace and plenty.

Indeed it had been no error to say that this building was one that
appealed to the imagination; it did more--it carried both imagination and
judgement by storm. It was an epic in stone and marble, and so powerful
was the effect it produced on me, that as I beheld it I was charmed and
melted. I felt more conscious of the existence of a remote past. One
knows of this always, but the knowledge is never so living as in the
actual presence of some witness to the life of bygone ages. I felt how
short a space of human life was the period of our own existence. I was
more impressed with my own littleness, and much more inclinable to
believe that the people whose sense of the fitness of things was equal to
the upraising of so serene a handiwork, were hardly likely to be wrong in
the conclusions they might come to upon any subject. My feeling
certainly was that the currency of this bank must be the right one.

We crossed the sward and entered the building. If the outside had been
impressive the inside was even more so. It was very lofty and divided
into several parts by walls which rested upon massive pillars; the
windows were filled with stained glass descriptive of the principal
commercial incidents of the bank for many ages. In a remote part of the
building there were men and boys singing; this was the only disturbing
feature, for as the gamut was still unknown, there was no music in the
country which could be agreeable to a European ear. The singers seemed
to have derived their inspirations from the songs of birds and the
wailing of the wind, which last they tried to imitate in melancholy
cadences that at times degenerated into a howl. To my thinking the noise
was hideous, but it produced a great effect upon my companions, who
professed themselves much moved. As soon as the singing was over, the
ladies requested me to stay where I was while they went inside the place
from which it had seemed to come.

During their absence certain reflections forced themselves upon me.

In the first place, it struck me as strange that the building should be
so nearly empty; I was almost alone, and the few besides myself had been
led by curiosity, and had no