The revolution in social, but insalutary habits alone, would cure half the _disorders_ for which the aristocratic valetudinarian flies to the spas. If the maxim of Rochefaucault, too, have any foundation in truth, what a prodigious source of pleasure must the spa-goer find in the different watering-places, where he daily contemplates almost the whole of the moving mass of mortals around him labouring under more or less of bodily suffering! But, admitting the less humiliating explanation which I have attempted of the philosophical maxim, the result will not be materially different. Every one affected by _disorders_ at all curable, will see many around him who are evidently afflicted by _diseases_ beyond the reach of remedy. While commiserating the fate of their neighbours, they have a pleasing consciousness and assurance that they themselves are not in such a hopeless condition. As for the victims doomed to an early grave, _they_ never despair. They see daily recoveries going on around them—and HOPE, “that comes to all,” does not withhold its balmy influence even from them! The resounding Sprudel is pouring forth its healing waters for the incurable as well as for the curable, whilst the veil of mystery that hangs over its origin and source, exaggerates, on the well-known principle, “_omne ignotum pro magnifico_,” the virtues of its miraculous qualities! The season of the year in which the journey is made and the waters taken, is not a little favourable to the recovery of health, and, combined with the sanguine expectations of recruited vigour and emancipation from sufferings, gives wonderful efficacy to the spa. GASTEIN, commonly called WILDBAD GASTEIN. Gastein, Pfeffers, and Teplitz are triplet sisters of the same qualities, physical and medicinal. They are so pure that they may be, and are used as spring water for drinking and culinary purposes. The locality of Gastein is only inferior in romantic scenery to that of Pfeffers. It is much superior to that of Wildbad. It is situated on the frontiers of the Duchy of Salzburg and Carinthia, in the midst of mountains ten thousand feet in height, and its fervid springs, several in number, rise on the borders, and in the very middle of a cataract that foams and flies over a precipice, with a noise like thunder, into an abyss of nearly 300 feet in depth. It is the little river ACHE that descends from the mountains, and forms the striking feature of the landscape at Gastein, which was once a place of wealth and consequence, by reason of the neighbouring mines; but is now only a valetudinarium for the recovery of health. The people of this neighbourhood are of remarkably robust and vigorous constitutions, well made, and handsome in appearance—pastoral in their habits, and simple in their manners.