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Un dee symbolea sulvants apparaftra sur la damiAre image de cheque microfiche, selon le caa: :e ;iymbole — ^ signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbole V signifie "FIN". Lea cartea. planchea, tableaux, etc., pauvent itra filmte i dee taux de rMuction dlffirents, Lorsque le document eat trop grand pour itra raproduit en un saul cliche, il est filmi i partir da I'anghi supirieur gaucho. de gauche i droite. e. de haut an baa. an prirnant la nombra d'Imagaa nteassaire. Las diagrammes suivants illuatr >nt la m^thoda. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 I'' .!■ 11 THE •, ■«•;?/ ,*^j^. OF NIAGARA. BY ;WILLIAM SHARPE, M.D. ■V .? ^ PRICE THREE-PENCE, • - *N: ' Reprinte*^ i-ROM ModemThought for March, 1882. Printed and Published at TriE MODERN PRESS, 13, Paternoster Row, London, E.G. ALSO BYtIrE same AUTHOH Jt UV -V^mt" w the EtoI* ot ^fflcal Beaaty, ■iiuiiii I w; M^r^^v^ ^ Ought to 1)6 read by all."— i^*^¥- "Tlie little tolutne is ^cariosity m its »■, 5 "It. is gracefirfV style; xorwi«cirtg^.i^ argumentf and purious m its facts, ^hicag^ Interocean* ^ ..This smaU volume sed.nden^g^.M^^^^^ 4orkm. the widest sense of the term. — Pittsburgh TeUgmph^ >wpMHa-i>*ffMU^ Nim YORK: G. P. F«Ai^ SPNS. d THE INTERNATIONAL TEMPLE OF NIAGARA Reprinted from Modern Thought, March, 1882. its its ago iew IT was foretold long ages ago that in latter days many should run '* to and fro," and evidently those days are full upon us ; for the swift rushing hither and thither, as we now see it, not only of thousands but of millions around us, stands out in striking contrast to the slow and wearisome modes of travelling in days gone by, and, indeed, in all times prior to this, the age of railroads and steamships. But if in past times travelling, as we now understand it, was confined to the narrowest limits as regards number, owing to the almost insuperable diffi- culties that necessarily attended it, yet the looking abroad upon the world has always had an attraction for the mass of mankind. This desire has not been limited to individuals, but has been coextensive with humanity ; all men, could they do so without taxing unduly their love of ease, their strength, or their incomes, would like to see tl earth in the length and breadth of it, The holiday excursions ot the many, and the world-wide wanderings of the few, have alike their origin in this innate long- ing which urges man forward to look upon some portion of the globe of which he is an inhabitant. The young and the old, the learned and the unlearned, the barbarian and the philosopher, are alike desirous of beholding new scenes and places. The more highly endowed, the artist and the poet it may be, are at times thrilled even to ecstacy, but all, even the rudest and least intellectually gifted, are pleased to look upon whatever is grand or striking. The fact is hopeful, and argues the possession of something godlike even in the lowest of our race — a humanising element to be developed hereafter, even though it be repressed for the present, a strange mystic sympathy with nature as the corporate and visible expression of the Eternal asserting itself in all men. And in this world-wide sympathy with our external surroundings is the original source of our ad- miration of the "beautiful" as it lies before us, inviting worship, with its temples by hill and dale, by wood, and lake, and sea — temples where the weird and subtle harmonies of nature steal upon the receptive faculties, and though at times the inward response to them be feeble, yet will they nestle in the memory to be again and again revived and called forth with in- creasing vividness and power, until the soul at length, like an Aeolian harp touched by the passing breeze, becomes attuned to harmonj', and sensitive to every pleasing aspect of the material and visible world around it. But though the inexhaustible wonders of nature abound everywhere, appealing on all sides to the sympathies of the initiated, yet are there many locaHties where the imposing grandeur of the spectacle never fails to awake a sense of rapture and admiration even in the breasts of the least discerning of those who look upon them. And foremost amongst these world-renowned shrines, where the higher edu- cational development of the emotional faculties becomes a living reality, are the far-famed Falls of Niagara. Here the great Author of nature has established for the joint use of worshippers from every clime, an " Island Temple,"=== whose foundations are upon the caverned rocks ; whose roof is the dome of heaven, and whose sacred grove is an expanse of primeval wood ; whose ablutionary tank before the vestibule is a troubled abyss, fed with the waters of a continent, arched with the rainbow, and draped in white with clouds of sheeted spray ; whose choral music is the deep voice of a mighty cataract ; whose vestals are Naiads, and whose warders are the aerial spirits of the flood ! Many are the altars and high places around this hallowed fane, from the vantage-ground of which the assembled worshippers, absorbed in silent ador- ation, hold communion with the Eternal. There, on the angle by Biddle's Stairs, they look into the deep gorge of the Niagara, scanning, as it were in thought, the volume and majestic flow of the sea-green river as it glides swiftly on towards the great " whirlpool rapids," where it is again tormented and lashed into * A large island unpoetically named "Goat Island,' which separates the American from the great Canadian fall. It contains about 70 acres, and is covered with virgin forest. surging foam : there by ♦' Table Rock " on the further shore, fronting the full sweep of the great Canadian fall, they look bewildered upon that amazing torrent, vainly endeavouring to realize even dimly the force and magnitude of the mighty flood, whose green waves breaking into snowy masses lose and shroud themselves eternally in a wild vortex of mist and spray, on which still, as the sun shines out, the bow of the •* covenant " gleams full of beauty and promise as in the days of old: there by the "Cave of the Winds" they look up with astonishment on the faUing deluge, which seems to rush as from the heavens, dashing itself into vapou. with the roar of a thousand thunders as it strikes upon the rocks below : there by the ruined site of the Terrapin Tower they contemplate in mute wonder, awe-struck as in the presence of God, the tremendous rush of waters hurrying towards their giddy leap, where, converging in their might, the tumbling billows in unbroken line shoot downwards into the unfathomable gulf beneath ; and there, too, by the *' Sister Islands " they gaze intently outwards, as in abstraction, upon the wide expanse of tumultuous water, sweeping past in its fury, heaving and tossing itself into billowy mounds as it hastes towards its final plunge, till, like Hindoo priests before their temples on the Ganges, they become entranced by the magnetic power of the rushing torrent, for in the commotion there is calm, in the wild turbulence there is peace ! Then, rapt in meditation, the mind sweeps back into bygone years — visions of the past, ere the strife and turmoil of civilisation broke upon the solitude T t of the boundless forest, or jarred upon the deep music of the cataract, which day by day and year by year resounded ceaselessly among the woods, flit before the mental sight of the be- holders, who seem to stand in imagination beside that solitary traveller* as the deep, monotonous thunder of the great river first falls upon his ear, and his eye catches the first distant glimpse of that formless vapour which has settled vague and ghost-like over the gloomy verdure of the forest.— How he pauses in wonder and amazement as the sound grows upon him, and the formless , vapour becomes more distinct ! How full of expectation he advances, drawing nearer and nearer, till pre- sently the mystery is solved— the Niagara has burst upon his sight ! He bows in adoration, for he has chanced upon holy ground — he is before the sanctuary, and the po./er of the Infinite rushes upon him ! Then again in the tumult of thought is tiie present recalled, and the congregated wor- shippers take note of the passing moods, and contemplate how season after season, with every changing phase of earth and sky, still new and strange effects succeed each other ; how all around the bloom and freshness of the bordering woods have passed into the golden hues of autumn, and how presently the mys- terious colouring and dreamy atmosphere of the fleeting Indian summer are replaced by the snows and crisp cold airs of winter, which, with chill, transforming touch, have changed the out- * The Niagara Falls were discovered by Father Hennepin, in 1678. t ward features of Niagara from the softer beauties of its summer dress to the stern subUmity of its winter pfarb. Now in the short decUning day, when the distant shores and full expanse'of the broad rapids are obscured and hidden by the densely falling snow, raid no living thing visible save one or two solitary gulls, sweeping to and fro like restless wan- derers of the deep, the aspect of the place becomes weird and awful from the pervadmg gloom and the sense of undistinguishable vast- uess everywhere present. But anon in the peace and tranquiHty of niglii, when the stars are out and the clear full moon sheds her dreamy light abroad, the effect is marvellous, and indescribably beautiful. All around hoary, frost-laden trees, ghostly in their drapery of purest white, cast fantastic shadows upon the snow ; great icicles and strange ice formations hang pendant from the rocks, or stand like statuary within the caves ; rugged and chaotic masses of ice are jammed across the mighty stream ; huge snow mountains rise dome-like beneath the cliffs, as though they would obstruct the rushing waters of the fall, and, as if to com- plete the weird enchantment, the lunar bow is painted upon the eternal spray of the cataract —the whole uniting to form a spectacle of transcendent and unearthly grandeur— a com- bination scene of unrivalled and surpassing beauty, where Naiads nightly congregate, emerging from their gem-lit caves far under the mighty falls to hold their mystic dance upon the snows ! Such is the natural temple of Niagara, which, had it been located upon the plains of Hindus- tan, would have been held in veneration by the teeniinf( millions of Asia, and visited annually by thousands of pilgrims and worshippers from distant lan('s. Incalcidablt; sums would have been lavishly expended by the rulers and princes of the country in the embellishment of its grounds, and in the erection thereon of j^'orj^'cous Indian shrines, while the works of Mammon dare not intrude upon its sacred precincts ; for in all times the mighty intellects of the East clearly understood rhe humanising and «■ 1 tie regenerating influence exerted over the i. ,ople by the combined power of grert rivers and costly architectural monuments. Yet is the Niagara in its own natural grandeur more influential in this respect than the stately pagodas of the Ganges or t]- ; ^"rodavery, and more imposing and aw^-iiispiring than the colossal ruins of the Nile; for who can estimate even remotely the value of the great thoughts and far-reaching visions that are borne in like a flood upon the minds of thousands who come undei the spell of its power. What rulers of tha South will therefore for- ever distinguish themselves by heartily uniting with the munificent government of the North in presenting this great natural high-place as a free gift, not only to the millions spread over their ov/n wide territories, but to the peoples of th'^ world at large ? What high-minded legis- lators, rising above the petty interest of faction, will enforce the sale of " vested rights," and drive out Irom hence the " money changers," as those of Jerusalem were in olden time driven out from the sanctuary by Him who loved the wilderness and the mountain, and tai jht by 8 Olivet and the Sea of Galilee ? What million- aires will buy up and blot out the desecrating works of Mammon which are crowding upon its approaches and located upon its fairest pre- mises ? What money-kings will suitably ap- point andendowthisheaven-instituted sanctuary of the nations, the unspoken eloquence of which is grander and more enduring in effect than the homilies of a thousand churches ? but which if the rulers rjeglect and the people heed not, too much intent upon their all-absorbing and mentally debasing worship of Mammon, — then let them beware that they go not metaphorically down into the abysses of Niagara that they may be purified therein, cleansed as it were in the troubled waters of tribulation !