THE 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE.
 
 THE 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE; 
 
 O R. 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF SCENERY 
 
 O N 
 
 jfttrifc arid 
 
 CI^MP" 
 .- "-**&, 
 
 The sounding Cataract 
 
 Haunted me like a passion; the tall Rock, 
 The Mountain, and the deep and gloomy Wood, 
 Their colours aud their forms, have been to me 
 An appetite. 
 
 Wordsworth. 
 
 Rura inihi placeaut, riguique in vallibus amnes, 
 Flumina amem sylvasque. 
 
 Gearg. ii. 1. 4a5, 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 PRINTED FOR JOHN MURRAY, 
 
 NO. 50, AMJEMAKJ.K-STRKKT. 
 
 1S13.
 
 J. M'Creery, Printer, 
 Black-IIorse-Court, London.
 
 JO I 
 
 /V 
 
 v. 
 
 1HE following pages are the result of 
 hours, stolen from an application to 
 higher interests, and from the severity of 
 graver subjects. They were written in 
 the privacy of retirement, among scenes, 
 worthy the pen of Virgil and the pencil 
 of Lorrain: Scenes, which afford per- 
 petual subjects for meditation to all 
 those, who take a melancholy pleasure 
 in contrasting the dignified simplicity of 
 nature, with the vanity, ignorance, and 
 presumption of man. 
 
 " There is no one," says one of the
 
 11 
 
 best and soundest moralists of our age, 
 " there is no one, however limited his 
 powers, who ought not to be actuated 
 by a desire of leaving something behind 
 him, which should operate, as an evi- 
 dence, that he once existed." During 
 those hours of peaceful enjoyment* in 
 which these pages were composed, such 
 was the ambition, by which the writer 
 was animated. Upon revising what he 
 has written, however, and comparing it 
 with those ideas of excellence, which, 
 in no very courteous language, whisper 
 a knowledge of what abler pens, than 
 his, would have written, on a subject, 
 so well selected for eliciting all the best 
 energies of genius, he is awed from any 
 expectation of an honourable distinc- 
 tion j and nothing supplies the place of
 
 Ill 
 
 those golden dreams, which once de- 
 lighted him, but the satisfaction of having 
 passed, happily and innocently, hours, 
 which would otherwise have been useless, 
 listless, and unnumbered.
 
 THE 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE; 
 
 OR, 
 
 INFLUENCE OF SCENERY, 
 &c. 
 
 I. TACITUS gives a curious account of a pro- 
 position, that was made in the Roman senate, to 
 divert the course of those Rivers and Lakes 
 which emptied themselves into the Tiber: and 
 which, at certain seasons of the year, causing that 
 River to overflow its banks, occasioned great loss 
 to those citizens of Rome, who possessed houses 
 and lands in its immediate neighbourhood.* 
 Petitions being presented from the Florentines, 
 the Interamnates and the Rheatines, against the 
 proposition, it was abandoned. One of the 
 causes of this abandonment arose out of an ar- 
 gument employed by the Rheatines : " Nature," 
 
 * One of these overflowings is particularly described 
 by Pliny iu a letter to Macrintis. The accident gives 
 occasion for a fine moral reflection. Vid. Lib. viii. Ep. 17. 
 VOL. I. R
 
 they observed, " having made the best provision 
 for the conveniences of mankind, in directing 
 the course of rivers, it would be highly unbe- 
 coming in the Romans to alter their direction; 
 and the more so, since their allies had long been 
 in the habit of consecrating woods, altars, and 
 priests, to the Rivers of their country."* This 
 curious and effective argument, my Lelius, will 
 naturally call to your recollection a singular anec- 
 dote, which was related to us by Signer Hypolito 
 de Vinci, who has since so honourably distin- 
 guished himself in the service of his country, 
 and who fell, covered with wounds and with 
 glory, in the battle of Vimiera, a martyr to his 
 enthusiasm, and an honour to the human race. 
 A celebrated Engineer, some years previous to 
 the compulsory resignation of the late king of 
 Spain, proposed to the Spanish Government a 
 plan, which had for its object the rendering of 
 the Tagus navigable to Madrid. After mature 
 deliberation, the ingenuity of the Engineer, and 
 the advantages derivable from his project, were 
 acknowledged by the Ministry, but the execu- 
 tion, in the plenitude of their wisdom, they thought 
 
 * Tacitus, Annul. Lib. 1. c. 79.
 
 proper to decline.* On the Engineer's inquiring 
 the cause of so extraordinary a refusal, they re- 
 turned for answer, that if it had been the intention 
 of nature, that the Tagus should be navigable 
 so high into Spain as Madrid, she would have 
 rendered it so herself; to presume to improve 
 what nature had left imperfect, would be scanda- 
 lous and impious ! 
 
 II. " Where a spring rises or a river flows" 
 says Seneca, " there should we build altars and 
 offer sacrifices !" In pursuance of this idea, most 
 nations, whether barbarous or refined, mistaking 
 the effects of a Deity for the Deity itself, have, 
 at one time or other of their history, personified 
 their rivers, and addressed them as the Gods of 
 their idolatry. The Nile, which watered nations 
 that knew not its origin-, and kingdoms, which 
 were ignorant whither it flowed, was worship- 
 ped by the respective nations that it fertilized. -f- 
 The Adonis was esteemed sacred by a great 
 portion of western Asia ; the Peneus, as we are 
 informed by that elegant Platonist, Maxim us 
 Tyrius, was adored for its beauty, the Danube 
 
 Note 1. t Note 2. 
 
 B 2
 
 for its magnitude, and the Achelous for its so- 
 lemn traditions. The Phrygians worshipped the 
 Marsyas and Meander ; and the Massagetae paid 
 divine honours to the Palus Maeotis and the 
 Tanais. The ancient Persians never polluted wa- 
 ter; considering those who accustomed themselves 
 to such indecorum, as guilty of sacrilege ; while 
 the last wish of an Indian is to die on the banks 
 of the Ganges. The affection of the Hindoos 
 for that river is such, even at the present day, 
 that many hundreds of them have been known 
 to go down, at certain periods of the year, and 
 devote themselves to the shark, the tiger, and the 
 alligator; thinking themselves happy and their 
 friends fortunate, thus to be permitted to die in 
 sight of that holy stream. 
 
 III. Rivers, too, have, in all ages, been 
 themes for the poet; and in what esteem they 
 were held by ancient writers, may be inferred 
 from the number of authors who wrote of them 
 previous to the time of Plutarch.* The Aufidus, 
 the Tiber, and the Po, have been celebrated by 
 Horace, Virgil, and Ovid ; Callimachus has im- 
 
 * Note 3.
 
 mortalized the beautiful waters of the Inachus ; 
 and while the Arno, the Miocio, and the Tagus, 
 boast their Petrarch, Boccacio, and Camb'ens, 
 the Severn, the Ouse, and the Trent, the Avon, 
 the Derwent, and the Dee, have been distin- 
 guished by the praises of many an elegant and ac- 
 complished poet. Who is not charmed with 
 Spenser's Marriage of the Thames and the Med- 
 way? and what personifications in Ovid or He- 
 siod are more beautiful, thati the Sabrina of 
 Milton and the Ladona of Pope ? 
 
 IV. On the borders of the Cam, Milton en- 
 joyed the happiest moments of his life ; on the 
 banks of the Ilyssus, Plato taught his System of 
 Philosophy ; and on the shores of the Rocnabad, 
 a river flowing near the chapel of Mosella, the 
 poets and philosophers of Shiraz composed their 
 most celebrated works. Ossian is never weary 
 of comparing rivers to heroes, and so enamoured 
 were Du Bartas and Drayton with river scenery, 
 that the one wrote a poetical catalogue of those 
 which were the most celebrated, and the other 
 composed a voluminous work upon their History, 
 Topography, and Landscapes.* 
 * Note 4.
 
 V. Many of the rivers in Britain are highly 
 picturesque, and abound in the most captivating 
 scenery. Who, that has traversed the banks of 
 the majestic Thames,* and still more noble 
 Severn ; who, that has observed the fine sweeps 
 of the Dee, in the vale of Landisilio, and those 
 of the Derwent, near Matlock; who, that has 
 contemplated the waters of the Towy, the grace- 
 ful meanderings of the Usk, or the admirable 
 features of the Wye, that does not feel himself 
 justified in challenging any of the far-famed rivers 
 of Europe to present objects more various, land- 
 scapes more rich, or scenes more graceful and 
 magnificent ? 
 
 VI. Without rocks or mountains no country 
 can be sublime ; without water no landscape can 
 be perfectly beautiful. Few countries are more 
 mountainous, or exhibit better materials for a 
 landscape painter, than Persia ; yet, to the lover 
 of scenery, it loses a considerable portion of inter- 
 est, from its possessing but few springs, few rivu- 
 lets, and fewer rivers. What can be more grati- 
 fying to a proud and inquisitive spirit, than tracing 
 
 * Notes.
 
 rivers to their sources, and pursuing them through 
 long tracts of country, where sweeps the Don, the 
 Wolga, and the Vistula ; the Ebro and the Douro; 
 the Rhine, the Inn,* the Rhone and the Danube ? 
 or in travelling on the banks of the Allier, describ- 
 ed so beautifully by Madame de Savign6 ; or of 
 the Loire sleeping, winding and rolling, by turns, 
 through several of the finest districts in all France ? 
 where the peasants reside, in the midst of their 
 vineyards, in cottages, which, seated upon the sides 
 of the hills, resemble so many birds' nests ; and 
 where the peasant girls, with their baskets of 
 grapes, invite the weary traveller to take as many 
 as he desires. " Take them," say they, " and as 
 many as you please: they shall cost you no- 
 thing." 
 
 VII. What traveller, possessing an elegant taste, 
 but is charmed, even to ecstasy, as he wanders 
 along the banks of the Po, the Adige, and the 
 Brenta; amid the fairy scenes of the Eurotas, 
 peopled with innumerable swans; or of the Tay, 
 the Clyde, and the Teith, where the culture of 
 Bees forms a considerable article of rural Eco- 
 
 * Note 6.
 
 8 
 
 nomy? How is our fancy elevated, when we 
 traverse, even in imagination, those wild solitudes 
 and fruitful deserts, enlivened by the Humming 
 Bird,* through which the Orionoco, the Missis- 
 sippi, and the Amazon, (Rivers to which the 
 proudest streams of Europe are but as rivulets), 
 pour their vast floods, and, as they roll along, ex- 
 perience the vicissitudes of every climate ! And, 
 when leaning on the parapet of an arch, bestriding 
 a wide and rapid river, how often do we relapse 
 into profound Melancholy, as, following, with im- 
 plicit obedience, the progressive march of asso- 
 ciation, the mirror of Time and the emblem of 
 Eternity are presented to our imagination, till a 
 retrospect of the past and a perspective of future 
 ages, mingling with each other, the mind is lost in 
 the mazes of its own wanderings !f 
 
 VIII. Not only Rivers, but FOUNTAINS have 
 been held sacred by almost every nation : equally 
 are they beloved by the Poets. Who has not 
 perused, with pleasure, Sannazaro's ode to the 
 Fountain of Mergillini ; Petrarch's addresses to 
 that of Vaucluse; and Horace's ode to the 
 
 * Note 7. f Note 8.
 
 Fountain of Blandusium, situated among rocks, 
 and surrounded with wood? 
 
 One of the most remarkable fountains, in an- 
 cient times, was that of which Herodotus and 
 Diodorus Siculus have transmitted an account. It 
 was called " the Fountain of the Sun," and was 
 situated near the temple of Jupiter Ammon. At 
 the dawn of day this fountain was warm ; as the 
 day advanced, it became progressively cool ; at 
 noon, it was at the extremity of cold ; at which 
 time the Ammonians made use of it to water 
 their gardens and shrubberies. At the setting of 
 the Sun, it again became warm, and continued to 
 increase, as the evening proceeded, till midnight, 
 when it reached the extremity of heat : as the 
 morning advanced it grew progressively cold : 
 Silius Italicus thus alludes to it. 
 
 Stet fano vicina, novum et memorabile lympha, 
 QUIP nascente die, quae deficiente tepescit, 
 Quaeque riget medium cam Sol ascendit Olyinpum 
 Atque eadein rursus nocturnis fervet in umbris. 
 
 IX. In the early ages of popery, the common 
 people, where Fountains and Wells were situated
 
 10 
 
 in retired places, were accustomed to honour them 
 with the titles of Saints and Martyrs.* Some 
 were called Jacob's Well ; St. John's ; St. Mary's; 
 St. Winifred's, and St. Agnes' : some were named 
 after Mary Magdalen, and others derived their 
 appellations from beautiful and pious Virgins.-f- 
 Though this custom was forbidden by the Canons 
 of St. Anselm, many pilgrimages continued to be 
 made to them ; and the Romans long retained a 
 custom of throwing nosegays into fountains, and 
 chaplets into wells.;}; From this practice origi- 
 nated the ceremony of sprinkling the Severn with 
 flowers, so elegantly described by Dyer, in his 
 rinely descriptive poem of the Fleece,^ and so 
 beautifully alluded to by Milton. 
 
 The Shepherds at their festivals 
 
 Carol her good deeds loud in rustic lays,|| 
 
 And throw sweet garland-wreaths into her stream, 
 
 Of paucies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils. 
 
 Comus. 
 
 A custom also prevailed in the 14th Century, 
 among the women who resided upon the banks 
 
 * Note 9. t Note 10. 
 
 f Note 11. Book i. 1. 693. 
 
 || Sabrina's.
 
 11 
 
 of the Rhine, of assembling, on a particular day 
 of the year, to wash their hands and arms in 
 that river : fondly flattering themselves, that such 
 lustrations would preserve them from all dangers 
 and misfortunes during the remainder of the 
 year.* 
 
 X. The names of Deities were given also to 
 GROTTOS. The serenity of an Italian sky served 
 to render those occasional retreats peculiarly 
 agreeable to the Roman Nobility ; hence were 
 they frequently to be found in the shrubberies 
 and gardens of that accomplished people. The 
 Poets, at all times willing to celebrate whatever 
 adds to their enjoyments, have left us some elegant 
 descriptions of those delightful recesses, formed 
 in the sides of rocks, at the foot of mountains, or 
 on the banks of rivulets.f 
 
 Pausanias gives a remarkable account of a 
 Grotto at Corycium, and Statius describes an 
 elegant one in his third Sylva ; but that which 
 was the most celebrated in ancient times, was 
 the Grotto of Egeria ; still existing, though in a 
 
 Note 12. f Note 13.
 
 12 
 
 state of ruin. When it was first made by Numa, 
 it was formed with such skill, as to appear 
 totally untouched by art : in the reign of one of 
 the Emperors, however, it entirely lost its simpli- 
 city, and, by being adorned with marble and other 
 splendid ornaments, acquired a magnificence to- 
 tally foreign to its original character. This pro- 
 voked the Satire of the indignant Juvenal.* 
 
 The Grotto, which Mr. Pope formed at Twick- 
 enham, was one of the most celebrated ever erect- 
 ed in this kingdom. In the first instance, it was 
 remarkable for its elegant simplicity : as the 
 owner, however, advanced in years, it became 
 more and more indebted to the refinements of art; 
 but the recollection of its having amused the last 
 years of that illustrious poet, atones to the heart 
 of the philanthropist, what it loses to the eye of 
 imagination and taste. f 
 
 XI. From Rivers, Fountains, and Grottos, let 
 us turn to LAKES. Those of England and Swit- 
 zerland present so many features of beauty and 
 grandeur, that an idea of something peculiarly 
 
 * Sat. 11. f Note 14.
 
 13 
 
 worthy of admiration always presents itself, when 
 we hear them mentioned even in the most casual 
 manner. What enthusiastic emotions of delight 
 did the Lakes of Switzerland generate in Rous- 
 seau ! And while some of the most agreeable 
 hours of united labour and pleasure were indulged 
 by Gibbon on their admirable banks, the noble 
 landscapes, around the lake of Zurich, soothed 
 and charmed many an hour of sorrow and chagrin 
 from the bosoms of Haller, Zimmermann, and 
 Lavater ! 
 
 For my own part, my Lelius, I am ready to con- 
 fess, that some of the happiest moments of my life, 
 have been those, which I have, at intervals, past 
 upon the bosom of lakes, and on the banks of wild 
 and rapid rivers. And never will Colonna wish 
 to forget those hours of rapture, when, reclining 
 in his boat, he has permitted it to glide, at the 
 will of the current, along the transparent surface 
 of a river, or on the picturesque expanse of 
 Bala Lake, in the county of Merioneth : or 
 when wandering along the banks of those waters, 
 that glide at the feet or stud the sides of the 
 mountains, which rear themselves around the mag- 
 nificent peaks of Snowdon : Lakes equal in beauty
 
 J4 
 
 and sublimity to those of Larus, Lucerne, and 
 Pergusa. 
 
 XII. How often have I heard you, my Lelius, 
 descant with rapture, on the Lakes of Cumber- 
 land and Westmoreland ; on those of Loch- Lo- 
 mond, Loch-Leven, and Killarney ; and the still 
 more noble and magnificent ones of Switzerland ! 
 With what delighted attention have I listened 
 to your descriptions of the Lakes of Thun, Zurich, 
 and Neufchatel, Brientz, Bienne, and Constance : 
 and how has my imagination kept pace with 
 you in your journey, as you have wandered in 
 memory among those enchanting regions ; regions, 
 abounding in scenes, which Warton might have 
 pictured, as the native residence of poetic Fancy. 
 
 XIII. From Lakes, the transition is natural, 
 that would lead to WATERFALLS and CATA- 
 RACTS. With what rapture does every cultivated 
 mind behold that beautiful waterfall, gliding over 
 a slate rock in two graceful falls, at the extremity 
 of a long, winding, and romantic glen, near Aber, 
 in the county of Caernarvon ! But if you would 
 see Cataracts on a grander scale, visit the Falls of 
 the Hepsey, those of the Conway, the Cynfael,
 
 15 
 
 and the Black Cataract near the vale of Ffesti- 
 niog.* Of the two last, nothing can surpass the 
 beauty of the one, or the bold, the cragged and gi- 
 gantic character of the other. By the former of 
 these has Colonna devoted many a captivating 
 hour. Seated on a rock, adjoining an ivy-arch- 
 ed bridge, stretched over a tremendous chasm, 
 he has listened with rapture, not unmingled with 
 a grateful degree of terror, to the roaring of the 
 waters and, shaded by a fantastic oak ; which 
 overshadows the depth, he has derived the 
 highest satisfaction in comparing the tranquil and 
 innocent delight, in which he was indulging, with 
 the boisterous humours of the table, the can- 
 kered anxiety of the statesman, or the dreadful 
 raptures of that MAN, who has so long insulted 
 all Europe, and stained her glens, her moun- 
 tains, and her valleys, with blood, with rapine, and 
 with sacrilege ! 
 
 XIV. But if you would behold one of those 
 waterfalls, which combine the utmost sublimity 
 
 * And yet, what are these to the Cataracts of the Rhine, 
 the Nile, the Vologda, the Zava, the Velino, or those at 
 Powerscourt, at Albany, and Niagara?
 
 16 
 
 with the greatest portion of beauty, visit the ad- 
 mirable instance at Nant Mill, on the borders of 
 the Lake Cwellin. Exercise that fascinating art, 
 of which nature and practice have made you such 
 a master; make a faithful representation of it; 
 clothe it in all its rugged horrors of sublimity, in 
 all its graceful charms of exquisite beauty, and 
 let the finest imagination in the world of paint- 
 ing or of poetry tell me, if, in all the fairy visions 
 that the finest Fancy has created, a scene more 
 perfect can be formed, than this ? The far- 
 famed Cataract in the Vale of Temp6 has nothing 
 to compare with it. In surveying this scene, our 
 feelings resemble those of the missionaries, when 
 viewing the numerous waterfalls of Japan ; or 
 those of the celebrated Bruce, when he beheld 
 the third Cataract of the Nile ; " a sight," says 
 he, " so magnificent, that ages, added to the 
 greatest length of life, could never eradicate from 
 my memory." 
 
 XV. If objects of this nature exalt the un- 
 derstanding and the fancy of those, who possess 
 habits of reflection, WOODS, those indispensable 
 appendages to landscape, diffuse an equal de- 
 light by their coolness, their solemnity, and the
 
 17 
 
 charm, which they spread around us, as we wan- 
 der beneath their arched and sacred shades. 
 Akenside finely alludes to the religious awe, 
 with which woods, boldly stretching up the sum- 
 mit of an high mountain, are beheld by persons of 
 a polite imagination. 
 
 -Mark the sable woods, 
 
 That shade sublime yon mountain's nodding brow. 
 With what religions awe the solemn scene 
 Commands your steps ! as if the reverend form 
 Of Minos, or of Numa, should forsake 
 Th' Elysian seats, and down the embowering glade 
 Move to your pausing eye. 
 
 Pleasures of Imagination. 
 
 XVI. If to Rivers and Mountains all nations, 
 at early periods of their History, have conspired 
 to attach the idea of veneration, how much more 
 so have the eminent in all ages delighted in pay- 
 ing honours to WOODS, GROVES, and FORESTS. 
 Pilgrimages were made to the oaks of Mamre, 
 near Hebron, from the time of Abraham to that 
 of Constantino ;* and the nations, surrounding 
 the Jews, were accustomed to dedicate Trees 
 and Groves to their Deities, and to sacrifice 
 
 * Calmet, B. i. c. 7. 
 VOL. i. c
 
 18 
 
 upon high mountains ;* customs, which were even 
 practised by the Jews themselves, previous to the 
 building of the Temple of Solomon.-j- 
 
 Among the woods of Etruria, Numa, to 
 whom, (as Machiavel J justly observes,) Rome 
 was under greater obligations than to Romulus, 
 sought refuge from the cares, that attended the 
 government of an infant and turbulent people : 
 and, amid the groves of the Lyceum, Aristotle and 
 Epicurus taught their systems of religion and 
 politics. 
 
 XVII. The oratories of the Jews were sur- 
 rounded by olives ; and the Greeks, who first 
 inhabited Tuscany, consecrated the forests, which 
 rose on the banks of the Caeritis, to their God 
 Sylvanus. Under those sacred shades they as- 
 sembled every year to celebrate his anniversary. 
 
 Et in gens gelidnm Incus prope Cceritis amnem, 
 Religione patruin late sacer ; undique colles 
 Inclusere cavi, et nigra nemus abjete cingunt. 
 Sylvano fama est veteres sacrasse pelasgos, 
 
 * Note 1 5. t 1 Kings, ch. iii. v. 2, 3, 4. 
 
 ' t II Princip. 1. i. c. 11. Juvenal, Sat. vi.
 
 Arvorum pecorisque Deo, lucumque diemque, 
 Qui primi fines aliqnando halm-re Latinos. 
 
 Eneid, lib. viii. 1. 597. 
 
 A custom, analogous to this, prevails at the 
 present day in some parts of Italy: particularly 
 among the herdsmen and shepherds of Rhegio, 
 who entertain the highest veneration for the wood, 
 called Siha Piana, about three leagues from 
 Parma. 
 
 XVIII. The Rhaphaans of India selected 
 spots, shaded by the Banana and the Tamarind, 
 for their kioums ; while in the deep recesses of 
 the most intricate forests, the ancient Druids 
 of Gaul, Britain, and Germany, were accustomed 
 to sacrifice to their Gods.* Virgil, who describes 
 Elysium, as abounding in the most luxuriant gifts 
 of nature, represents it as one of the highest en- 
 joyments of the happy spirits to repose on 
 flowery banks, and to wander among shady groves :-f- 
 while the Icelanders believe, that on the summit 
 of the Boula, a mountain, which no one has 
 hitherto ascended, there is a cavern, which opens 
 
 Note 16. t Eneid. vi. 673. 
 
 C 2
 
 20 
 
 \, 
 
 to a Paradise in perpetual verdure, delightfully 
 shaded by trees, and abounding in large flocks 
 of sheep.* 
 
 XIX. The Sicilians had, at one time, a great 
 veneration for the chesnut tree, which grew in 
 the region, called La Regione Sylvana : in Ota- 
 heite, the weeping-willow is permitted to be 
 planted only before the houses of the higher 
 classes of the community: in Pennsylvania, churches 
 are isolated in woods, and pulpits erected beneath 
 the branches of oaks ;-f- while, among the Du- 
 gores, there are sacred groves, in which every 
 family has its appropriate place for erecting huts 
 and offering sacrifices. ; In the Romish church, 
 Palms are esteemed sacred even in the present 
 times.3; 
 
 The Temples of the ancient Greeks were mostly 
 situated in groves ; and the Persians, who esteemed 
 
 * Voyage en Iceland, 168. 
 
 t Michaux's Travels, v. ii. p. 231. The Sliieks of Jues- 
 rouan hold all their assemblies under the shades of trees. 
 
 De Page. 
 
 t Pallas's Travels in Rnssia. v. ii. 231. 
 $ Note 17.
 
 21 
 
 woods and forests the most proper for religious 
 sacrifices, ridiculed their more accomplished 
 neighbours, for building temples to their Gods, 
 who had the whole universe for their residence.* 
 
 XX. As Antigua is without rivers, so is Mo- 
 rocco almost destitute of woods : hence it arises, 
 that in that state, as in other warm climates, shade 
 is esteemed the most powerful charm in every 
 landscape. The inconveniences, arising from the 
 want of it, gave occasion to Girolamo Fracastoro 
 to write his curious poem of Syphilus. The shep- 
 herd Syphilus was employed in watching the herds, 
 belonging to Alcithous, king of Atlantis. One 
 season, the rays of summer were so intense, that 
 the angry shepherd, impatient under their influ- 
 ence, with many impieties refused to offer up 
 sacrifices to Apollo, and, in revenge, erected an 
 altar to his. master, Alcithous. Stung with the 
 indignity, Apollo infected the air with such noxious 
 vapours, that the shepherd contracted a danger- 
 ous and nauseous disease, which affected his whole 
 body. His various attempts to conquer his ma- 
 
 * Cicero de Leg. ii. 26.
 
 lady constitute the principal argument of the 
 poem. 
 
 XXI. It was on account of its shade, that the 
 Gardens of Arden, the Paradise of the Arabian 
 poets, were so enthusiastically celebrated; and 
 Amytis, daughter of Astyages, and wife of Nebu- 
 chodonosor, accustomed to the glens and woods of 
 Media, sighed for their shades in the sandy soil of 
 Babylon : hence were constructed those hanging 
 gardens, which were the boast of Babylonian 
 kings and the wonder of historians. The gardens 
 of the Moors appear to have resembled those of 
 the East, in no inconsiderable degree ; their walks 
 were paved with marble ; their parterres shaded 
 by orange-trees, and embellished with baths : the 
 whole entirely walled round, and secluded from 
 every eye. Such is that of Alcazar, at Seville, 
 which, as a specimen of Moorish gardening, is 
 visited by every traveller of information and taste. 
 
 XXII. The manners and pursuits of the Pas- 
 toral Arabs present something peculiarly gratifying 
 to the imagination. The toils and privations 
 which they undergo, in wandering from one pro-
 
 23 
 
 vince to another, in quest of water and shade, is 
 amply repaid by the festivity that ensues upon the 
 discovery of a well or fountain in a shady grove. 
 The manners of the Arabians assimilated, in a 
 striking degree, with those of the Scythians the 
 purity of whose morals has been so much cele- 
 brated by Horace and by Justin.* Though the 
 manners and morals of these wandering nations 
 were so strikingly illustrative of each other, the 
 similarity did not arise from any coincidence in 
 regard to climate or scenery ; for, while the one 
 roved from wood to wood, and from fountain to 
 fountain, over pathless and scorching deserts, 
 the others were, at all times, in the reach of 
 shade, and, at intervals, pitched their tents in 
 scenery, the like of which is scarcely to be paral- 
 leled in all the globe. While the Arab sought 
 shade, as one of the most agreeable luxuries of 
 life, the Scythian and the Celt imagined the oak 
 to be the Tomb of Jupiter ; and the Philosophers 
 of Siam, who numbered five elements, added 
 wood to the fourth. 
 
 XXIII. To a native of Jamaica no luxury is 
 " Note 18.
 
 24 
 
 superior to that of walking among the odoriferous 
 groves of Pimentos, that adorn the eminences, 
 which form a barrier to the encroachments of the 
 ocean ; and the Circassians, long and loudly cele- 
 brated for the beauty and cheerful disposition of their 
 women, quit their towns and cities in the summer, 
 and erect their tents among their woods and val- 
 leys, after the manner of the neighbouring Tartars. 
 To an Hindoo, nothing is more grateful, than to 
 walk among the cool recesses and shady vistas, 
 formed by the arms of the Banian tree, which he 
 esteems an emblem of the Deity himself. The 
 Hindoo Bramins, whose placidity of disposition 
 was, in some measure, the natural result of a total 
 abstinence from animal food, reside, for the most 
 part, in their gardens, which they cultivate with 
 their own hands, and occupy their time in reading, 
 in walking, and in reclining beneath the spread- 
 ing boughs of their Banian trees.* 
 
 XXIV. The use, which the poets have made of 
 trees, by way of illustration, are moral and important. 
 
 * Milton gires a fine description of this tree, which is the 
 most luxuriant and beautiful of all trees. Fu/. Paradise 
 Lost, Book ix. 1. 1100.
 
 25 
 
 Homer frequently embellishes his subjects with 
 references to them, and no passage in the Iliad is 
 more beautiful, than the one, where, in imita- 
 tion of Musaeus, he compares the falling of leaves 
 and shrubs to the fall and renovation of great and 
 ancient families. 
 
 Illustrations of this sort are frequent in the 
 sacred writings. " I am exalted like a cedar in 
 " Libanus," says the author of Ecclesiastes, "and 
 " as a cypress tree upon the mountain of Hermon. 
 " I was exalted like a palm tree in Engeddi, and 
 " as a rose plant in Jericho ; as a fair olive in a 
 ' pleasant field, and grew upas a plane tree by the 
 " water ; as a turpentine tree I stretched out my 
 " branches, and my branches are the branches of 
 " honour and grace ; as a vine brought I forth plea- 
 " sant savour, and my flowers are the fruits of ho- 
 V nour and victory." In the Psalms, in a fine vein 
 of allegory, the vine tree is made to represent the 
 people of Israel : " Thou hast brought a vine out 
 " of Egypt ; thou hast cut out the heathen, and 
 " planted it. Thou didst cause it to take deep root, 
 " and it filled the land. The hills were covered 
 " with its shadow, and the boughs thereof were
 
 26 
 
 " like the goodly cedars. Why hast thou broken 
 " down her hedges, so that all do pluck her ? The 
 " boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the 
 " wild beast doth devour it. Return, we beseech 
 " thee, O God of Hosts; look down from heaven, 
 " and behold and visit this vine, and the vineyard 
 " thy right hand hath planted."* 
 
 XXV. In Ossian, how beautiful is the following 
 passage of Malvina's lamentation for Oscar : " I 
 " was a lovely tree in thy presence, Oscar, with 
 " all my branches round me ; but thy death came, 
 " like a blast from the desert, and laid my green head 
 " low ; the spring returned with its showers, but no 
 " green leaf of mine arose."*f- Again, where old 
 and weary, blind and almost destitute of friends, 
 he compares himself to a tree, that is withered 
 and decayed. " But Ossian is a tree, that is 
 " withered ; its branches are blasted and bare ; no 
 " green leaf covers its boughs : from its trunk no 
 " young shoot is seen to spring ; the breeze whistles 
 " in its grey moss ; the blast shakes its head of age ; 
 " the storm will soon overturn it, and strew all its 
 
 * Note 19. f Poem of Croma.
 
 27 
 
 " dry branches with thee, Oh Dermid, and with all 
 " the rest of the mighty dead, in the green winding 
 " vale of Cona." 
 
 XXVI. That traveller esteemed himself hap- 
 py, who first carried into Palestine the rose of 
 Jericho from the plains of Arabia; and many 
 of the Roman nobility were gratified, in a high 
 degree, with having transplanted exotic plants and 
 trees into the orchards of Italy. Potnpey intro- 
 duced the ebony, on the day of his triumph over 
 Mithridates;* Vespasian transplanted the balm 
 of Syria, and Lucullus the Pontian cherry. Auger 
 de Busbeck brought the lilac from Constantinople ; 
 Hercules introduced the orange into Spain ; Ver- 
 ton the mulberry into England :-f- and so great is 
 the love of nations for particular trees, that a 
 traveller never fails to celebrate those, by which 
 his native province is distinguished. Thus, the 
 native of Hampshire prides himself upon his oaks j 
 the Burgundian boasts of his vines, and the Here- 
 fordshire farmer of his apples. Normandy is 
 proud of her pears ; Provence of her olives ; and 
 Dauphin6 of her mulberries ; while the Maltese 
 
 * Pliny. 1. 12. 4. f A. D. 1608.
 
 fi8 
 
 are in love with their own orange trees. Norway 
 and Sweden celebrate their pines Syria her palms ; 
 and since they have few other trees, of which they 
 can boast, Lincoln celebrates her alders, and Cam- 
 bridge her willows ! The Paphians were proud 
 of their myrtles, the Lesbians of their vines: 
 Rhodes loudly proclaimed the superior charms of 
 her rose-trees; Idumea of her balsams; Media 
 of her citrons, and India of her ebony. The 
 Druses boast of their mulberries; Gaza of her 
 dates and pomegranates ; Switzerland of her lime 
 trees ; Bairout of her figs and bananas ; Damascus 
 of her plumbs; Inchonnaugan of its birch, and 
 Inchnolaig of its yews. The inhabitants of Ja- 
 maica never cease to praise the beauty of their 
 manchenillas ; while those of Tobasco are as vain 
 of their cocoas. The natives of Madeira, whose 
 spring and autumn reign together, take pride in 
 their cedars and citrons ; those of Antigua of their 
 tamarinds, while they esteem their mammee sap- 
 pota to be equal to any oak in Europe, and their 
 mangos to be superior to any tree in America. 
 Equally partial are the inhabitants of the Plains 
 of Tahta to their peculiar species of fan palm ; 
 and those of Kous to their odoriferous orchards. 
 The Hispaniolans, with the highest degree of pride,
 
 29 
 
 challenge any of the trees of Europe or Asia to 
 equal the height of their cabbage trees towering 
 to an altitude of two hundred and seventy feet ! 
 Even the people of the Bay of Honduras have 
 imagination sufficient to conceive their log- 
 wood to be superior to any trees in the world; 
 while the Huron savages inquire of Europeans, 
 whether they have any thing to compare with 
 their immense cedar trees. 
 
 XXVI. So natural is this love of mankind, that 
 the ancients conceived even their Gods to be partial 
 to one tree more than any other. For this rea- 
 son, the statues of Diana, at Ephesus, were made 
 of cedar and ebony ; that of Apollo, at Sicyone, of 
 box ; while in the temple of Mercury, on Mount 
 Cyllene, his image was formed of citron, a tree 
 which he was supposed to hold in high estima- 
 tion. 
 
 England may well take pride in her oaks ! 
 To them is she indebted for her existence as a 
 nation; and, were we an idolatrous people, I 
 should be almost tempted to recommend, (in 
 imitation of our Druidical ancestors, who paid di-
 
 so 
 
 vine honours to the misletoe),* that the oak be 
 
 received in the number of our Gods. It is a 
 
 curious circumstance, my Lelius, and not gene- 
 rally known, that most of those oaks, which are 
 called spontaneous, are planted by the Squirrel. 
 This little animal has performed the most essential 
 service to the English Navy. Walking, one day, in 
 the woods belonging to the Duke of Beaufort, near 
 Troy-house, in the County of Monmouth, Colon- 
 na's attention was diverted by a squirrel, which sat 
 very composedly upon the ground. He stopped to 
 observe his motions. In a few minutes, the squir- 
 rel darted, like lightning, to the top of a tree, be- 
 neath which he had been sitting. In an instant he 
 was down, with ao acorn in his mouth, and began 
 to burrow in the earth with his hands. After digging 
 a small hole, he stooped down, and deposited the 
 acorn : then covering it, he darted up the tree again. 
 In a moment he was down with another, which he 
 buried in the same manner. This he continued 
 to do, as long as Colonna thought proper to 
 watch him. The industry of this little animal is 
 directed to the purpose of securing him against 
 
 * Note 20.
 
 31 
 
 want in the winter ; and, as it is probable, that 
 his memory is not sufficiently retentive to enable 
 him to remember the spots in which he deposits 
 every acorn, the industrious little fellow, no doubt, 
 loses a few every year. These few spring up, and 
 are destined to supply the place of the parent tree ! 
 
 Thus is Britain, in some measure, indebted 
 
 to the industry and bad memory of a squirrel, 
 for her pride, her glory, and her very exist- 
 ence ! 
 
 XXVIII. Not only woods, fountains, and rivers, 
 but MOUNTAINS, have had a sacred character at- 
 tached to them. Upon their summits, the 
 Jews,* the Persians,f the Bithynians, the infidel 
 nations around Palestine,^ and the Druids of 
 Gaul, Britain, and Germany,|| were accustomed 
 to sacrifice : and, while the Celts conceived, 
 that the spirits of their heroes resided among the 
 clefts of the rocks,^f and on the tops and sides of 
 the mountains, the natives of Greenland believed 
 
 St John, ch. iv. v. 20. f Herodotus Clio. c. 131. 
 t Deut. ch. xii. v. 2, 3, 4. $ Czesar de Bell. Gall. lib. 4 
 H Tacitus de Germ. Mor. ff Ossian, Songs of Selma.
 
 32 
 
 them to be the immediate residence of their 
 Deities.* 
 
 XXIX. The Greeks coincided, in a great de- 
 gree, with this idea ; and it was an opinion sanction- 
 ed by many of their poets and philosophers, among 
 whom we may instance Plato, Homer, and 
 Strabo, that, after the Deluge of Deucalion, 
 the inhabitants of the earth resided, for a long 
 time, on the tops of the mountains, whence they 
 gradually descended into the vales and valleys 
 below: grounding their preference, not more 
 upon their comparative security from future inun- 
 dations, than upon the sacred character of those 
 lofty eminences. Of those mountains, three had 
 the honour of giving general names to the Muses ; 
 and Mount Athos still retains such an imposing 
 aspect, that the Greeks of modern ages have 
 erected upon it a vast number of churches, mo- 
 nasteries, and hermitages, which are frequented 
 by devotees of both sexes without number. Hence 
 it has acquired the title 'of the Holy Mountain,-^ 
 an appellation which has been, also, given to the 
 Skirrid, in the county of Monmouth, by religious 
 
 * Note 21. f Note 22.
 
 33 
 
 catholics in the West of England, most of whom en- 
 tertain an ardent desire of having a few moulds from 
 that craggy eminence sprinkled over their coffins : 
 while great numbers of pilgrims resort to the 
 promontory near Gaeta, a small piece of which 
 Italian seamen wear constantly in their pockets to 
 preserve them from drowning. 
 
 XXX. What has been observed of Mount 
 Athos, is equally applicable to Mount Tabor, 
 near the city of Tiberias ; a great number of 
 churches and monasteries having been built upon 
 it. This is the mountain, on which St. Peter 
 said to Christ, " It is good for us to be here ; and 
 " let us make three Tabernacles ; one for thee ; 
 " and one for Moses ; and one for Elias."* 
 The view from this fine summit is represented 
 to be so exceedingly various and magnificent, 
 that the spectator experiences all those sensations, 
 which are produced by a mixture and rapid suc- 
 cession of varied and gay, gloomy and majes- 
 tic objects.*)- What a contrast does this line 
 
 Note 23. 
 
 f Mariti's Travels, vol. ii. p. 263. Shaw's Travels in 
 Syria and the Holy Land, p. 234. 
 VOL. 1. D
 
 34 
 
 eminence exhibit to that of the Norwegian 
 mountain of Filefield, covered with eternal snow ; 
 where neither a house, nor a cottage, nor a 
 hut, nor a tree; neither a shrub, nor a flower, 
 nor a human being, are ever to be seen ! 
 
 The Jews were accustomed to bury their dead 
 on the sides of mountains ;* Moses received the 
 Law on the top of Sinai; and so holy was 
 that mountain esteemed, that no one but him- 
 self was permitted to touch it.f 
 
 The Messiah frequently took his disciples up 
 to the top of a high mountain to pray; there it 
 was he transfigured before them,J and many of 
 the incidents recorded in Scripture took place in 
 the garden and on the Mountain of Olives. 
 
 * Judges, ch. U. v. 9. Joshua, ch. xxiv. v. 32, 33. Such 
 is the practice, I believe, in the present day, where there 
 are mountains. The Jewish burying-ground at Montjuich 
 (supposed to be a corruption of Mows Judaicus), near Barce- 
 lona, is thus situated. 
 
 t Exodus, ch. xix. v. 12. Hebrews, ch. xii. v. 20. 
 
 $ Mattli. xvii. v. 1, 2. Luke ix. v. 28. 
 
 Matth. xxiv. v. 3. Mark xiii. v. 3. Luke xxii. v. 39. 
 Mark xiv. v. 26. Matt. xxvi. v. 30. The Scripture writers 
 frequently call high mountains " The Mountains of God.'' 
 
 Vid.
 
 35 
 
 A country, destitute of mountains, may be rich, 
 well cultivated, elegant and beautiful, but it can 
 in no instance be grand, sublime, or transporting ; 
 and to what a degree boldness of scenery has the 
 power of elevating the fancy may be, in some 
 measure, conceived from an anecdote, recorded 
 of an epic and descriptive poet. When Thom- 
 son heard of Glover's intention of writing an epic 
 poem, the subject of which should be Leonidas 
 of Sparta, " Impossible !" said he, " Glover 
 can never be idle enough to attempt an epic ! 
 He never saw a mountain in his life !" 
 
 XXXI. Petrarch had long wished to climb the 
 summit of Mount Venoux, a mountain presenting 
 a wider range of prospect, than any among the 
 Alps or Pyrenees. With much difficulty he 
 ascended. Arrived at its summit, the scene pre- 
 sented to his sight was unequalled ! After taking 
 a long view of the various objects, which lay 
 stretched below, he took from his pocket a vo- 
 lume of St. Augustine's Confessions : and, opening 
 the leaves at random, the first period that caught 
 
 Vid. Joel, cb. iii. v. 17. Obadiah v. 17. Micah, ch. iv. v. .. 
 The Sermon on the Mount was delivered on the hill, now 
 called the " Mount of the Beatitudes." 
 D 2
 
 36 
 
 his eye was the following passage: " Men 
 travel far to climb high mountains, to observe 
 the majesty of the ocean, to trace the sources 
 of rivers but they neglect themselves." Ad- 
 mirable reasoning ! conveying as admirable a 
 lesson ! Instantly applying the passage to him- 
 self, Petrarch closed the book, and falling into 
 profound meditation, " If," thought he, " I 
 have undergone so much labour in climbing this 
 mountain, that my body might be the nearer to 
 heaven, what ought I not to do, in order that 
 my soul may be received in those immortal re- 
 gions." Let us, my Lelius, while climbing any 
 of our British Alps, be visited by similar reflec- 
 tions, and be actuated by similar resolutions ! 
 
 XXXII. Though the view of mountains serve to 
 elevate the mind, the inhabitants of those regions 
 are, undoubtedly, more prone to rapine and to war- 
 like enterprise, than the inhabitants of vales.* 
 This arises from the austerity of their climate and 
 the comparative poverty of their soil; but this 
 remark, though true, when generally applied, is 
 not always so in particular. For though, in the 
 time of Cesar, the Helvetii, inhabiting that part 
 
 * Note 24.
 
 37 
 
 of Switzerland, lying round the Lake of Geneva, 
 were the most warlike people of Gaul ; yet they 
 were not more so than the Parthians, who 
 were natives of unexplored deserts. The As- 
 syrians and the Chaldees, both originally de- 
 scended from the mountains of Atouria, with 
 the Persians, inhabiting a country abounding in 
 hills, were those people the most remarkable for 
 having established extensive empires ; yet we 
 must not infer from thence, that their conquests 
 arose from that severe energy, which is imbibed 
 from the keen air of mountainous regions, since 
 we find people, residing in plains, acquiring em- 
 pires equally extensive. The Arabians, for in- 
 stance, so remarkable for their conquests during 
 the middle ages ; the Egyptians, in more remote 
 times ; the Tartars, who subjected China ; and 
 the Romans, who conquered not so much by the 
 sword, as by the arts : for it was the severity of 
 their discipline, and not the severity of the Apen- 
 nines, which subdued the world; of all their nume- 
 rous legions, not one-tenth, in the time of Augustus 
 or of Trajan, had ever breathed the air of Italy. 
 
 XXXIII. The most picturesque parts of Asian 
 Tartary are those in the neighbourhood of the
 
 38 
 
 Armenian and Ararat mountains, on which the 
 ark is said to have rested. This celebrated emi- 
 nence, on the top of which stand several ruins, 
 rises in the form of a pyramid, in the midst 
 of a long extended plain. It is always covered 
 with snow from its girdle to the summit, and for 
 several months of the year is totally enveloped 
 by clouds. 
 
 What scenes in Russia are comparable to 
 those in the neighbourhood of the Oural and 
 Riphean mountains? which the inhabitants, in 
 all the simplicity of ignorance, believe to en- 
 compass the earth ; in the same manner, as the 
 Malabars imagine the sun to revolve round the 
 largest of theirs. Where does the Spaniard 
 behold nobler landscapes, than at the feet and be- 
 tween the sides of the Blue Ridge, that back the 
 Escurial ; among the wilds of the Asturias, or 
 among the vast solitudes of the Sierra Morena ? 
 With what feelings of awe does the Hungarian 
 approach the Carpathian Mountains, that separate 
 him from Gallicia ! and with what joy and ad- 
 miration does an African traveller, long lost 
 
 ' O 
 
 among deserts and continents of sand, hail the 
 first peak, that greets his sight, among the moun-
 
 tains of the moon ! Can the American painter 
 rest on finer scenes, than those, which are exhibited 
 among the Glens of the Laurel, the Blue-ridge, 
 the Cumberland and Allegany Mountains ? And 
 where, in all the vast continent of the western 
 world, shall the mind acquire a wider range 
 of idea, more comprehensive notions of vastness 
 and infinity, than on the tops of the Cordilleras 
 and the Andes;* or on those uninhabitable ranges 
 of mountains, which stretch from the river of 
 the west to within a few degrees of the northern 
 circle ? 
 
 XXXIV. What a sensible gratification, and what 
 interesting reflections were awakened in the mind 
 of the celebrated Cook, when standing upon one 
 of the mountains, that commanded almost the 
 whole of the beautiful island of Eooa, in the 
 southern ocean ! This view is one of the most de- 
 lightful that can possibly be imagined. " While 
 I was surveying this prospect, (says the bene- 
 volent navigator), I could not help flattering my- 
 self with the pleasing idea, that some future 
 voyager may, from the same station, behold these 
 meadows stocked with cattle, brought to these 
 
 Note 25.
 
 40 
 
 islands by the ships of England ; and that the 
 completion of this single benevolent purpose, 
 independent of all other considerations, would 
 sufficiently mark to posterity, that our voyages 
 had not been useless to the general interests of 
 humanity." 
 
 XXXV. No one mounts a towering eminence, 
 but feels his soul elevated : the whole frame ac- 
 quires unwonted elasticity, and the spirits flow, 
 as it were, in one aspiring stream of satisfaction 
 and delight: for what can be more animating, 
 than, from one spot, to behold the pomp of man 
 and the pride of nature lying at our feet ? Who 
 can refrain from being charmed, when observing 
 those innumerable intersections, which divide a 
 long extent of country into mountains and vales ; 
 and which, in their turn, subdivide into fields, 
 glens, and dingles, containing trees of every height, 
 cottages of the humble, and mansions of the 
 rich : here, groups of cattle ; there, shepherds 
 tending their flocks; and, at intervals, viewing, 
 with admiration, a broad, expansive river, sweep- 
 ing its course along an extended vale; now en- 
 circling a mountain, and now overflowing a valley; 
 here gliding beneath large boughs of trees, and
 
 41 
 
 there rolling over rough ledges of rocks : in one 
 place concealing itself in the heart of a forest, 
 under huge massy cliffs, which impend over it; 
 and in another, washing the walls of some ivied 
 ruin, bosomed in wood ! 
 
 XXXVI. How beautiful are the reflections of 
 Fitz-James, upon gaining the top of a precipice, 
 whence he threw his eyes below, and beheld the 
 crags, knolls, and mounds of Ben-Venue, the 
 bare point of Ben-An, and the creek, promon- 
 tory, and islands of Loch-Katrine !* 
 
 From the steep promontory gazed 
 
 The stranger, raptur'd and amazed ; 
 
 And " what a scene were here," he cried, 
 
 " For princely pomp or churchman's pride ! 
 
 On this bold brow, a lordly tower; 
 
 In thai soft vale, a lady's bower j 
 
 On yonder meadow, far away, 
 
 The turrets of a cloister gay; 
 
 How blithely might the bugle horn 
 
 Chide, on the lake, the lingering morn ! 
 
 How sweet at eve, the lover's lute 
 
 Chime, when the groves were still and mute ! 
 
 And when the midnight moon did lave 
 
 Her forehead in tlie-silver wave, 
 
 Note 26.
 
 42 
 
 How solemn on the ear would come 
 The holy matin's distant hum : 
 While the deep peal's commanding tone 
 Should wake, in yonder islet lone, 
 A sainted hermit from his cell, 
 To drop a bead with every knell 
 And bugle, lute, and bell and all, 
 Should each bewildered stranger call 
 To friendly feast and lighted hall. 
 
 Scenes, similar to those, which gave rise to 
 these reflections, whether observed at the rising 
 or the setting of the sun, never fail to inspire 
 us with feelings, which it were grateful to indulge 
 and cultivate. If seen in the morning, they give a 
 vigorous tone to the nerves, and prepare the mind 
 to a willing and active discharge of its various 
 duties; if in the evening, every object being 
 mellowed by the declining rays of light, the soul 
 acquires a softened dignity, and the imagination 
 delights in pointing, with grateful anticipation, 
 towards that mysterious world, to which the sun 
 appears to travel in all its glory ! 
 
 XXXVII. If towering eminences have the power 
 to charm and elevate men, who are pursuing the 
 milder occupations of life, with what rapture 
 shall they inspire the hearts of those long, en-
 
 43 
 
 compassed with danger, who, from the top of 
 high mountains, behold the goal to which their 
 wishes and exertions have long been anxiously 
 directed! Zenophon affords a fine instance of 
 the power of this union of association and admi- 
 ration over the mind and heart. The Ten Thou- 
 sand Greeks, after encountering innumerable diffi- 
 culties and dangers, in the heart of an enemy's 
 country, at length halted at the foot of a high 
 mountain. Arrived at its summit, the sea un- 
 expectedly burst, in all its grandeur, on their 
 astonished sight ! The joy was universal ; the 
 soldiers could not refrain from tears ; they em- 
 braced their generals and captains with the most 
 extravagant delight ; they appeared already to have 
 reached the places of their nativity, and, in ima- 
 gination, again sat beneath the vines, that shaded 
 their paternal dwellings ! 
 
 XXXVIII. On the other hand, the soldiers of 
 Hannibal, shrunk back with awe and affright, when 
 they arrived at the foot of the mountains, that 
 backed the town of Martigny. The sight of those 
 enormous rampires, whose heads, capped with eter- 
 nal snow, appeared to touch the heavens, struck a sen- 
 sible dejection on the hearts of the soldiers. It was
 
 in the middle of autumn ; the trees were yellow 
 with the falling leaf; and a vast quantity of snow 
 having blocked up many of the passes, the only 
 objects, which reminded them of humanity, were a 
 few miserable cottages, perched upon the points of 
 inaccessible cliffs; flocks almost perished with cold ; 
 and men of hairy bodies and of savage visages ! 
 On the ninth day, after conquering difficulties 
 without number, the army reached the summit of 
 the Alps. The alarm, which had been circulating 
 among the troops all the way, now became so 
 evident, that Hannibal thought proper to take no- 
 tice of it ; and, halting on the top of one of the 
 mountains, from which there was a fine view of 
 Italy, he pointed out to them the luxuriant plains of 
 Piedmont, which appeared like a large map before 
 them. He magnified the beauty of those regions, 
 and represented to them, how near they were of 
 putting a final period to their difficulties, since one 
 or two battles would inevitably give them possession 
 of the Roman capital. This speech, filled with 
 such promising hopes, and the effect of which 
 was so much enforced by the sight of Italian 
 landscapes, inspired the dejected soldiers with 
 renewed vigour and alacrity ; they sat forward,
 
 45 
 
 and soon after arrived in the plains, near the city 
 of Turin.* 
 
 XXXIX. This celebrated march, performed 
 at such an unfavourable season of the year, in a coun- 
 try, rendered by nature almost inaccessible, has 
 been the admiration of every succeeding age ; and 
 many a fruitless attempt has been made to as- 
 certain its actual route. General Melville, has 
 at length settled the question. With Polybius in 
 his hand, he traced it/row the point, where Hanni- 
 bal is supposed to have crossed the Rhone, up the 
 left bank of that river, across Dauphine to the 
 entrance of the mountains at Les Eche/les, along 
 the vale to Chamberry, up the banks of the Isere, 
 by Coiiftans and Mouster, over the gorge of the 
 Alps, called the Little St. Bernard, and down 
 their eastern slopes by Aosti and Ivrea, to the 
 plains of Piedmont, in the neighbourhood of 
 Turing 
 
 XL. On the Sixth of May, in the year 
 
 * Polybius, 1. iii. 203. Livy, 1. xxi. 36. Plin. Proem. Lib. 
 xxxvi. Siliiis Italicus. Lib. iii. 
 
 t Life of General Melville, p. ll. Moore's View of Man- 
 ners in Italy, Tol. II.
 
 46 
 
 Eighteen Hundred, Napoleon, then First Consul 
 of France (gaudens viam fecisse ruina,*) set off 
 from Paris to assume the command of the army 
 of Italy. On the Thirteenth, he arrived in the 
 neighbourhood of Lausanne. Having reviewed his 
 troops, he pursued his journey along the north 
 banks of the lake of Geneva, and passing through 
 Vevey, Villeneuve, and Aigle, arrived at Martinach, 
 situated near a fine sweep of the Rhone, near its 
 confluence with the Durance. From this place 
 the modern Hannibal, (not more resembling that 
 warrior in military talent than in perfidy,) passed 
 through Burg, and St. Brenchier; and after great 
 toil, difficulty and danger, arrived with his whole 
 army at the top of the great St. Bernard. The 
 road up this mountain is one of the most difficult, 
 and the scenes, which it presents, are as magnificent 
 as any in Switzerland. Rocks, gulphs, avalanches, 
 or precipices, presented themselves at every step. 
 Not a soldier but was alternately petrified with 
 horror, or captivated with delight. At one time 
 feeling himself a coward, at another, animated with 
 the inspirations of a hero ! Arrived at the summit 
 of that tremendous mountain, and anticipating no- 
 
 * Lucan. Lib. i. 1. 146.
 
 47 
 
 thing but a multitude of dangers and accidents in 
 descending from those regions of perpetual snow, 
 on a sudden turning of the road, they beheld tables, 
 covered, as if by magic, with every kind of neces- 
 sary refreshment ! The monks of St. Bernard had 
 prepared the banquet. Bending with humility and 
 grace, those holy Fathers besought the army to 
 partake the comforts of their humble fare. The 
 army feasted, returned tumultuous thanks to the 
 Monks, and passed on. A few days after this 
 event, the battle of Marengo decided the fate of 
 Italy. 
 
 XLI. To the eye and heart of the ambitious, 
 how many subjects of inducement and delight 
 do mountains present ! Who would not be proud to 
 climb the summits of the Alps,* the Pyrenees, 
 and the Andes ? Is there a Sicilian, who does not 
 boast of Etna ? Is there a Scot, who does not take 
 pride in celebrating Ben Lomond ? and is there an 
 
 * The Description of the general Character of Alpine 
 Scenery, by Silins Italicus, is a masterpiece ; and one of the 
 finest passages in that unjustly neglected poet. 
 
 Cnncta geln canaque oeternum grandine tecta, 
 Atque zevi glaciem cobibent ; &c. &c. Lib. iii.
 
 48 
 
 Italian, that is not vain of the Apennines ?* Who, 
 that is alive to nature and the muse, would not be 
 delighted to wander up the sides of the Caucasus, 
 the cone of Teneriffe, or those beautiful moun- 
 tains, situated on the confines of three nations, so 
 often and so justly celebrated by the poets of ancient 
 Greece ? and shall our Friend Colonna be censured 
 for confessing, that the proudest moments of his ex- 
 istence have been those, in which he has reached 
 the summits of the Wrekin, the Ferwyn, and the 
 cone of Langollen? or when he has beheld, from 
 the tops of Carnedds David, and Llewellyn, a long 
 chain of mountains, stretching from the north to 
 the south, from Penmaenmawr to Cader Idrisr 
 Snowdon rising in the centre, his head capt with 
 snow, and towering above the clouds, while his 
 immense sides, black with rugged and impending 
 rocks, stretched in long length below ! 
 
 XLII. During his continuance on Pen-y-Voel t 
 Mr. Coxe, the celebrated Swiss traveller, felt that 
 extreme satisfaction, which is ever experienced 
 
 * Claudian, Lucan, and indeed almost all the Latin poets 
 take a sensible pleasure in marking the characters of these 
 cloud-capt eminences, the abodes of perpetual snow and the 
 fruitful parents of a vast number of rivers.
 
 49 
 
 when elevated on the highest point of the adjacent 
 country. " The air," as that gentleman justly ob- 
 serves from Rousseau, " is more pure, the body 
 more active, and the mind more serene. Lifted 
 up above the dwellings of man, we discard all 
 grovelling and earthly passions; the thoughts as- 
 sume a character of sublimity, proportionate to 
 the grandeur of the surrounding objects : and as 
 the body approaches nearer to the etherial regions, 
 the soul imbibes a portion of their unalterable 
 purity." In a note to this passage Rousseau ex- 
 presses his surprise, that a bath of the reviving air 
 of the mountains is not more frequently prescribed 
 by the Physician, as well as by the Moralist. 
 
 XLIII. Emotions of religion are always the 
 most predominant in such elevated regions. Mr. 
 Adams, when employed as minister plenipotentiary, 
 from the States of America to the court of Berlin, 
 visited the vast mountains, that separate Silesia from 
 Bohemia. Upon the Schneegniten he beheld the 
 celebrated pits, where the snow remains unmelted 
 for the greater part of the year : upon the Risen- 
 koppe, the highest pinnacle in Germany, he be- 
 held all Silesia, all Saxony, and Bohemia, stretch- 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 
 
 ed like a map before him. " Here," says he, 
 " my first thought was turned to the Supreme Cre- 
 ator, who gave existence to that immensity of ob- 
 jects, expanded before my view. The transition 
 from this idea to that of my own relation, as an 
 immortal soul with the author of nature, was na- 
 tural and immediate ; from this to the recollection 
 of my country, my parents, and my friends."* 
 
 XLIV. It is highly interesting to observe, what 
 pride a mountaineer takes in his country. Mr. Coxe, 
 travelling near Munster, was requested by a peasant 
 to inform him what he thought of his country; and 
 pointing to the mountains with rapture, he exclaim- 
 ed, " behold our walls and bulwarks, even Con- 
 stantinople is not so strongly fortified !" And Co- 
 lonua never reflects, but with pleasure, on the self- 
 evident satisfaction, with which a farmer, residing in 
 one of the most inaccessible cliffs, near Ffestiniog, 
 replied to his assertion, that England was the finest 
 and best country in the world, " ah ! but you have 
 no mountains, sir; you've got no mountains!" 
 The Sicilian peasants, in the same manner, have 
 such an affection for Etna, that they believe Sicily 
 would not be habitable without it. " It keeps us 
 
 Note vr.
 
 51 
 
 warm in winter," say they, " and furnishes us with 
 ice in summer." 
 
 XLV. If we except mountains, nothing has so 
 imposing an effect upon the imagination, as high, 
 impending and precipitate rocks; those objects, 
 which, in so peculiar a manner, appear to have 
 been formed by some vast convulsion of the earth ; 
 and I remember, my Lelius, few scenes, which 
 have given me greater severity of delight, than 
 those vast crags, which rear themselves in a multi- 
 tude of shapes, near Ogwen's Lake ; at the falls 
 of the Conway; at St. Go wen's Chapel in Pem- 
 brokeshire, and the singular masses at Worm's 
 Head, in the district of Gower. The first of 
 these scenes is the more endeared to my fancy, 
 from the following Ode having been written by La 
 Rochefort, among its rude and sterile precipices. 
 
 ODE. 
 I. 
 
 To th' Oak, that near iny cottage grew, 
 I gave a lingering, sad adieu ; 
 I left my Zenophelia true 
 
 To love's fine power . 
 I felt the tear my cheek bedew 
 
 In that sad hour. 
 E 2
 
 52 
 
 II. 
 
 Upon the mountain's side I stood, 
 Capt with Rothsay's arching wood ; 
 And; as I view'd the mimic flood, 
 
 So smooth and still, 
 I listen'd gaz'd in pensive mood 
 
 Then climb'd the hill. 
 
 III. 
 
 " Adieu, thou wood embosom'd spire, 
 " No longer shall my rustic lyre 
 " In tender, simple notes respire 
 
 " Thy tombs among; 
 " No longer will it sooth thy choir, 
 
 " With funeral song. 
 
 IV. 
 
 " The world before me; I must rove 
 " Through Vice's glittering, vain alcove ; 
 " Alas! as mid the world I move, 
 
 " Shall I have time 
 " To tremble at the name of love, 
 
 " And speak in rhyme ?" 
 
 V. 
 
 Five years are past, since thus I sigh'd, 
 Since to the world without a guide, 
 My fortunes I oppos'd to pride ; 
 
 Oh! time mispent! 
 My pains are lost my talents tried 
 
 With punishment !
 
 53 
 VI. 
 
 Now to my hamlet I'll retire, 
 Cur*d of every vain desire; 
 And burning with the sacred fire, 
 
 That charm'd my yontb; 
 To love I'll dedicate my lyre, 
 ' ^ And heaven-born truth. 
 
 XLVI. When rocks are scattered among woods, 
 covered with ivy, and peopled with animals, as 
 in the celebrated pass at Undercliff,* nothing can 
 be more embellishing to scenery, and nothing fasci- 
 nates the imagination in a more vivid and impres- 
 sive manner. Of all the rocks, which this Island 
 can boast, few can compare with those, that alter- 
 nately form the sides, the front screens, and the 
 back grounds of the Wye. " There," says Mr. 
 Gilpin, who has described the general character 
 of this unequalled river with the skill and judg- 
 ment of a painter, and with all the taste and genius 
 of a poet, " the rocks are continually starting 
 through the woods, and are generally simple and 
 grand ; rarely formal or fantastic. Sometimes they 
 project in those beautiful square masses, yet broken 
 and shattered in every line, which is characteristic 
 
 ' In the Isle of Wight,
 
 54 
 
 of the most majestic species of rock. Sometimes 
 they slant obliquely from the eye in shelving diago- 
 nal strata; and sometimes they appear in large 
 masses of smooth stone, detached from each other 
 and half buried in the soil." These masses of 
 smooth rock are those objects of nature, which 
 most resemble the architecture of man. Some- 
 times they rear themselves into vast natural amphi- 
 theatres; at other times into rampires, with all 
 the regularity of immense walls ; and with no herb- 
 age, no hanging masses of shrubs, no ivy adorning 
 their crevices, they surprise, without delighting us. 
 For, as the same elegant writer truly observes, no 
 object receives so much beauty from contrast as 
 the rock. " Some objects," says he, " are beau- 
 tiful in themselves ; the eye is pleased with the 
 tuftings of a tree ; it is amused with pursuing the 
 eddying of a stream ; or it rests, with delight, on the 
 broken arches of a gothic ruin. Such objects, in- 
 dependent of composition, are beautiful in them- 
 selves. But the rock, bleak, naked and unadorned, 
 seems scarcely to deserve a place among them. 
 Tint it with mosses and lichens of various hues, 
 and you give it a degree of beauty ; adorn it with 
 shrubs and hanging herbage, and you make it still 
 more picturesque ; connect it with wood, water,
 
 and broken ground, and you make it in the highest 
 degree interesting. Its colour and its form are so 
 accommodating, that it generally blends into one 
 of the most beautiful appendages of landscape :"* 
 
 - where high rocks, o'er ocean's dashing floods 
 
 Wave high in air, their panoply of woods; 
 
 Admiring taste delights to stray beneath 
 
 With eye uplifted, and forgets to breath; 
 
 Or, as aloft his daring footsteps climb, 
 
 Crests their high summits with his arm sublime. 
 
 Darwin, c. 3. 1. 
 
 XLVII. I shall never forget your enthusiasm, 
 my Lelius, when we visited the chapel of St. 
 Go wen, situated among those stupendous rocks, 
 which, forming a semicircular area towards the sea, 
 commands a noble prospect of the coast of Devon. 
 The language, you employed on that interesting oc- 
 casion, never can I be so base as to forget. " If 
 our prayers are, at one time more acceptable than 
 at another, it must assuredly be in those moments, 
 when our souls are elevated by such scenery as 
 this ! often have I been awed to devotion at Rome, 
 and at Loretto, in the presence of Canons, Bishops, 
 and Cardinals; but here, in the rude simplicity of 
 
 Note 28.
 
 56 
 
 nature, I feel my spirit separate, as it were, from 
 the tenement, which has so long chained it to the 
 earth, and wing its course directly up to heaven ! 
 The magnificent area, in which this small chapel 
 is situated, is a temple, more sublimely grand and 
 affecting, than all the mosques of Turkey, and all 
 the cathedrals of France, Italy, or Spain !" 
 
 XLVIII. If towering and impending rocks, 
 abrupt and gigantic mountains elevate the mind, 
 and exalt it far above mortality, the woody dingle, 
 the deep and romantic glen, the rocky valley, and 
 the wide, the rich, the fascinating vale, associating 
 ideas of rural comfort and of peaceful enjoyment, 
 cheerful industry, robust health and tranquil hap- 
 piness, draw us from subjects, too high for human 
 thought, chain us to the earth, and enchant us with 
 such magic spells, 
 
 That Earth seems HEAVEN; and all around displays 
 Such pleasing evidence of all that's good, 
 That we would rather fascinate our eyes 
 With such sweet beauty, than exalt our souls 
 E'eu to the mansions of eternity. 
 
 No country abounds more in those characters, 
 in which Nature delights to speak to the imagina-
 
 57 
 
 tion, than Greece. Her mountains were not more 
 the theme of her poets, than her vales and her val- 
 leys. In that fine country no vale was more cele- 
 brated than that of Tempe : a vale, in which the 
 peasants frequently assembled, in order to give en- 
 tertainments to each other, and to offer sacrifices. 
 Of this enchanting spot Pliny has given a de- 
 scription in the fourth book of his Natural His- 
 tory ; but .ZElian has left the most copious and ac- 
 curate account of it. " Tempe," says he," is si- 
 tuated between the mountains of Ossa and Pelion, 
 which are the highest mountains in Thessaly, and 
 are divided in this place, with a singular kind of 
 attention. They enclose a valley five miles in 
 length, but which in breadth, often does not ex- 
 ceed an hundred feet. In the middle flows the 
 river Peneus, which, at first, is little more than a 
 cataract, but by the addition of many smaller 
 streams, it at length assumes considerable magni- 
 tude. Among the rich shrubs upon its banks, are 
 various beautiful windings and recesses ; not the 
 works of human bands, but of spontaneous nature, 
 which seems to have formed every thing in this 
 spot with the solicitude of a mother. A profusion 
 of ivy is seen in all parts of the woods, which, 
 with the vine, ascend the tops of the highest trees,
 
 58 
 
 cling round their branches, and fall luxuriantly 
 between them. The different species of convol- 
 volus, which grow upon the sides of the hills, 
 throw their white flowers and creeping foliage 
 over the rocks ; while, in the vale, or wherever 
 they can find a level surface, groves of all kinds, 
 in venerable arches, or capricious forms, affords 
 a cool and refreshing retreat. Nor are there 
 wanting frequent falls of water, with the most 
 pure and crystal springs, sweet to drink, and 
 wholesome to the bather. The thrush, the wood- 
 lark, and the nightingale, breed in the thickets, 
 and, with their songs, shorten the way, and sooth 
 the ears of the traveller, who finds, in every path, 
 arbours and grottos, and seats of quiet repose. The 
 Peneus still continues through the vale, idly, as 
 it were, and with a glassy smoothness ; M'hile the 
 depending boughs, which crowd over its surface, 
 yield an almost constant shade to those, who na- 
 vigate the river." 
 
 . In this valley were united the extremes 
 of the beautiful and the sublime : how beautiful, 
 jlian has informed us ; how sublime, we may 
 imagine, from what is related by Pliny, who assures 
 us, that when the Roman army was marching over 
 one of the passes, the soldiers were thrilled with
 
 59 
 
 horror at the awful appearance of the rocks, and 
 the thundering noise of the cataracts. 
 
 The scene in England, which most resembles 
 this celebrated vale, is the valley of Dovedale, 
 in the county of Derby. This delightful spot 
 wears an air of enchantment, which its transi- 
 tions, caverns, rocks and recesses, continually keep 
 alive to the eye ; while the imagination roves from 
 scene to scene, and from transition to transition, 
 with all the wild ardour of unsated curiosity,* 
 
 L. In England, few are the vales, remark- 
 able for picturesque effect. They are rich in 
 wood, in meadow, in rural animals and in 
 buildings; but they are destitute, for the most 
 part, of rocks, of ruins and of mountains. None 
 of them, therefore, can compare with the vales 
 of Clwyd, Llangollen, or Ffestiniog; and they 
 possess little, which will enable them to stand in 
 competition with those of the Usk, the Towy, 
 or the Glamorgan. Of these the Clwyd is the 
 
 * The Tempe of Switzerland is a valley, in the Canton 
 of Glarus, near the mountains of Freybourg, watered by 
 
 the Unth.
 
 60 
 
 most rich ; Llangollen the most picturesque ; 
 Ffestiniog the most abounding in beautiful and 
 sublime combination ; the Glamorgan the most 
 rural ; but the Towy, by far, the most adapted 
 for a tranquil and elegant retirement. 
 
 LI. Who can behold, too, without surprise and 
 pleasure, the romantic pass of CWM DYR, so 
 finely contrasted, as it is, with the wild and un- 
 cultivated aspect of the mountains, which back 
 its foreground, studded M'ith cottages : here em- 
 browned with wood, and there embellished with 
 masses of rock ; affording one of the most ex- 
 quisite specimens of placid mountain scenery, it 
 is possible to behold !* Travel also, my Lelius, 
 to the vales of the Dee, the Ebwy and the 
 Rhydol; but if you \\ould select some sweet, 
 some tranquil spot, in which, forsaking all the 
 world, you would devote the remainder of your 
 days to contemplation and delight, let that spot 
 be the vale of Crucis, in the county of Denbigh. 
 Surrounded on all sides by towering mountains, 
 the vale of Crucis, secured from the northern 
 blast by high and over-arching rocks, appears, as 
 
 * Note 29.
 
 01 
 
 Rousseau would have said, like an asylum, which 
 nature had spared for two faithful lovers, escaped 
 from the ruin and desolation of the world. 
 There, my Lelius, will I promise you security 
 and rest. There, forgetting all, that would re- 
 mind you of this little scene, you would learn 
 to estimate, at their true value, the pomp of 
 folly, the ignorance of pride, and the littleness 
 of grandeur. 
 
 LIT. If, however, you would be sublimely cap- 
 tivated, visit Nant Gvvynaut, at the foot of Snow- 
 don, or the tremendous Glen of the Beaver's 
 Hollow.* Range along those enormous crags, 
 those fissured precipices, where the rocks rear 
 themselves, in fantastic piles, even to the clouds, 
 and where Nature, bold and rough, iu silent 
 terror, 
 
 sit* alone 
 
 Majestic on her craggy throne. 
 
 There rove, transported, among scenes so awful 
 and sublime, that the breath is suspended, while 
 
 * Nant Frangon.
 
 62 
 
 gazing on their wonders : there, where the race 
 of man appears to be extinct ; where not a tree 
 nor a shrub, nor a cottage will remind you of 
 humanity, and where no sound is heard, but the 
 rushing of waters, the solemn roar of the winds, 
 the cries of the eagle, or the screams of the 
 kite. 
 
 il 'Jill fane .aLiitt; In -*?:; t.-.njjt -.. .H 
 LIU. Indulging in the contemplation of this 
 scene, till all the faculties of the mind are sus- 
 pended, pursue the windings of the defile ; and, 
 after guarding yourself from the possibility of fall- 
 ing from the margin of a precipice, stand upon its 
 
 edge and cast your eyes below 1 A beautiful 
 
 and romantic glen stretches at the bottom! 
 
 No ! not, in all nature, can a scene more truly 
 grand, or more exquisitely captivating, be seen 
 than this! May he, who sees Nant Frangon, 
 (" Beauty sleeping in the lap of Horror !") and 
 sees it with indifference, stand, to eternal ages, 
 at the bottom of the Glen, a marble monument 
 of his baseness ! For my own part, my Lelius, 
 I should have considered it a moral misfortune, 
 as well as a moral disgrace, had I been capable 
 of witnessing such a scene, with any other feel-
 
 63 
 
 ings, than those of wonder and awe, astonishment 
 and devotion : Rather than have felt 
 
 Such vast, such matchless woe, 
 
 Td rise a rock o'erspread with endless snow ! 
 Or frown a cliff on some disastrous shore, 
 Where ships are wrecked and tempests ever roar. 
 
 Gruinger's Tibullus. 
 
 UV. These are scenes, totally abandoned to the 
 rude and matchless finger of Nature, and which 
 man, excelling in the liberal arts, has never yet 
 presumed to touch. Scenes, which admit of no 
 conversation, and yet appear to have a soul, re- 
 siding in them, which, animated by their charms, 
 furnish recompenses, more than sufficient, for 
 their silence and solitude. Speaking a language, 
 clear and distinct in cause, various and powerful 
 in operation, it is permitted the enraptured spec- 
 tator to admire and to meditate, but not to speak : 
 hence arises a soft and holy rapture, which, to 
 a mind long accustomed to contemplate the im- 
 becility of man, or to feel the benumbing influ- 
 ence of all human causes of action, is as delightful 
 as water, distilling from the leaves of the Foun- 
 tain Tree, is to the palate of a traveller, whose
 
 64 
 
 lips have long been parched with ungovernable 
 thirst. 
 
 LV. Such effects have scenes, like these, 
 upon the mind and heart, that the poets and 
 sacred writers, not unfrequently, imagine the hills 
 and woods to become vocal ; and, participating 
 in the delight, they impart, to lift up their voices 
 in praise and gratitude. Thus vales are said to 
 smile; woods to whisper; trees are fabled to 
 have ears;* silence to have the feeling of plea- 
 sure ;f and the sea, in a calm, lulling evening, 
 as the waves recoil from the beach, is said to 
 listen to its own roar. These metaphors are per- 
 petual in poetry, and not unfrequent in common 
 conversation. In reference to the imaginary qua- 
 lities, with which we endow the various objects 
 of landscape, the poets frequently address them- 
 selves to those objects, as if they were capable 
 of hearing and obeying the call. Thus Moschus, 
 in his highly finished Elegy on the Death of 
 Bion, calls upon the woods and fountains to 
 mingle their sorrow with his ; and Milton, whose 
 subject and whose genius sublimed him beyond 
 
 * Horat. Od. xii. f Note 39.
 
 the limits of the world, and after whom, as John- 
 son finely observed of Shakespeare, time toiled 
 and panted in vain, has a transcendent passage 
 in the Morning Hymn,* sung by our first pa- 
 rents, where they call upon the visible creation 
 to join with them in celebrating their great Father. 
 After invoking the angels of light, the sun, the 
 moon, the stars, the air, and the elements, Adam 
 invites the mists and exhalations, the pines and 
 plants, the \vinds and fountains, to accompany 
 him in his devotions, and to be witness against 
 him, if, at any time, he should neglect his morning 
 r his evening orisons. 
 
 LVI. Objects of Nature not only add to the 
 repose of the mind, and tend to the restora- 
 tion and preservation of health, but even to 
 the more vivid enjoyment of the sensual faculties; 
 for, it has been observed by the most eminent 
 travellers, that those persons, who are the most ex- 
 posed to the operations of nature, by leading 
 rural and pastoral lives, are remarkably endowed 
 with quick perceptions of smelling, hearing and 
 seeing. Their organs acquire additional power 
 
 * Note Si. 
 VOL. i. F
 
 66 
 
 from the temperature of the air, and from their 
 almost continually being in sight of rural, rather 
 than artificial objects. Thus, the Kalmuc Tartars 
 possess an olfactory acuteness, nearly equal to 
 that of dogs : by stretching themselves upon the 
 turf, they hear the treading of sheep and the 
 trampling of horses, at a great distance ; and see 
 objects, clearly and distinctly, which a traveller 
 has no power to discern, or, if perceived, only 
 in a confused and indefinite manner. 
 
 LVII. Not the larger objects of landscape only 
 have the power of administering to our pleasure, 
 but we shall perceive, that Earths and Stones, 
 their component parts, possess the same facul- 
 ty, if we begin by investigating the first princi- 
 ples of Geology, and finish with the conclusion, 
 that the entire substance of our globe is a metal- 
 line, and consequently a combustible compound ! 
 But the subject, I am aware, is uncongenial to your 
 taste ; I shall, therefore, turn to the consideration 
 of those natural Sounds, Perfumes and Colours, 
 which, contributing with more or less effect, 
 serve to increase those general sensations of har- 
 mony, which we receive from the various objects 
 and appearances of nature.
 
 67 
 
 LVIII. Who has not listened, with satisfac- 
 tion, to the song of the lark, the hum of bees, 
 and the murmuring of rivulets ? Mecaenas was 
 cured of continual watchfulness by the falling of 
 water ; and Pliny relates an anecdote of a Roman 
 nobleman, who would recline upon a couch be- 
 neath one of his beach-trees, and be lulled to 
 slumber by the falling of rain.* 
 
 Ah ! who the melodies of MORN can tell? 
 
 The wild brook babbling down the mountain side ; 
 
 The lowing herd ; the shepherd's simple bell ; 
 
 The pipe of early shepherd dim descried 
 
 In the lone valley ; echoing far and wide 
 
 The clamorous horn among the cliffs above ; 
 
 The hollow murmur of the ocean tide ; 
 
 The hum of bees, the linnet's lay of love, 
 
 And the full choir, that wakes the universal grove. 
 
 Minstrel. 
 
 LIX. Of a fine summer's evening, too, how de- 
 lightful is it to pause upon the side of the hill, which 
 overlooks a favourite village, and listen to the va- 
 rious sounds, which come softened by the distance ! 
 Goldsmith has described sounds of this sort, in a 
 passage, which, though frequently quoted, is never 
 quoted or read without the liveliest pleasure. 
 
 * Note 32. 
 F 2
 
 Sweet was the sound, when oft, at evening's close, - 
 
 Up yonder hill the village murmur rose. 
 
 There, as I passed, with careless steps and slow, 
 
 The mingled notes came softened from below : 
 
 The swain responsive, as the milk maid sung, 
 
 The sober herd, that low'd to meet their young; 
 
 The noisy geese, that gabbled o'er the pool, 
 
 The playful children, just let loose from school, 
 
 The watch-dog's voice, that bay'd the whispering wind, 
 
 And the loud laugh, that spoke the vacant mind : 
 
 These all in soft confusion sought the shade, 
 
 And filled each pause the nightingale had made. 
 
 Deserted Village. 
 
 LX. If some sounds in nature are beau- 
 tiful, many are there also, which assume the 
 character of sublimity, and some, which partake 
 of the nature of both. Such are those gentle 
 breathings of the wind, after a violent storm, 
 which Mr. Gray, with singular felicity, compares 
 to the voice of an Eolian harp. Such, too, are 
 those notes of apparent sorrow, which are, at 
 intervals, heard from animals and birds ; " The 
 wild-dove," says the Arabian poet, Serage Al- 
 warackf " sooths me with her notes ; like me 
 she has a dejected heart !" 
 
 LXI. What lover of nature's music, but is 
 charmed with the various notes and modulations of
 
 69 
 
 our English singing birds ? The sweetness of the 
 throstle ; the cheerfulness of the sky-lark ; the 
 mellowness of the thrush, building near the mis- 
 letoe ; the imitative talent of the bull-finch ; the 
 varied and familiar language of the red-breast, 
 endeared to us, from our youth, by so many 
 agreeable associations ; the wood-lark, priding 
 herself in being little inferior to the nightingale, 
 and sheltering her home in lair-ground, under 
 large tufts of grass to shelter her from the cold ; 
 the vivacity of the wren, forming her nest with 
 dry leaves and moss, among hedges and shrubs 
 encircled with ivy ; the solemn cry of the owl ; 
 and the soft note of the linnet, building upon 
 heaths with roots, and among thorns with moss, 
 and subject to the disorder of melancholy ! Not 
 one of these birds breathes a single note, that is 
 not listened to with pleasure : 
 
 Happy commoners! 
 
 That haunt in woods, in meads, in flowery gardens, 
 Rifle the sweets and taste the choicest fruits, 
 Yet scorn to ask the lordly owner's leave. 
 
 Rowe. 
 
 LXII. But what bird, or lute, or harp, or 
 dulcimer, shall we compare with the notes of
 
 70 
 
 the fly-bird of America, or the nightingale of 
 Europe and of Asia ? The favourite bird of So- 
 phocles and Tasso,* and the subject of many 
 an Arabic and Persian allegory. Plinyf has de- 
 scribed the effect of this bird's exquisite note 
 with appropriate warmth ; and Walton, a writer 
 of genuine feeling and classical simplicity, has 
 celebrated it in the truest measure of applause : 
 " He, that at midnight, when the very labourers 
 sleep securely, should hear, as I have heard, the 
 clear air, the sweet descants, the natural rising 
 and falling, the doubling and redoubling of her 
 voice, might well be lifted above earth, and say, 
 " Lord ! what music hast thou provided for thy 
 saints in heaven, when thou affordest bad men 
 such music upon earth." 
 
 LXIII. Kircher, in his Universal Harmony,^; 
 
 * Odi quello usignuolo, 
 Che va di ramo in ramo 
 Cantando, To arno, To arno. 
 
 Atnintm. 
 
 Hear that sweet nightingale, 
 Who flies from bough to bongh, 
 Singing I love, I love. 
 
 f Lib. x. c. 19. * Lib. i. c. 14.
 
 71 
 
 endeavours to reduce the notes of the nightingale 
 to a musical scale. But no instrument can suc- 
 cessfully imitate this bird, though the human voice 
 is capable of intonations equally sweet and equally 
 touching. Seignour Greadagni b who enjoyed a 
 considerable share of fame in England, about the 
 year 1780, had tones as rich and as mellow as the 
 nightingale. The effect of this singer over the 
 mind, we are told, arose principally from his imi- 
 tating an Eolian harp: unlike other singers, who 
 affect a swell or Messa de voce, he diminished his 
 notes from the beginning to the end, dying in soft 
 murmurs; and giving his last whispers all the 
 effect of distance, they seemed to ascend, till the 
 sound was totally lost in the ecstasy of hearing, 
 and though no note was heard, the ear listened, as 
 if it expected a return.* 
 
 LXIV. The practice of imitating birds is very 
 common in Persia. Sir William Jones relates 
 a curious circumstance in his Dissertation on the 
 Musical Modes of the Hindus : " an intelligent 
 person," says he, " declared, that he had more 
 than once been present, when a celebrated Lu- 
 
 Note 33.
 
 72 
 
 tanist was playing to a large company, in a grove 
 near Schiraz, where he distinctly saw the nightin- 
 gale trying to vie with the musician ; sometimes 
 warbling on the trees, sometimes fluttering from 
 branch to branch, as if they wished to approach 
 the instrument, and, at length, dropping on the 
 ground in a kind of ecstasy, from which they 
 were soon raised by a change of the mood." 
 Colonna once gave the Sergeant of a marching 
 regiment five guineas to teach him the art of 
 imitating birds; when, to his great surprise, he 
 found the nightingale more easily to be imitated, 
 than any of our principal choristers, except the 
 black-bird. Alexander was once very much im- 
 portuned to hear a person, who was capable of 
 imitating nightingales with no common excellence: 
 " I would do so," replied he, " if 1 could not 
 enjoy the superior happiness of hearing the nightin- 
 gale herself!" 
 
 LXV. The poets, in all ages, have conspired 
 in considering this bird a melancholy one : 
 
 Qualis populea moerans philomela sub umbra 
 Amissos queritur foetus, quas darns a rat or 
 Observans nido implumes detraxit ; at ilia
 
 73 
 
 Flet noctem, ramoqne sedens miserable carmen 
 Integral, & moestis late loca questibus implet. 
 
 Georg. Lib. iv. 1. 511. 
 
 Another poet says, 
 
 Dulces variat philomela querelas. 
 
 Some one has observed, that she not only 
 warbles among the branches of trees, but in those 
 places, which are esteemed sacred : perhaps, how- 
 ever, we are, by implication, to understand the 
 poet's meaning to be, that she renders sacred 
 every haunt she frequents. 
 
 Qiiae virides umbras & loca sacra tenet. 
 
 In variety of note, she does not exceed the 
 sky-lark, yet the poets have said, 
 
 potest vocum discrimina mille, 
 
 Mille potest varios ipsa referre souos. 
 
 LXVI. Of her melancholy no one has given 
 a more exquisite description than Milton, who 
 addresses her with such elegance in the most beau- 
 tiful of all beautiful poems, // Penseroso.
 
 74 
 
 Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise of folly, 
 Most musical, most melancholy, 
 Thee, chantress, oft the woods among 
 I woo to hear thy evening song. 
 
 So great a favourite was this bird with Milton, 
 that he never omits an opportunity of celebrating 
 its powers. What a sweet passage is that, in 
 his fifth book of Paradise Lost, where Eve re- 
 lating her dream to Adam, fancies him to have 
 said, 
 
 Why sleep'st thou, Eve ? now is the pleasant time, 
 The cool, the silent, save where silence yields 
 To the sweet night-warbling bird, that now, awake, 
 Tunes sweetest her lone-labour'tl song. 
 
 And again, where the earth and all its animal 
 and feathered inhabitants give signs of gratulation 
 at our parents' nuptials : 
 
 Joyous the birds ; fresh gales and gentle airs 
 Whispered it to the woods, and from their wings, 
 Flung rose, flung odours from the spicy shrub, 
 Disporting, till the amorous bird of night 
 Sung spousal, and bid haste the evening star, 
 On his hill top to light the bridal lamp. 
 These, lall'd by nightingales, embracing slept;
 
 75 
 
 And on their naked limbs the flowery roof 
 Showered roses, which the morn repaired.* 
 
 So charmed was Thomson with this aerial 
 music, that he would listen, hour after hour, of 
 a fine summer's evening, to hear the nightingales 
 in Richmond Gardens. 
 
 LXVII. The nightingale, however, melancholy 
 as she has been represented, is, in fact, a cheerful 
 bird ; like the Lachryma Christi-^ of Italy, she is 
 sorrowful only by name ; she sings by day, as well 
 as by night, and is, as MartialJ calls her, the 
 most garrulous of all our singing birds. Her 
 notes, strong and sonorous, wild and mellow, are 
 to the highest degree enlivening, when heard at 
 highest noon ; and only pensive and melancholy, 
 when all nature is lulled to repose, and our feel- 
 ings are hushed to silence ; when every sound, 
 whether of the woods, the distant chimings of a 
 cathedral, or the rolling of remote waters, come, 
 at intervals, on the ear, and produce nearly the 
 
 * Note 34. 
 
 f This wine, in complete opposition to its name, has the 
 best flavour of any in Italy. 
 \ Lib. xiv. Ep. 75.
 
 76 
 
 same emotions, as the notes of the nightingale 
 herself. It is from association, that she derives 
 most of her powers of disposing the heart to 
 melancholy impressions : cheerful and happy her- 
 self, she has, aided by the gloom and silence of 
 night, power to elicit tears from all, that listen 
 to her warblings : like the infant, in an elegant 
 Persian poem of Sadi, she smiles and is happy, 
 while all around her are silent and sad. 
 
 LXVTII. Of this bird, it is curious to remark, 
 that it is not once alluded to by Homer or by Ho- 
 race, both of whom embrace such a multitude of 
 objects, and draw so copiously from the works of 
 nature; and though the uninterrupted silence, which 
 prevails amid the Scottish and Cambrian Glens, 
 would afford her all the serenity, she could wish, 
 she no where makes their rocks and valleys echo 
 with her notes.* 
 
 Of those sounds, which partake of a sublime 
 character, what can be more truly so, than the 
 falling of cataracts; the rolling of thunder; the 
 shrieks and cries of marine birds ; or the roaring 
 
 * Note 35.
 
 77 
 
 of the woods at midnight, from which, as Lu- 
 cretius observes, man first taught himself music :* 
 the deep bowlings of the storm, occasionally sub- 
 siding into a general hush ; or those analogous 
 sounds, with little or no definite meaning, which 
 Ossian calls the " spirit of the mountains ;" and 
 to which Virgil alludes in his fifth Bucolic : 
 
 Nam neque me tantum venientis sibilus Austri, 
 Nee percussa juvant flurtu tarn litora, nee qua: 
 Saxosas inter decurrnnt flmnina valles. 
 
 Eel. v. 1. 8*. 
 
 LXIX. Those intermittent sounds, too, which 
 are heard among the clefts of desolate rocks, are 
 equally gratifying to the ear of those proud and ele- 
 vated spirits, who derive a sensible pleasure from all 
 that is wild, grand, and magnificent. Nothing can 
 be more productive of such sublime emotion, than 
 the roar of the ocean against the stupendous rocks 
 of St. Kilda, or the perpendicular cliffs of Pen- 
 maenmawr: sounds, heard with equal effect, near 
 the chapel of St. Mildred, where the rocks form 
 themselves into immense Rampires, and where, 
 in the dashing of the waves, the sea appears, as 
 if it were captivated by the music of its own roar. 
 
 * Note 36.
 
 78 
 
 LXX. The fine semicircle, in which this cha- 
 pel is situated, appears, in some measure, to resemble 
 the bay of the sea, encompassed on three sides with 
 steep and gigantic rocks, which the Swedes call 
 Odin's Hall. In the times of gothic barbarism, 
 as we are informed by a celebrated Swiss Philoso- 
 pher, " men, who were either sick of diseases, 
 esteemed mortal or incurable, or had grown infirm 
 with age, and were past all military action, fearing 
 to die meanly and basely, as they esteemed it, in 
 their beds, usually caused themselves to be brought 
 to the nearest of these rocks, whence they precipi- 
 tated themselves into the sea; hoping, by the bold- 
 ness of such a violent death, to renew their claim 
 to admission into the Hall of Odin, which they 
 had lost by failing to die in combat, or by arms." 
 Carpini relates,* that, on the banks of the Tartarian 
 seas, there is a mountain, which has a hole com- 
 pletely perforated through the middle of it. In 
 summer, the noise of the wind, issuing through this 
 perforation, is a mild and gentle murmur ; in win- 
 ter, such vehement tempests are heard, that few 
 travellers venture to approach. There is, also, in 
 New Zealand, a rock, with an immense opening 
 
 * Travels into Tartary, c. xxiv.
 
 79 
 
 through its entire body, forming a stupendous arch 
 towards the sea. A similar perforation may be 
 observed in one of the rocks, at Worm's Head, in 
 the parish of Rosilly.* On the top of this rock 
 is one of the sublimest scenes in that part of 
 South Wales. Nothing can be more delightful 
 than the sea, sleeping in the bay of Rosilly in 
 summer, and nothing more terrific, than the roar- 
 ing of the winds and the dashing of the billows 
 in the season of winter. 
 
 LXXI. Sounds, like these, heard among the 
 lonely recesses of the Highlands, or on the shores 
 of the Adriatic and Ionian seas, have had the effect 
 of rendering the inhabitants alternately susceptible 
 of the most exalted emotions of sublimity, and 
 preys to the baneful horrors of superstition. 
 Every one has read of the effects, which the 
 Syrens are reported to have had on the seamen, 
 voyaging near the Cape of Pelorus,-j- in the island 
 of Sicily, whose vocal charms no one but Orpheus 
 and Ulysses were capable of withstanding. This 
 
 * Glamorganshire. 
 
 t Now called Capo di Faro; Vid. Strabo. Lib. v. Virg. 
 /En. lib. v. v. 864.
 
 80 
 
 fable had, doubtless, a topographical allusion ; for, 
 as Sandys observes, " Archippus mentions a cer- 
 tain bay, contracted by winding streights and bro- 
 ken cliffs, which, by the singing of the winds and 
 the beating of the pillows, report a delightful har- 
 mony, alluring those, who sailed by, to approach ; 
 upon which they were thrown against the rocks 
 by the waves and swallowed in violent eddies." 
 
 LXXII. The inhabitants of picturesque coun- 
 tries have always been remarkable for their love of 
 the marvellous and the mysterious ; hence supersti- 
 tion has long been remarked, as forming one of their 
 distinguishing characteristics. There is scarcely 
 a village, a grove, a fountain or a cavern, in the 
 provinces of Gascoigny and Languedoc, that the 
 peasants do not people with fairies. The natives 
 of Savoy, of the Pyrenees and the Appenines, 
 those, who inhabit Mount Taurus and the Cau- 
 casus, also, indulge in those superstitions, which 
 seldom fail to infest a mountainous country. The 
 peasants of Wales and the Highlanders of Scot- 
 land,* in the same manner, are remarkable for 
 their belief in supernatural agency. 
 
 * Note 37.
 
 81 
 
 LXXIII. From objects and sounds, which 
 produce superstitions like these, let us, my Lelius, 
 turn to those lulling murmurs and agreeable 
 sounds, heard, during a fine evening in summer, 
 from the hum of insects, the distant tinkling of 
 the sheep-bell, the melody of birds, and the wild 
 music of the shepherd's pipe. Should you, at any 
 time, be sated with those agreeable sounds, turn 
 to the dingle and the glen and listen to their 
 echoes. If you are distant from those at Llyn-y- 
 Coe, a lake, surrounded by perpendicular cliffs, 
 resembling the crater of a volcano, near Cader 
 Idris ; if you chance not to be near the cavern,* 
 under the Towers of Pembroke, there is scarcely 
 a church-yard, a contracted green or a valley, 
 that will not answer to your call. 
 
 LXXIV. So singular and agreeable are the 
 mysterious sounds, arising from the echo, that it is 
 no subject for wonder, that the ancients, who 
 embellished every thing, should touch that fasci- 
 nating nymph with the wand of allegory. Echo, 
 say the poets, was the daughter of the Air and 
 the Earth ; she was one of the attendants of 
 
 * Remarkable for its echo, and called the Wogan. 
 VOL. I. G
 
 82 
 
 Juno; but having displeased her haughty and im- 
 perious mistress, she was deprived of her voice, 
 and the power of giving a response alone remain- 
 ed to her. Afterwards, it is said, roving among 
 the woods and rivulets, she beheld Narcissus and 
 loved him. Some of the poets relate the story 
 in a different manner, and even change the cha- 
 racter of sex. Hylas, says Theocritus, one day, 
 going for water to quench the thirst of Her- 
 cules, at the moment, he was filling his vase, the 
 Naiads, who beheld him from the opposite bank, 
 bore him away. Hercules wandered among the 
 hills and forests in quest of him, and made each 
 rock and valley echo with his name. The Naiads, 
 fearing that Hercules would discover him in their 
 fountain, changed him into an echo.* 
 
 The poets, as well as the mythologists, have 
 made a charming use of this mysterious nymph, 
 for in spite of Theocritus, I am unwilling to be- 
 lieve, that Echo was masculine. Bion, in his poem 
 on the death of Adonis, introduces her in an ele- 
 gant passage, which has been imitated by Cambens. 
 Moschus too, in his Idyl on the death of his 
 
 * Vid. Apollonins, Lib. iii. Virg. Eel. vi.
 
 83 
 
 friend, beautifully observes, that Echo, on the death 
 of Bion, roved among the rocks, still listening, as 
 it were, to catch the last murmuring of his notes, 
 and, since she listened in vain, became melancholy 
 and silent. 
 
 . :':: ifjor fair iplilMtred -^JsaJlbirts*/. 1 ) 
 LXXV. Echoes reside, for the most part, in 
 ruined abbeys, in caverns, and in grottos : they re- 
 verberate among mountains,* whisper in the areas 
 of antique halls, in the windings of long passages, 
 and in the melancholy aisles of arched cathedrals. 
 There is an ancient portico near the temple of Cly- 
 menos, in the district of Cthonia, which repeats 
 three times, on which account it is called " the 
 Echo." At Woodstock there was one, which re- 
 turned seventeen syllables during the day, and twen- 
 ty in the night. In the sepulchre of Metella, the 
 wife of Crassus, an echo repeated five different times 
 in five different keys ; and Barthius, in hia notes on 
 Statius, relates, that on the banks of the Naha, 
 between Bingen and Coblentz, an echo recited 
 seventeen times. He, who spoke or sung, could 
 scarcely be heard, and yet the responses were loud 
 
 * Note 38. 
 02
 
 and distinct, clear and various ; sometimes appear- 
 ing to approach, at other times to come from a 
 great distance, much after the manner of an Eolian 
 harp. Tn the cemetery of the Abercorn family, at 
 Paisley, in the county of Renfrew, there is an echo 
 exceedingly beautiful and romantic. When the 
 door of. the chapel is shut, the reverberations are 
 equal to the sound of thunder. Breathe a single 
 note in music, and the tone ascends gradually, with 
 a multitude of echoes, till it dies in soft and most 
 bewitching murmurs. If the effect of one instru- 
 ment is delightful, that of several in concert is cap- 
 tivating, exciting the most tumultuous and raptur- 
 ous sensations! In this chapel, lulled by etherial 
 echoes, sleeps Marjory, the daughter of Bruce, the 
 wife of Wallace, and the mother of Robert, king 
 of Scotland. 
 
 LXXVI. A singular echo is heard in a grotto, 
 near Castle Comber in Ireland. No reverberation 
 is observed, till the listener is within fifteen or sixteen 
 feet of the extremity of the grotto : at which place a 
 most delightful echo enchants the ear.* Does 
 there exist any one, who has not heard of the Eagle's 
 
 * Note 39,
 
 85 
 
 nest, near Mucross Abbey, on the banks of the 
 lake of Killarney? This celebrated rock sends 
 forth the most fascinating repercussions. Sound 
 a French or Bugle horn, echoes, equal to an 
 hundred instruments, answer to the call ! Report 
 a single cannon, the loudest thunders reverberate 
 from the rock, and die, in endless peals, along the 
 distant mountains! 
 
 In Norway, upon the lake Ontario, in many of 
 the West India Islands, the echoes are enchanting ; 
 while among the Grisons there reigns an eternal 
 silence: clothed in a winding sheet, not an echo 
 repeats the fall of a torrent or the ruin of an 
 avalanche ! 
 
 LXXVII. Ossian calls echo, the Son of the 
 Rock. The Highlanders believed, and do so to the 
 present day, that the repercussions of a rock were 
 made by a spirit, residing in its bosom.* Nothing 
 can be more beautiful, than Ossian's address to the 
 echo, in his poem of the battle of Lora. His 
 
 * Hence they called it Muctalla, " the Son who dwells in 
 the rock." Songs of Selma, Alpin in Notis. Shakespeare 
 calls echo " the babbling gossip of the air." Twrtfth Night' 
 Act i. tc. 5.
 
 ,86 
 
 .allusion to his own misfortune is highly natural and 
 affecting. " Son of the distant land, who dwellest 
 in the secret cell! do I hear the sound of the 
 grove ; or is it the voice of songs ? But I heard a 
 tuneful voice. Dost thou praise the chiefs of thy 
 land ; or the spirits of the wind ? But, lonely 
 dweller of rocks! look thou on that heathy plain. 
 Thou seest green tombs with their rank whistling 
 grass ; with their stones of mossy heads. Thou 
 seest them, Son of the Rock, but Ossian's eyes 
 have failed!" 
 
 LXXVIII. Perceiving the agreeable effects of 
 an echo upon the ear, in the music of nature, the 
 poets, formed by her hand and guided by her pre- 
 cepts, were proud to imitate her. Hence the origin 
 of rhyme; and hence that species of verse among 
 the Greek and Roman poets, which was charac- 
 terized by the repetition of the last syllable. 
 
 Faemina dira viri nex est, et terribilis lis. 
 
 The Echoicus has not been much practised by 
 the English, though it has been successfully culti- 
 vated by the Spanish poets. While I am writing 
 this, Harmonica is giving me an instance in music,
 
 87 
 
 of what the Italians mark by the word ecco, bear- 
 ing, as a musical writer has remarked, the sense of 
 dolce, intimating, that such passage should be 
 played with all the softness and piano of a gentle 
 echo. Reverberations of sound were, doubtless, 
 the causes of many of the apparent prodigies, re- 
 lated by the Roman historians. Rome, being 
 built upon several hills, must in consequence have 
 been sensible of many repercussions; which may, 
 in a great measure, account for the extraordinary 
 noises, that are reported to have been heard in the 
 city at particular crises ; and which were considered, 
 by that superstitious people, as so many prodigies.* 
 
 LXXIX. The etherial music of the echo na- 
 turally recals to our recollection Plato's elegant 
 idea, with respect to the harmonic movements of 
 the planets, and which he terms the music of the 
 spheres. This idea is not only elegant, but in all 
 probability equally just. For, in observing the 
 operative effects of moveable bodies, we find, that 
 the flight of birds and of insects, the rushing of wa- 
 ters, indeed every object, that moves, produces some 
 vibrative sound. Observing these effects, Archytas, 
 Pythagoras, and Plato, conceived it to be impossi- 
 
 * Note 40.
 
 88 
 
 ble, that bodies so large, and revolving in an orbit 
 so extensive as the planets, should move their 
 giant courses without some sensible repercussions : 
 so that the heavens might be said to modulate, and 
 to send forth that true harmony, at which the 
 deities themselves might be delighted to listen : a 
 harmony, as Maximus Tyrius observes, too trans- 
 cendent for the imbecility of man ; and the excel- 
 lence of which etherial beings are alone capable 
 of appreciating. How beautifully does Shakespeare 
 allude to this poetical idea in the scene where 
 Lorenzo, in the Merchant of Venice, leads Jessica 
 into the. grove, and, after desiring Stephano to 
 order music to be brought into the garden, accosts 
 her after the following manner : 
 
 How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank! 
 Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music 
 Creep in our ears; soft stillness and the night 
 Become the touches of sweet harmony. 
 Sit, Jessica ; look how the floor of heaven 
 Is thick inlaid with patterns of bright gold : 
 There's not the smallest orb, which thou behold'st, 
 But in his motion, like an augel, sings, 
 Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubim. 
 Such harmony is in immortal souls. 
 
 LXXX. But nature affords not satisfaction to
 
 89 
 
 the eye and to the ear only, she administers, also, 
 a sensible delight by the perfumes, which she scat- 
 ters in every direction. Who, that can relish the 
 fragrant odours of the hay-fields, the wild thyme of 
 the heath, the roses and the woodbines, that deco- 
 rate our hedgerows, and the violet, that scents the 
 thicket, can lament the absence of the myrrh, the 
 cassia, and the cinnamon, which were wont to 
 charm the descriptive poets of Arabia ? " Call for 
 wine," says Hafiz, "and scatter flowers around, 
 what more canst thou ask from Fate ?" and Ma- 
 homet, in the true spirit of his voluptuous creed, 
 declared, that odours assimilated his soul with 
 heaven. 
 
 LXXXI. Few objects are more ravishing to the 
 senses, than the perfumes of aromatics, or the more 
 simple odours of the fields. These natural enjoy- 
 ments rejoiced equally the heart of the wisest of 
 men and the most odious of tyrants. Solomon 
 was accustomed to write in the praise of essences, 
 and the kings of Tunis to mingle them with their 
 food. The Persians sprinkle their guests with 
 roses and with jessamine ;* and while the natives of 
 Hindostan address Iri, the eastern Minerva, with 
 
 * Note 41.
 
 90 
 
 offerings of flowers and odours, Vishnu is suppo- 
 sed to be awakened by the following incantation : 
 "The clouds are dispersed, the full moon will 
 appear in perfect brightness, and I come, in the 
 hope of acquiring purity, to offer up the fresh 
 odours of the season. Awake from thy long slum- 
 ber, Oh Lord of all worlds."* 
 
 LXXXII. Perfumes give a soft and ambrosial 
 character to every landscape : they delight us on 
 the mountain, they charm us in the valley, they 
 captivate us in the garden. Milton and Euripides 
 delighted in the rose ; Vitruvius acknowledged it 
 to be one of the best ornaments of a Corinthian 
 capital jf lovers, in ancient times, were accustomed 
 to swear by it ; and such veneration had the Per- 
 sians for that exquisite flower, that it creeps into 
 almost all their ongs, fables, and odes. 
 
 * The Jews were commanded to use stacte, onycha, gal- 
 banum, and frankincense in the tabernacle. Vid. Exod. ch. 
 xxx. v. 34. Catholics of the present day make use of frankin- 
 cense. Flowers were used by the Romans in sacrifices and 
 on public festivals. Vid. Tibullus. Lib. 11. E. 1. 
 
 f In Solomon's Temple were a profusion of artificial 
 flowers, made of cedar; and the sarcophagi of the kings of 
 Judea were ornamented with foliage and flower works, in 
 imitation of their indigenous plants.
 
 91 
 
 Perfumes, which administer such a sensible de- 
 light to the voluptuary,* are supposed, also, to be 
 peculiarly grateful to the dying and the dead. A 
 Persian poet has an elegant stanza on the odorife- 
 rous ringlets of his mistress. " Should the air 
 waft the odour from the hair of my love, the per- 
 fume, stealing over my tomb, would recal me to 
 life, and render me vocal in her praise:" and 
 because a custom, so amiable and elegant, as that 
 of decorating with flowers the graves of beloved 
 relatives, conduces to the gratification of some of 
 the best feelings of our nature, no apology will 
 be necessary for dwelling upon it a little at length. 
 
 * Away before me to sweet beds of flowers; 
 Love-thoughts lie rich, when canopied with bowers. 
 
 Twelfth Night. Act 1. Sc. 2. 
 The odours of Venus indicated her origin : 
 
 " Ambrosiseque comse divinum vertice odorem 
 " Spiravere. Firg. Lib. 1. 
 
 If modern politeness would sanction such a daring infrac- 
 tion of its rules, we might venture to recommend one or two 
 epigrams of Martial to our Bond-street non-entities; and a 
 song of Ben Johnson, with an essay of Montaigne, to several 
 of our married courtezans. A rose in the girdle may shed a 
 delightful perfume over the bosom, but jessamine water in 
 the hair 
 
 And Otto on the lace, 
 
 My dearest Jane, are mottos of disgrace.
 
 92 
 
 LXXXIII. The manner, in which the Ro- 
 mans took leave of their friends, was extremely af- 
 fecting : " Vale, vale, vale ! nos te ordine quo 
 
 nattira permiserit cuncti sequemur .'" Then, 
 
 wishing the earth to lie lightly on their relicts, they 
 departed. The monuments were then decorated 
 with chaplets and balsams, and garlands of flowers. 
 To this affectionate custom Virgil alludes, in the 
 fifth book of his immortal poem, where Eneas 
 sprinkles his father's grave with purple flowers ; 
 and in the sixth, where the poet exclaims, 
 
 V. 
 
 Heu miserande puer ! si qua fata aspera rnmpas, 
 Tti Marcellus eris. Manibus date ilia plenis ; 
 Purpureos spargam flores, aniniainque nepotis 
 His saltern accuinulcni donis, et fuugar inani 
 Muncre. Lib. vi. I. 882. 
 
 LXXXI V. This practice has prevailed among 
 many of the most celebrated nations. The Per- 
 sians adopted it from the Medes, and the Greeks 
 from the Persians.* The tomb of Achilles was 
 decorated with amaranth, and the urn of Philopae- 
 men was covered with chaplets ; and that the grave 
 of Sophocles was embellished with roses and ivy, 
 
 * Vid. Tibullus. v 77.
 
 93 
 
 we learn from an elegant epitaph on that fine dra- 
 matic genius, written by Simonides. 
 
 Wind, gentle evergreen, to form a shade 
 Around the tomb where Sophocles is laid ; 
 Sweet ivy, wind thy boughs, and intertwine 
 With blushing roses and the clustering vine ; 
 Thus will thy lasting leaves, with beauties hung, 
 Prove grateful emblems of the lays he sung. 
 
 Ivy and flowerets, also, were planted near the 
 grave of Anacreon. 
 
 This tomb be thine, Anacreon : all around 
 Let ivy wreathe, let flowerets deck the ground, 
 And from its earth, enrich'd with such a prize, 
 Let wells of milk and streams of wine arise; 
 So will thine ashes yet a pleasure know, 
 If any pleasure reach the shades below.* 
 
 LXXXV. Virgil decorates the body of Pallas 
 with strewed leaves of arbutus and other funeral 
 evergreens: The ceremony of laying the un- 
 fortunate youth upon his bier is extremely affecting ; 
 
 Lycophron tells us, that the tombs of two rivals were 
 placed on the opposite sides of a mountain, lest their shades 
 might be disturbed by the honours, paid to each other by their 
 respective relatives.
 
 94 
 
 and the passage, where he is compared to violets 
 and hyacinths, plucked by the hands of a virgin, 
 highly natural, pathetic, and beautiful. 
 
 Qualem virgineo demessum pollice florem 
 
 Seu niollis viols, sea languentis hyacinth! : 
 
 Cui neque fulgor adhuc, necdum sua forma recessit ; 
 
 Nou jam mater alit tellus, viresqne ministrat. 
 
 Eneid.-\.\. I. 68. 
 
 LXXXVI. To this we may add, that few pas- 
 sages, in that fine poem, abound more in natural 
 pathos, than that, where Andromache is represented 
 as raising green altars to the memory of her depart- 
 ed husband :* a passage, reminding us of several 
 in Ossian, where he describes the monuments, 
 which were erected to the Heroes of remote ages. 
 " Narrow is thy dwelling place now ! dark is the 
 place of thine abode ! with three steps I compass 
 thy grave, Oh thou, that wert so great before ! 
 four stones, with their heads of moss, are the only 
 memorial of thee ! a tree with scarce a leaf, long 
 grass, which whistles in the wind, mark, in the 
 hunter's eye, the grave of the mighty Morar." 
 Songs of Selma. "O lay me, ye that see the 
 
 * Lib. iii. 1. 302.
 
 95 
 
 light, near some rock of my hills ; let the rustling 
 oak be near ; green be the place of my rest ; and 
 let the sound of the distant torrent be heard." In 
 the times of the ancient fathers, crowns of flowers 
 were placed at the head of the grave-stones of 
 virgins ;* and baskets of lilies and flowerets, vio- 
 lets and roses, on the graves of husbands and 
 wives : a custom, as we may conjecture from the 
 epitaph on Sincerus Sannazarius, which prevailed 
 also in Italy.*!' 
 
 LXXXVII. In the wilds of America there is a 
 tribe, whose women, after losing their infants, for 
 some time go every day to their graves, and, with 
 silent and pathetic eloquence, which shames all 
 noisy grief, press some milk from their bosoms 
 upon the grass, that cover their remains. The 
 burying places of the people of Morocco are ge- 
 nerally situated in the fields : every one purchases 
 a spot of ground, which he surrounds with a walk, 
 and plants with flowers. In China, whence, it is 
 not improbable, the custom originally passed into 
 Media, Persia, and Arabia, the ceremony of 
 
 * Fuit quoque mos ad capita virgiuura apponendi flortun 
 coronas. Cassalon de vet. Sac. Christ. 534. 
 
 f Note 42.
 
 96 
 
 planting flowers on graves prevails even at the 
 present day :* and the inhabitants of Java frequently 
 erect tombs among trees, and decorate them with 
 flowers.*|- The Mausoleums of the clans of the 
 Crimea are generally shaded by shrubs and fruit 
 trees ;J and the Indians of Surat have a great 
 veneration for the graves of their Saints, and 
 strew fresh flowers upon them every year. In 
 Scotland this practice prevailed in the time of 
 Drummond of Hawthornden; and, in many 
 parts of North and South Wales, it is still the 
 common practice of the country. The graves 
 in those beautiful and romantic provinces are deco- 
 rated, on Palm Sunday, with leaves of laurel, 
 cypress, and all the flowers, which are in blossom 
 at that early season of the year : some also are 
 planted on the graves, which are surrounded by 
 small white-washed stones. In these little enclo- 
 sures bloom the polyanthus and the narcissus, 
 thyme, balm, and rosemary. Shakespeare alludes 
 to this ceremony in Hamlet, in the Winter's Tale, 
 and in Cymbeline, where Arviragus, contemplating 
 
 * Note 43. f Valentyn, vol. iv. p. 15. Stavorinus, vol. i v 
 p. 375. i Pallas' Travels in Russia, vol. iii. p. 41. $Stavo. 
 rinus, ch. xiii. p. 487.
 
 97 
 
 the body of Fidele, promises to sweeten his grave 
 with the fairest flowers of summer.* 
 
 LXXXVIII. One of the most elegant ceme- 
 teries in Europe stands in the centre of two church- 
 yards, at Bury St. Edmunds, in the county of Suf- 
 folk. This cemetery is an isolate'! fragment of the 
 celebrated abbey, in which John of Lydgate was a 
 monk. Around this fragment are planted shrubs 
 and trees, with a variety of flowers; and a profusion 
 of ivy creeps up the sides of the walls, on which are 
 placed two or three monuments. One of these 
 pieces of marble commemorates the fate of a young 
 girl, who was struck dead by lightning, while at her 
 devotions ; on the other is inscribed the name of 
 the wife of a banker of the name of SPINK; the 
 third is sacred to the memory of the banker him- 
 self; a man, whose virtues rendered its possessor 
 worthy of so elegant a monument! 
 
 LXXXIX. It is impossible to walk in the 
 church-yards, in many parts of Wales, without re- 
 flecting, with pleasure, on the respect, which is paid 
 to the memories of the dead. The epitaphs are, 
 however, generally poor and meagre ; yet I remem- 
 
 * Note 44. 
 VOL. I. H
 
 98 
 
 ber to have seen three, which must highly gratify 
 every person of imagination and taste. 
 
 I. 
 
 Hope, stranger, hope : Though the heart breaks, 
 Still let us hope. 
 
 II. 
 
 Timon hated men Orpheus hated women ; I once 
 loved one man and one woman : He cheated and she 
 deceived me; Now I love only my God. 
 
 III. 
 
 ON MARY PENGREE. 
 
 The village maidens to her grave shall bring 
 The fragrant garland, each returning spring; 
 Selected sweets! in emblem of the maid, 
 Who underneath this hallowed turf is laid: 
 lake her they flourish, beauteous to the eye, 
 Lake her too soon, they languish, fade and die. * 
 
 XC. Nothing in nature is more beautiful, than 
 her COLOURS. Every flower is compounded of 
 different shades ; almost every mountain is clothed 
 with herbs or woods different from the one, op- 
 posed to it; and every field has its peculiar hue. 
 Colour is to scenery, what the entablature , is to 
 architecture, and harmony to language. Nature, 
 * Note 45.
 
 99 
 
 therefore, delights in no fixed colour; for even 
 her green is so well contrasted by its various 
 shades, that the foliage of woods presents to our 
 sight all the shades of an emerald, and all the 
 combinations of innumerable chaplets. With as 
 much facility may we number the leaves of the 
 trees, the billows of the ocean, or the sands of the 
 beach, as describe the various blendings of colours 
 in stones, just washed by the waves. These 
 meltings of various hues may, not inaptly, be styled 
 the melody of colours. Sir Isaac Newton having 
 remarked, that the breadths of the seven primary 
 colours were proportional to the seven musical 
 notes of the gamut; Father Cashel conceived, that 
 colours had their harmonics, as well as music, and 
 in consequence, constructed an instrument, which 
 he called an OCULAR HARPSICHORD. The 
 office of this instrument was to reflect all the com- 
 binations of the primary colours in regular succes- 
 sion: the prismatic rays furnishing the notes, and 
 their shades the semitones.* 
 
 XCI. What can be more agreeable, my Le- 
 lius, than to watch the colours of aerial landscapes, 
 
 * Goldsmith. 
 H2
 
 100 
 
 when the sun is rising in all his glory* or setting 
 in his majesty? or when the moon, rising from 
 behind the point of a rock, tinges the edges of the 
 clouds with saffron, and depicts rivers, and castles, 
 and mountains, rolling over each other, in aspiring 
 columns, along the circle of the horizon? These 
 appearances in the heavens, beautiful as they are 
 in our hemisphere, are far less lovely, than those, 
 which are observed in more southern climates; 
 arising, principally, from the circumstance of their 
 being, in those regions, little horizontal refraction. 
 " In the peninsula of California," says Mons. 
 Humboldt, " the sky is constantly serene, of a 
 deep blue and without a cloud : should any ap- 
 pear for a moment, at the setting of the sun, they 
 display the finest shades of violet, purple and 
 green. All those, who have ever been in Califor- 
 nia, preserve a recollection of the extraordinary 
 
 * Milton lias imagined a splendour more magnificent, than 
 the pencil of the painter can exhibit, or the pen of the poet 
 describe ; and which little less than the imagination of a poet 
 is capable of picturing to the fancy: Adam, observing the 
 approach of Raphael, describes him, as 
 
 another morn 
 
 Ris'n on mid-noon ! 
 
 Paradise Lost, Book v. v. 308.
 
 101 
 
 beauty of this phenomenon. No where," he con- 
 tinues, " could an astronomer find a more delightful 
 abode, than at Cumana Coro, the Island of Mar- 
 guerite, and the coast of California." 
 
 XCII. At the Tropics, the clouds roll them- 
 selves into enormous masses, as white as snow, 
 turning their borders into the forms of hills, 
 piling themselves upon each other, and exhibiting 
 the shapes of mountains, caverns, and rocks. 
 There, as we collect from St. Pierre,* may be per- 
 ceived, amid endless ridges, a multitude of valleys, 
 whose openings are distinguished by shades of 
 purple and vermilion. These celestial valleys ex- 
 hibit, in their various colours, matchless tints of 
 white, melting into shades of different colours. 
 Here and there may be observed torrents of light, 
 issuing from the dark sides of the mountains, and 
 pouring their streams, like ingots of gold and silver, 
 over rocks of coral. These appearances are not 
 more to be admired for their beauty, than for their 
 endless combinations, since they vary every in- 
 stant. What, a moment before, was luminous, be- 
 comes coloured; what was coloured mingles into 
 shade ; forming singular and most beautiful repre- 
 sentations of islands and hamlets, arched bridges 
 * Studies of Nature.
 
 102 
 
 stretched over wide rivers, immense ruins, huge 
 rocks and gigantic mountains. 
 
 The clouds frequently, among the Highlands of 
 Scotland, display the finest outlines and assume 
 the most lovely characters ; more especially, when 
 viewed from the cones of their wild and magnifi- 
 cent summits.* To these landscapes, sketched 
 with such boldness in the heavens, Dr. Beattie 
 finely alludes, in his poem of the Minstrel. 
 
 Oft when the wintry storm had ceas'd to rave, 
 He roam'd Ihe snowy waste at even, to view 
 The cloud stupendous, from th" Atlantic wave, 
 High-towering, sail along the horizon blue; 
 Where 'midst the changeful scenery, ever new, 
 Fancy a thousand wondrous forms descries, 
 More wildly great, than ever pencil drew ; 
 Rocks, torrents, gulfs, and shapes of giant size, 
 And glittering cliffs on cliffs and fiery ramparts rise. 
 It 9* ! .i Minstrel, Part i. st, liii. 
 
 XCIII. These visions, these mimic representa- 
 tions, designed, as it were, by the Eternal, in 
 mockery of man's works, and as emblems of their 
 instability, charm alike the philosophic eye, search- 
 ing into the secrets of nature, and the heart of the 
 
 * Note 46.
 
 1O3 
 
 peasant, who, at an humbler distance, admires her 
 beauties and obeys her impulses. See too, my 
 Lelius, and be captivated, as you behold, the fine- 
 formed arch of the rain-bow; see it, when it en- 
 circles the horizon of an extended plain, or when 
 it is hanging from the sides of a mountain, and 
 if you are able to restrain the impulse of your ad- 
 miration, I will proclaim to your friends, that 
 you will never be a poet. 
 
 . .iiwfoa 'io p;i 
 
 XCIV. I do not remember, whether it has been 
 expressly noticed by our philosophical writers, but 
 it is evident, that the ancients had a knowledge of 
 the rainbow's being formed by the refraction of 
 the sun-beams and the falling of rain.* We may 
 infer this from the allegory of the winds, in the 
 twenty-third book of the Iliad : and more particu- 
 larly from a passage in the fifth book of the Eneid. 
 
 ceu nubibus arcus 
 
 Mille trahit varies adverse sole colores. 
 
 Lib. v. 1. 88. 
 
 Martial also, 
 
 Casuras alte sic rapit Iris aquas. 
 
 Lib. xii. Ep. 29. 6. 
 
 *Note4r.
 
 104 
 
 Nothing can be more express, than the lan- 
 guage of Pliny ; " Quod ergo Iris sit refractio 
 aspectus est ad solem, manifestum est."* And as 
 Plutarch declares it to be a circumstance well 
 known in his time, it is difficult to conceive, why, 
 in the present, Antonio de Dominis is honoured, 
 as an inventor, rather than a reviver of a system, 
 which Descartes more fully explained, and which 
 Newton completed by analyzing the respective 
 qualities of colour. 
 
 XCV. The poets have feigned the rain-bow 
 to be the residence of certain aerial creatures, 
 whose delight it is to sport and wanton in the 
 clouds. f Milton, in his exquisite dramatic poem 
 of Coinus, thus alludes to this platonic idea. 
 
 I took it for a fairy vision 
 Of some gay creatures in the element, 
 That in the colours of the rainbow live, 
 And play i' th' plighted clouds. 
 
 The rainbow, which, not improbably, first sug- 
 gested the idea of arches, though beautiful in all 
 countries, is more particularly so in mountainous 
 ones; for, independent of their frequency, it is 
 * Lib. 2. cap. 29. f Note 48.
 
 105 
 
 impossible to conceive any thing more grand, than 
 the appearance of this fine natural arch, when its 
 extreme points rest upon the opposite sides of a 
 narrow valley, or on the peaked summits of two 
 precipitate mountains.* 
 
 XCVI. What appearances in nature can be 
 more beautiful, and, at the same time, more 
 awful, than the wild and mysterious motions and 
 colours of the Aurora Borealis ? Sometimes co- 
 vering, with inconceivable magnificence, the con- 
 cave of the whole hemisphere; changing their 
 positions every moment ; now resembling vast 
 pyramids ; or stretching into innumerable columns, 
 and varying their shapes and colours with the most 
 astonishing rapidity, and with endless caprice : 
 now vanishing in a moment, leaving the heavens 
 sombre and black, and now returning with in- 
 creased splendour, shedding a matchless glory over 
 all the heavens !f 
 
 On the summit of Mount Blanc, the snow, 
 reflecting with dazzling brilliancy, the moon rises 
 with the greatest splendour, in the midst of a sky 
 
 Note 49. t Note 50.
 
 106 
 
 as black as ebony! At the southern Cape of 
 Africa, when the south winds prevail, the moon 
 appears to have an undulating motion, the stars 
 revolve in a fantastic manner, and the planets 
 seem all bearded like a comet. 
 
 XCVII. With respect to the Aurora Borealis, 
 many hypotheses have been started by natural 
 philosophers, in order to account 'for its grand 
 and singular coruscations. Not one, however, 
 will stand the test of rigid examination. St. 
 Pierre, who has proposed the last plausible theory, 
 imagines it probable, that the Aurora Borealis 
 may be caused by the coruscations of ice at the 
 polar circles ; since the approach of vast islands 
 of ice are frequently signified, some time before 
 they appear in the horizon, by the coruscations 
 they emit. This hypothesis gains some confirma- 
 tion from the circumstance, which has been ob- 
 served by travellers in Lapland and Siberia, of the 
 Aurora Borealis being attended by a hissing and a 
 cracking noise. One insuperable objection, how- 
 ever, among many others, may be opposed to this 
 theory. If the remarkable phenomenon, alluded to, 
 proceeded from the coruscations of ice at the polar 
 circles, it would appear regularly every year ; where-
 
 107 
 
 as, it is now scarcely ever to be seen, and, in more 
 ancient times, it was even still more unfrequent. 
 Some have imagined it to proceed from the ice- 
 islands themselves, which float, at particular seasons 
 of the year, along the northern and southern oceans : 
 grounding their opinions, principally, upon Cap- 
 tain Cook's having observed, that the ice-islands, at 
 the South Pole, illuminated half the horizon to a 
 considerable height.* This hypothesis is even 
 more improbable than the former. It is liable to 
 the same insurmountable objection as to the 
 unfrequency, with the addition of the utter impos- 
 sibility of our imagining, that any coruscations, 
 caused by objects so comparatively low as ice 
 islands, should ascend to an altitude of several 
 thousand miles ; a height to which, in the opinion 
 of many philosophers, particularly Euler and 
 Mairan, the illuminations of the Aurora Borealis 
 undoubtedly aspire. To add to the difficulty, it 
 has been observed by several travellers in Iceland, 
 that the northern lights proceed from the east 
 and south-east, as well as from the north. In 
 Greenland generally from the east. 
 
 v"' n |ll'*iv -v>"r* r**.Tf 1'lrt fl'w* y*;"'* > '"' 
 
 XCVIII. But of all the phenomena of nature, 
 * Cook's Voyages^ vol. 1. p. 267. 4to.
 
 108 
 
 there is no appearance, which visits the mind with 
 such indescribable emotion, as that, which animates 
 every beholder of the Fata Margana, in the 
 Streights of Messina : a phenomenon, that exceeds 
 all the fairy phantoms, which the imagination 
 creates, while we are reading the brilliant descrip- 
 tions of an Arabian poet. Minai has written a 
 dissertation on this phenomenon, which is thus 
 described by Father Angelucci : " On the 1 5th 
 of August, 1643, as I stood at my window, I was 
 surprised with a wonderful vision. The sea, that 
 washes the Sicilian shore, swelled up, and became, 
 for ten miles in length, like a chain of dark moun- 
 tains ; while the waters, near our Calabrian coast, 
 grew quite smooth, or, in an instant, appeared as 
 one clear polished mirror, reclining against the 
 aforesaid ridge. On this glass was depicted, in 
 chiaro oscuro, a string of several thousand pilasters, 
 all equal in altitude, distance, and degree of light 
 and shade. In a moment they lost their height, 
 and bent into arcades, like Roman aqueducts. A 
 long cornice was next formed on the top, and 
 above it rose castles innumerable, all perfectly 
 alike: they soon split into towers, which were 
 shortly after lost in colonnades, then windows, and 
 at last ended in pines, cypresses, and other trees,
 
 109 
 
 even and similar. This is the Fata Margana, 
 which, for twenty-six years, I thought a mere 
 fable." Such is the account of this astonishing 
 aerial phenomenon, derived by Mr. Swinburne 
 from Father Angelucci. That of Moos. Houel 
 is equally remarkable.* 
 
 XCIX. No landscape, however admirable 
 in other respects, is complete without motion. 
 The swan must glide along the river; the eagle 
 wheel among the crags; the goat must bound 
 among the precipices ; or herds or flocks graze in 
 irregular groups along the valley. For this rea- 
 son, the poets never fail to animate their ideal 
 landscapes with some interesting associations, that 
 imply motion ; such as the waving of woods, the 
 falling of waters, and the flight of birds. Thom- 
 son affords innumerable instances. What a fine 
 passage is that, where he enlivens the sterile rocks 
 of St. Kilda with the movements of a group of 
 eagles ! 
 
 High from the summit of a craggy cliff, 
 Hung o'er the deep, such as amazing frowns, 
 On utmost Kilda's shore, whose lonely race 
 Resign the setting sun to Indian worlds, 
 The Royal Eagle draws his vigorous young, 
 
 * Note 51.
 
 110 
 
 Strong pounc'd and ardent with paternal fire. 
 Now fit to raise a kingdom of their own, 
 He drives them from his fort, the towering seat, 
 For ages, of his empire; which, in peace, 
 Unstain'd he holds, while many a league to sea 
 He wings his course, and preys in distant Isles. 
 
 In the motion of landscape, what can be more 
 agreeable, than the waving of corn or of trees, the 
 calm gliding, or the fierce rushing of rivers, the 
 rising of columns of smoke,* the unpremeditated 
 motion of animals, and the majestic movements 
 of the clouds, marching before a storm, or gliding 
 in stupendous masses, along the vast expanse of 
 the horizon ! 
 
 C. If the country charm us with the beauty 
 
 * Lambinus has well described the various involutions of 
 rising smoke, which gives such an indescribable charm to 
 woodland landscapes. " Cum trepido seu tremulo motu 
 sin sum feruntnr. Rotantes, torqueutes, glomerantes, rotarum 
 in morem volventes. Sic Virgil Globos flammarura ap- 
 pellat flamrnas /Etme, globorum in morem erumpentes. 
 Vid. En. Lib. iii. 1. 574. also Georg. Lib. i. 1. 473. 
 Et jam Minima procnl villarum culmina fumant 
 Majoresque cadunt altis de montibus umbrae. 
 
 In the mind of a lover of landscape, what interesting asso- 
 ciations do these two lines create !
 
 Ill 
 
 and variety of its productions, it pleases us, 
 also, by the variety of amusements, which it affords 
 to us. To say nothing of hunting, hawking, shoot- 
 ing, and fowling, which, having something cruel in 
 their nature, ought to be foreign to our subject, 
 what can be more worthy the attention of literary 
 leisure, than the cultivation of a garden? " Of 
 all my works," said Pope, " I am most proud of 
 my garden." And the great, the profound Des- 
 cartes, whose mind was, at all times, in a state of 
 perpetual serenity, amused his summer evenings in 
 the cultivation of a small garden, which was an 
 appendage to his house at Amsterdam. Thus, as 
 his biographer finely remarks, having settled the 
 place of a planet in the morning, he would amuse 
 himself, in the evening, by watering a flower ! " I 
 look upon the pleasure, we take in a garden," says 
 that amiable and excellent man, who first brought 
 philosophy from the schools, " as one of the 
 most innocent delights in human life. It is na- 
 turally apt to fill the mind with calmness and tran- 
 quillity, and to lay all its turbulent passions at rest. 
 It gives us a great insight into the contrivance and 
 wisdom of providence, and, suggesting innumerable 
 subjects for meditation, I cannot but think, that 
 the very complacency and satisfaction, which a
 
 112 
 
 man takes in these pleasures, is, in itself, a virtu- 
 ous habit of the mind." For reasons, allied to 
 these, Lord Kaimes was expressly of opinion, that 
 good professors were not more essential in a col- 
 lege than a garden, ornamented in such a manner, 
 as to inspire youth with a taste for simplicity and 
 elegance. 
 
 CI. Milton, exquisitely alive to all the graces of 
 nature, finely describes the transports of our first 
 parent, when newly created, at the sight of those 
 beauties, which adorned the garden of Eden.* 
 
 About me round I saw 
 
 Hill, dale, and shady woods, and sunny plains, 
 And liquid lapse of murmuring streams; by these 
 Creatures, that lived and moved and walked or flew; 
 Birds on the branches warbling ; all things smiled 
 With fragrance j and with joy my heart o'erflowed. 
 
 In the fourth book nothing, in the language of 
 description, can be more admirable, than the 
 general picture of the scenery, which composed 
 this terrestrial paradise. In another part of this 
 
 * Count Buffbn has a similar description. It is one of the 
 most eloquent passages of that celebrated Naturalist. Vol. 
 vi. p. 88.
 
 113 
 
 astonishing poem, how elegantly does Adam ex- 
 hort Eve to awake to the enjoyments of her flow- 
 ers and shrubs. 
 
 Awake! the morning shines, and the fresh field 
 Calls ns ; we lose the prime to mark how spring 
 Our tender plants, how blows the citron grove, 
 What drops the myrrh, and what the balmy reed, 
 How nature paints her colours, how the bee 
 Sits on the bloom, extracting liquid sweet.' 
 
 CII. Another instance of the love of our first 
 mother for the products of nature is afforded us in 
 that passage of the eighth book, where Eve, per- 
 ceiving the Angel and Adam about to enter into 
 high and abstruse converse, rose from her seat and 
 went forth, 
 
 among her frui f s and flowers ; 
 
 To visit how they prospered, bud and bloom 
 
 Her nursery ; they at her coming sprung, 
 
 And touch'd by her fair dalliance gladlier grew.f 
 
 Note 52. 
 
 f How elegant and affecting too is that passage, where 
 Eve, touched with the acutest anguish, addresses herself to 
 the Sowers she had reared, and to the nuptial bower she had 
 adorned. Vid. Beattie's Essays on poetry and music. Part 
 ii. ch. 1. 3. 
 
 TOL. I. I
 
 114 
 
 And when she learns, that she must quit that 
 delightful Paradise, in which she had tasted so 
 much happiness, how exquisitely beautiful and 
 pathetic is her lamentation ! 
 
 " Must I then leave thee, Paradise ! Thus leave 
 Thee, native soil, these happy walks and shades, 
 Fit haunt of Gods, where I had hope to spend 
 Quiet, though sad, the respite of that day, 
 That must be mortal to us both ? O flowers, 
 That never will in other climate grow, 
 My early visitation, and my last 
 At even, which I bred up with tender hand 
 From the first opening bud, and gave you names! 
 Who now shall rear you to the sun, or rank 
 Your tribes, and water from th' ambrosial fount? 
 Thee, lastly, nuptial bower, by me adorn'd 
 With what to sight or smell was sweet : from thee 
 How shall I part? and whither wander down 
 Into a lower world, to this, obscure 
 And wild ? How shall we breathe in other air 
 Less pure, accustom'd to immortal fruits?" 
 
 CIII. Almost all nations have united to make the 
 future abode of good spirits a Garden ; a name, 
 among the Assyrians, synonymous with Paradise. 
 The Mahometans call the Paradise, to which the 
 faithful will be called, Jannat le Nairn, the Gar- 
 den of Pleasure; Jannat aden, the Garden of
 
 115 
 
 Perpetual Abode; and not unfrequently by the 
 simple name of al Jannat, the Garden, to distin- 
 guish it from all others. 
 
 This garden they fabled to be peopled with 
 Ilouris, whose beauty surpassed the most exqui- 
 sitely lovely of all captivating women ; with whom 
 the faithful, when the angel of death (to pursue 
 the Arabian allegory), had dissolved the union of 
 the body and the soul,* were to enjoy the most 
 ecstatic raptures ; first by a kiss, and afterwards by 
 an immaculate alliance. -j- 
 
 CIV. The Christian creed, on the other hand, af- 
 fords no definite idea of heaven. Giving the fullest 
 and most unbounded scope to the most excursive ima- 
 gination, it leaves it resting in all the awful mystery 
 of sublime obscurity. " Eye hath not seen," says 
 St. Paul, "nor ear heard, neither have entered 
 into the mind of man the things, which God hath 
 prepared for those, that love him. "| "They shall 
 hunger no more," as we read in the Apocalypse, 
 "neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun 
 
 * Hyde in notis ad Bobov. de visit. ^Egrot. 19. Vide 
 Virgil. Lib. ix. t Note 53. 
 
 $ 1 Corinth, ch. ii. v. 9. Isaiah, cb. Ixir. v. 4.
 
 116 
 
 light on them, nor any heat : for the Lamb shall 
 feed them, and shall lead them unto living waters, 
 and God shall wipe away all tears from their 
 eyes."* In this state of beatitude, free from every 
 vicissitude of change or decay, they shall associate 
 to all eternity with a numerous host of angels,-^ 
 whose glory and whose ecstasy is continually evinc- 
 ed by hymns of praise, harmonizing, in concert, 
 with innumerable harps. 
 
 CV. The Laplander believes Paradise to be situ- 
 ated in the centre of the snows of Sweden ! The 
 Muscogulgees imagine it among the islands of the 
 vast Pacific. " Do you see those blue moun- 
 tains," says Piomingo, " whose towering summits 
 are mixed with the descending clouds ?" " I see 
 them." Beyond those mountains there is a wide 
 river ; beyond that river there is a great country ; 
 on the other side of that country there is a world 
 of water; in that water there are a thousand 
 islands : the sun is gone among them :- These 
 
 * Rev. ch. vii. v. 16, 17. ch. ii. v. 4. also Isaiah, ch. 49. v. 
 10. ch. xxv. v. 8. Psalms, xxxvi. v. 8, 9. xvi. v. 2. Matt, 
 ch. xxv. v. 46. Rom. ch. ii. v. 7. 1 Peter, ch. i. v. 4. Dan. 
 ch. xii. v. 2. John, ch. v. v. 24, 29. 
 
 f Heb. ch. xii. y. 2. Paradise Lost, Book vi.
 
 117 
 
 islands are full of trees and streams of water ; a 
 thousand buffaloes and ten thousand deer graze on 
 the hills, or ruminate in the valleys." " When I 
 die, shall I become an inhabitant of those islands ?" 
 " Love your friends become a great warrior 
 and when you die, the great spirit will conduct 
 you to the land of souls." Such is the belief of 
 one of the tribes of the North American Indians. 
 
 CVI. The Mexicans conceived, that those, who 
 died of wounds or were drowned, went to a cool 
 and delightful place ; there to enjoy all manner of 
 pleasures : those, who died in battle;or in capti- 
 vity, were wafted to the palace of the sun, and led 
 a life of endless delight. After an abode of four 
 years in this splendid habitation, they animated 
 clouds and birds of beautiful feather, and of sweet 
 song; having, at the same time, liberty to ascend 
 to heaven or descend to earth, to suck sweet flowers 
 and warble enchanting songs.* 
 
 The Tonquinese imagine the forests and moun- 
 tains to be peopled with a peculiar kind of Genii, 
 who exercise an influence over the affairs of man- 
 
 * Clavigero's History of Mexico, v. vi. p. 136, 157.
 
 118 
 
 kind; and in their ideas, relative to a state of fu- 
 ture happiness, they regard a delightful climate, 
 and an atmosphere, surcharged with odours, with 
 a throne profusely covered with garlands of flow- 
 ers, as the summit of celestial felicity. Among 
 the Arabs, a fine country, with abundance of shade, 
 form the principal object of their promised bliss ; 
 Addison, therefore, in his allegory of Mirza, is 
 faithful to the visions of that enthusiastic people.* 
 
 CVII. Every one has heard of the Hesperian 
 Gardens, though the country, in which they were 
 situated, has never been precisely ascertained. 
 While some place them at Larach in the kingdom 
 of Fez, others have assigned Lixus or Susa in 
 Morocco; Zeres in the province of Andalusia; 
 Ethiopia ; the Cape de Verd Islands ; the Cana- 
 ries ; and Rudbecks was so enamoured of North- 
 ern scenery, as to suppose them to be situated in 
 Sweden ! Some, among whom we may particu- 
 larize Monsieur Bailly, place those Gardens, as 
 well as Indra, the fairy land of the Persian 
 poets, beyond the mouth of the Oby in the Fro- 
 zen Sea ! It is, however, most probable, that 
 they were situated in the Cape de Verd Islands, 
 
 * Note 54.
 
 119 
 
 and the golden Fruit, stolen by Hercules, no 
 other than oranges. To these Islands, which 
 were also the Fortunate Islands* of the poets, 
 Sertorius formed a resolution of retiring, when 
 weary of the perpetual wars, in which he was en- 
 gaged ; and he had actually so retired, but for the 
 treachery and villany of a part of his crew. It 
 was to these highly-favoured spots, that Horace, in 
 a time of great public calamity, invited his coun- 
 trymen to accompany him. " Let us go," says 
 he, " in search of those happy fields, where the 
 earth, untilled, yields annual fruit, and the vines 
 flourish so abundantly ; where honey flows from 
 the trunk of the oak, and murmuring streams roll 
 slowly down the mountains."^ 
 
 CVIII. These Islands (after all memory of them 
 had been lost among the ruins of the Roman Em- 
 pire), were discovered by the Genoese. Lewis 
 of Spain, soon after, requested pope Clement to 
 bestow them upon him. The Pope, proud of an 
 opportunity of giving away a kingdom, consented, 
 and crowned him with much ceremony at Avig- 
 
 * Note 55. 
 
 t arva, beata 
 
 Petamus arva, &c. &c. 
 
 HOR: EPOD: Lib. v. Ep. xvi. I. 41.
 
 120 
 
 non. Lewis, who was the eldest Son of Alphon- 
 so, king of Castile, thus obtained the title of 
 " Prince of the Fortunate Islands." When the 
 news of this transaction reached England, says 
 Petrarch, the people, thinking the name of For- 
 tunate belonged only to themselves, were highly 
 displeased and alarmed, that his Holiness should 
 presume to give them away ! 
 
 CIX. Juvenal represents Lucan reposing in a 
 garden.* Tasso pictures Rinaldo sitting beneath 
 the shade in a fragrant meadow : Virgil describes 
 Anchises, seated beneath sweet-scented bay-trees ; 
 and Eneas, as reclining, remote from all society, 
 in a deep and winding valley .f Gassendi, who 
 
 * The epithet he applies to horiis is sufficiently curious. 
 The Scholiast cites Pliny, 1. 36. <r. 1. 2. The style of the 
 Roman Gardens in Trajan's time is expressively marked : 
 
 Contentus fama jaceat Lucanus in hortis 
 Mannoreis. 
 
 Juv : Sat. vii. J. 79. 
 
 It was very well said by one of the first women of the 
 present age (Mrs. Grant), that Darwin's Botanic Garden is 
 an Hesperian Garden, glittering all over; the fruit gold, the 
 leaves silver, and the stems brass. 
 
 f Eneid. Lib. vi. 1. 679 Lib. viii. 609.
 
 121 
 
 ingrafted the doctrine of Galileo on the theory of 
 Epicurus, took not greater pleasure in feasting 
 his youthful imagination by gazing on the moon, 
 than Cyrus, in the cultivation of flowers. "I 
 have measured, dug and planted, the large gar- 
 den, which I have at the Gate of Babylon," said 
 that Prince ; " and never, when my health per- 
 mit, do I dine until I have laboured two hours in 
 my garden : If there is nothing to be done, I 
 labour in my orchard." Cyrus is also said to 
 have planted all the Lesser Asia. Ahasueruswas 
 accustomed to quit the charms of the banquet to 
 indulge the luxury of his bower ;* and the con- 
 queror of Mithridates enjoyed the society of his 
 friends, and the wine of Faleinium, in the splen- 
 did gardens, which were an honour to his name. 
 Dion gave a pleasure-garden to Speucippus as a 
 mark of peculiar regard.^ Linnaeus studied in a 
 bower ; Buffon in his summer-house ; and when 
 Demetrius Poliorcetes took the Island of Rhodes, 
 he found Protogenes at his palette, painting in his 
 arbour. Petrarch was never happier, than when 
 indulging the innocent pleasures of his garden. 
 
 * Esther, vii. 7. Tissaphernes had a garden, much re- 
 sembling uu English park, which he called Alcibiadtt. 
 t Plutarch in Vit. Dion.
 
 122 
 
 " I have made myself two," says he, in one of 
 his Epistles; " I do not imagine they are to be 
 equalled in all the world: I should feel myself 
 inclined to be angry with fortune, if there were 
 any so beautiful out of Italy.* 
 
 CX. Many of the wisest and the best of men 
 have signalized their love of gardens and shrub- 
 beries, by causing themselves to be buried in them ; 
 a custom once in frequent practice among the an- 
 cient Jews.'f- Plato was buried in the groves of 
 Academus; and Sir William Temple, though he 
 expected to be interred in Westminster Abbey, 
 gave orders for his heart to be enclosed in a silver 
 casket, and placed under a sun-dial, in that part of 
 his garden, immediately opposite the window of 
 his library, from which he was accustomed to 
 contemplate the beauties and wonders of the crea- 
 tion, in the society of a beloved sister. Animated 
 by the same sublimity of feeling, the friends of 
 Dercennus, one of the kings of Latium, caused 
 
 * Note 56. ' 
 
 f In the middle of the Catnpo Santo, which is the most 
 ancient burying-place at Pisa, is a garden, formed of earth, 
 brought from the neighbourhood of Jerusalem.
 
 123 
 
 him to be buried in a thick wood, on the top of 
 a high mountain: 
 
 Fait ingens nionte sab alto 
 
 Regis Dercenni terreno ex aggere bustnm 
 Antiqui Laurentis, opacaque ilice tectum.* 
 
 From this spot the lovely Opis aimed her ar- 
 row, and shot the murderer of Camilla. 
 
 CXI. An ardent lover of nature himself, the 
 Marquis de Girardin thought he could not inter 
 his unfortunate friend, Rousseau, more to the 
 satisfaction of his immortal spirit, than by burying 
 him in the Island of Poplars, in the gardens of 
 Ermenonville, situated about ten leagues from 
 Paris. On his tomb was inscribed the following 
 epitaph. 
 
 Id repose 
 L' Homme de la Nature 
 
 Et de la Verite! 
 
 Vitam impendere Vero. 
 
 Hicjacent ossa J. J. Rousseau, 
 
 * Eneid. xi. 849. There is a spot held in great venera- 
 tion by the inhabitants of Bantam. It is that, in which one 
 of their kings lies buried at the foot of a palm tree. Vid . 
 Stavorinus, cb. ii. p. 61. 8vo.
 
 124 
 
 CXII. This eccentric genius, as was justly and 
 nobly observed by one of his bitterest enemies, pos- 
 sessed the head of a man and the heart of a woman. 
 He once took up his abode in a small farm-house, 
 the only one in the Island of St. Pierre, in the 
 Lake of Bienne. Since his residence upon it, it 
 has been called, Rousseau s Island. This isolated 
 spot is one of the most beautiful in the whole 
 country, and thither, during the vintage, parties of 
 peasants filled the woods and the banks of the 
 lake, amusing themselves in dancing, in running, 
 and strolling about, enjoying the coolness of the 
 shade and the freshness of the water. The plea- 
 sure, which Rousseau enjoyed in this retreat, for 
 a short time, obliterated all sense of his injuries 
 and misfortunes.* 
 
 CXI II. With gardening, who can refrain from 
 associating the science of botany ? Anaxagoras 
 and Empedocles, Cardan, and Spallanzi, were of 
 opinion, that, in common with animals and insects, 
 trees, plants, and flowers, had feelings and pas- 
 sions. The opinion is sanctioned by the discovery 
 of their sexual properties. This important dis- 
 covery in the botanic world, has been almost 
 
 Note 57.
 
 125 
 
 universally attributed to Linnaeus; but we learn 
 from Herodotus, that the Babylonians perfectly 
 understood the sexual properties of plants; and 
 though not adopted by them, sufficient proofs may 
 be drawn from the writings of Aristotle, Thep- 
 phrastus, and Pliny, to confirm us in the belief, 
 that it was not unknown to Grecian naturalists ; 
 while the works of Ray and Millington evidently 
 demonstrate, that they believed in its truth, many 
 years before the adoption of it by Linnaeus. The 
 circulation of blood in plants, too, was known to 
 Virgil. 
 
 CXIV. To every one has nature given a relative 
 and distinguishing bias. Some are attuned to the 
 soft vibrations of music; others melt before a 
 painting or a statue ; to some she gives the powers 
 of oratory, to others the inspiration of poetry. 
 Some, with a bolder impulse, touch, as it were, 
 the stars with their fingers; while others, at an 
 humbler distance, investigate the instinct of a 
 worm, or calculate the course of an emmet. 
 Some, captivated with the lust of power, standing 
 on the summit of Caucasus, in sight of an hundred 
 nations, become, alternately, the idol of the vulgar, 
 and an object of pity to the philosopher and en-
 
 126 
 
 thusiast And while you, my friend, nature ani- 
 mates with an ardent ambition of shining on a 
 splendid theatre, in Colonna has she implanted 
 the power of deriving happiness from investigating 
 her laws ; in listening to her melodies ; in tasting 
 her perfumes ; and, above all, in relishing those 
 enjoyments, which, with unsparing hand, she 
 lavishes on all those, who admire and love the 
 noblest and most beautiful of all her various 
 works. Thus we all come to the same point of 
 happiness at last : Thus the Ganges and Burram- 
 pooter, rising in the neighbourhood of each other 
 among the mountains of Thibet, separate to the 
 distance of more than twelve hundred miles, and 
 after traversing a long length of country, watering 
 nations unknown to each other, and differing in 
 language, in customs, and in religion, meet, as it 
 were, in friendship, by mingling their waters in 
 the same bay. 
 
 CXV. As the Grecian youth are said to have been 
 intoxicated at the sight of the Venus of Praxiteles, 
 so are some equally captivated with their own de- 
 formities ; and, played upon by a skilful artist, like 
 the marble of Pietra Sancta,* which resounds, as 
 
 * Called Campanini.
 
 127 
 
 it is wrought, they ring with their own follies, and 
 celebrate their own absurdities. Some, neglect- 
 ing all the utilities of life, devote themselves to its 
 embellishments; others, sufficiently informed to 
 know, that it is one of the principles of architec- 
 ture, that the most delicate should be placed upon 
 the most solid, are never content, but when at- 
 tempting to fritter away a good understanding by 
 an affectation of uniting qualities, which, in them- 
 selves, are totally discordant: they would unite 
 Athens to Sparta in every thing they do, and blend 
 the lustre of Gibbon with the gravity of Johnson 
 in every thing they say. Some, disregarding the 
 beauties of painting, sculpture, and architecture, 
 reserve all their applause for the arts of inlaying 
 and of working in mosaic : This had rather be 
 crowned, as a poet, in the Capitol of Rome, than 
 be entitled to all the honours of a triumph ; and 
 while some delight to stand upon the summit of 
 the Peak of Ossian,* others trace the bubbles of 
 a rill, that murmurs at its feet. 
 
 CXVI. One derives a prouder satisfaction from 
 having drawn the segment of a circle, than another in 
 
 * Note 58.
 
 128 
 
 sketching the plan of the noblest amphitheatre : and, 
 as the ancients took all the patterns of their foliage 
 works from the leaves of the Acanthus, so do cer- 
 tain philosophers take pleasure in the attempt to 
 reduce the most heterogeneous of principles to one 
 root ; like the chemist, who attempted to dissolve 
 gold, silver, and iron, copper, bismuth and zinc, 
 by one process and by one menstruum. These, see- 
 ing no beauty in Shakespeare, would willingly 
 consign his Othello, his Macbeth, and his Ham- 
 let, ah ! the entire works of all the moderns, 
 to oblivion, in order to preserve one act of So- 
 phocles, one epigram of Martial, or even the worst 
 ode of Anacreon ; and to such an extent do they 
 carry this unfortunate malady, that they would 
 rather be guilty of an exploded error with Aristo- 
 tle, Plato, or Photinus, than reach the highest 
 altitude of science in the Society of Locke, Bacon, 
 or Newton ! Another description of men, mis- 
 taking sound for sense, confound us with a volu- 
 bility of words ; while others, anxious to avoid so 
 disgraceful an error, would persuade us, they are 
 so pregnant with thought, that, in the delivery of 
 their stores, they seem, as if they were in danger 
 of dying in child-bed.
 
 129 
 
 CXVII. This takes a sensible satisfaction in re- 
 ferring the most important events to the smallest of 
 causes ; that, tracing the etymology of an adverb, 
 despises all the honours of algebra : and, as a player 
 of billiards esteems it more honourable to effect one 
 pocket than to make two cannons, so some regard 
 the acquisition of one science, more honourable 
 than the attainment of an hundred arts : and while 
 some rob care of many an anxious hour in the 
 endeavour to prove, that three angles of a triangle 
 are equal to two right angles, or in the cultivation 
 of the six follies of science,* others, with all the 
 pride of pedantry, scatter the dust of theology 
 upon all those, who have the scepticism to ques- 
 tion the truth of the Three Heavenly Witnesses. 
 This, bearing in mind, that the Doric order is 
 equally adapted to the smallest of rustic temples, as 
 to the largest of amphitheatres, delights in no mid- 
 dle course, but alternately aims at the highest, or 
 sinks to the lowest ; exclaiming, in the pride of 
 his heart, " I can soar with the eagle, or sit with 
 the wren." 
 
 * The Multiplication of the Cube ; the Philosophical 
 Stone ; the Perpetual Motion; the Quadrature of the Circle ; 
 Magic, and Judicial Astrology. 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 
 
 CXVIII. Some are so extensively learned, as to 
 kuow every thing ! others so extensively ignorant, 
 as to be certain of nothing ! The latter, having heard 
 of a Sage, who declared, that the first year he en- 
 tered on the study of philosophy, he knew every 
 thing; that, at the expiration of the second, he 
 knew only something ; and that, at the close of the 
 third, he knew nothing, in all the ambiguity and 
 inanity of scepticism, and utterly ignorant of those 
 fine canons of practical science, which teach us 
 what to know and when to hesitate, they affect to 
 doubt the operation even of their own senses ! 
 
 Such, my Lelius, is in the infirmity of our na- 
 ture; which, if we are at any time anxious to 
 correct, we have only to remember the acknow- 
 ledgment of Socrates, and the confirmation of 
 Lucretius; to read the tenth satire of Juvenal, 
 aud the last chapter of Ecclesiasticus ; to observe, 
 with attention, Holbein's Dance of Death, and 
 to .contrast the whole with Du Bartas' correct and 
 entertaining Map of Man, and Erasmus' Eulogium 
 of Folly. 
 
 CXIX. In some, Nature implants the desire of 
 riches, in others the love of science; some she
 
 131 
 
 sends over vast and trackless seas to observe the 
 transit of a planet, others she leads 
 
 O'er vales and mountains to explore, 
 
 What healing virtue swells the tender veins, 
 Of herbs and flowers. 
 
 Answering to the call, St. Pierre travelled 
 fnany a pathless solitude in Sweden, in Russia, 
 and the Isle of France: Banks explored the 
 southern seas, and the pupils of Linnaeus, con- 
 formably to the wish of their master, divided the 
 globe between them, and traversed many a wild 
 and trackless region. At times, whole nations 
 have been visited by an ardent love of botany. 
 The Dutch were once so captivated with this ele- 
 gant science, that they named many of their flow- 
 ers after their most distinguished statesmen,* and 
 a flower called Semper Augustus, sold for four 
 thousand six hundred florins! Even infant nations 
 have displayed an innate love of the beautiful by 
 
 * Of the various sorts of tulip and gilliflower, which are 
 almost innumerable, more than two hundred have derived 
 their names from eminent men and beautiful women, of all 
 ages and countries. 
 
 K 2
 
 132 
 
 their attachment to flowers. The Indians of 
 Mexico, in the time of Cortez, were passionately 
 fond of them, and an ambassador to the court of 
 Montezuma could present no offering, which 
 would be more highly esteemed, than a bouquet. 
 This passion remains even at the present day.* 
 
 CXX. Floating gardens, those miniature resem- 
 blances to the Island of Delos, are very common 
 in New Spain. Of these, there are two kinds. 
 Those, that glide upon the water, at the caprice of 
 the winds, and those, which are attached to the 
 shore. The principal flowers and roots, consumed 
 in the city of Mexico, are raised in these small 
 gardens. It is a most interesting spectacle, as we 
 learn from the Baron de Humboldt, and the Abb6 
 Clavigero, every morning at sun-rise, to see the 
 provisions, and a great quantity of flowers, brought 
 in by Indians in boats, descending the canals of 
 Istacalco and Chalco. In them are cultivated 
 beans, artichokes, and cauliflowers, while the 
 edges are ornamented with rose bushes. The 
 promenade in boats, around these little islands, is the 
 most agreeable, that can be enjoyed in the environs 
 
 * Note 59.
 
 133 
 
 of Mexico. When the proprietor of one of these 
 floating gardens finds that he has a disagreeable 
 neighbour, he unties the chain, that fixes his little 
 property to the shore, and with his hut and his tree, 
 growing in the middle, floats wherever he pleases. 
 These small islic gardens are not unfrequently 
 seen in other countries and climates. In the 
 Lake Cutilia, as Pliny informs us, there was one, 
 the appearance of which the Romans attributed to 
 a miracle.* Some there were, also, in Lydia. 
 In China they are formed on the surface of rivers 
 and canals. On the Guayaguil in the kingdom of 
 Quito, in the Lake near St. Omers, and that of 
 Tivoli, near the hot-baths of Agrippa, they are 
 also to be found; and a most remarkable Island 
 has, within these thirty years, three times emerged 
 from the bottom of the Derwent, in the county of 
 Cumberland. 
 
 CXXI. The designs, that flowers have afforded 
 
 * He also mentions two floating Islands in the Lake 
 Bolsena, which sometimes formed themselves into a circle, 
 and sometimes into triangles, but never into quadrangles. 
 These Islands are now become fixed. Browne mentions 
 several in the Nile. See Travels in Egypt and Syria.
 
 134 
 
 to painting, sculpture, and architecture, with their 
 effects upon the mind, are beautifully touched 
 upon by the author of the Spectacle de la Na- 
 ture.* In the manufacture of silks, as well as in 
 the fine arts, flowers are adopted, as giving the 
 greatest variety and the most vivid expression to a 
 shawl, a robe, or a mantle. The practice is of 
 great antiquity : equally so is the custom of pre- 
 senting silk ornaments, in which flowers are inter- 
 woven or embroidered, to friends and persons of 
 high consequence and rank. The passage in the 
 Eneid, where Andromache presents to Ascauius a 
 robe, wrought with flowers of golden tissue, and 
 requests him to accept it, as a friendly gift from 
 the wife of Hector to a youth, in whom appeared 
 all the charms and graces of her lost Astyanax, is 
 exceedingly beautiful. Nothing can be more af- 
 fecting, than the whole passage. 
 
 Accipe, et hac, manuum tibi qua; monumenta mearum 
 Sint, puer, et longiun Andromaches testentur amorcin 
 Conjugis Hectoreae. Cape dona extrema tuorum, 
 O inihi sola inei super Astyanactis Imago. 
 Sic oculos, sic ille uiaiius, sic oraferebat: 
 Et nunc aequali tccuni pubesceret aevo. 
 
 Eneid. Lib. iii. 1. 486. 
 
 Tom. 2. 9.
 
 135 
 
 CXX1I. Next to botany, in point of amuse- 
 ment, comes the patriotic love of planting; and I 
 cannot but consider the late James Duff, Earl of 
 Fife, a far greater patriot, than most of our in- 
 triguers in the cabinet, or brawlers in the senate, 
 since he devoted many of the most valuable hours 
 of a long life to the indulgence of this useful pas- 
 sion. This nobleman planted upwards of fourteen 
 thousand acres of land ! It was also a favourite 
 amusement of the celebrated Lord Bathurst,* and 
 of the late Lord Gardenstone, who took the high- 
 est delight in forming his village of Laurencekirk, 
 in the county of Kincardine. " I have tried," 
 said his Lordship, " a variety of pleasures, which 
 mankind pursue, but never relished any of them 
 so much, as the enjoyment, arising from the pro- 
 gress of my village." 
 
 CXXIIl. Closely allied to gardening and plant- 
 ing is that most useful of all the sciences, agricul- 
 ture ; than which, no art or science is more dig- 
 
 " Lord Bathurst," says Erasmus Lewis, in a letter to 
 Dean Swift, is in Gloucestershire, where he plants, trans- 
 plants and unplants ; thus he erects an employment for him- 
 self independent of a court." Swift's Correspondence. Work*, 
 vol. \viii. p. 128.
 
 136 
 
 nified, or more worthy the attention of an 
 honourable man.* In such esteem was this sci- 
 ence held by the Romans, that deities were 
 appointed in their creed to take charge of the 
 corn in every stage of preparation and growth. 
 Stercutus directed the manuring, Occator the 
 harrowing, and Sator the sowing : Seia protected 
 the seed, while it remained in the ground, and 
 when the blade first sprang from the earth. 
 Runcina directed its weeding; Robigus secured 
 it from blasts and mildews; Nodosus guarded the 
 joints of the stalks, and Volucia folded the blade 
 round the ear. Flora watched it in the blossom, 
 and Patelina in the pod : Hostilia observed, that 
 the ears grew long and even ; and it was the care 
 of Matuta, that they came to maturity. 
 
 CXXIV. Agriculture, which, as Columella 
 observes, is allied to true philosophy, has, in all 
 ages, been the resource, to which eminent men 
 have recurred, in order to amuse the leisure hours 
 of retirement. Zenophon, when banished to Scil- 
 loto in the Peloponnesus, devoted himself to the 
 
 * " Nihil est melius," says Tully, *' nihil dnlcins, uihil 
 domine libero dignius."
 
 137 
 
 cultivation of the earth. Count Hertzberg, too, 
 the Chatham of Prussia, reared silk-worms, while 
 his farms at Britz and in Pomerania, were direct- 
 ed under his own management, with all the cau- 
 tion and exactness of honest industry. In Eng- 
 land, this science has become highly popular of 
 late years ; and that it may still continue to with- 
 draw our nobility from the stews of dissipation, 
 and give them a distaste for more dangerous and 
 less honourable pursuits, is the earnest wish of 
 every virtuous man. 
 
 CXXV. One branch of rural economy is, in 
 the present age, but little attended to, though in 
 France it formed a considerable article of profit 
 in the reign of Charlemagne : viz. the culture of 
 bees ; those peculiar favourites with ancient and 
 modern poets, and which have been treated of, 
 says Columella, diligently by Hyginus, gracefully 
 by Virgil, and elegantly by Celsus ; who, blending 
 the diligence of the one with the grace of the 
 other, has exceeded them both. 
 
 The poets are ever happy to avail themselves of 
 the Apian republic, in order to illustrate and 
 embellish their subjects: Bees, therefore, are
 
 IS8 
 
 frequently important personages in the odes of 
 Anacreon, the Idyls of Theocritus, and the poems 
 of Moschus and Bion. The Indian poets com- 
 pare them to the quiver of the god of Love ';* 
 and Shakespeare, who left neither the depths of 
 the heart, nor the secrets of nature unexplored 
 or unexamined, compares them to a free and 
 well-directed government. 
 
 CXXVI. Simonides, my dear Lelius, is well 
 known to have written a satire upon women. In 
 this celebrated poem, he supposes, after the man- 
 ner of Pythagoras, every woman to have had a pre- 
 existent state ; to have animated some body or to 
 have been composed out of some of the elements, 
 which bear a similitude to the character she sup- 
 ports in the present state of existence. This idea 
 he carries on, in no very courteous terms, till he 
 comes to the last species of women, the compo- 
 nent parts of whom, he says, were made out of 
 the BEE, The qualities, by which this order was 
 distinguished, were a faultless character and a 
 blameless life: orderly in her household, loving 
 and beloved by her husband, she is the mother of 
 a virtuous and beautiful family. Would you know 
 
 * Ca" madeva. Sir W. Jones, 2. 95.
 
 139 
 
 more of her qualities? consult the fascinating 
 Julia ; who has, like a jewel, "hung twenty years 
 upon thy neck, and never lost her lustre." 
 
 CXXVII. No people are more employed in cul- 
 tivating bees, than the Ingushians and Circassians: 
 immense quantities of mead, busa and bees-wax 
 being prepared and sold on the frontiers of the 
 Caucasus. The honey of Guriel is nearly as hard 
 as sugar, and partakes of that intoxicating nature, 
 to which Zenophon alludes, in his account of the 
 retreat of the ten thousand Greeks. The same 
 ^quality has been remarked in the honey on the 
 Banks of the Ganges. A curious custom prevails 
 in Sicily. When a couple are married, the atten- 
 dants place honey in the mouths of the bride and 
 bridegroom, accompanied with an expression of 
 hope, that their love will ever be as sweet to 
 their souls, as that honey is to their palate. No 
 article of food conduces so much to the repose 
 of the mind and the consequent prolongation of 
 life. Augustus inquired, one day, of an old 
 man, who had attained the age of an hundred, 
 how he had been able to arrive at such an advan- 
 ced age, with so vigorous a body and so sound 
 a mind: " By oil without, and honey within," 
 replied the veteran.
 
 CXXVIII. In the province of Guadalaxera, in 
 Old Mexico, there is a species of bee without a 
 sting ; hence they are called ^ngelitos, " little an- 
 gels." The best honey is said to be produced in Si- 
 cily, Minorca, and Narbonne, a town, situated near 
 the Mediterranean, and abounding in rosemary. It 
 is curious that Malta, which is little more than a 
 barren rock, should have derived its name of Me- 
 lita from the abundance of its honey : which, in 
 medicine, is esteemed a purgative and aperient; 
 while it promotes expectoration and dissolves glu- 
 tinous juices. The wax is employed, externally, in 
 unguents; internally, in Diarrhoeas and Dysenteries, 
 mixed with oily substances ; and when dried and 
 pulverized, bees were once believed to cure the 
 Alopecia. 
 
 CXXIX. Well might the ancients fable, that 
 bees encompassed the cradles of Homer and Vir- 
 gil, Archilochus and Simonides ; well might So- 
 phocles glory in the title, which the sweetness of 
 his diction had procured for him, and well might 
 the Athenians take pleasure, in perpetuating the 
 appellation, by erecting a bee-hive of marble over 
 his grave ! The Greeks not unfrequently chose 
 the form of a bee-hive for many of their erections..
 
 141 
 
 There was a temple of Apollo at Delphos, which 
 was said to have been built by bees: no doubt in 
 allusion to its external form. This mode of build- 
 ing prevails, in the present day, in New Caledo- 
 nia.* 
 
 With what exquisite feeling does Thomson la- 
 ment the destructive mode of obtaining the trea- 
 sures of these intellectual and unfortunate insects !-f- 
 and (as I know the nobility of your nature), I do 
 not anticipate a smile of derision, when I confess, 
 that I esteem Colonna more entitled to the ho- 
 nours of a monument, for having introduced the 
 practice of obtaining honey, without destroying the 
 bees, into the vale of Festiniog, than Field-Mar- 
 shal Turenne. Turenne destroyed his thousands : 
 Colonna has preserved his tens of thousands. 
 Turenne's monument is of marble let Colonna's 
 be formed of honey-comb ! 
 
 CXXX. You, my friend, surrounded by all the 
 luxuries of polished life, in the midst of an elevat- 
 ed circle, the chief praise of which, in my esti- 
 mation, is the esteem it entertains for youj may, 
 
 * Cook's Voy. vol. iv. p. 112. 
 f Note S.
 
 142 
 
 possibly, be tempted to smile at the enthusiasm I 
 have always felt for this royal and illustrious insect, 
 which fed St. John the Baptist in the wilder- 
 ness. But, when I remind you of the fine sys- 
 tem of morals, they exhibit ; of the instances they 
 afford of industry and perseverance; of fidelity 
 and obedience; of sagacity and ingenuity; you 
 will at least not hesitate to join with me in admir- 
 ing the greatness and wisdom of that awful Being, 
 whose power is as conspicuously observed in the 
 smallest, as in the most gigantic of all his won- 
 drous works. Those insects indicate the most as- 
 tonishing proofs of mind ; while the genus in zoo- 
 logy, known by the name of the Coral Una, en- 
 dowed, as some one has remarked, with sensation, 
 scarcely sufficient to distinguish them from plants, 
 from the bottom of immeasurable seas, elevate to 
 the surface of the water, the coral rocks of the 
 vast Pacific ! 
 
 CXXXI. If there is no subject so instructive, 
 and worthy of man, as the anatomy of the human 
 mind,* there is no science more delightful to the 
 
 " Of all beauties," says the noble author of the Essay on 
 the Freedom of Wit and Humour, " which "Virtuosos pursue, 
 
 poets
 
 143 
 
 imagination, than that of Natural Philosophy; 
 which embraces all the resemblances, contrasts 
 and transformations, observable in the wide range 
 of nature, and the effects of which upon the 
 heart are, at all times, of such a mild and delightful 
 tendency, as to leave no room for any of the more 
 turbulent and ungenerous passions. Enjoyments, 
 springing from that pure and genuine source, the 
 fountain of nature, are, doubtless, far more ex- 
 quisite and lasting, than those sensual gratifications, 
 which captivate the votaries of luxury, a vice so 
 admirably personified by that best and noblest of 
 all the Roman satirists Juvenal. 
 
 CXXXII. Retired in the country, at C 
 
 or at L , after unremitted toil in the senate, 
 
 and desirous of varying your mode of life, my 
 Lelius, send your servants into the fields; let 
 
 poets celebrate, musicians sing, and architects describe or 
 form, the most delightful, the most engaging and pathetic is 
 that, which is drawn from real life and from the passions. 
 Nothing, he continnes, affects the heart, like that, which is 
 from itself, and of its own nature ; such as the beauty of sen- 
 timents, the grace of actions, the turn of characters, and the 
 proportions and features of the human mind. Characterif 
 tift, t. 1. 136.
 
 144 
 
 the collation be spread ; and, surrounded by your 
 family, and sheltered from the heat of the sun, 
 enjoy the coolness of the wide-extending oak, 
 and the rivulet, that waters its roots. Mount 
 the highest of your mountains ; lie down upon 
 its mossy surface and watch the course of the 
 clouds; or observe, with delight, innumerable 
 rural animals, bounding from one end of the hill 
 to the other. Rise to the rock, and shudder 
 with agreeable horror, as the animals bound from 
 precipice to precipice ; or, on the margin of a 
 river or a lake, while every object seems to 
 move, recline in peace within your boat, and 
 drink in rapture, as you move along. 
 
 CXXXIII. Nothing can be more delightful, 
 than the water-parties of the inhabitants of Vevay 
 and Lausanne, on the Lake of Geneva ; and what 
 traveller is not captivated, as he has observed 
 the light boats, sailing in animated parties from 
 Gerisau to Lucerne, or on the two Lakes, one 
 small and beautiful, the other extensive and pic- 
 turesque, on the east and west sides of the city of 
 Constance ? For my own part, my friend, never 
 have I envied you more, than when you have 
 described to me the pleasure, you derived in sail-
 
 145 
 
 ing down the Rhone from Lyons to Valence, 
 and from Viviers to Avignon ; and, after tasting 
 all the pleasure, which the mountains of Switzer- 
 land and the vales of Savoy could afford an ima- 
 gination so elegant and exalted as yours ; after 
 having visited the sources of the Aar and the 
 Rhine, and climbed the summits of St Gothard 
 and St. Bernard, you confessed, that the happiest 
 moments, you experienced among those asto- 
 nishing regions, were those, in which you sailed 
 with the captivating Julia along the Lake of 
 Lucerne ; and at the moment, in which, as the 
 sun was shedding its last rays upon the water, you 
 landed at the chapel of William Tell ! 
 
 CXXXIV. Of all the amusements which Rous- 
 seau partook, when at Geneva, none were so agree- 
 able to his taste, as that of walking along the banks, 
 or of sailing on the bosom of the lake, which stretch- 
 es to the east of that celebrated city. " There is 
 no person possessed of sensibility," says an elo- 
 quent writer, " of whatever country he may be, 
 who has ever beheld, without feeling the tenderest 
 emotion, the delightful borders of the Lake of 
 Geneva ; the enchanting spectacle which Nature 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 
 
 there exhibits, and the vast and majestic horizon, 
 which that mass of water presents to the view. 
 Who has ever returned from this scene without 
 turning his eyes again on the interesting picture 
 and experiencing the same affliction, with which 
 the heart separates from a beloved friend, whom 
 we have no expectation of ever seeing again ?" In 
 the society of Theresa and the family of Mons. Le 
 Luc, Rousseau spent seven of the most delightful 
 days of his life, in coasting along the shores of that 
 beautiful water, receiving rapture at every motion 
 of the vessel, and imbibing with that rapture all 
 the bewitching imagery, with which, after the ex- 
 piration of several years, he embellished the Nou- 
 velle Heloise. In his solitary excursions he di- 
 gested the plan of his Political Institutions ; form- 
 ed the ground-work of the Tragedy of Lucretia ; 
 translated a portion of Tacitus, and meditated a 
 History of the Valois. 
 
 CXXXV. In Venice, sailing excursions are en- 
 joyed to the highest degree ; the water is smooth, 
 the sky cloudless, and, as you glide along in Gon- 
 dolas, the boatmen sing, to the sound of their 
 oars, the songs and poems of Tasso, Petrarch, 
 and Ariosto. Thus, giving a fine play to the irna-
 
 147 
 
 giuation, the faculty of thought is enlarged, the 
 nerves are delicately attuned, and the heart, vi- 
 brating in unison, feels itself susceptible of every 
 elegant and virtuous impulse. 
 
 As our sensual enjoyments acquire a zest from 
 an union \vith the mental, so each of them derive 
 additional gout from those objects, which flatter 
 the senses of both. A fine day, as some one has 
 justly observed, is as much a sensual, as it is a 
 mental enjoyment : and how much more plea- 
 sure, we derive from the simplest of collations, 
 under the shade of a tree, than from the most 
 luxuriant banquet in a dining-room, every person 
 of taste frankly and willingly acknowledges.* 
 When we are enjoying the society of Ladies, of a 
 fine, beautiful Summer's Evening in a drawing- 
 room, opening into a green-house, who will notcon- 
 fess, that the effects of their conversation and per- 
 sonal charms are far more flattering to the mind and 
 the senses, than at those moments, when, dressed 
 in all the splendour of decoration, their persons 
 derive additional lustre from the blaze of Grecian 
 lamps, the heat of fires, and the reflection of mir- 
 rors J "If," says Mr. Pope, in a Letter to a 
 * Note 6(>. 
 L2
 
 148 
 
 Friend, " If you drink tea upon a promontory 
 that overlooks the sea, it is preferable to an as- 
 sembly ; and the whistling of the wind better mu- 
 sic to contented and loving minds, than the opera 
 to the spleenful, ambitious, diseased, distast- 
 ed and distracted souls, which this world affords. 
 Happy they, who can banish themselves, or more 
 properly speaking, banish the world from them." 
 How agreeable to our palate are our grapes, nec- 
 tarines, and strawberries, when partaken in a bow- 
 er, formed of roses and honeysuckles, which 
 seem to vie with each other in imparting their fra- 
 grance to our peaches and our melons! If these 
 are not the " Crenae Deorum" of Horace, they are 
 at least the " Epulae Deorum." Sherry becomes 
 Burgundy, water nectar, honey manna, and bread 
 ambrosia ; while the flagelet, which merely pleases 
 in the odeum, enchants us among rocks, and 
 seems even to articulate, if it be sounded in a nar- 
 row valley, or in a glen, where the music of its 
 echoes charm even more, than the modulations 
 of the instrument itself. 
 
 CXXX VI. The concord of sounds is not more 
 grateful to the genuine lover of nature, than na- 
 ture, exhibited in all its grace of drapery, is to the
 
 149 
 
 generality of mankind. So common is this pro- 
 pensity, particularly with that part of the com- 
 munity, who are young and of good dispositions, 
 that there is scarcely a writer of romance, who 
 does not attempt to gratify it: and, though they 
 seldom succeed in this exercise of their imagina- 
 tion, the images they faintly trace, are, generally 
 the most amusing portions of their whole per- 
 formances. Anxious to. gratify this natural taste 
 of their readers, our romance writers frequently 
 select, as the theatres of action, the forests of 
 Germany, the vales of Languedoc, the moun- 
 tains of Switzerland, the plains of Tuscany, or 
 the delightful environs of Rome, Naples and 
 Palermo. For elegance of taste and sentiment, 
 for the variety and strength, the beauty and 
 amenity of her descriptions, Mrs. Ratcliffe stands 
 unrivalled, in her department of romance. It is 
 impossible to read this enchanting writer without 
 following her in all her magic windings, whither- 
 soever she is pleased to lead us. If she traverse 
 above the clouds, upon the tops of the Pyrenees, 
 along the romantic plains of Gascoigny, or coast 
 the odoriferous shores of Languedoc, up the 
 mountains of Switzerland, or down the vales of 
 Savoy, we are never weary of the journey. If she
 
 150 
 
 lead us through a forest, at morning, evening, or 
 in the gloom of night, still are we enchained, as 
 with a magic girdle, and follow from scene to 
 scene unsatiated and untired. 
 
 CXXXVII. Rousseau confesses, that, when 
 he was forming the plan of his New Heloise, he was 
 anxious to select a country, which should be wor- 
 thy of his characters: He was, in consequence, 
 some time before he could finally determine upon 
 the prpvince, in which he should lay the scene of 
 that celebrated Romance.* He successively called 
 to mind the most delightful spots, that he had ever 
 seen; but he remembered no grove sufficiently 
 charming, no landscape sufficiently beautiful. The 
 valleys of Thessaly would have charmed his waver- 
 ing thought, but those valleys he had never seen, 
 and, fatigued with invention, he desired a land- 
 scape of reality to elicit his descriptive powers, 
 and to operate as a point, on which he might oc- 
 casionally repose a strong, a vivid, and excursive 
 imagination. At length, weary of selection, he 
 fixed upon those vales and mountains, and upon 
 that lake, which in early life had charmed his 
 
 * Confessions, Book ix.
 
 151 
 
 fancy and formed his taste. Who has not beheld 
 the pictures of his youth in the first part of his 
 Confessions? and who has not been captivated 
 with the descriptions he has given of Geneva and 
 Vevay, the Lake of Lausanne, and the orchard of 
 Ciarens ? 
 
 CXXX VIII. If the common taste of mankind 
 lead man to derive pleasure from the representations 
 of nature, how much more so must we suppose 
 the influence of real scenes on the mind of the 
 poet; the primary qualities of whose genius, as 
 some one has justly observed, being an eye, that 
 can see nature, a heart that can feel nature, and a 
 resolution, that dares follow nature. Hence it is, 
 that the first objects, which have charms for youth- 
 ful genius, are those of landscape ; hence it arises, 
 that all our more eminent poets have been strict 
 observers of rural objects, and enthusiastic ad- 
 mirers of rich and imposing scenery : For it was 
 to primitive prospects, that the earlier writers 
 were principally indebted for the noble enthusiasm, 
 by which they were distinguished. 
 
 C XXXIX. Theocritus, the father of pastoral 
 poetry, was born in a country abounding in every
 
 152 
 
 species of landscape, and blest with the most 
 fortunate climate for the practice of the poet's 
 precepts. This poet was as much superior to 
 Virgil in beauty, in originality of thought, and in 
 simplicity of style, as Virgil is superior to all the 
 numerous host of his literal imitators. The 
 Aminta of Tasso is the most elegant pastoral 
 drama* in any language, and, with Guarini's Pastor 
 Fido, and Bonarelli's Filli di Sciro, was frequently 
 represented by the Italian nobility in gardens and 
 groves, having no other scenery, than what the 
 places, in which they were represented, naturally 
 afforded. 
 
 CXL. Among the British, pastoral has at- 
 tained little of excellence, since the days of Spen- 
 ser, Drayton, and Browne. Affectation has long 
 been substituted for passion, and delicacy and 
 elegance for that exquisite simplicity of language 
 and sentiment, which constitutes the principal 
 charm of this delightful species of poetry. Phil- 
 
 * Surely Rapin becomes fanciful, when he endeavours to 
 trace the origin of the pastoral drama to the Cyclops of 
 Euripides! When Tasso read II Pastor Fido, he exclaimed, 
 " Had Guarini never seen the Aminta, he had never excelled 
 it!" A tioble instance of modesty and confidence! 
 
 V
 
 153 
 
 lips is but an awkward appropriator of Virgil's 
 Imagery, and an unsuccessful imitator of Spenser's 
 phraseology. As a pastoral, Milton's Lycidas, 
 notwithstanding the applause that has been heaped 
 upon it, is frigid and pedantic, while his Epi- 
 taphium Damonis, boasting many agreeable pas- 
 sages, merely denotes the elegance of an accom- 
 plished scholar. Pope is too refined, his versifica- 
 tion too measured, and his ideas little more than 
 derivations from the more polished and courtly 
 passages of his Mantuan and Sicilian masters. 
 He addresses the genius of the Thames, rather 
 than of the Avon, and adapts his sentiments more 
 to the meridian of Hagley and Stowe, than to 
 the meadows of Gloucestershire, or the vales of 
 Devon. 
 
 CXLI. The gentle Shepherd of Fletcher 
 may be placed in competition with its prototype 
 by Guarini, and the pastoral songs of Burns and 
 other Scottish poets, are equal, if not superior, to 
 those of any other age or nation. But of all 
 ancient or modern pastoral writers, none excel, or 
 even equal, the mild, the gentle, the captivating 
 GESSNER; whose simplicity and tenderness have 
 power to animate the bosom of age, and to refine
 
 154 
 
 the passions of the young. Superior to the rural 
 poets of France and Spain, of England, Scotland, 
 and Italy, 
 
 Kind nature own'd him for her favourite son. 
 
 His Death of Abel is worthy the pen of Moses ; 
 his First Navigator combines all the fancy of the 
 poet, with the primeval simplicity of the Patriarch ; 
 and his Idyls are captivating to all but the igno- 
 rant, the pedant, and the sensualist. 
 
 CXLII. " Nothing," says a celebrated travel- 
 ler, " nothing delights me so much, as the inside of a 
 Swiss cottage ; all those I have visited, convey the 
 liveliest images of cleanliness, ease, and simplicity ; 
 and cannot but strongly impress on the observer, a 
 most pleasing conviction of the peasant's happi- 
 ness." With such models constantly before him, 
 it is no subject for excess of astonishment, that 
 Gessner should be capable of painting such exqui- 
 site companion pieces as his Idyls and Pastorals. 
 But for a man, bred in the school of dulness, as 
 a country town invariably is, associating with play- 
 ers, and residing, for the principal part of his life, 
 in all the dust and poison of a city, how much is
 
 155 
 
 our wonder and admiration excited, when we read 
 the delightful delineations of pastoral manners, as 
 they are drawn in several dramas of that grand 
 creator of worlds, and delineator of passion, Shake- 
 speare. That a master, so skilled in the minute 
 anatomy of the heart, should be capable of divest- 
 ing himself of all that fatal knowledge, to sound 
 " wild wood-notes," worthy of the reed of Tasso, 
 is of itself a singular phenomenon. Who can read 
 the following song, but he fancies himself sur- 
 rounded by a group of pastoral innocents, with 
 Perdita singing in the midst of them ? 
 
 Come, come, my good shepherds, our docks we must shear; 
 In your holiday suits, with your lasses appear: 
 The happiest of folks are the guileless and free, 
 And who are so guileless, so happy as we? 
 
 That giant, ambition, we never can dread ; 
 Our roofs are too low for so lofty a head; 
 Content and sweet cheerfulness open our door, 
 They smile with the simple and feed with the poor. 
 
 When love has possessed us, that love we reveal ; 
 Like the flocks that we feed, are the passions we feel , 
 So harmless, so simple, we sport and we play, 
 And leave to fine folks to deceive and betray. 
 
 Winter's Tnk, Act. IT. sc. 3.
 
 156 
 
 CXLI1I. In general description Homer was 
 as great a master, as in the sublimer departments 
 of his art. What can be more admirable, than the 
 scenes of Harvest and the Vintage, with which he 
 has embellished the 1 8th Book of the Iliad ? 
 Hesiod, too, has many descriptions of rural 
 scenery, sketched with all the truth and simplicity 
 of nature. He was a shepherd, and all his pic- 
 tures portraits. Among the Latins, Virgil excels 
 in the delineation of particular, and Lucretius in 
 that of general landscape. What a passage is the 
 following ! 
 
 Inque dies magis in montem succedere sylvas 
 Cogebant, infraqne locum concedere cultis : 
 Prata, lacus, rivos, segetes, vinetaque laeta 
 Collibns, et campis ut babercnt, atque olearum 
 Ccerula distinguens inter plaga currere posset 
 Per tumulos, et couvalleis, camposque profusa : 
 Ut mine esse vides vario distincta lepore 
 Omnia, quae pomis intersita dulcibus ornant : 
 Arbustisque tenent felicibus obsita circum. 
 
 Lucretius, LtA. v. 1 1370. 
 
 CXLIV. In that part, too, where he sings the 
 praises of Empedocles, beautiful is the picture he 
 draws of the Coast of Sicily, and the wonders of 
 Etna and Charybdis :* and no finer contrast is ex- 
 
 Lib. i. J. 7*3.
 
 157 
 
 hibited by any of the poets, ancient or modern, than 
 the one, in which he compares the pleasure of being 
 stretched beneath the shade of a tree, or on the 
 banks of a river, with the more costly raptures of 
 a splendid banquet. This passage alone would 
 have immortalized Lucretius. It has all the feel- 
 ing of nature, and all the denial of philosophy. 
 The versification is flowing, the sentiments are 
 golden sentiments, and, to speak after the man- 
 ner of painters, the composition is correct, and 
 the colours " dipt in heaven." 
 
 Si non anrea suntjuvenum simolachra per aedis 
 Lampadas igniferas manibus retinentia dextris, 
 Lumina noctnrnis epnlis ut suppeditentur, 
 Nee tlomus argeoto fulget, auroque renidet ; 
 Nee eitbaris rcboant laqaeata aurataque templa : 
 Attameu inter se prostrati in gramine niolli 
 Propter aqua?, rivuni, sub ramis arboris alias, 
 Non magnis opibus jucunde corpora curant: 
 Praesertim cum tempestas arridet, et anni 
 Tempora couspergunt viridantcis Soribus herbas, 
 Nee calidae citius decedunt corpore febres 
 Textilibus si in picturis, ostroque rubenti 
 Jactaris, quam si plebeia in veste cubandum est. 
 
 Lucretius, Lib. ii. 
 
 CXLV. Virgil, that great master of the passions, 
 philosopher of nature, and the best of all the Latin
 
 158 
 
 descriptive poets, if we except Lucretius, was an 
 ardent lover of rural and picturesque imagery. 
 Hence he is, at all times, on the watch to inquire 
 into, and explain the phenomena of nature ; to 
 boast of the number of flocks and herds of Italy ; 
 the beauty of its groves and meadows ; the fineness 
 of its vines and olives ; the virility of its spring, 
 and the mildness of its climate. Many of his in- 
 dividual scenes are drawn with the pencil of a 
 finished landscape-painter. The admirable pic- 
 ture of Claude, in the collection of Welbore Ellis, 
 exhibits not more clearly to the imagination, than 
 the language of the Mantuan poet, which describes 
 the spot, where Eneas first landed in Italy. 
 
 Crebescunt optatoc aurae ; portusque patescit 
 Jam proprior, templumqne apparet in arce Mineme. 
 Vela legunt Socii, et proms ad litora torquent. 
 Portus ab Eoo fluctu curvatur in arcum ; 
 Ohjecta 3 salsa spumant aspergine cautes ; 
 Ipse latet ; gemino demittunt brachia muro 
 Turi-iti scopuli, refugitque a litore templum. 
 
 En. Lib. iii. I. 530. 
 
 Nor is it possible to draw for the eye a more 
 agreeable picture, than that in the first Eneid, 
 which has so often been esteemed a sketch, in 
 miniature, of the Bay of Naples.
 
 159 
 
 Eat in secessu longo locus : Insnla portum 
 Efficit objectu laterum, quibus omnis ab alto 
 Frangitur, inque sinus scindit sese unda reductog : 
 Ilinc atque hinc vastaa rupes geminique minantur 
 In coelum scopuli, quorum sub vertice late 
 /Equora tnta silent; turn Sylvis Scena corns ris 
 Desuper, horrentiqne atrum nemus imminet umbra. 
 
 En. Lib. i. v. 163. 
 
 CXLVI. But to confine ourselves to British 
 poets. CHAUCER, active, ardent, and gay, a lover 
 of wine, fond of society, and well qualified to charm 
 by the elasticity of his spirits, the agreeableness of 
 his manners, and the native goodness of his heart, 
 was a lover of that kind of cheerful scenery, which 
 amuses us in the fields, or delights us in the gar- 
 den. The rising sun, the song of the sky-lark, a 
 clear day, an extended landscape, had peculiar 
 charms for him. His descriptions, therefore, are 
 animated and gay, full of richness, and evidently 
 the result of having studied for himself. SPEN- 
 SER, the wild, the fascinating Spenser, delineates, 
 with force and simplicity, the romantic and en- 
 chanting. MILTON was a lover of the beautiful 
 in Nature, as he was of the sublime in Poetry : 
 and though his Il'Penseroso abounds in those 
 images, which excite the most sombre reflections,
 
 160 
 
 the general character of his delineations are of an 
 animated cast. In his Minor poems, which af- 
 forded him an opportunity of consulting his natu- 
 ral taste, unconnected with epic gravity, we find 
 him almost universally sketching with a light, an 
 animated and elegant pencil. What can be more 
 cheerful, than his Song on May Morning, or his 
 beautiful Latin Poem on the Coming of Spring ? 
 And can any thing be more rich and fascinating, 
 than the scenery of Comus, or more profusely 
 abounding in all, that renders rural imagery de- 
 lightful, than his exquisite Lyric of L' Allegro ?* 
 And beyond all this, what shall we compare with 
 his Garden of Eden ? Nothing in the Odyssey 5^ 
 nothing in the descriptions, we have received, of 
 the Groves of Antioch, or the Valley of Temp6 : 
 neither the Gardens of Armida, or the Hesperides ; 
 the Paradise of Ariosto; Claudian's Garden of 
 Venus ; the Elysium of Virgil and Ovid, or the 
 Cyprus of Marino ; neither the Enchanted Gar- 
 den of Boyardo, the Island of Camoens, or Rous- 
 seau's Verger de Clarens, have any thing to com- 
 pare with it. 
 
 * Note 61. 
 f Note 62.
 
 161 
 
 CXLVI1. But however well a scene may be 
 described, every landscape, so exhibited, does not 
 necessarily become a subject for the palette of 
 the painter. Some descriptions embrace objects 
 too minute, some are too humble and familiar, 
 others too general, and some there are too faith- 
 ful to be engaging. This poet delights in de- 
 scribing the familiar, that the beautiful; some 
 in delineating the picturesque, and others in 
 sketching the sublime. These may be styled the 
 FOUR ORDERS of landscape.* In the first we 
 may class Cowper ; in the second Pope ; in the 
 third Thomson; in the fourth Ossian. The 
 descriptions of COWPER are principally from 
 humble and domestic life, including objects, seen 
 every day and in every country. The gipsey group 
 is almost the only picturesque sketch, he affords. 
 Highly as this has been extolled, how much more 
 interesting had the subject become in the hands 
 of a Dyer, a Thomson, or a Beattie ! POPE 
 excels in painting the beautiful, and yet is 
 he so general, that his vales, slopes, plains, 
 and woods, flit before the imagination in graceful 
 abundance, leaving on the memory few traces of 
 
 * Note 63. 
 VOL. I. M
 
 162 
 
 existence. THOMSON, also, deals considerably 
 in generals, and seems mostly to have viewed 
 nature from the summit of a hill, and to have 
 drawn his images from the vale below. His pic- 
 tures are principally adapted to the latitude of 
 Richmond. Some, however, are enchantingly 
 picturesque, and others sublime to the last degree : 
 they present themselves to the eye in strong 
 and well-defined characters ; the keeping is well 
 preserved, the outlines are boldly marked. 
 
 CXLVIII. DYER tinted like Ruysdale, and 
 Os si AN with all the force and majesty of Salvator 
 Rosa. In describing wild tracks, pathless solitudes, 
 dreary and cragged wildernesses, with all the horrors 
 of savage deserts, partially peopled with a hardy, 
 a virtuous and not inelegant race of men, Ossian 
 is unequalled. In night scenery he is above all 
 imitation for truth, solemnity and pathos ; and no 
 one more contrasts the varied aspects of nature 
 with the mingled emotions of the heart.* What 
 can be more admirable, than his address to the 
 evening star, in the songs of Selma ; to the moon 
 in Darthula ; or that fine address to the sun in 
 
 * Note 64.
 
 163 
 
 his poem of Carthon ? passages almost worthy 
 the sacred pen of the prophet Isaiah. 
 
 CXLIX. The uniformity, that has been observed 
 in the imagery of Ossian, is not the uniformity of 
 dulness. Local description only aids the memory; 
 for a scene must be actually observed by the eye, be- 
 fore the mind can form a just and adequate idea of 
 it. No epicure can judge of a ragout by the palate 
 of another a musician must hear the concert, he 
 presumes to criticise and the reader will gain 
 but a very imperfect idea of the finest landscape 
 in the universe, by reading or hearing it described ; 
 for we can neither taste, nor hear, nor smell, nor 
 feel, nor see by proxy. Thus, when Ossian 
 describes vales, rocks, mountains and glens, the 
 words, he uses, are the same, and the images, they 
 respectively suggest, would appear to be the same, 
 but the scenes themselves are dressed in an infinite 
 variety of drapery. It is not that nature is poor, 
 but that language is indigent. A superficial read- 
 er, possessing no play of fancy, when the sun is 
 represented as going down, and the moon as rising ; 
 when a cataract is said to roar, and the ocean to 
 roll, can only figure to himself the actual repre- 
 sentations of those objects, without any combina- 
 M 2
 
 164 
 
 tions. A man of an enlarged and elegant mind, 
 however, immediately paints to himself the lovely 
 tints, that captivate his fancy in the rising and 
 setting of those glorious luminaries; he already 
 sees the tremendous rock, whence the cataract 
 thunders down, and thrills with agreeable horror 
 at the distant heavings of an angry ocean. 
 
 CL. Possessing a mind, that fancy never 
 taught to soar, the one perceives no graces in a 
 tint ; a broad and unfinished outline only spreads 
 upon his canvass ; while, by the creative impulses 
 of genius, the outline is marked by many a match- 
 less shade, and the foreground occupied by many 
 a bold, or interesting group. 
 
 Gifted with an elegant and accomplished mind, 
 the Poet walks at large, amid the gay creations 
 of the material world, imbibing images, at every 
 step, to form his subjects and illustrate his posi- 
 tions: For there is an analogy between external 
 appearances of nature, and particular affections of 
 the soul, strikingly exemplificative of that general 
 harmony, which subsists in all the universe. From 
 this analogy, the heavenly bodies were considered 
 symbols of majesty,* and the oak an emblem of 
 * Note 65.
 
 strength; the olive, of peace, and the willow, of 
 sorrow. One of the Psalms of David, pursuing 
 this analogy, represents the Jews, hanging their 
 harps upon the willows of Babylon, bewailing 
 their exile from their native country. The yellow- 
 green, which is the colour nature assumes at the 
 falling of the leaf, was worn in chivalry, as an 
 emblem of despair : Red is considered as indica- 
 tive of anger, green, of tranquillity, and brown, of 
 melancholy. In the same manner, the yew and 
 the cypress have long been acknowledged as em- 
 blems of mourning; the violet, of modesty; the 
 lily of the valley, of innocence; the rose, of beau-* 
 ty; the aloe, of constancy; and the palm and 
 laurel, of honour and victory. 
 
 CLI. By analogy, we associate good for- 
 tune with a fine morning ; ignorance with dark- 
 ness ; youth with spring ; manhood with summer ; 
 autumn with that season of life, when, as Milton 
 observes in a fine vein of melancholy, we are 
 fallen into " the sere and yellow leaf;" Winter 
 we associate with age.* We assimilate summer 
 and winter, too, with good and ill fortune ; an in-^ 
 
 * Note 66.
 
 166 
 
 stance of which occurs in Cymbeline,* a play, 
 which will live, till " time shall throw a dart at 
 death," though it has been so wantonly depreciat- 
 ed by Johnson. Even the art of war has some 
 analogies with natural objects ; hence is it no un- 
 frequent practice, among Generals, to encamp their 
 forces in a form, which they descriptively c*all the 
 " rose-bud;" the works flanking and covering each 
 other like the lips of roses. 
 
 CLII. Availing ourselves of these analogical 
 licenses, we compare a dingle to a smiling infant, 
 a glen to a beautiful girl, a valley to a captivating 
 virgin, and when the valley opens into a vale, it may, 
 not inelegantly, be associated with the idea of a well- 
 formed, finished matron. In speaking of the sun, if 
 we may be allowed to indulge in flowers of rheto- 
 ric, so exotic, we might almost be excused for 
 saying, that it rises from behind rocks of coral, 
 glides in a universe of sapphire over fields of 
 emerald, mounts its meridian among seas of crys- 
 tal, and, tinging every cloud with indigo, sinks to 
 slumber among beds of amethyst. 
 
 - -:r h -*;> il*-.",,tf ,-.-:,; b. ls 
 
 CLIII. After the same manner, the three 
 
 * Cymbeline, Act ill. sc. 6. Also Richard iii. Act. i. sc. 2.
 
 167 
 
 first periods of society were allegorically distin- 
 guished by different aspects of nature, by com- 
 parative amenity of climate and fecundity of soil. 
 Thus the IRON age was deformed by clouds and 
 storms; the bowels of the earth were searched 
 for minerals, while its surface was utterly neglect- 
 ed, untilled by the husbandman, and ungrazed 
 by the shepherd. Every morning was gloomy, 
 and every night tempestuous. In the SILVER 
 age, the year was divided into seasons ; then 
 were first experienced the heat of summer, and 
 the vicissitudes of whiter. In the GOLDEN age, 
 the seasons were distinguished by perpetual tem- 
 perature; the earth was profusely fertile, and 
 flowers, vines, olives, and every luxury of nature, 
 had consequent effects upon the minds, manners, 
 and morals of mankind. In nature, all was bloom- 
 ing and captivating ; among men, all was virtue, 
 security, and happiness. Every one, having na- 
 ture for his guide, love and friendship were inheri 
 tances, and law and property were alike unheard 
 of and unknown.* 
 
 CLIV. Hortensia, who, as you are well aware, 
 
 * For an exquisite picture of primaeval simplicity, see 
 Heiosius, Lib. ii.
 
 168 
 
 is endowed with every quality of the heart, and 
 every accomplishment of the mind, and in whom 
 are concentrated the polished breeding of France, 
 the dignity of Spain, the modesty of England, and 
 the grace of Italy, discerns the likenesses of her 
 friends in the features of particular flowers. If 
 therefore, she wishes to indulge the pleasure of 
 thinking of them, she retires to a little corner of 
 her garden, and contemplates, with satisfaction, 
 the flowers, which bear imaginary resemblances to 
 the objects of her reflections. When she waters 
 them, therefore, she appears to caress them. This 
 idea of Hortensia has often reminded me of a 
 beautiful passage in one of the Latin poets, where 
 he inquires the title of that happy land, where the 
 names of its kings are engraven on the flowers : 
 and of two passages in another poet, where, in re- 
 ference to the Hyacinth, he says, 
 
 Ipse sues gemitos foliis inscripsit, et ai ai 
 
 Flos habet inscriptum 
 
 Met. Lib. 10. 215. 
 
 Litera communis mediis, pueroque, viroque 
 Inscripta est foliis; here nominis, ille querelae. 
 
 Lib. 13. 397.
 
 169 
 
 CLV. In conformity to the analogy, we have 
 alluded to, the poets not only illustrate intel- 
 lectual subjects by references and allusions to fa- 
 miliar objects and appearances in Nature, but they 
 also draw from the intellectual to embellish the 
 material. These allusions are, however, the more 
 pleasing, when they glance from the former to the 
 latter, because, as Mr. Gilpin has justly remarked, 
 material objects, being fixed in their appearances, 
 strike every one in the same manner : whereas 
 ideas, being different in most persons upon the 
 same subjects, will seldom serve by way of illus- 
 tration. Some instances, however, may be found 
 in Shakespeare, and not a few in the metaphysic 
 Cowley, where the contrary has been done with 
 the happiest effect The great Northern Meteor, 
 Walter Scott, has an instance in the Lady of the 
 Lake. 
 
 The summer's dawn's reflected hue 
 To purple changed Loch-Katrine blue: 
 Mildly and soft the western breeze 
 Just kiss'd the lake, just stirred the trees, 
 And the pleas'd lake, like maiden coy, 
 Trembled, but dimpled not for joy ; 
 The mountain shadows on her breast 
 Were neither broken nor at rest;
 
 170 
 
 In bright nncertaiuty they lie, 
 Like future Joys to Fancy's eye. 
 
 So in a Welch Pennillion : 
 
 To speak of Snow don's head sublime, 
 Is far more easy, than to climb. 
 So he, that's free from pain and care 
 May bid the sick a smile to wear.* 
 
 CLVI. But if the poets occasionally borrow 
 from the intellectual to illustrate the material world, 
 they repay with interest, when they borrow of the 
 latter to adorn the former. When is the Father of 
 Poetry weary of drawing similes from birds and in- 
 sects, and lions and serpents ; from the phenomena 
 of the heavens, and the more evident appearances of 
 the earth ? Thus, when he would give force and 
 majesty to the descent of Hector, he compares it 
 to the fall of a rock from the top of a mountain. 
 Nothing, can be more admirable, than this fine si- 
 mile, which is not only perfect, when applied to 
 the subject, it would illustrate, but is also a true 
 and finished picture from Nature. 
 
 CLVII. In Milton, what can be more pathe- 
 * Jones. 32.
 
 tic, than where he compares blind Thamyris and 
 Moeonides to the nightingale ? and is there a finer 
 ins tan ce ofth application of the works of Na- 
 ture to illustrate moral reflection, than where he 
 likens the progress of crime to the lengthening 
 shadows of a setting sun? What can be more 
 grand, than where he similates Satan to Mount 
 Teneriffe, and to the Moon in eclipse ? and when 
 Shakespeare compares the unfortunate Richard to 
 the evening Sun ; when he likens glory to a circle 
 in the water, and the fall of Wolsey to a falling 
 meteor, how affecting, how instructive do the 
 subjects become !* 
 
 CLVIII. In the writings of Solomon, these 
 natural illustrations are to be found in almost 
 every chapter. The Poem, entitled the Song of 
 Solomon, is full of them. " I charge you, Oh ! 
 daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, 
 that ye tell him, I am sick of love. 
 
 " What is thy beloved, more than another be- 
 loved, O fairest among women? What is thy 
 beloved more than another beloved, that tbou so 
 chargeth us ? 
 
 * Note 67.
 
 172 
 
 " My beloved is white and ruddy ; the chief 
 among ten thousand. His eyes are the eyes of 
 doves, by the river of waters, washed with milk 
 and fitly set. His cheeks are as a bed of spices, 
 as sweet flowers ; his lips like lilies, dropping 
 sweet smelling myrrh. His legs are as pillars of 
 marble; his countenance is as Lebanon; excel- 
 lent as the cedars ; his mouth is most sweet ; yea, 
 he is altogether lovely : This is my beloved, this 
 is my friend, Oh ! daughters of Jerusalem ." 
 
 CLIX. Sometimes, as we have before ob- 
 served, the poets draw similitudes from the 
 common appearances and phenomena of the 
 Heavens. Dryden has a fine metaphor in his 
 play of All for Love, where Anthony compares 
 himself to a meteor; an idea, more than once 
 adopted by Rowe and Congreve. Haller com- 
 pares Reason to the Moon, and Revelation to 
 the Sun.* Horace affords innumerable instances. 
 In Homer, and in Milton, in Shakespeare, and 
 in Tasso, (who has scarcely a simile, in his Jeru- 
 salem Delivered, that is not drawn from the 
 country), references to the animal, the feathered 
 and the vegetable world are perpetual. Those in- 
 * Note 68.
 
 173 
 
 stances in the Eneid, where Virgil compares 
 Orpheus to a Nightingale ; the Love of Dido to 
 the anguish of a wounded Stag, and the engage- 
 ment of Tarchon and Venulus to the combat of 
 an Eagle and a Serpent, are admirable. The last 
 is, assuredly, the finest simile in all Virgil.* In 
 common conversation, too, how often do we indulge 
 ourselves in such expressions as, " he is as strong 
 as an oak ;" " She is as mild as a dove ;" and when 
 is the lover weary of comparing his mistress to 
 violets, to lilies, and to roses ? 
 
 CLX. No illustration, however, do 1 remem- 
 ber, that so justly bears upon our subject, as that, 
 where Addison contrasts the Iliad and the 
 Eneid by the different aspects of grand and beau- 
 tiful scenery. " The reading of the Iliad," says 
 he, " is like travelling through a country unin- 
 habited, where the fancy is entertained with a 
 thousand savage prospects of vast deserts, wide 
 and uncultivated marshes, huge forests, mishapen 
 rocks and precipices. On the contrary, the 
 Eneid is like a well-ordered garden, where it is 
 
 * Vid. Virg. Lib. iv. 1. 99. Georg. Lib. iv. 1. 511. 
 En. Lib. xi. 751.
 
 174 
 
 impossible to find any part unadorned, or to cast 
 our eyes upon a single spot, that does not pro- 
 duce some beautiful plant or flower." In an- 
 other place, when comparing those poets, who 
 are indebted principally to their own resources 
 and genius, with those, who have been formed 
 by rules, and whose natural parts are chastised by 
 critical precepts, Mr, Addison elegantly says, 
 " the genius in both classes of authors may be 
 equally great, but shews itself after a different 
 manner. In the first, it is like a rich soil in a 
 happy climate, that produces a whole wilderness 
 of plants, rising in a thousand beautiful land- 
 scapes, without any certain order or regularity. 
 In the other, it is the same rich soil, under the 
 same happy climate, that has been laid out in 
 walks and parterres, and cut into shape and 
 beauty by the skill of the gardener." * 
 
 CLXI. Scenery not only inspires the poet but 
 his reader also : for when do we enjoy his pictures 
 aud relish his sentiments with such charmed per- 
 ception, as when seated beneath a bovver, under 
 a tree, or beside a rivulet ? In such and in other 
 
 * Note 69.
 
 175 
 
 scenes, even bad poetry and worse music are not 
 unattended with a sensible pleasure. " The 
 Flute of a Shepherd," as Dr. Beattie justly re- 
 marks,* " heard at a distance in a fine summer's 
 day, amidst a romantic scene of groves, hills, 
 and waters will give rapture to the ear of the 
 wanderer, though the tune, the instrument, and 
 the musician be such, as he could not endure in 
 any other place." Often has Colonna experienced 
 the truth of these observations, and he never re- 
 flects but with pleasure on the satisfaction he en- 
 joyed, in listening to a blind old man, in the valley 
 of Rhymney, about two miles from the grand 
 towers of Caerphily Castle. 
 
 CLXII. This valley is a narrow defile, winding 
 at the feet of some cultivated mountains, down 
 which several small streams occasionally murmur. 
 It was one of the finest evenings of the month of 
 August : every object was as tranquil, as if it had 
 been midnight ; the sun, shooting along the val- 
 ley, and tinting every object in the most capti- 
 vating manner. Charmed with the spot, Colonna 
 stopt his horse, dismounted, and sate himself 
 
 Essays on Poetry and Music, part 1. ch. vi. 3.
 
 176 
 
 upon the side of a bank, to enjoy, more at his 
 leisure, the beauties of the scene before him : 
 heightened, as they were, by the sombre aspect of 
 the distant ruins. As he was thus indulging one 
 of those delightful contemplations, which scenery 
 like this never fails to awaken, he was inter- 
 rupted by the approach of two men; one hale, 
 hearty and young, the other old, blind and de- 
 crepit. Entering into conversation with the 
 younger, Colonna was informed that his companion 
 was a good singer, and " a capable maker of 
 songs." Upon this, Colonna requested the old 
 man to sing him one ; to which he consented with 
 little hesitation. It was a history of love ; and 
 though the lines were sometimes too long and 
 sometimes too short ; though the air was harsh 
 and his voice discordant, Colonna listened with 
 enthusiasm and praised with rapture. 
 
 CLXIII. Of all departments of the Pictorial 
 art, none has so great a power to charm the lover 
 of nature, as the landscape. For though he is 
 willing to give all due applause to Portrait and 
 Historic painting, and would allow appropriate 
 praise even to the lodges of Raphael, the drolle- 
 ries of Brewer, and the grotesque pieces of Mor-
 
 177 
 
 tuus Feltrensis he is far less charmed with any 
 efforts of the painter than with a full, a clear, and 
 well delineated landscape. In this department of 
 his art, the painter's subjects are unlimited. He 
 may rove among pastures and vineyards, rocks and 
 forests, caverns and mountains, whose heads 
 touch Heaven, without number and without satiety. 
 Every object having its varied and appropriate blend- 
 ing of colour, each tree, flower and plant gives 
 scope for his talents; his rocks are green with 
 the living moss, and peopled with the bounding 
 goat ; his forests are clothed in the shade of sum- 
 mer, or in the varied foliage of autumn ; his 
 hills are capt with snow, and his vineyards bend 
 beneath their purple wealth. Of every country, 
 he translates the temples, theatres, and aqueducts 
 of Rome, the pyramids of Egypt, and the pillars 
 of Heliopolis and Palmyra on an English wall : the 
 bird of Paradise hovers in enjoyment far from 
 her native Gilolo and the sympathetic Melissa 
 blooms upon a northern canvass. The vales of 
 Savoy ; the glens of Media ; the Savannahs of 
 Africa ; the rocks of Norway ; the groves of 
 Italy; the mountains of the West; all quit their 
 native soils, and hang suspended in a British 
 palace. 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 178 
 
 CLXIV. The landscapes of BLOEMEN OF 
 ANTWERP were generally decorated with muti- 
 lated statues and basso-relievos, with ruins, and 
 light and elegant specimens of architecture ; ob- 
 jects which contributed to give additional interest 
 to figures, habited after oriental fashions, and re- 
 markable for spirited lightness and graceful inflec- 
 tion. MOLYN, in a peculiar manner, delighted 
 in exhibiting the ocean in all its most sublime and 
 terrible forms. From this passion for tempests 
 and shipwrecks he acquired the appellation of 
 Tempesta.* LORENKSSE, attending with rap- 
 ture to the varied phenomena of the heavens, and 
 aided by an Italian climate, produced the richest 
 and most beautifully fringed horizons it is possible 
 to conceive. BERGHEM of HAERLEM had the 
 singular faculty of exhibiting great variety in all 
 his landscapes,- with variety he united beauty, 
 compass and grandeur. Mathematically correct 
 iu his proportions, he was no less faithful in the 
 essential requisites of light and shade, proximity 
 and distance; his trees wave; his colours are 
 luminous, almost transparent ; while his clouds 
 
 * Note 70.
 
 179 
 
 suspend in so natural a manner, that they seem tu 
 float at the mercy of the winds. 
 
 CLXV. CASTIGLIONE excelled principally 
 in the drawing of castles and abbeys, in which no 
 master has surpassed him. His sketches of rural 
 scenery are agreeable and faithful, but in real 
 merit they are far inferior to the bolder efforts of 
 his pencil. SNEYDERS of Antwerp excelled 
 every artist in the delineation of hunting pieces. 
 He may be styled the Somerville of painting. 
 The taste of the YOUNGER TENIERS led him 
 to celebrate country wakes ; that of his father to 
 the exhibition of shops and rural games. The 
 son was distinguished by lightness of touch ; the 
 father by a boldness of outline. BAMBOCCIO 
 studied at Rome, but derived more from the en- 
 virons of that celebrated city, than from the works 
 of its greatest masters. He was so minute an 
 observer of nature, that no scene, which struck 
 him, was ever lost to his memory. His imagina- 
 tion was in the highest degree elastic and active, 
 and like Jordaens his facility in delineating was 
 nearly as active as his powers of combination. 
 In looking at Bamboccio's pieces the eye is com- 
 pletely deluded, for the distances being well pre- 
 N 2
 
 180 
 
 served, every object has its appropriate relief and 
 every shade its characteristic tint. 
 
 CLXV[. GIOVANNI BELLA VITE delighted, 
 after the manner of Bamboccio, to diversify his 
 pictures with hordes of beggars, groups of gipsies 
 and hunters ; and in exhibiting the agreeable va- 
 riety of pastoral life. HOBBIMA of Antwerp 
 may be styled the " Painter of Solitude," since 
 he introduces but few figures into any of his laud- 
 scapes. Like Claude, Nature was his mistress ; 
 and he copied her with precision; a perfect 
 master of perspective, whether he exhibits the 
 head of a river or a lake, a temple, a grotto, or 
 a ruin, the eye is agreeably deceived. In the 
 knowledge of perspective, the modern Chinese* 
 and the ancient masters were strikingly deficient. 
 The Chinese have no knowledge of it whatever ; 
 and though many treatises on the subject were 
 extant in the time of Tully, particularly those 
 
 * Though the knowledge of Perspective is unknown in 
 China, it has been asserted by several intelligent travellers, 
 that the art of delineating landscapes is in higher perfec- 
 tion, than that of history or portrait painting.
 
 181 
 
 written by Agatharcus, Anaxagoras,* Heliodorus, 
 and Germinus of Rhodes, the Roman artists had 
 made but little progress, on which account their 
 landscapes were greatly inferior to their portrait 
 and historical designs.f 
 
 CLXVII. BREUGHEL studied landscape 
 among the mountains of the Tyrol ; yet caprice 
 attached him, principally, to the exhibition of 
 the humorous and grotesque ; his son, however, 
 was so great a master in his art, that Reubens 
 condescended to employ him, in touching his ce- 
 lebrated picture of the Terrestrial Paradise. Of 
 the character of REUBENS, as a landscape 
 painter, it is dangerous to say too much, and in- 
 vidious to say too little. His merits have been 
 over-valued by some, and under-rated by others, 
 according to the respective tastes and prejudices 
 of his critics. He was, beyond all question, the 
 most eminent of the Flemish school, and yet 
 Algarotti is not wide of the truth, when he ob- 
 serves, that his compositions are not so rich, nor 
 his touches so light, as those of Paul Veronese ; 
 and though more soft in his chiaro-oscuro than 
 
 * Vid. Vitruvius. In Praef. lib. vii. 
 f Note 71.
 
 182 
 
 Caravaggio, he has less delicacy than Vandyke, 
 less simplicity in design and less truth in his car- 
 nations than Titian. This artist was the favourite 
 painter of the first Duke of Marlborough, who 
 possessed eighteen of his best pieces. Compared 
 with Poussin he had a decided advantage, and 
 their two pictures of the deluge afford favourable 
 occasions for comparison.* He had a bold style 
 of pencilling peculiarly striking ; he electrifies the 
 spectator by the violence of his bursts and by his 
 decision of contrasts ; unlike the soft and attractive 
 Claude, who charms us with a mild and fascinating 
 wand. The one has all the captivating character 
 of elegy, the other all the fire, the transition and 
 boldness of the lyric. Reubens is the Pindar of 
 landscape, Claude the Simonides. 
 
 CLXVIII. GOYEN of Leyden excelled in ru- 
 ral and marine landscapes. Peasants at their 
 labour animated the one ; fishermen drawing their 
 nets enlivened the other. His subjects were well 
 selected, the perspective well managed, and the 
 whole indicated a lightness and a freedom of 
 touch, which never fail to captivate: Being, 
 however, too rapid a painter to be always a mas- 
 ter, many of his pieces would scarcely do honour 
 * Note 72.
 
 183 
 
 to the best of his pupils. JARDYN of Amster- 
 dam rose in his profession to great eminence, but 
 his pictures were light and superficial, with few 
 objects; and the time he generally chose^ (noon,) 
 prevented all natural richness of colouring. VAN 
 OORT, frequently celebrated above his merits, de- 
 rives his principal claim to the notice of posterity 
 from being the master of Jordaens and Reubens. 
 His portraits were faithful, but his landscapes 
 were almost worthless. He degraded his art by 
 painting merely for wealth, and corrupted his taste 
 by the affectation of aspiring to have a manner of 
 his own. He was ungrateful to nature; for though 
 she had endowed him with a considerable share 
 of talent, he neglected her; and would rather 
 sketch from his own imagination, than take a 
 lesson from the best study she could any where 
 present. To be an imitator of man shews a 
 poverty of fancy ; to imitate one's self is the essence 
 of vanity and the worst species of pedantry. 
 
 CLXIX. In the wild and awful scenes of 
 Switzerland, MEYER of Winterthur studied 
 his fascinating profession. He seldom walked 
 without his pencil, and it were singular, if the ro- 
 mantic scenes before him had not made him a
 
 184 
 
 master of his art. " English artists,'' says MODS. 
 Ziinmennann, " confess, that the aspect of nature 
 in Switzerland, is too sublime and majestic for 
 the pencil of art faithfully to reach; but how ex- 
 quisite must be the enjoyments they feel upon 
 those romantic hills, in those delightful valleys, 
 upon the charming borders of those still and trans- 
 parent lakes, where nature unfolds her various 
 charms, and appears in her highest pomp and 
 splendour; where the majestic oaks, the deep 
 embowering elms, and dark green firs, which 
 cover and adorn those immense forests, are 
 pleasingly interspersed with myrtles, almond-trees, 
 jessamines, pomegranates, and vines, which offer 
 their humbler beauties to the view, and variegate 
 the scene ! Nature is in no country of the globe, 
 more rich and various, than in Switzerland." In 
 a country, so profusely abounding in every requi- 
 site of landscape, the painter possesses none of the 
 qualities of genius, who produces not for posterity. 
 
 CLXX. MURANT of Amsterdam, being a 
 disciple of WOUVERMANNS, acquired that har- 
 mony and brilliancy of colouring, by which that 
 artist was so eminently distinguished. He was a 
 minute painter ; minute even to tediousness, yet his
 
 185 
 
 ruins, and castles, and villages, are beautifully con- 
 ceived, and naturally executed. BACKHUYSEN 
 of Enibden, superior to Vroom of Harlem,* 
 was next to Vanderveldt, the most eminent pain- 
 ter of marine landscapes. His storms are admira- 
 ble, and direct copies from nature. It was his 
 practice to hire resolute and undaunted seamen, 
 to take him out in the midst of a storm, or at a 
 time, when he knew a storm was approaching. 
 In this awful and perilous school he studied: The 
 result was excellence. ROUSSEAU, among the 
 mountains of Switzerland and the vales of Italy, 
 saw nature in her most imposing attitudes. With 
 such models before him, capricious was the taste, 
 that prompted him to devote so large a portion of 
 his time and talents to the adorning of the walls 
 of courts and the entrances into gardens ! From 
 the frequency, with which he embellished his 
 pieces with architectural objects, he may be called 
 the Palladia of landscape. 
 
 CLXXI. The paintings of ALBANI, as Mal- 
 vasia says of him, breathe nothing but content 
 and joy. Happy in a force of mind, that con- 
 
 Note 73.
 
 186 
 
 quered every uneasy feeling, his pencil wafted 
 him through the gardens of Paphos to those of 
 Cithera; from those of love and delight to the 
 abodes of Apollo and the Muses.* BOURDON 
 decorated his pieces with objects of Gothic ar- 
 chitecture; POUSSIN with those of the Roman. 
 Loveliness prevailed in all the paintings of Gaspar 
 Poussin, the scenes he delineates, therefore, are 
 truly captivating in their effect. There is an air of 
 lively tranquillity in some, an air of tranquil mo- 
 tion in others; and though the objects of archi- 
 tecture, he exhibits, are not equal to those of 
 Bourdon, he compensates for their regularity, by 
 shading them with woods and rocks, and by 
 placing them on beautiful and picturesque ele- 
 vations. 
 
 CLXXII. MARIA HELENA PANZACCHIA, 
 correct in her outline, fascinated by the exquisite 
 tint of her colouring; while DANDINI of Flo- 
 rence could imitate the style of every school, and 
 the colouring of every master. The former, had 
 the faculty of exciting the imagination of her ob- 
 servers in no common degree : This is one of the 
 
 * Note 74.
 
 187 
 
 most delightful effects which the art of painting 
 is capable of producing ; for, it is not the actual 
 scene presented to the eye, that constitutes the 
 principal charm in landscape painting, it is the 
 fine conceptions, which they awake in the mind, 
 and which float, as it were, in the imagination, in 
 endless variety of forms and indescribable fascina- 
 tions of colour. 
 
 CLXXIII. GIACOMO BASSANO delighted 
 in painting villages with happy peasants, pursuing 
 their various rural occupations. Without ele- 
 gance of manner, or grandeur of conception, his 
 touch was waving, spirited, and free. A lover of 
 nature, he painted her as she generally chooses to 
 exhibit herself, in rural drapery : but his morn- 
 ings were not so faithful as his evening pieces, 
 since he mostly painted with a violet tint. WIL- 
 SON, upon his arrival in Italy, choosing not to 
 confine himself merely to the study of art, which 
 would have made him an imitator or a mannerist, 
 studied nature in her finest attitudes, and among 
 her grandest forms ; and having examined a pic- 
 ture in the morning, would compare its fidelity 
 with nature in the evening. It was this, that
 
 188 
 
 enabled him to acquire his bold and original style. 
 Upon his return to his native country, the imagery 
 of Italy still hovered in his imagination, and he 
 could never, in the sketching of landscapes, so 
 far forget the lofty character of that lovely country,* 
 as to content himself with delineating English 
 scenes merely as they were. The slopes were 
 too tame and uninteresting for his classic pencil. 
 The result of all this was, that though he never 
 failed to finish a good picture, he always failed to 
 give a faithful portrait of the scene, which he in- 
 tended to portray. 
 
 CLXXIV. SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS paint- 
 ed only three regular landscapes : but it was not 
 unusual with him to decorate the back-grounds 
 of his portraits with some masterly sketches of 
 rural scenery. In general landscape he was un- 
 doubtedly inferior to GAINSBOROUGH; and 
 yet the rural decorations, alluded to, were far su- 
 perior to any similar ornament of that excellent 
 artist. In clear, well defined landscape and archi- 
 tectural embellishment, Gainsborough was, be- 
 yond all question, the first artist of his age. In 
 the exhibition of moon-light pieces WRIGHT of 
 
 * Note 75.
 
 189 
 
 Derby had no competitor, worthy of himself. 
 His picture of the Lady in Comus is one of the 
 finest specimens of modern art. 
 
 CLXXV. SALVATOR ROSA loved rather 
 to stand, as it were, upon the ruins of nature, 
 than to wander, even among her most beautiful 
 combinations. His imagination was bold and 
 creative, his pencil elevated and sublime. Re- 
 siding, in the early period of his life, with a band 
 of robbers, the rocks, caves, dens, and mountains, 
 which they inhabited, gave a decided impulse to 
 his taste. In the wild and the terrible he stands 
 without a rival ; his storms and tempests being 
 the finest efforts of pictorial art. We behold 
 with astonishment, with awe, and admiration. 
 He was the Schiller of painting, as Schiller was 
 the Rosa of poetry. 
 
 CLXXVI. CLAUDE LORRAIN, the greatest 
 of all landscape-painters, if we except Titian, 
 studied in the fields. Every variation of shade, 
 formed by the different hours of the day, and at 
 different seasons of the year, by the refraction of 
 light and the morning and evening vapours, he 
 minutely observed. His distances are admirably
 
 190 
 
 preserved and his designs broken into a variety of 
 parts. His skies, beautifully illuminated, are 
 harmonized with what is now called the Claude 
 Lorrain Tint. His trees, particularly those he 
 painted in fresco, are marked so admirably, that 
 a judicious observer may distinguish the species of 
 every tree. " An air of loveliness and content," 
 as Gessner justly remarks, " pervades all the 
 scenes, which Lorrain's pencil has created ; they 
 excite in us that rapture, and those tranquil emo- 
 tions, with which we contemplate the beauties of 
 nature. They are rich without wildness and con- 
 fusion ; though diversified, they every where 
 breathe mildness and tranquillity; his landscapes 
 are views of a happy land, that lavishes abundance 
 on its inhabitants, under a sky, beneath which 
 every thing flourishes in healthy luxuriance."* The 
 pictures of Claude are now invaluable ; they speak 
 to the heart and to the fancy with equal elo- 
 quence ; every design indicating the richest taste 
 and the most luxuriant imagination ; the fancy of 
 the spectator riots, and while the heart is the 
 abode of contemplative tranquillity, (il riposo di 
 Claudio) he feels almost tempted to make a pil- 
 grimage to the palace of Colonna at Rome, where 
 
 * Note 76.
 
 191 
 
 so many of this great master's pictures are still to 
 be seen. 
 
 CLXXVII. TITIAN was the sovereign of 
 landscape, as Raphael was the sovereign of 
 graceful attitudes. He studied nature in detail 
 and finished for immortality. Like the rose-tree 
 of Jericho, which neither withers nor decays, the 
 pictures of Titian are as beautiful as first they 
 were, when newly painted. In the union of force 
 and softness of tint ; in lightness of touch ; in 
 felicity of combination and harmony of colouring, 
 he was unrivalled : he was the VIRGIL of 
 landscape. The back-ground to his picture of 
 the Martyrdom of St. Peter is said to be the 
 finest landscape ever issuing from a mortal's 
 hands ! 
 
 CLXXVJII. But, however beautiful and noble 
 the works of the most celebrated masters may be, 
 when we would compare them with the produc- 
 tions of nature, how comparatively poor and 
 feeble do their efforts appear ! insipid are the out- 
 lines of Salvator Rosa, the aerial tints of Claude, 
 and the romantic groups of Ruysdale and 
 Poussin !
 
 192 
 
 Lovely indeed the mimic works of art : 
 
 But Nature's works far lovelier. I admire,' 
 
 None more admires, the painter's magic skill, 
 
 Who shews me that, which I shall never see, 
 
 Conveys a distant country into mine, 
 
 And throws Italian light on English walls ; 
 
 But imitative strokes can do no more 
 
 Than please the eye ; sweet Nature every sense 
 
 The air salubrious of her lofty hills, 
 
 The cheering fragrance of her dewy vales, 
 
 And music of her woods ; no works of man 
 
 May rival these, these all bespeak a power 
 
 Peculiar and exclusively her own. 
 
 COWPER. 
 
 Thus, as in every other respect, how far infe- 
 rior to nature are the finest efforts of our best 
 masters. No wonder ! since language itself has 
 comparative poverty, when it would presume to 
 describe the boundless variety, which is observ- 
 able in almost every prospect, that the eye beholds. 
 Fields, vales, glens, rivers, and mountains, even 
 when described by the most powerful pen, do but 
 glide before the imagination in mysterious confu- 
 sion ; if, therefore, one scene cannot be repre- 
 sented with precision, how shall we attempt to 
 give even a faint idea of its numerous combina- 
 tions ? and how numerous those combinations are, 
 may be, in some measure, conceived from the
 
 193 
 
 knowledge we possess of the almost infinite com- 
 binations of sound. 
 
 Ah! who can paint 
 
 Like Nature ? Can imagination boast, 
 Amid its gay creation, hues like hers ? 
 Or can it mix them with that matchless skill, 
 And lose them in each other, as appeal's 
 In every bud that blows? If fancy then 
 Unequal fails beneath the pleasing task, 
 Ah ! what shall language do ? 
 
 To the works of art we can give length, and 
 breadth, and thickness ; we can also colour them 
 with appropriate shades ; but who can measure the 
 productions of nature ? who sketch with such 
 matchless skill ? The painter may select indi- 
 vidual objects, an ivied bridge, a hanging tower, 
 an embattled castle, and the larger creations of 
 landscape; these he may, by a judicious dis- 
 position of his materials, form into an entire 
 whole, but the effort is one, and the effect is one ; 
 it changes not with the seasons it knows none of 
 the vicissitudes of winter, and therefore never 
 glows with the renovation of spring. 
 
 CLXX1X. This exhaustless variety produces 
 VOL. i. o
 
 194 
 
 in the mind a continual thirst after novelty ; for, 
 were there but few combinations and fewer ob- 
 jects, the mind would recoil upon itself, and its 
 powers be confined, as it were, in a prison ; but 
 as the variations of natural objects are unlimited, 
 its faculties are proportionately enlarged, and, in 
 consequence, the more it receives, the more capa- 
 ble is it of the powers of receiving. Thus, man's 
 appetite for novelty is nothing but the general 
 result of nature's unbounded power of gratifying 
 his thirst. 
 
 CLXXX. If the final cause of sublimity be 
 to exalt the soul to a more intimate alliance with 
 its Creator, and that of beauty to enable the 
 mind to distinguish perfection and truth, the love 
 of novelty may not unreasonably be supposed to be 
 implanted in our nature, in order to stimulate 
 the mental powers to that degree of activity, 
 which enables them continually to feel the effects 
 of beauty and sublimity.* 
 
 The lover of landscape is ever on the watch 
 
 for new combinations : having derived enjoyment 
 
 from a mountainous country, he finds a sensible 
 
 gratification in traversing a long-extended plain. 
 
 * Note 77.
 
 195 
 
 a wide and boundless heath, and in permitting his 
 eye to wander over an interminable track of ocean. 
 Without darkness even the brilliancy of the sun 
 would be no longer splendid ; without harmony, 
 the most agreeable melody would fatigue the ear; 
 without the interchange of rock and mountain, hill 
 and valley, even the finest landscape in Gascoigny 
 or Savoy, would pall upon the sight. 
 
 CLXXXI. A love of novelty, however, which 
 is not indulged as a beneficial mean for improve- 
 ment, resembles the rose of Florida, the bird of 
 Paradise, or the cypress of Greece: the first, 
 the most beautiful of flowers, emitting no fra- 
 grance ; the second, the most beautiful of birds, 
 eliciting no song; the third, the finest of trees, 
 yielding no fruit. It characterizes a weak and 
 superficial mind; ill qualifies it for honourable ex- 
 ertion; and peculiarly unfits its possessor from 
 selecting brilliant subjects to exercise his fancy, or 
 from furnishing correct and sound materials to 
 form and elevate the understanding. To a judi- 
 cious love of novelty, on the other hand, may we 
 refer some of the pleasures we derive from con- 
 trast ; the various changes of climate and seasons ; 
 o 2
 
 196 
 
 the observance of manners and customs of nations ; 
 the charms of science, and the delights of poetry : 
 since, by directing the attention to a diversity of 
 objects, the mind roves, as it were, in an enchant- 
 ed garden, imbibing rich and comprehensive ideas, 
 which administer, in a manner the most vivid and 
 impressive, to the organs of perception and taste. 
 Directed to its proper end, the enlargement of the 
 understanding by the acquirement of knowledge, 
 it conduces to the improvement of every art, and 
 contributes to the perfection of every science. 
 
 CLXXXII. As the passion of legitimate love 
 is engendered and confirmed by intimacy of con- 
 nexion, so, on the other hand, the passion of ad- 
 miration is awakened by distance, and kept alive by 
 continual novelty. For these two passions, so 
 often confounded with each other, are not more 
 different in their origin than in their results. What 
 we love becomes more endeared to us by repeti- 
 tion ; what we admire, ceases to please us, when 
 it ceases to be new. Thus is it with scenery ; 
 the vine in our garden, the oak that shades our 
 cottage, the woods, that shelter us from the north, 
 are not more high, more shady, more neat or 
 more fruitful, than other oaks, vines, cottages, and
 
 197 
 
 woods; but, from long familiarity, they acquire a 
 title to our preference by the interesting associa- 
 tions, with which they are connected, and having 
 acquired that title, we should be unwilling to ex- 
 change them for the most beautiful vale of the 
 south, or the proudest mountain of the north. On 
 the other hand, let us climb the triple Cader- 
 Idris, Ben Lomond, or Ben Nevis, and after 
 viewing with admiration their several wonders, let 
 us inquire of our own feelings, if we do not look 
 around for other objects to gratify our desires? 
 Novelty, once satisfied, admiration ceases; and 
 when we cease to admire we become weary. 
 
 CLXXXIII. Such is the difference between 
 love and admiration in scenery. The one, be- 
 getting tranquillity and content, requires no ali- 
 ment ; the other, continually searching for food, 
 engenders restlessness. Hence the traveller, who 
 has long been indulging in the more elevated 
 scenery of the Orisons, feels himself relieved, 
 when he enters the green valleys of Piedmont, and 
 the extended vales of Tuscany. The white sum- 
 mits of St. Bernard, the Glaciers of the Rhetian, 
 and the wonders of the peunine Alps, are ex-
 
 198 
 
 changed with satisfaction for the calm and luxuri- 
 ous meads of Novorese and Aosta. 
 
 CLXXXIV. The passion of admiration, re- 
 quiring something ever new, those objects, which 
 excite the wonder and admiration of strangers, are 
 viewed with indifference, bordering on frigidity, 
 by the natives of the country, in which they are 
 situated. Totally unconscious, and sometimes 
 utterly unworthy of the beautiful country, in which 
 they live, they require some one to point out to 
 them the lovely scenes, by which they are sur- 
 rounded, in the same manner, as many a nobleman 
 of England, Germany and Italy, know the value 
 of their own paintings and sculptures, only by the 
 applause, bestowed on them by learned and en- 
 lightened strangers. Thus was it when Petrarch 
 visited Rome, in the 14th century. While view- 
 ing the fragments of temples, the remnants of 
 statues, the falling porticoes, the baths, the aque- 
 ducts, the tesselated pavements, and, above all, 
 the gigantic ruins of the Colosseum, he was indig- 
 nant to find, that the Tribune Rienzi, and his 
 friend Colonna were alone conversant in the his- 
 tory, and appeared alone to sympathize in those 
 noble and magnificent ruins. " No one," said he,
 
 199 
 
 were more ignorant of Rome, than the Romans 
 themselves." 
 
 CLXXXV. Some scenes there are, which ac- 
 quire an increased interest from being only par- 
 tially revealed to us. Landscape has her secrets 
 as well as women. We must not see every thing 
 at once, nor must we see every thing there is to 
 be seen. The rose, in full display of beauty, is 
 not so captivating, as when, opening her paradise 
 of leaves, she speaks to the fancy, rather than the 
 sight. Thus the imagination, which so frequently 
 borrows from nature, repays her obligations, by 
 giving additional grace to all her beauties. In 
 poetry, the light touches of Anacreon fire the 
 fancy, in a much higher degree, than the minute 
 descriptions of Ovid;* the nervous brevity of 
 Lucretius defines more clearly to the mental eye, 
 than all the profuse delineations of Cowley: and 
 the obscure image of death, in Milton's Paradise 
 Lost, is even more horrific, than the Ugolino of 
 Dante. The observation holds good in reference 
 to landscape; and hence arises the cause, why 
 straight lines are so peculiarly offensive, and why 
 
 * Si qua latent, meliora putat.
 
 200 
 
 Alpine views are not so agreeable, for any length 
 of time, as those that are observed from the sides, 
 or at the feet of high and woody mountains. 
 Lakes must wind, and trees must hide, or the 
 beauties of the finest scene will pall upon the 
 sight. Had we the Venus de Medicis always un- 
 veiled before us, we should soon cease to be 
 moved by the whiteness of her bosom, and the 
 symmetry of her contour. 
 
 CLXXXV1. From novelty springs the plea- 
 sure, which is ever attendant on judicious contrast. 
 The earth, and " all that it inhabits," animals, 
 birds, fishes, and insects; flowers, plants, trees, 
 and rivers; the air, the clouds, the stars, nay, 
 the whole universal region of infinity, are all one 
 vast, one interminable tissue of decided contrasts ; 
 so also are the feelings, the opinions and passions 
 of man, the form of his external frame, as well as 
 the organic principles of his mind. In music and 
 in painting,* in architecture and mechanics, indeed 
 throughout the whole circle of the sciences and the 
 arts are the laws of contrast acknowledged and con- 
 firmed : hence is it, that the constitutions, which 
 
 Note 78.
 
 201 
 
 present the most nicely opposed contrasts or ba- 
 lances, are the best in theory, and the most reduci- 
 ble to practice.* Thus even the contrary factions 
 of a state contribute to the well administration 
 of a government. 
 
 CLXXXVII. Contrast, in repeated instances, 
 adds to the beauty even of the most captivat- 
 ing landscape.f Hafod derives many of its 
 charms from the dreariness of Plinlimmon ; and 
 Chatsworth, the noble domain of the Duke of 
 Devonshire, becomes infinitely more agreeable to 
 the traveller, who journeys from the North, than 
 to him, who travels from the South. The poet, 
 therefore, is justified in his observation, when he 
 says, that Chatsworth is as delightful to him, who 
 has approached it, by the deserts of the north of 
 Derbyshire, as are the Towers of Venice to the 
 weary eye of a sailor. 
 
 Qualiter in mediis, quam non speraverat, urbcm 
 Attonitus Veiir tain n a vita ceruit aquis ; 
 
 Sic improvise emergens e montibus invis 
 Attollit sese Devoniana domus.* 
 
 Note 79. | Note 80. j Note 81.
 
 202 
 
 CLXXXVIII. Aware of the results of con- 
 trast, Dramatic and Epic Poets* are in the 
 constant habit of exercising their skill in exhibit- 
 ing them. How many admirable instances do we 
 observe in Shakespeare and Racine ! and what 
 a fine example is that in Lucan, where he con- 
 trasts the fallen condition of his hero, after the 
 battle of Pharsalia, with the happy state of his 
 more prosperous fortune, when, at the head of the 
 Commonwealth, he was esteemed, by his party, 
 the greatest general and the best citizen, Rome had 
 ever produced. A contrast, equally well drawn, 
 was exhibited in the British House of Commons 
 on the memorable night, in which the odious traf- 
 fic in slaves was, by a vote of the House, de- 
 clared to be for ever illegal, and the persons, en- 
 gaged in the trade, for ever infamous. After 
 many distinguished characters had delivered their 
 opinions, the Solicitor General rose from his 
 seat, and after a long and argumentative speech, 
 in which he took occasion to recapitulate and to 
 combat many of the objections, that had been 
 urged to the measure, he concluded with an elo- 
 quent representation of the gratitude, the vote of 
 
 * Note 82.
 
 203 
 
 the House would call from posterity, and of the 
 happiness, which many of the younger members, 
 who were present, would have in beholding, what 
 they had anticipated with all the generous ardour 
 of youth, expressed by some of them in a cor- 
 responding glow of language, the benign effects 
 of this measure upon the Negroes and the whole 
 property of the Colonies, and the prosperity of the 
 country at large. When he looked to the man, 
 now at the head of the French monarchy, sur- 
 rounded, as he was, with all the pomp of power, 
 and all the pride of victory, distributing kingdoms 
 to his family and principalities to his followers, 
 seeming, when he sat upon his throne, to have 
 reached the summit of human ambition, and the 
 pinnacle of earthly happiness ; and when he fol- 
 lowed that man into his closet, or to his bed, and 
 considered the pangs, with which his solitude must 
 be tortured, and his repose banished, by the re- 
 collection of the blood, he had spilled, and the 
 oppressions, he had committed ; and when he 
 contrasted those pangs of remorse with the feelings, 
 which must accompany his honourable friend, 
 Mr. Wilberforce, from that House to his home, 
 after the vote of the night should have confirmed 
 the object of his humane and unceasing labours ;
 
 204 
 
 when he should retire into the bosom of his happy 
 and delighted family ; when he should lay himself 
 down in his bed, reflecting on the innumerable 
 voices, that would be raised in every quarter of the 
 globe to bless him ; how much more pure and 
 perfect felicity must he enjoy in the conscious- 
 ness of having preserved so many nations of his 
 fellow-creatures, than the man, with whom he 
 had compared him, on the throne, to which he 
 had waded through crimes, through slaughter and 
 oppression!" No one, my friend, will be sur- 
 prised, that the honourable Member should sit 
 down amid three distinct and universal cheers. 
 
 CLXXXIX. At early morning, when we 
 are observing images of rural happiness, and re- 
 calling to mind the pastoral and hunting ages, 
 when the woods and glens echoed with the twang 
 of the horn, or the reed of the shepherd, how 
 melancholy do our reflections become, when, by 
 virtue of association, we contrast them with a 
 country, wasted by want, or depopulated by a 
 successfully invading army ! Let us illustrate the 
 subject of contrast, as it affects the human race, 
 and as it serves to shew the wide and lamentable
 
 205 
 
 difference between man and man, by exhibiting a 
 CONTRAST OF SOVEREIGNS. 
 
 Nothing more dreadful can be conceived, than 
 the horrors, which ensued during the conquest 
 and after the subjugation of the Crimea, by Ca- 
 therine of Russia. Oh ! my friend, what a con- 
 trast do the consequences, arising from those fatal 
 events, produce to the cheerful and happy scenes, 
 we have the satisfaction of witnessing every day! Of 
 the Conquest let us say nothing ; its consequences 
 were too great for human sympathy to read without 
 feelings of indignant horror : the fate of Ismael, of 
 Warsaw, and of Prague, were scarcely less dread- 
 ful : and, as a suitable after-piece to the fatal trage- 
 dy, after the desolation of towns and villages with- 
 out number, 75,000 Christians were expelled their 
 country, of whom 50,000 perished in the deserts ! 
 Of the effects of these barbarous proceedings, all 
 springing from an insatiable thirst of conquest, 
 the following picture is but a feeble outline : 
 " They laid waste the country ; cut down the 
 trees ; pulled down the houses ; overthrew the 
 sacred edifices of the natives, with all their pub- 
 lic buildings ; destroyed the public aqueducts ; 
 insulted the Tartars in their acts of public wor-
 
 206 
 
 ship ; tore up from the tombs the bodies of their 
 ancestors, casting their reliques upon dunghills, 
 and feeding swine out of their coffins ; annihilated 
 all their monuments of antiquity ; breaking up 
 alike the sepulchres of saints and pagans, and scat- 
 tering their ashes in the air ; auferre, rapere, 
 trucidare, falsis nominibus, Imperium: atque 
 
 1BI SOLITUDINEM FACIUNT PACEM APPEL- 
 LANT.* Though such are the general effects of 
 war upon the feelings and comforts of those per- 
 sons, who are the most subject to its miseries, yet, 
 by an unaccountable fatality, the people of almost 
 every country have in all ages conspired, even with- 
 out the apology of passion, to consider those their 
 most inveterate enemies, who have been labour- 
 ing, through a long and tumultuous life, for their 
 peace, their prosperity, and their happiness ! 
 
 CXC. Let us compare the above conduct of 
 the Empress Catherine with that of the late Em- 
 peror of China. In the year 1782 the island of 
 Formosa was visited by a dreadful calamity. A vio- 
 lent tempest raged for several hours ; the sea rose in 
 mountains and covered the whole face of the 
 island, sweeping away every moveable, and 
 leaving the shops, houses, and out-buildings a 
 * Clarke's Travels, vol. i. p. 471.
 
 fl07 
 
 confused heap of ruins. The crops were entirely 
 destroyed, and the unfortunate inhabitants re- 
 duced to beggary and want. When this terrible 
 event was signified to the Emperor, he wrote to 
 his minister, Tsong-tou, the following letter. 
 " I command you to get the best information you 
 can of the different losses, sustained by the inha- 
 bitants of the island, and to transmit the particu- 
 lars to me, in order that I may give them every 
 assistance to repair them. My intention is, that 
 all the houses, which have been thrown down, shall 
 be rebuilt entirely at my expense ; that those be re- 
 paired, which are only damaged ; and that provi- 
 sions, and every thing, which the people stand in 
 immediate want of, be supplied them. 1 should 
 feel much pain, were even one among them to be 
 neglected: I, therefore, recommend the utmost 
 diligence and the strictest inquiry, as I am de- 
 sirous, that none of my subjects should entertain 
 the least doubt of the tender affection, I have for 
 them : and that they should know, that they are all 
 under my eyes, and that I will myself provide for 
 their wants."* The former of these sovereigns is 
 
 * The reign of Kamhi, to whom Czar Peter I. sent an 
 embassy in the year 1719, was called the Tay-Ping, 
 
 " the
 
 208 
 
 usually called the GREAT : the latter has received 
 no peculiar appellation. Alas ! what is the descrip- 
 tion of persons, we dignify by the name of great ? 
 For my own part, my Lelius, I never have insulted 
 the virtues of William Penn by admiring Alex- 
 ander or Borgia, nor did I ever drop a tear of 
 regret upon the tomb of the most celebrated war- 
 rior in Westminster Abbey. Those men, whom 
 the generality of mankind call HEROES, and who 
 have so often stained valleys and rivers with na- 
 tive blood, fret a dangerous hour upon the pub- 
 lic stage : thousands shout to them applauses,* 
 while the truly great, good, and illustrious, hide 
 their faces with their robes, and wait a surer and 
 a nobler recompense, than the honour or applause 
 of man, in a distant but a better world ! 
 
 CXCI. Since we are upon the imposing subject 
 of Greatness, let us call to our recollection the 
 names of a few of those men, whom the writers 
 of history designate great : doubtless they were 
 the fathers of their country; and it will give you 
 
 " the reign of great rest and peace." What a noble eulo- 
 gium ! and what a contrast did this reign present to that 
 of the far-famed monarch of the north ! 
 * Note 83.
 
 209 
 
 pleasure to reflect on the memory of so many 
 excellent men : for greatness, of course, has re- 
 ference to goodness, since the one and the other 
 are the distinguishing characteristics of the ETEK- 
 NAL himself: and it is not for one moment to be 
 supposed, that historians are guilty of such impiety 
 to the Deity, or are such traitors to the welfare of 
 mankind, as to call those great, who were only 
 worthy of a public scaffold ! Every good man 
 is not a great one, it is true, but every great one 
 must of necessity be a good one : and yet, who are 
 the wretches, whom historians exalt to the admira- 
 tion of the world ? Who are they but Alexander, 
 and Antiochus, and Mahomet, and Frederick, and 
 Peter, and Cathenne, and Charles the Twelfth, 
 and Tamerlane, and a host of monsters, equally 
 base and equally detestable ? Shades of the im- 
 mortal Phocion, Alfred, and Stanislaus, in what 
 ignominious society are your honoured memories 
 associated ! 
 
 CXC1I. Contrasts are the springs of our hap- 
 piness. Without a knowledge of the muriatic, 
 we should be ignorant of the sweet ; without the 
 sweet, we should be incapable of the pungent: 
 
 VOL. i. p
 
 210 
 
 Had noon no excess, we should never enjoy the 
 temperature of evening ; were there no darkness, 
 we could never appreciate the value of light: 
 without labour, who could be sensible of the en- 
 joyments of rest ? and were we not sometimes vi- 
 sited by pain, where would be found the captiva- 
 tions of pleasure? Such is the organization of 
 man. That we could have been formed in such a 
 manner, as to have a continual appetite for enjoy- 
 ment without any of the contrasts, arising from vi- 
 cissitude, is as certain, as that we possess a ge- 
 neral appetite for our food, even though we feel 
 no pain from partial hunger, or from temperate 
 thirst. But it has pleased the Eternal thus to 
 frame us. He has decreed, also, a temporary 
 success to vice, and a temporary depression to 
 virtue. Regardless of the means, he employs, the 
 VILLAIN prospers. He rolls in wealth, and be- 
 comes the petty despot of his village, the Napoleon 
 of his neighbourhood. His will is his logic, power 
 is his mistress, and money his God. He dies ! 
 Unpitied, unlamented, he is almost hissed and 
 hooted into his grave. He awakes! Another 
 world opens itself : The dream of his hopes, that 
 death is an eternal sleep, has vanished !
 
 211 
 
 CXCIII. The GOOD MAN, on the other hand, 
 frequently pines from day to day: His efforts are 
 unavailing: Industry brings no harvest of profit: 
 every object, he touches, crumbles into ashes ! 
 Weary and fainting, he droops into the midnight of 
 the grave ! His body consigned to the earth, his 
 friends weep over his monument, and lament the 
 hard destiny of a man, adorned with all the embel- 
 lishments of education, and animated with all the 
 impulses of virtue ! They look at each other, in 
 all the amiable ignorance of grief, and appear to 
 anticipate the question, whether indeed there is an 
 all-governing Providence! In the meantime the 
 soul of their friend has separated from its tenement 
 of clay, it has passed through it aurelia* state, 
 and has awaked to landscapes of matchless beauty, 
 and to scenes of endless happiness ! 
 
 CXCIV. Man is no more permitted to fa- 
 thom the purposes of his Creator, than the mean- 
 est soldier of an army is presumed to know the 
 secrets of his General. Continual movements are 
 ordered without any visible design ; long and weary 
 marches are made in the dead of night ; fortresses 
 
 Note 84. 
 P2
 
 212 
 
 of little apparent importance are invested ; he 
 breaks down bridges ; moves along narrow defiles ; 
 animates his troops at one time, while he restrains 
 their impatience at another. Wild and angry con- 
 jectures, ceaseless murmurs, and innumerable 
 complaints are echoed through the camp. The 
 moment, however, at length arrives ! The trum- 
 pet sounds ; the signal is given ; the charge is 
 made. It is irresistible ! the place, the time, the 
 manner having been well chosen. The ranks of 
 the enemy are broken ; thousands join in the pur- 
 suit ; the notes of victory sound from hill to hill ; 
 murmurs, and conjectures, and complaints, all 
 are at an end ; the whole design is cleared up ; 
 every one gives himself to joy ; every one resounds 
 and celebrates the praises of his General ! 
 
 CXCV. An attentive investigator observes no 
 monotony in landscape. Day succeeds to morn- 
 ing; evening to noon ; and night to evening : Sum- 
 mer to spring, and winter to autumn. Even the 
 colour of the Sea itself frequently changes in the 
 course of a day. When the sun shines, the ocean 
 is cerulean ; when it gleams through a mist, it 
 is yellow ; and as the clouds pass over, it not un- 
 frequently assumes the mingled colours of the
 
 213 
 
 clouds themselves. The same uniformity of con- 
 trast may be observed throughout the whole of 
 Nature; even the Glaciers of the Orisons present- 
 ing varied aspects, though clad in perpetual snow. 
 At dawn of day they appear saffron ; at noon their 
 whiteness is that of excess ; and, as the sun sinks in 
 the west, their convex and peaked summits reflect, 
 with softened lustre, the matchless tintings of an 
 evening sky. 
 
 CXCVI. These alternations cause a perpetual 
 variety in the same objects. Hence the frequent 
 interchanges, which exhibit themselves in a moun- 
 tainous country, give it a decided advantage over 
 open and campaign regions ; since the degrees of 
 light and shade, as the hills and valleys incline to- 
 wards each other, are blended, reflected, and con- 
 trasted in a thousand different ways.* It is the to- 
 tal want of contrast, that fatigues the traveller 
 over vast and boundless deserts, more than the ac- 
 tual distances, or the sands themselves. The an- 
 cients, ignorant of the magnetic powers of the 
 needle, were able to travel over deserts only by 
 night; when the sun appeared, therefore, they 
 were obliged to halt. Quintus Curtius, in de- 
 
 Note 85.
 
 214 
 
 scribing the deserts of Bactria, says, that a great 
 part of them were covered with barren sands, 
 parched by heat, and affording nourishment for 
 neither men, beasts, nor vegetables. When the 
 winds blew from the Pontic sea, they swept before 
 them immense quantities of sand, which, when 
 heaped together, appeared like mountains. All 
 tracks of former travellers were thus totally obli- 
 terated. The only resource left, therefore, was 
 to travel by night, guiding their course by the 
 direction of the stars. Silius Italicus thus de- 
 scribes the journey of Hannibal's ambassadors to 
 the temple of Jupiter Ammon, situated in the 
 deserts of Lybia. 
 
 Ad finein coeli medio tenduntur ab ore 
 Squalentes campi. Tumulum natura negavit 
 Immensis spatiis, nisi quern cava nubila torquens 
 Construxit Turbo, impact a glomeratus arena : 
 Vel, si perfracto populatus carcere terras 
 Africus, aut pontuin spargens per aequora Corns, 
 Invasere truces capientem proelia campum, 
 Inque vicem ingesto cumularunt pulvere montes. 
 Has observatis valles enavimus astiis : 
 Namque dies confundit iter, perditemque profundo 
 Errantem campo, et semper media arva videntem, 
 Sidoniis Cynosura regit fidissima nautis. 
 
 tiilius Italicus, Lib. 3.
 
 215 
 
 Lucan, whose description of the march of 
 Cato over the deserts, is unquestionably the finest 
 portion of the Pharsalia, adds a circumstance, 
 that must have considerably augmented the diffi- 
 culties of the march. 
 
 Qui nullas videre domos, videre ruinas : 
 
 Jainquc iter omne latet; nee sunt discrimina terra; 
 
 Ulla, nisi ^therias medio vchit aequore flammce. 
 
 Sideribus novere vias : nee Sidera Ma 
 
 Ostendit Lybicte finitor drculus or<e, 
 
 Mullaque devexo terrarum margine eclat. 
 
 Pham. Lib. 9. v. 494. 
 
 CXCVII. What a contrast is there in the feel- 
 ings, which animate the heart of a sailor after a 
 long voyage, which toil and difficulty, increased 
 by protracted hope and incessant disappointment, 
 has rendered almost insupportable, when from the 
 topmast of his ship, he unexpectedly sees and 
 calls out " land :" and as the hills rise higher 
 and higher out of the ocean, and the soft aerial 
 tints fads, and wood and rock and hill and valley 
 become more and more conspicuous, what emo- 
 tions can be so vivid, so energetic, so delightful 
 and transporting? Such were the feelings of 
 those, who first discovered the Islands of Tinian,
 
 and Protection ;* and of that most lovely of all 
 those beautiful Islands, that stud the bosom of 
 the Pacific, Juan Fernandez. From a distance, 
 this Island has a wild and inhospitable appearance, 
 but on the approach, its rugged aspect softens, 
 and at length exhibits some of the most delightful 
 pictures it is possible to behold : Scenes of such 
 elegance and dignity, as the author of Commodore 
 Anson's Voyage observes, that would with diffi- 
 culty be rivalled in any other part of the globe. 
 
 Has Heaven reserved in pity to the poor 
 No pathless waste, or undiscovered shore? 
 No secret Island in the boundless main, 
 No peaceful desert, yet unclaimed by Spain ? 
 
 Oh ! that this enchanting Island were still un- 
 inhabited and free ! Thither would we go, my 
 Lelius, and realizing on its fruitful soil the glories 
 of a golden age, " echo should no where whisper 
 our hiding place." In this favoured spot, the 
 simple productions of unassisted nature are said 
 to excel all the fictitious descriptions of the most 
 animated imagination. Thus, you observe, Na- 
 ture acts upon her usual plan of beneficence, even 
 
 Note 86.
 
 17 
 
 though none are present to see and to admire. 
 The birds sing with as soft a note; the bee mur- 
 murs and distils as sweet a honey ; fruits blossom 
 and present their loaded treasures, while the 
 waterfall and the rivulet elicit sounds as soothing, 
 as animating, and as delightful. Forsaking all, 
 that would remind us of this vast scene of perpe- 
 tual warfare, public and private, we should there 
 learn how little necessary to our happiness are the 
 artificial wants of a society, polished only in its 
 vices. The community of our families would re- 
 compense us for the experience, which the world 
 has severely taught to us ; knowing no method of 
 cementing our friendship superior to that of de- 
 serving each other's esteem; instilling into the 
 minds of our future children the firmest regard for 
 one another, and a strict veneration for justice, who 
 would not wish to appertain to our republic? In 
 the hour of sorrow, who would not meditate on 
 our happiness with an envy, tempered into a de- 
 sire of emulation ? in the moment of oppression, 
 who would not fly to us for shelter ? In the 
 height of his enthusiasm, what poet would dis- 
 dain to hold us forth as an example, not unworthy 
 the imitation of mankind ? In vain do we look, 
 in all the wide continents of the earth, for a so-
 
 218 
 
 ciety in any way approaching to such a state of 
 primitive simplicity ! In Europe, in Asia, in 
 Africa, and in America, there is not a city, nor a 
 town, nor a village, nor a hamlet, which contains 
 so great a portion of harmony, as prevails among 
 the animals and birds, that inhabit the shores of 
 the New Year's Islands. The sea lions, as we 
 learn from a celebrated navigator,* occupy the 
 greatest part of the coast; bears, the principal 
 portion of the land ; shags reside upon the cliffs ; 
 penguins, in such places as have the best access 
 to the sea, while the smaller birds occupy the 
 more retired places. Thus every portion of the 
 Island is respectively inhabited ; none of the birds 
 or animals encroaching upon each other. The 
 most perfect harmony subsisting through all the 
 separate tribes, they occasionally mix together 
 like domestic cattle in a farmer's yard ; eagles and 
 vultures sitting together on the cliffs among the 
 shags, and shags upon the beach among the sea 
 lions. What a lesson and what a contrast does all 
 this present to that greatest and proudest of all 
 animals, MAN! Is there a city, a town, a village, 
 or even a hamlet, in all Europe, that is not a prey 
 
 * Capt. Cook, 2d Voyage, vol. ii. p. 186.
 
 219 
 
 to the worst of all hostilities, envy and ill-will ? 
 Is there a city without its factions ; a town with- 
 out its parties ; a village or a hamlet, that does 
 not contain a despotic country squire, a proud 
 unbending priest, an encroaching farmer, or a 
 narrow, pinching, worthless overseer ? Were you 
 a Cynic, you would be almost tempted to say, 
 that the earth more resembled the plantain tree 
 of Guinea and Brazil, than the New Year's 
 Islands. On the top of this tree reside monkeys, 
 continually at war with each other ; in the middle 
 are snakes ; on the extreme branches hang nests 
 of woodpeckers. 
 
 CXCVIII. To contrast and variety of climate 
 has been attributed the principal lines and shades 
 of national characters. Mons. Denina, in a 
 paper preserved in the Memoirs of the Berlin 
 Academy, and Tasso, in his parallel between 
 France and Italy, have given it as their decided 
 opinion, that a country, marked with gentle emi- 
 nences, and gradually rising mountains, are the 
 most remarkable for men of genius, talents and 
 learning. That climate has an important influence, 
 and is the principal cause of the difference in na- 
 tional characters, has been also maintained with
 
 220 
 
 considerable ingenuity, by Montesquieu, in the 
 fourteenth book of his Spirit of Laws. This 
 celebrated writer imagines climate to have its 
 principal power over the manners; while the 
 Abbe du Bos, with equal plausibility, argues for 
 its influence over the mind. Both hypotheses 
 may, however, justly be doubted, for Greece 
 has produced its Lycurgus, China its Confucius, 
 Rome its Pliny, France its Fenelon, Spain its 
 Cervantes, England its Newton, Switzerland its 
 Gessner, Germany its Klopstock, Sweden its 
 Linnaeus, and to crown the argument, Iceland 
 its two hundred and forty poets ! This is suffi- 
 cient for the hypothesis of Du Bos. That it af- 
 fects the manners is equally ideal, for the crimes 
 of the west are equal to those of the east, and the 
 vices of the south equal to the vices of the 
 north. They differ not in their number, but in 
 their quality : w hat is vice in one . part of the 
 world is not considered vice in another,* though 
 
 *Thus the use of wine is as strictly forbid in Turkey, as the 
 possession of two wives in Europe; war, in Japan, is looked 
 upon with horror, m Europe it is associated with glory : 
 The exposition of children prevails in China ; in some parts 
 of America, they bury the old before they are dead ; and it 
 
 is
 
 221 . . 
 
 in the commission of private crime, there was 
 never but one opinion, and ought to be but one 
 law. Besides, arguing upon the principles of 
 Montesquieu and other plausible writers, it would 
 be impossible to account for that distinct varia- 
 tion, which is observed in the dispositions, habits 
 and genius of those people, residing on the op- 
 posite banks of frontier rivers, on the transverse 
 sides of high mountains, and particularly of the 
 same people at different periods of their history. 
 
 CXCIX. It is remarked by Tacitus, that the an- 
 cient Germans, dividing their year into three sea- 
 sons. 'had no idea of autumn : The Hindoos, on 
 the contrary, divide the year into six ; the dewy, the 
 cold, tnt rainy, and the hot ; the period of spring, 
 and the clearing up of the rain. But though the 
 Hindoos number so many seasons, there is, by 
 no means, a great variety of climates in Hin- 
 dostan. Before the coming of the rain the 
 
 is only within a few years, that the English, the freest, the 
 happiest, and most enlightened people on the globe, have con- 
 sidered the traffic in slaves a crime, worthy the title, and 
 penalty of felony. Can the men, who, for so many years, 
 supported this scandalous trade in human flesh, sleep in 
 their beds? General Oascoigne ! dost thou remember tra- 
 velling in June, * * * * into Carmarthenshire, by the Milford 
 mail? Thou wilt never forget it.
 
 222 
 
 earth appears parched like a desert ; the rain com- 
 mences, and the hills and valleys are covered 
 with verdure! The rain ceases, and for nine 
 continued months scarcely a cloud deforms the 
 matchless serenity of the sky ! The seasons of 
 Syria may be said to be separated by hours ; and 
 so many varieties of climate are felt, in a short 
 space of time, that the Arabian Poets figuratively 
 observe, " that the Sannin bears winter on his 
 head, spring on his shoulders, and autumn in his 
 bosom, while summer lies sleeping at his feet/'* 
 
 CC. The climate of Rhodes was so mild, 
 in ancient times, that there was not a day in 
 the year, on which the sun did not shine upon 
 it: and so delightful is the temperature of the 
 Madeiras, that the vineyards are enclosed by 
 hedges of pomegranates, wild roses and myrtles, 
 at a time, when frosts and snows chill the warm- 
 est constitution of England. At Congo, on the 
 coast of Africa, the climate may be ascertained 
 by the number of flowers it produces. In that 
 country they are remarkably beautiful. There is 
 scarcely a field, that does not present a richer as- 
 
 * Volney, vol. 1. 293.
 
 223 
 
 semblage, than the finest garden in Europe. The 
 lilies, which grow in the woods and valleys, are 
 exquisitely white and of the most bewitching fra- 
 grance. Flowers, which grow single in other 
 places, are here seen blushing upon one stalk in 
 clusters. Under the hedge-rows and trees are 
 beds of hyacinths and tuberoses, one or two hun- 
 dred in a group. Their colours are variegated 
 profusely : the roses and honey-suckles afford a 
 stronger perfume, than those of Asia; and the 
 American jessamine, some exquisitely white and 
 others of the brightest scarlet, grow, as we are 
 informed, by dozens in a bunch. 
 
 CCI. The Island of St. Domingo is one of 
 the finest in all the world ; whether it is con- 
 sidered in reference to the natural richness of 
 the soil, the beauty of its internal landscapes, or 
 the fineness of its shores. The plains of Los 
 Llanos are intersected with natural groups of the 
 noblest trees, much after the manner of an Eng- 
 lish park. The forests abound in palms, in maho- 
 gany, manchineels and palmettoes, round the 
 trunks of which wind the convolvolus and the 
 wind-band in many a graceful fold, forming a 
 complete school to the architect for the study of
 
 224 
 
 domes and peristyles, arches and colonnades. 
 Fields of coffee, hedges of aloe, groves of cocoa, 
 orange plantations, woods scented by innumerable 
 wood-bines, plains, grottos, precipices and cas- 
 cades, unite to render the island in point of 
 scenery the most delightful in all the western 
 world.* In surveying it, Columbus was struck 
 with wonder, with admiration and delight. 
 
 CCII. In the country of the great Namia- 
 guas, in the north-western part of South Africa, 
 the mountains are towering but barren and rocky ; 
 relieved, at intervals, only by the aloe. The 
 soil in the plains is arid to a proverb ; when, 
 however, there is an occasional storm, the coun- 
 try is immediately covered with grass in one dis- 
 trict, while not a green leaf is to be seen in 
 another ! Batavia is as beautiful, as a mere plain 
 can be rendered; but the climate is pestilential 
 and the water poisonous. A young man, coming 
 out of his ship, after a long voyage, was so en- 
 raptured with the general appearance of the coun- 
 try, that he exclaimed, " Surely this is ah abode 
 
 * See Walton's Description of Hispaniola.
 
 225 
 
 for the immortals !" Three weeks after his ar- 
 rivalhe died !* 
 
 Though the summers in the Crimea are varia- 
 ble, the autumns pestilential, and the winters ri- 
 gorous, the springs are highly agreeable and de- 
 lightful. The air is mild, the sky serene; the 
 wild vine mingles in the hedges with the arbutus 
 and the jessamine; flowers of every shade and 
 colour spring up in myriads in the fields and 
 in the woods; the perfumes, which ravish the 
 senses, are unequalled by those of any other 
 country in Europe ; while the soil is capable of 
 producing every description of fruit, that grows 
 in France, in Greece, or in Italy.-f- 
 
 CCIII. The Island of Tinian, situated 15 
 degrees 8 minutes north latitude, and 1 14 degrees 
 and 50 minutes west longitude of Acapulco, is 
 only twelve miles long and six broad. " No spot 
 on earth," says the author of Commodore Byron's 
 voyage, " can appear more delightful from the 
 sea than this country, when viewed from some 
 
 StavorintM, T. 3. 403, in notit. 
 t Note 87. 
 
 VOL. I. O,
 
 226 
 
 parts of the coast; where, instead of having the 
 appearance of an uncultivated and uninhabited 
 place, it resembles a beautiful and noble planta- 
 tion, in which stately woods and spacious lawns 
 have been laid out and most beautifully inter- 
 mingled, and so happily adapted to the inequali- 
 ties of the ground, as to produce a most striking 
 and at the same time a most pleasing effect. The 
 land generally rises in gentle slopes, that are fre- 
 quently interrupted by valleys, irregularly winding 
 through the country, which, with the gentle 
 swellings of the ground, agreeably diversified 
 with the usual embellishments of lofty woods and 
 spacious lawns, covered with fine trefoil, inter- 
 mixed with flowers, traverse the island. The 
 beauty of these fine rural landscapes were, in se- 
 veral views from the coast, most pleasingly en- 
 livened by herds of some thousand cattle feeding 
 together." Added to the extreme loveliness of its 
 landscapes, this island abounds in all kinds of 
 tropical flowers and fruits in the utmost profusion. 
 What a contrast to all this are the frozen regions 
 of the north, stretching on every side the pole, co- 
 vered with perpetual snow, with lakes and seas, 
 agitated by boisterous winds, and fretted with 
 enormous masses of floating ice ! The island of
 
 227 
 
 Tinian, which nature has most extravagantly en- 
 dowed, blooms to no human purpose ! The foot- 
 steps of a casual stranger alone presses its shore : 
 while Iceland, with fields divided by vitrified 
 cliffs ; without a tree ; abounding in precipices, 
 burning lakes, and barren mountains, produced a 
 Thurleston, a Thordsen, and a Frode, with two 
 hundred and forty poets at a time, when Sweden 
 and Denmark and Norway cultivated no science ; 
 when the Tartars were emerging from the 
 northern kingdoms of Asia, and over-running all 
 the empire of the Saracens; when the houses of 
 England, France and Germany Mere thatched 
 with straw, and when scarcely a poet had appeared 
 in Britain ! 
 
 CCIV. Ricciolus enumerates about twenty 
 different climates, the most agreeable of which 
 are those, situated between the 34th and 42d 
 degrees of latitude. If, however, we reckon 
 from the equator to the poles, and allow half an 
 hour's difference in the longest day in summer 
 between each parallel, there are, strictly speak- 
 ing, twenty-four climates in the northern and the 
 same number in the southern hemisphere. 
 0.2
 
 228 
 
 Mount Etna, as an elegant Traveller has in- 
 formed us, is divided into three distinct regions : 
 " the fertile region ; the woody region ; and the 
 " barren region. These are as distinct in climate, 
 " as the three zones of the earth ; and might, with 
 " propriety, have been styled the torrid, the 
 " temperate and frigid regions." But the greatest 
 variety of climate upon one range of mountains 
 may be found among the Cordilleras ; for, in the 
 space of a few hours, may be experienced the 
 greatest intensity of heat, and the greatest seve- 
 rity of cold ; while in the ascent, every interme- 
 diate variety is quickly observed, and sensibly felt. 
 Than the climates of Madeira and Shiraz, nothing 
 can be more delightful. The former, if judici- 
 ously cultivated, would be a terrestrial paradise. 
 
 The gentle spring, which but salutes us here, 
 Inhabits there and courts them all the year. 
 
 WaUer. 
 
 The latter is thus described by a modern travel- 
 ler. " During the spring of the year, the face of 
 the country appears uncommonly beautiful. The 
 flowers, of which they have a great variety, and 
 of the brightest hues, the fragrant herbs, shrubs
 
 229 
 
 and plants, the rose, the sweet basil, and the 
 myrtle, all here contribute to refresh and perfume 
 the natural mildness of the air. The nightingale 
 of the garden, the goldfinch, and the linnet, by 
 their melodious warblings, at this delightful season 
 of the year, serve to add to the satisfaction of 
 the mind, and to inspire it with the most pleas- 
 ing ideas. The beauties of nature are here de- 
 picted in their fullest extent; the natural historian 
 and the botanist, would here meet with ample 
 scope for pursuing their favourite investigations. 
 With such advantages, added to the salubrity of 
 the air, how can it be wondered at, that the 
 people of Shiraz should confidently assert the 
 pre-eminence of their own city, to any other in 
 the world? or that such beauties should fail of 
 calling forth the poetical exertions of a Hafiz, a 
 Sadi, or a Jami ? Their mornings and evenings 
 are cool, but the middle of the day is highly 
 pleasant. One thing, which is most to be esteem- 
 ed in this country, and renders it preferable to any 
 other part of the world, is the nights, which are 
 always clear and bright; and the dew, that in most 
 places is of so pernicious and dangerous a nature, 
 is not of the least ill consequence here ; there is 
 none at all in summer, and, in the other seasons,
 
 it is of such a nature, that if the brightest scimitar 
 should be exposed to it all the night, it woulchiot 
 receive the least rust. This dryness of the air 
 causes their buildings to last a great while, and is 
 one of the principal reasons, wfiy the celebrated 
 ruins of Persepolis have endured for so many 
 centuries." 
 
 How does this delightful country differ from 
 those of Nova Zembla, and Greenland, whose 
 rocks and hills are clad in perpetual snow; and 
 from a large portion of Crim Tartary, where 
 scarcely a river or a brook is heard to murmur; 
 or a bush, or a shrub, or a tree, or a bramble, is 
 ever seen to grow ! 
 
 CCV. To the climate of Shiraz we may 
 compare the elevated province of Cash mire; a 
 district, not more celebrated for the temperature 
 of its climate, and the rich and romantic scenery, 
 with which it is adorned, than for the elegance of 
 form, and beauty of countenance, which, if we 
 except the Circassians, distinguish the Cashmirians 
 above all the nations of the earth. Bounded by 
 the mountains of Tartary, and the Caucasus, in- 
 numerable cascades and cataracts enliven, with
 
 231 
 
 their music, the various vales and valleys into 
 which the province is divided. To this spot Au- 
 renzebe was accustomed to retire, when fatigued 
 with business, or disgusted with royalty. In his 
 progress from the Capital, he was attended by an 
 immense army all the way : when, however, he 
 came to the entrance of Cashmire, he dismissed 
 his soldiers, separated from his retinue, and with 
 a few select friends retired to the palace he had 
 erected; and, in the solitude of the enchanting 
 valleys of Cashmire, contrasted the charms of con- 
 tent, and the delights of tranquillity, with the hurry 
 and noise, the treachery and splendid anxiety of a 
 crowded court. 
 
 Dyer, in his poem of the Fleece, thus charac- 
 terizes the nature of Cashmirian landscapes : 
 
 The glossy fleeces now of prime esteem, 
 
 Soft Asia boasts, where lovely Cassimere 
 
 Within a lofty mound of circling hills, 
 
 Spreads her delicious stores ; woods, rocks, caves, lakes, 
 
 Hills, lawns, and winding streams ; a region term'd 
 
 Tlie Paradise qf India. 
 
 Fleece, Book ii. 1. 353. 
 
 CCVI. The sister of Aurenzebe delighted in 
 pleasure gardens; and, as it may serve to mark
 
 232 
 
 the taste of the age in which she lived, it may 
 not be useless to adopt Thevenot's description of 
 the one she planted at Surat. There was not a 
 flower in the whole area! It was a plantation of 
 trees of various kinds ; the mango, the palm, the 
 tamarind, the Egyptian Acacia, and various others, 
 planted in a straight line ! Four grand walks di- 
 vided the garden ; each walk having, in the mid- 
 dle, a small canal of water. In the centre, stood 
 a building with four fronts, each of which had its 
 divan, with a closet at each corner: and before 
 every one of these divans was a square bason full 
 of water, whence flowed the little brook that 
 watered the garden.* It is now in a miserable 
 state of dilapidation ! It was never adorned with 
 flowers, and it is now net even shaded by trees ! 
 Of all those, which constituted the sole beauty of 
 this spot, those, lining the four walks, and a few 
 tamarinds, alone remain. f 
 
 CCVII. In the South of France the tempe- 
 rature of the air renders the towns highly agree- 
 able to reside in, and exceedingly conducive to the 
 restoration of health. The same may be observ- 
 ed of Italy, peopled, alas! "with the insolent, 
 
 * Thevenot. Part iii. ch. xxv. 
 t Vid, Stavorinus, cb. xii. 469.
 
 233 
 
 who command, and the indolent, who obey !" In 
 Switzerland, summer and winter may be traced on 
 the opposite sides of the same mountains, and it 
 is no uncommon circumstance to gather flowers 
 with one hand, and snow with another ! Pied- 
 mont, so beautiful, so fruitful, and abounding in 
 every natural luxury of life, boasts an admirable 
 climate ; and yet, who can refrain from express- 
 ing astonishment and indignation, when he recol- 
 lects, that neither a painter, nor a poet of emi- 
 nence, were ever born in the country !* 
 
 Could Nature's bonnty satisfy the breast, 
 The sons of Piedmont then were surely blest. 
 Whatever fruits in different climes are found, 
 That proudly rise, or humbly court the ground; 
 Whatever blooms in torrid tracts appear, 
 Whose bright snccession decks the varied year : 
 Whatever sweets salute the Northern sky 
 With vernal lives, that blossom but to die ; 
 These, here disporting, own the kindred soil, 
 Nor a*k luxuriance from the planter's toil ; 
 While Sea-born gales their gelid wings expand, 
 To winnow fragrance round the smiling laud. 
 But small the bliss, that sense alone bestows, 
 And sensual bliss is all the nation knows: 
 In florid beauty groves and fields appear; 
 MAN seems the only growth, that dwindles here. 
 
 * Note 88.
 
 . 234 
 
 CCVIII. The climate of Crete is delightful 
 in the highest degree. Its winter, of two months, 
 resembles the May of England and the April of 
 Italy. The rest of the year is a continued suc- 
 cession of fine days and brilliant nights. In the 
 day, the sky is cloudless ; in the night, a countless 
 profusion of stars, whose astonishing brilliancy is 
 seldom obscured by vapours, renders the season 
 of sleep more beautiful, than even the glories of 
 the day. The ancients might well fable this 
 lovely country to be the birth-place of Minerva, 
 the cradle of Jupiter, and the theatre, in which he 
 consummated his nuptials: the favourite haunt 
 of Cybele, and, on whose enchanting shores, the 
 Danlan hero was so anxious to erect a city. I 
 have always esteemed that passage one of the 
 most affecting in all Virgil, where Eneas, after 
 having made good his landing, erected a fort, and 
 built houses; where, after his companions had 
 begun to cultivate the soil, and he had turned his 
 thoughts towards legislating for his little colony, 
 by dividing the lands, promoting marriages, and 
 enacting laws, he is represented, as finding him- 
 self under the necessity of quitting the Island, 
 and of seeking his fortune in a foreign land! 
 For his corn was blighted and his grass was
 
 235 
 
 
 
 parched ; his trees devoured by caterpillars, and 
 his companions in danger and in exile falling every 
 day from fevers, occasioned by noxious and pesti- 
 lential vapours.* 
 
 CCIX. Of the climate of England much 
 has been said by those, who have written on the 
 subject. For my own part, my Lelius, I am per- 
 suaded, that you are well contented with it ; being 
 thoroughly convinced, that Bishop Berkeley was 
 perfectly justified in saying, that fields, groves, and 
 meadows, were no where in such perfection as in 
 England ; and that Charles the Second was equally 
 correct, when he declared, that a gentleman might 
 walk out oftener, and with much greater comfort 
 in England, than in any other country of Europe. 
 
 From an attentive consideration of the subject 
 
 * Jamque fere" sicco subducts littore puppet), 
 Connubiis arvisque novis operata juventus : 
 Jura dom6sque dabam; snbito cum tabida membris, 
 Corrupto coeli tractu, miserandaqne venit 
 Arboribusque satisque lues, et lethifcr annus. 
 Linguebant dulces animus, aut aegra traliebant 
 Corpora : turn ste riles exnrcre Sirius agros, 
 Arebant herbx, et victuin seges aegra negabat. 
 
 Eneid. Lib. Hi. 1. 153.
 
 36 
 
 of climate, you will, perhaps, be inclined to agree 
 with Plutarch, who was accustomed to say, that 
 it was not the Eurotas, nor the Babyx, nor the 
 Gnacion, that brought forth wise and valiant 
 men ; for learning and genius, my Lelius, do not 
 so much depend upon climate or country, as upon 
 the means afforded for improvement by education, 
 and the consequent taste, which is imbibed for the 
 works of nature in general ; for the view of rich 
 and agreeable landscapes, expanding the affections, 
 refreshes the soul ; enlivens the mind with habi- 
 tual cheerfulness ; and by increasing the variety of 
 our conceptions, refines the taste, and corrects the 
 judgment. It inspires us, by the associations 
 which point to a great first cause, with fortitude 
 to bear afflictions, and arms us with resolution to 
 master difficulties; and, by animating the young 
 with hope and the old with renovated vigour, it 
 softens the heart, at a time that it gives additional 
 strength to the body, and new impulse to the mind. 
 These feelings and blessings may be termed the 
 emoluments of nature. But, since these emolu- 
 ments are not to be enjoyed to the fullest advan- 
 tage in one spot, all the year, who would not wish 
 to imitate the conduct of Lucullus (who changed
 
 237 
 
 his climate with the birds of passage),* and to 
 spend January in Portugal, February in the Ma- 
 deiras, March in Spain, April in Sicily, May in 
 Lapland, June in Italy, July in Switzerland, 
 August in France, September in England, October 
 among the impenetrable and variegated forests of 
 America, November in Crete, and December in 
 the Islands of the Cape de Verd ? 
 
 * Ponipey, being one day upon a visit to Luciillns, at 
 Tusculum, inquired, how he could be so absurd, as to make 
 his villa fit only for a summer residence ; " What?" said 
 Lucullns with a smile, " do yon imagine that I have less 
 sense than storks and cranes ? shall they change their habi- 
 tations with the seasons, and Lucullns remain in one resi- 
 dence all the year ?"
 
 NOTES. 
 
 THE plan was, however, afterwards adopted, as was 
 that of Mons. le Maur, for forming a canal from the 
 mountains of Gaudarama to the Tagus, and from 
 that river to join the Guadina and the Guadalquiver ; 
 thus opening a ready communication between Ma- 
 drid, Toledo, Cordova and Seville. 
 
 NOTE 2, PAGE 3. 
 
 The Egyptians call the Nile, even in the present 
 day, holy, blessed and sacred; and on the opening 
 of the canals, mothers are seen plunging their chil- 
 dren into the stream, from a belief that the waters 
 have a purifying and divine quality. Vid. Travels 
 in Egypt and Syria, vol. 1, p. 19. 
 
 NOTE 3, PAGE 4. 
 
 Sostratus and Timotheus wrote of the river Is- 
 menos ; Chysermus of the Pactolus ; Nicanor, the
 
 240 NOTES. 
 
 Samian, of the Eurotas; Timagoras of the Caicus; 
 Aristotle of the Indus ; Demaratus of the Mean- 
 der ; Agathocles, the Milesian, of the Inachus ; 
 Ctesias of the Alpheus; Demostratus of the Sca- 
 mander ; Leo and Aristonymus of the Tigris, &c. &c. 
 
 NOTE 4, PAGE 5. 
 
 i 
 So general is this veneration, that there is scarcely 
 
 a river, in any part of Europe, that is not observed 
 with respect by the natives of the districts through 
 which it flows. The Poets not unfrequently address 
 them by the title of father. Thus Virgil " Da, Tyber 
 pater." He also gives the same appellation to 
 mountains. Vid. Lib. xii. p. 703. With respect 
 to the extraordinary honours paid to the river 
 Adonis, now called Ibrahim, and to the source of 
 the Clitumnus, consult Suetonius in Vit. Calig. c. 43. 
 Pliny, viii. 8. Georg. ii. /. 146. Of the affection of 
 the Indians for the Ganges, see Stavorinus's Voyages, 
 ch. vii. 404 j ch. v. 153. The same veneration is 
 paid to the river Tappi by the Banians and Gen- 
 toos ; and such a sacred character is attached to the 
 Tumrabunni, that innumerable devotees annually 
 resort to the grand cataract of Puppanassum, among 
 the mountains of Tinnivelly, and return to many of 
 the most distant parts of India, laden with the 
 waters of that holy stream. The lake Beviere in 
 Sicily was for many ages esteemed sacred.
 
 NOTES. 241 
 
 NOTE 5, PAGE 6. 
 
 f? 
 Truly has it been said, that, in Italy, not a river 
 
 remained unsung : nor did any of them possess 
 a peculiarity, that was not expressly observed and 
 perpetually commented upon. The rocky Anxur 
 (Silius Ital. Lib. iv.) ; the swift Metaurus ; the sulphu- 
 reous Nar (Claudian. de Pr. et Olyb. Consul.). The 
 Anio, flowing in cascades (Hor. Lib. i. Od. vii.) ; 
 the rapid Vulturnus (Lucan. Lib. ii. v. 28.) ; and 
 the smooth Liris (Silius Italicus, Lib. ix.) resembling 
 the Ticinus, and moving so slowly, that it was with 
 difficulty, the eye discerned in what direction it 
 flowed ; a peculiarity which Ceesar observed in the 
 Arar, and which gave rise to the following contrast : 
 
 " Rhodanos ingens amne praerapido flint 
 Ararqae dubitans quo sues fluctus agat." 
 
 The Rubicon, so strictly a mountain torrent, and 
 beyond which no armed Roman was allowed to 
 pass : the rapid and commanding Tiber, so long 
 and so justly believed to possess incalculable riches : 
 the Eridanus, the favourite stream of Virgil, who 
 calls it Rex flwoiorum, rolling with such impetuo- 
 sity, as to tear down even trees and woods (Lucan, 
 Lib. ii. v. 409.). Speaking of this river an Italian 
 poet says, that it carries to the ocean a war, rather 
 than a tribute :
 
 NOTES. 
 
 Pare 
 
 Che porti gnerra, e non tribute al mare. 
 
 This river endeared itself so firmly to the poets and 
 astronomers, that they fabled it to flow through the 
 vast concave of the Heavens; to which circumstance 
 Denham alludes in Cooper's Hill : 
 
 Heaven her Eridanus no more shall boast, 
 Whose fame is thine, like lesser currents lost ; 
 Thy nobler stream shall visit Jove's abodes, 
 To shine among the stars, and bathe the gods. 
 
 The Clytumnus, whose banks were peopled with 
 herds of cattle, as white as snow, was celebrated by 
 the Naturalist (Pliny), by the Historian (Suetonius'}' 
 by the Elegiac poet (Propertius), by the Poet of 
 Liberty (Lucan), by the Epic Poet (Virgil), by the 
 Satirist (Juvenal), by Silius Italicus, by Statius, and 
 indeed by all Italy. 
 
 Milton enumerates all the principal rivers in Eng- 
 land, and gives to them their appropriate epithets, 
 in a poem, which has been imitated by Drummond 
 of Havvthornden. 
 
 Rivers arise ; whether then be the son 
 
 Of utmost Tweed) or Ouse, or gnlpby Dun ; 
 
 Of Trent, who like some earth-born giant, spreads 
 
 His thirty arms along th' indented meads ;
 
 NOTES. 243 
 
 Or sullen Mole, that runneth underneath : 
 
 Or Severn swift, guilty of maidens' death : 
 
 Or rocky Avon, or of sedgy Lee, 
 
 Or coaly Tyne, or ancient hallowed Dee ; 
 
 Or Humber loud, that keeps the Scythian's name, 
 
 Or Medway smooth, or royal-towered Tluune. 
 
 See also Dyer's Fleece, Book m. Spencer. Drayton. 
 
 When Parmenio objected to Alexander's passing 
 over the Granicus, at a late hour of the day, Alex- 
 ander replied, " The Hellespont would blush, if 
 after having passed it, I should be afraid of the Gra- 
 nicus !" It is not improbable, that this speech of 
 Alexander first suggested the idea of those elegant 
 Latin lines of Crashaw, from which Dryden bor- 
 rowed that celebrated lirve : 
 
 The conscious water saw its God and blnsh'd. 
 
 NOTE 6, PAGE 7. 
 
 The course of this river is one of the most beau- 
 tiful in Europe, though it is not so frequently al- 
 luded to, as exhibiting materials for the landscape 
 painter, as it deserves to be. " It was the plea- 
 santest voyage in the world," says Mr. Addison in 
 his Travels through Switzerland, " to follow the 
 windings of the Inn through such a variety of 
 pleasing scenes as the course of it naturally led us. 
 R 2
 
 244 NOTES. 
 
 " We had sometimes on each side of us a vast ex- 
 tent of naked rocks and mountains, broken into a 
 thousand irregular steeps and precipices; in other 
 places we saw a long forest of fir trees, so thick set 
 together, that it was impossible to discover any of 
 the soil they grew upon, and rising up so regularly 
 one above another, as to give us the view of a whole 
 wood at once." 
 
 NOTE 7, PAGE 8. 
 
 It is inconceivable how much the Humming-bird 
 adds to the high finishing of a rich and luxurious 
 western landscape. As soon as the sun is risen, the 
 humming-birds of different kinds are seen flutter- 
 ing about the flowers, without ever lighting upon 
 them. Their wings are in such rapid motion, that 
 it is impossible to discern their colours, except by 
 their glittering. They are never still, but conti- 
 nually in motion, visiting flower after flower, and 
 extracting its honey, as if with a kiss. Anon. This 
 bird is alluded to by Mr. Rogers, in his Fragments 
 of a Poem, called the Voyage of Columbus. 
 
 There, quivering, rise 
 
 Wings, that reflect the glow of evening skies! 
 Half bird, half fly, the fairy king of flowers* 
 Reigns here, and revels thro 1 the fragrant hours ; 
 
 * Flonim Regidus. Kakopit. R.
 
 NOTES. 245 
 
 Gem, fall of life, and joy, and soug divine, 
 Soon in the virgin's graceful ear to shine. 
 
 NOTE 8, PAGE 8. 
 
 Horace, Lib. iii. Od. xxix. In the same manner 
 Ovid compares the motion of rivers to the flying of 
 time. 
 
 Ipsa quoque assiduo labuntnr tempora motu 
 Non secus ac tinmen. Neque enim consistere flumen, 
 Nee levis bora potest ; sed ut unda impcllitur unda, 
 Urgeturque prior venienti, urgetque priorem, 
 Tempora sic fugiunt pariter, pariterque seqaontur ; 
 t nova sunt semper. Nam quod fuit ante relictum est ; 
 Fitqiie, quod baud fuerat : momentaqne cuncta novantur. 
 
 Lib. xv. t79. 
 
 This thought, so natural in itself, has been adopt- 
 ed by the Persian poets, as well as by the English. 
 " Seat yourself by the margin of a stream," says 
 Hafiz, " and see how time glides away. This inti- 
 mation how time passes is enough for me." 
 
 Life glides away, Lorenzo, like a brook, 
 
 For ever changing, unperceived the change; 
 In the same brook, none ever bathed twice ; 
 In the same stream none ever twice awoke. 
 We call the brook the same, the same we think 
 Our life, though much more rapid in its flow, 
 Nor mark the much irrevocably laps d 
 And mingled with the sea. 
 
 Young.
 
 246 NOTES. 
 
 Cowper, non iinpar. 
 
 The lapse of time and rivers is the same ; 
 
 Both speed their journey, with a restless stream , 
 
 The silent pace, with which they steal away, 
 
 No wealth can bribe, no prayers persuade to stay ; 
 
 Alike irrevocable both, when past, 
 
 And a wide ocean swallows both at last. 
 
 Another writer in a fine vein of poetry : 
 
 To thee, O ! death, my fleeting moments bend : 
 
 In thee the hurricane of life must end. 
 
 Tho' murmuring waters from the ocean crowd, 
 
 From thee by nature no return's allow'd. 
 
 For though the seas have leave to ebb and flow, 
 
 The streams of life must always forward go. 
 
 The following reflection is highly beautiful : 
 
 Yet rolling AVON still maintains its stream, 
 Swell'd with the glories of the Roman name : 
 Strange power of Fate ! unshaken moles must waste, 
 While things, that ever more, for ever last ! 
 
 "The vanity of human life/' says Dean Swift, " is 
 like a river, constantly passing away, and yet con- 
 stantly coming on." Addison has a fine illustration 
 from rivers in the last six lines of his Tragedy of 
 Cato. Vid. also a poem in Boethius, Consol. Phi- 
 losop. Lib. v. How beautiful and pathetic too are the 
 following lines !
 
 NOTES. 247 
 
 Through groves sequestered, dark and still, 
 
 Low vales and mossy cells among, 
 In silent paths the careless rill, 
 
 With languid murmurs, steals along. 
 
 Awhile it plays with circling sweep, 
 
 And lingering leaves its native plain, 
 Then pours impetuous down the steep, 
 
 And mingles with the boundless main. 
 
 O ! let my years thus devious glide, 
 , Through silent scenes obscurely calm, 
 Nor wealth, nor strife pollute the tide, 
 Nor honours sanguinary palm. 
 
 When labour tires, and pleasure palls, 
 
 Still let the stream untroubled be, 
 As down the steep of age it falls, 
 
 And mingles with eternity. 
 
 Hatckesworth. 
 
 I)c nil am has a similar thought in Coopers Hill, 
 and Dr. Watts in his Hymn, beginning " O that 
 unfathomable deep i" Blair illustrates the subject 
 of the irresolution, with which even good men some- 
 times contemplate the prospect of eternity, with 
 one of the most picturesque similes in our language. 
 
 So have I seen, upon a summer's eve, 
 Close by the rivulet's brink, a youngster play ; 
 How \\istfully he looks to stem the tide ! 
 This moment resolute, next unresolv'd.
 
 248 NOTES. 
 
 At last he dips his foot ; but, as he dips, 
 His fears redouble, and he runs away 
 From th' inoffensive stream ; unmindful now 
 Of all the flowers, that paint the further bank, 
 And smil'd so sweet of late. 
 
 Blair's Grace. 
 
 Those among the Greeks, who had distinguished 
 themselves as poets, were said to have drank of the 
 waters of Helicon ; those, who had lost their memo- 
 ry, were fabled to have sipt the waters of Lethe, as 
 those, who were accustomed to speak with elegance, 
 were poetically described, as having spoken roses. 
 
 NOTE 9, PAGE 10. 
 
 Most of the festivals of the Arabians were celebrat- 
 ed on the brinks of fountains, and many of the oc- 
 currences, in the sacred writings, occur near wells. 
 Vid. particularly St. John, ch. iv. v. 6. Genesis, ch. 
 xxiv. v. 11. ch. xxix. v. 2. A curious instance of 
 superstition, in regard to the Jenoune, is related by 
 Dr. Shaw, in his Travels in Barbary, p. 121. 
 
 NOTE 10, PAGE 10. 
 
 The custom of dedicating fountains to particular 
 saints prevailed, also, in Scotland. The fountain at 
 Kilmaronock, near Loch Lomond, is dedicated to
 
 NOTES. 249 
 
 St. Maronoch. Vid. Notes to the Lay of the Last 
 Minstrel. Cant. ii. Note 8. 
 
 NOTE 11, PAGE 10. 
 
 The Athenian festivals, called Hydrophoricc, con- 
 sisted principally, in casting vessels into wells, lakes, 
 and rivers. At the fountain of Arethusa, at Syra- 
 cuse, great festivals were celebrated every year. 
 This fountain (the most extraordinary in Europe.), 
 springs at once out of the earth to the size of a ri- 
 ver. Brydone, vol. i. p. 42. Its fabulous history is 
 well told by Ovid, and is thus alluded to by Virgil : 
 
 Sic tibi, cum fliictus subter labere Sicanos, 
 Doris amara suam non iutermisceat imdaui. 
 
 Eel. 10. 
 
 Alpheum fania est hue. Elidis amnem, 
 
 Occultas egisse vias subter mare ; qui uunc 
 Ore, Arethusa, tuo Siculia confunditur undis. 
 
 r~.nt.id. Lib. iii. 
 
 NOTE 12, PAGE 11. 
 
 A curious and incredible story is related of the 
 sacrifices, offered to the river Scamander, by the 
 Trojan virgins. The custom, like that of the Scot- 
 tish maids and lairds, is, however, most happily dis-
 
 250 NOTES. 
 
 continued. Vid. Letters of Oschines, vol. i. p. 125. 
 also, Boyle, Art. Scamander. Fontaine, with his 
 usual naivete, gives the history of this abolishment. 
 
 Ablutions were in frequent practice among the 
 Jews, Greeks, and Romans; several instances of 
 which custom have been pointed out by Bishop 
 Porteus, vid. Sect. xxii. Ajax of Sophocles, Act iii. 
 v. 664. Eneid. Lib. ii. v. 718. Deut. ch. xxi. v. 
 6, 7. Psalm xxvi. v. 6. St. Matthew, ch. xxvii. A 
 remarkable instance is recorded in ii. Kings, ch. v. 
 v. 10. &c. The custom of emerging new-born in- 
 fants in rivers and fountains, was very prevalent in 
 Syria, during the reign of Antiochus ; it prevails 
 too, at the present day, in many parts of India, 
 Turkey, and China. 
 
 NOTE 13, PAGE 11. 
 
 Virgil's description of a Naiad's grot may serve 
 to shew us the general nature of these cool Italian 
 retreats, which, for the most part, were constructed 
 in the living rock : " Pumice vivo : arte laboratum 
 nulla." 
 
 turn Sylvis scena coruscis 
 
 Desuper, horrentique at rum nemug imminct umbra: 
 Fronte sub adversfi. scopulis penden tibus antrum :
 
 NOTES. 251 
 
 Intus aquae dukes, vivoque sedilia saxo ; 
 Nympharum domns. 
 
 En. Lib. i. 1. 168. 
 
 NOTE 14, PAGE 12. 
 
 Mr. Pope describes it with much satisfaction in a 
 letter to Mr. Blount. " It wants nothing," says he, 
 " to complete it, but a good statue with an inscrip- 
 tion, like that beautiful antique one, of which you 
 know I am so fond. 
 
 llujiis Nympha loci, sacri custodia fontis, 
 Dormio, diini blandae sentio murmur aquas. 
 
 Parce meiini , quisquis tangis cava marmora soninum 
 Rumpere, si bibas, sive lavere, tace. 
 
 " Nymph of the grot, these sacred springs I keep, 
 And to the murmur of these waters sleep ; 
 Ah! spare my slumbers, gently tread the cave! 
 And drink in silence, or in silence lave!" 
 
 Mr. Sheridan's poem of " the Grotto" is one of 
 the most elegant elegiac poems in the language. 
 The 4th, 5th, and 6th stanzas have all the ease, ele- 
 gance, and simplicity of Shenstone. 
 
 True, true, silly leaves, so she did, I allow, 
 She frown'd, but no rage in her looks did I see; 
 She frown'd but reflection had clouded her brow; 
 She sighed but perhaps 'twas in pity to me.
 
 252 NOTES. 
 
 Then wave thy leaves brisker, thou willow of woe, 
 
 I tell thee, no rage in her looks could I see; 
 
 I cannot I will uot believe it was so, 
 
 She was not she could not be angry with me. 
 
 For well did she know, that my heart meant no wrong, 
 
 It sunk at the thought but of giving her pain; 
 
 But trusted its tale to a faltering tongue, 
 
 Which trr'd from the feelings it could not explain. 
 
 NOTE, PAGE 17, LINE 6. 
 Statius has a fine passage : 
 
 Sylva capax aevi, validaque incurva senecta, 
 
 JEtemum intonsae frondis, stat pervia nullis 
 
 Solibus. 
 
 Subter opaca quies, vacuusque silentia servat 
 
 Horror, et exclusae pallet mala lucis imago, 
 
 Nee caret umbra Deo. 
 
 Theb. iv. 
 
 See also Mr. Gray's beautiful alcaic ode, Oh tu 
 severi religio loci, fyc. 
 
 NOTE 15, PAGE IS. 
 
 Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein 
 the nations, which ye shall possess, served their 
 gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, 
 and under every green tree, and ye shall burn their 
 groves with fire. Deut. ch. xii. v. 2, 3.
 
 NOTES. 253 
 
 NOTE 16, PAGE 19. 
 
 " Non magis auro fulgentia," says Pliny, " atque 
 ebore, simulachra, quam lucos, et in iis silentia ipsa 
 adoramus." Plin. Nat. Hist. xvi. c. 44. There are 
 two tribes, one in America, and another in Siberia, 
 who suspend the dead bodies of their friends on the 
 arms and boughs of trees. Recherches Philosop. sur 
 les Americ. 140. Esteeming trees more holy, than 
 even consecrated ground. 
 
 NOTE 17, PAGE 20. 
 
 The custom of carrying branches of Palms, on 
 Palm Sunday, is said to have been originally de- 
 rived from the worshippers of Serapis. Origen first 
 introduced it into the service of the church; vid. 
 Epiphanius, Lib. ii. 64. Branches of trees seem to 
 have been, as it were, designed by nature, as in- 
 stinctive emblems of peace. The natives of Aus- 
 tralia del Espiritu Santo invited the friendship of 
 the discoverers by holding branches of Palms in 
 their hands. Vid. Fernand de Quiro's Voyage to 
 Polynesia and Australasia, 156. 1606. When Christ 
 made his entry into Jerusalem, the multitude cut 
 down branches from the trees and strewed them 
 in the way. St. Matthew, ch. xxi. v. 8.
 
 254 NOTES. 
 
 NOTE 18, PAGE 23. 
 
 Vid. Horace, Lib. iii. Od. xxiv. Upon this beau- 
 tiful passage Justin furnishes a faithful commentary. 
 Inter se nulli fines, nee enim agrum exercent, nee domus 
 illis ullce, aut tectum aut sedes est, armenta aut pecora 
 semper pascentibus, et per incultas solitudines errare 
 solitis; uxores liberosque secum in plaustris vehunt, 
 quibus coriis imbrium hyemisque causa tectis, pro do- 
 mibus utuntur. Justitia gentis ingeniis, non legibus. 
 Aurum et argentum non appetunt. Vid. also Hero- 
 dotus, Lib. iv. Virg. Georg. iii. 1. 350. 
 
 NOTE 19, PAGE 26. 
 
 Psalm Ixxv. No poets draw more frequently from 
 the productions of nature, than the sacred writers. 
 Their illustrations from trees are, as we have ob- 
 served, perpetual. They as frequently speak of 
 the Tree of Life as of the River of Life. Their 
 parables are continually alluding to the fig and 
 the vine tree. Vid. Luke, ch. xiii. v. 6. Mark, 
 ch. xiii. v. 28. John, ch. xv. v. 1. See also the 
 parable of the wasted vine in Ezekiel, ch. xix. v. 10; 
 of the two eagles and a vine, ch. xvii. v. 1. : an 
 admirable instance too in Isaiah, ch. xv. ; the pa- 
 rable of the trees and the bramble is well known, 
 vid. Judges, ch. ix. v. 8, as is the celebrated passage
 
 NOTES. 255 
 
 in Isaiah, where the glory of Assyria is compared 
 to a cedar, ch. xxxi. v, 3. Again, where he pro- 
 phesies in respect to the Messiah, " He shall grow 
 up like a tender plant," &c. &c. ch. liii. v. 2, 3. ; 
 see also Ecclesiasticus, ch. 1. v. 7, 8, 10. The fact is, 
 there is scarcely a simile in all the scriptures, that 
 has not an immediate reference to natural objects. 
 How beautiful is that passage in St. John, where 
 Christ says to the woman of Samaria, " Whosoever 
 drinketh of this water shall thirst again ; but who- 
 soever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, 
 shall never thirst." Ch. iv. v. 13, 14. 
 
 Milton furnishes an admirable instance of the 
 use, which the poets can make of trees, by way of 
 illustration : Adam says to Raphael : 
 
 For, while I sit with thee, I seem in heav'n, 
 And sweeter thy discourse is to my ear, 
 Than fruits of palm-tree, pleasantest to thirst 
 And hunger both. 
 
 Quintilian has one of the best similes in the 
 whole range of Roman literature : " Ennium sicut 
 sacros vetustate lucos adoremus, in quibus grandia 
 et antiqua robora jam non tan tarn habent speciem, 
 quantam religionem."
 
 256 NOTES. 
 
 The colorific characters of trees are well marked 
 by Dyer : 
 
 Below me trees unnumbered rise, 
 
 Beautiful in various dyes : 
 
 The gloomy pine ; the poplar, blue ; 
 
 The yellow beech ; the sable yew ; 
 
 The slender fir, that taper grows ; 
 
 The sturdy oak, with broad-spread boughs ; 
 
 And beyond the purple grove, 
 
 Kaunt of Phyllis, queen of love. 
 
 
 Statius, in the 6th Thebaid, gives a description 
 
 of Grecian trees. This passage has been more 
 imitated than any other in Statius. Claudian be- 
 gan the imitation, and it has been continued by 
 Chaucer, Tasso, Drayton and Spenser.* It is not 
 improbable, that Statius himself might have had his 
 eye upon the following passage in Ovid: 
 
 Non Chaonis abfuit arbos, 
 
 Non nemus Heliadum, non frondibus esculus altis : 
 Non tilize molles, non fagns, et innuba laurus, 
 Et coryli fragiles, et fraximis utilis hastis, 
 Enodisque abies, curvataque glandibus ilex, 
 Et platanus genialis, acerque coloribus impar, 
 Amnicolaeque simul salices, & aquatica lotos. 
 
 " Fairy Queen, B. 1. C. 1. st. 8, 9.
 
 NOTES. 257 
 
 NOTE, PAGE 27, LINE 3. 
 
 And yet, beautiful as are most of these poetical 
 illustrations from nature, when they are employed 
 by execrable characters, they are totally out of na- 
 ture. Thus when Clytemnestra compares the blood 
 of her husband, besprinkling her garments, to the 
 soft showers of spring, every one immediately per- 
 ceives the incongruity of the simile, and revolts 
 from the application. 
 
 I struck him twice, and twice 
 He groan'd ; then died ; a third time as he lay 
 I gor'd him with a wound ; a grateful present 
 To the stern God, that in the realms below 
 Reigns o'er the dead; there let him take his seat. 
 He lay : and spouting from his wounds a stream 
 Of blood, bedewed me with these crimson drops. 
 I glory in them, like the genial earth, 
 When the warm showers of Heaven descend and wake 
 The flowerets to unfold their vermeil leaves. 
 
 Potter's JEschylw. 
 
 NOTE, PAGE 29, LINE 11. 
 
 Men have also the same partialities. Virgil was 
 partial to the ash and arbutus ; Orpheus to the 
 cypress ; Cowley to the lime ; Epimenides to the 
 olive; and Alexander to the oak. The Arcadians 
 worshipped the oak; and a crown of oak leave* 
 
 VOL. i.
 
 25S NOTES. 
 
 was the reward of the man, who saved the life of a 
 citizen. The cornell-tree of Romulus was regarded 
 with such veneration, that the Romans enclosed it 
 with a wall, and when any one fancied it began 
 to droop, he proclaimed it in the city, when per- 
 sons from all quarters ran with water vessels to the 
 place. 
 
 When Artaxerxes gave orders to his soldiers to 
 cut down some pine and cypress trees, they refused 
 to touch trees of such immense size and beauty ; 
 upon which, the king took an axe in his own hand 
 and began to cut one of the finest amongst them, 
 upon which the men, no longer hesitating, cut 
 them all down without scruple. Plut. in vit. Ar- 
 taxerxes. 
 
 NOTE 20, PAGE 30. 
 
 The misletoe, which grows on some oak trees, 
 was the object of their profound veneration. In 
 the spring of the year different crowds went in 
 quest of it, On the discovery, the arch-druid was 
 immediately informed ; and, ascending the tree, 
 arrayed in a white surplice, cut it with a pruning 
 knife, and received in his garments this invaluable 
 gift of heaven. Seymour, Vol. i. p. 9. The word 
 Druid is derived from an old Welch word, Dryw,
 
 NOTES. 259 
 
 which signified an oak, and not from Derio, as 
 Johnson supposes. Some there are, who trace it 
 to an Arabic or a Hebrew word, meaning a der- 
 vise; while others refer it to the Celtic, Druidh, 
 signifying a wise man. Druidh, in the Gaelic lan- 
 guage, is a term applied to natural philosophers 
 and magicians. Virgil compares the golden bough, 
 growing on the oak, which Eneas found in the 
 lower regions, to the misletoe. Vid. En. Lib. vi. 
 v. 404. 
 
 NOTE 21, PAGE 32. 
 
 Voyage to Greenland, b. 3. c. 5. 1. 43. Churches, 
 chapels and convents are more frequently situated 
 on hills and on the sides of mountains in Italy, 
 than in vales. In the year 1764 three thousand 
 peasants climbed up Notre Dame de la Niege (said 
 to be the highest elevation in Europe), in order to 
 hear mass in a chapel, erected on that aspiring 
 mountain. The people of Lapland believe the va- 
 pours, which rise from the lake Niemi, and which 
 they call haltios, to be the guardian spirits of the 
 neighbouring mountains. M. de Muupertius. Pil- 
 grims, also, to the amount of eight or ten thousand, 
 resort annually to pay their vows to St. Michael, 
 at Mont St. Michel, rising in the middle of the 
 bay of Avranches. Vid. WraxaVs Journey through 
 France, p. 16. 
 
 s2
 
 260 NOTES. 
 
 NOTE 22, PAGE 32. 
 
 Monte Santo. Vid. Mosheim Institut. Hist. Eccl. 
 y. iii. Xerxes was actuated by the vanity of cutting 
 through Mount Athos. His letter to that moun- 
 tain is sufficiently curious and ridiculous : " Athos, 
 thou proud and aspiring mountain, that liftest thy 
 head unto the heavens, I advise thee not to be so 
 audacious as to put rocks and stones, which cannot 
 be cut, in the way of my workmen. If thou givest 
 them that opposition, I will cut thee entirely down 
 and throw thee headlong into the sea." Eollin, 
 vol. iii. p. 12. This is the mountain, which Phi- 
 dias or Dimocrates (for it is recorded of both) pro- 
 posed to cut into a statue of Alexander, having a 
 city in one hand and a river in the other. The 
 cause of this project's not being put in execution 
 reflects credit upon a man, whose memory justice 
 has consigned to infamy. Upon inquiring whether 
 the lands around would be sufficient for the main- 
 tenance of the city, and finding, that it must be 
 supplied by sea, he commended the ingenuity of 
 the artist's design, but declined the execution. 
 
 NOTE 23, PAGE 33. 
 
 St. Matthew, ch. xvii. v. 4. : Mark, ch. ix. v. 5. : 
 Luke, ch. ix. v. 33. Bishop Porteus, if I may be
 
 NOTES. 261 
 
 permitted to differ from a man, so learned and so 
 excellent, appears to give a wrong interpretation to 
 these words of St. Peter. The word " Tabernacle," 
 as here applied, cannot, from the nature of the sub- 
 ject, be considered, as meaning a tent to dwell in, 
 but as an altar or place of worship. Vid. Porteus's 
 Lectures on St. Matthew. Lect. xv. vol. 2. p. 60. " It 
 is good for us to be here," evidently means, it is 
 right, that we should build altars upon a spot, which 
 has been sanctified by the presence of three such 
 sacred characters. 
 
 NOTE 24, PAGE 36. 
 
 It has been also said, that they enjoy the longest 
 life. If this is not an imaginary distinction, the 
 cause may be attributed to their simplicity of diet. 
 Bufifon, and from him Goldsmith, instances the 
 cases of several of the primitive Christians. Rombald 
 and Arenius lived to the age of 120, St. Epiphanius to 
 115, Simeon to 112, St. Anthony to 105, and James, 
 the Hermit, to 104. 
 
 NOTE 25, PAGE 39. 
 
 " The Andes, which are considered as the lof- 
 tiest mountains in the world, cross the whole conti- 
 nent of America, in a direction from south to north j
 
 262 NOTES. 
 
 for I consider," says Molina, " the mountains in 
 North America as only a continuation of the Cor- 
 dilleras. The part that appertains to Chili may be 
 120 miles in breadth ; it consists of a great number 
 of mountains, all of them of a prodigious height, 
 which appear to be chained to each other ; and 
 where Nature displays all the beauties and all the 
 horrors of the most picturesque situations. Al- 
 though it abounds with frightful precipices, many 
 agreeable valleys and fertile pastures are to be found 
 there ; and the rivers, that derive their sources from 
 the mountains, often exhibit the most pleasing, as 
 well as the most terrifying features." The height 
 of the Chimborazzo is 20,280 feet above the level 
 of the sea, which is 7102 feet higher than Mount 
 Teneriffe. Mount Blanc is 15,662 feet. The ele- 
 vation of Mount Caucasus, Taurus and the Moun- 
 tains of the Moon, have not been accurately ascer- 
 tained. Mount Olympus is ten furlongs and 96 feet 
 above the level of the Adriatic. Vid. Plutarch in 
 vit. MmiL Etna is 10,954, Vesuvius 3,906 feet above 
 the level of the Mediterranean. The highest moun- 
 tain in Scotland is Ben Nevis. We judge of every 
 object by comparison. Boerhaave desired his pupils 
 to observe the majesty of the ridge of hills which 
 skirt the coast of Holland, and he called them 
 mountains ! The inhabitants of the vale of Usk re- 
 gard Pen-y-Voel a mountain ! Others esteem Snow-
 
 NOTES. 263 
 
 don a mountain ! While the traveller, who has 
 climbed the Chimborazzo, regards Snowdon, Ben 
 Nevis, Mount Blanc, and Teneriffe itself, merely 
 as eminences ! 
 
 NOTE 26, PAGE 41. 
 
 In former times, those parts of this district, which 
 are situated beyond the Grampian mountains, were 
 rendered almost inaccessible by strong barriers of 
 rocks and mountains and lakes. It was a border 
 country, and though on the verge of the low country, 
 it was almost totally sequestered from the world, 
 and, as it were, insulated, with respect to society. 
 Graham's Sketches of Scenery in Perthshire, p. 97. 
 
 NOTE 27, PAGE 50. 
 
 " On the point of Mount Lebanon," says Mons. 
 Volney, " the traveller views on every side an 
 horizon without bounds ; while, in clear weather, the 
 sight is lost over the desert, which extends to the 
 Persian gulf, and over the sea, which bathes the 
 coasts of Europe. He seems to command the whole 
 world, while the wandering eye, now surveying the 
 successive chains of Mountains, transports the ima- 
 gination in an instant from Antioch to Jerusalem : 
 and now approaching the surrounding objects, ob-
 
 264 NOTES. 
 
 serves the distant profundity of the coast, till the at- 
 tention, at length fixed by distincter objects, more 
 minutely examines the rocks, woods, torrents, hill- 
 sides, villages and towns ; and the mind secretly ex- 
 ults at the diminution of things, which before ap- 
 peared so great. He contemplates the valley, ob- 
 scured by strong clouds, with a novel delight ; and 
 smiles at hearing the thunder, which had so often 
 burst over his head, growling under his feet ; while 
 the threatening summits of the mountains are di- 
 minished, till they appear only like the furrows of a 
 ploughed field, or the steps of an amphitheatre ; 
 and he feels himself flattered by an elevation above 
 so many great objects, on which pride makes him 
 look down with a secret satisfaction. 
 
 Travels in Egypt and Syria, vol. i. p. 274, 5. 
 
 The Poets are in the constant habit of drawing al- 
 lusions and similes from mountains, in the same 
 manner as from rivers and woods. Thus Sempbro- 
 nius compares Cato to Mount Atlas, as Milton likens 
 Satan to Mount Teneriffe. Vid. Par. Lost, Book i. 
 
 SEMFHRONIUS. 
 
 . Thou hast seen Mount Atlas : 
 
 Whilst storms and tempests thunder on its brows, 
 And oceans break their billows at its feet, 
 It stands unmov'd, and glories in its height ; 
 Such is that haughty man; his towering soul
 
 NOTES. 265 
 
 Midst all the shocks, and injuries of fortune, 
 Rises superior and looks down on Cesar. 
 
 Cato, Act II. Scene I. 
 
 Prior exposes the consummate vanity of man- 
 kind in supposing, that the earth, and all which it 
 contains, was made for them, in the happiest man- 
 ner: 
 
 As well may the minutest emmet say, 
 That Caucasus was raised to pave his way ; 
 The snail, that Lebanon's extended wood 
 Was destin'd only for his work and food. 
 
 Prior's Solomon. 
 
 NOTE, PAGE 51, LINE 2. 
 
 A curious instance of scenerial nationality is re- 
 corded by Mr. Wraxall. Dining, one day, with 
 a gentleman of Zealand, and asking him, whether 
 the country were pleasant and agreeable, " Sir!" 
 replied his host, " on this Isle, there is neither 
 Mountain, nor River ; but as to Lakes, thank God ! 
 we have plenty of them." 
 
 NOTE 28, PAGE 55. 
 
 Gilpin's Observations on the Wye. Among the 
 Chinese, who are superficial even in their en-
 
 266 NOTES. 
 
 deavours to copy nature, the making of rocks is 
 a distinct profession : and " there are/' says Mr. 
 Chambers, " numbers of artificers constantly em- 
 ployed in this business. The stone, they are made 
 of, comes from the southern coast of China ; it is 
 of a bluish cast, and worn into irregular forms by 
 the action of the waves. The Chinese are exceed- 
 ingly nice in the choice of this stone, insomuch, 
 that several tael are given for a bit no bigger than 
 a man's fist, when it happens to be of a beautiful 
 form and lively colour. But these select pieces 
 they use in landscapes for their apartments; in 
 gardens they employ a coarser sort, which they join 
 with a bluish cement, and form rocks of a con- 
 siderable size. Some of these are exquisitely fine, 
 and such as discover an uncommon elegance of taste 
 in the contriver. When they are large they make 
 use of them in caves and grottos, with openings, 
 through which you discover distant prospects. They 
 cover them in different places with trees, shrubs, 
 briers and moss ; placing on their tops little tem- 
 ples, or other buildings, to which you ascend by 
 rugged and irregular steps cut in the rock." All 
 this may be veiy elegant, but it is very con- 
 temptible ! Man may improve the natural beauties 
 of his residence by smoothing and planting, but 
 he can no more make a rock, than he can make 
 a mountain ! and as to artificial grottos and mosaic
 
 NOTES. 267 
 
 pavements ! Away ! away ! replace them with the 
 Bovvers of Calypso ! Vid. Odyss. Lib. x. 63. 
 
 The poets embellish their subjects by frequent 
 references and allusions to rocks: 
 
 Assilit, ut przeceps cnmulo salit unda, minaces 
 
 In scopulos, & fracta redit. 
 
 Statins, Theb. vi. 
 
 Goldsmith has a beautiful simile: 
 
 As some tall cliff, that lifts its awful form, 
 Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm, 
 Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, 
 Eternal sunshine settles on its head. 
 
 Deserted Village. 
 
 NOTE 29, PAGE 60. 
 
 CWM DYR nearly answers to the idea of what 
 Milton calls a Bosky Bourn ; 
 
 1 know each valley green, 
 
 Dingle and bushy dell in this wild wood, 
 And every Busky Bourn from side to side, 
 My daily haunt and ancient neighbourhood. 
 
 Comus. 
 
 Bosky Bourn, derived from two French words, 
 signifying woody and brook, is, as Dr. Warton 
 justly describes, " a narrow, deep and woody val- 
 ley, with a rivulet, running in the midst."
 
 268 NOTES. 
 
 NOTE 30, PAGE 64. 
 
 Comus, from Sir Ph. Sydney's Arcadia. Thomson 
 personifies silence in the last verse of his concluding 
 hymn, 
 
 " Come then, expressive Silence, muse his praise !" 
 
 There is a fine passage in Aaron Hill's Translation 
 of Voltaire's Zayre, where he says the earth ap- 
 pears to listen ; 
 
 Silent and dark 
 
 Tlr unbreathing world is hush'd, as if it heard 
 And listened to your sorrows. 
 
 amplified and improved from the original : 
 Tout dort, tout est tranquille, et 1'ombre de la nuit. 
 
 Shakespeare has a fine contrast in Hamlet, where 
 the Queen, in order to excuse the extravagance of 
 her son, says, 
 
 -This is mere madness ; 
 
 And thus awhile the fit will work upon him : 
 Anon, as patient as the female dove, 
 Ere that her golden couplets are disclos'd, 
 His silence will sit drooping. 
 
 The metaphor is a little involved ; but it will serve, 
 as an example, to prove, that involved metaphors 
 are, in the hands of a master, sometimes highly 
 beautiful and expressive.
 
 NOTES. 269 
 
 NOTE 31, PAGE 65. 
 
 Paradise Lost, Book iv. This appears to have 
 been imitated from several fine passages of the Song 
 of the Three Children, v. 35 to 58. An instance 
 occurs in the second book of Samuel, where David, 
 hearing of the deaths of Saul and Jonathan, in all 
 the nature and with all the fire of passion, bursts 
 into imprecations against the mountains of Gilboa, 
 2 Samuel, ch. i. v. 4. ; see Lady Jane Gray, Act v. 
 sc. 1 . ; Young, Night ix. ; Pope's Messiah ; Lear, 
 Act 3. sc. 1 ; Zanga, Act i. 1. 5. Act 5. sc. 2. 
 Thomson's concluding Hymn affords striking and 
 admirable examples. Instances of this species of 
 prosopopeia may be seen also in Claudian's poem 
 on the consulship of Honorius. Virgil, Eel. v. 
 v. 62. Akenside, too, has an admirable instance: 
 
 Guide my way 
 
 Thro' fair Lyceum's walk, the green retreats 
 Of Academus, and the thymy vale, 
 Where oft enchanted with Socratic sounds, 
 IK ssns pure devolved his tuneful stream 
 111 gentler murmurs. 
 
 Akenside. 
 
 NOTE 32, PAGE 67. 
 
 No slumber is more delightful, than that which 
 is brought on by the mingled sounds of natural
 
 270 NOTES. 
 
 music. Dryden alludes to this lulling power, in 
 his poem of Cymon and Iphigenia. The lovely 
 nymph lies sleeping oh the brink of a river 
 
 " The fanning wind upon her bosom blows, 
 To meet the fanning wind her bosom rose ; 
 The fanning wind and purling stream continue her repose." 
 
 NOTE 33, PAGE 71. 
 Omitted. 
 
 NOTE 34, PAGE 75. 
 
 The prolusion of Strada, in which he relates the 
 contest between a lutanist and a nightingale, is as 
 beautiful as his account of the two sympathetic 
 needles, alluded to by Akenside. 
 
 Alternat mira arte fides, dnm torquet acutas 
 Inciditque graves operoso verbere pnlsat 
 Jamque manu per fila volat : simul hos, simul illos 
 Explorat numeros, chordaque laborat in omni. 
 Mox silet. Ilia modis totidem respondit, et artem 
 Arte refert ; nunc ceu nulls, aut inrerta caneudi, 
 Praebet iter liquidum labenti e pertore voci, 
 Nunc caesini varint, modnlisque canora minutis 
 Delibrat voceni, tremuloque reciprocal ore. 
 
 Strada, Prolus. Acad. Lib. ii. Prol. 6.
 
 NOTES. 271 
 
 NOTE 35, PAGE 76. 
 
 A curious reason for preferring the modulation 
 of birds to the music of instruments is given in 
 the life of Gassendi : the occasional effect of the 
 latter upon the nerves is faithfully described: 
 Prcehabebat porro vocibus humanis, instrumentisquc 
 harmonicis, musicam illam avium : non quod alia quo- 
 que non delectaretur ; sed quod ex musica humana 
 relinqueretur in animo eontinens qu&dam, attentio- 
 nemque et somnum conturbans agitatio; dum ascensus, 
 exscensus, tenores, et mutationes illce sonorum, et con- 
 sonantiarum euntque redeuntque per phantasiam: cum 
 nihil tale relinqui possit ex modulationibus avium, qua, 
 quod non sunt perinde a nobis imitabiles, non possunt 
 perinde internam facultatem commovere. 
 
 NOTE 36, PAGE 77. 
 
 In another place he says, that Man learned music 
 from the language of birds : 
 
 At liquidas avium voces imitarier ore 
 Ante fuit multo, qnam laevia carmina cantu 
 Concelebrare homines possent, aureisque jnvare. 
 
 Lib. v. 1379. 
 
 Handel has endeavoured to imitate many of those 
 rural sounds with the happiest effect. " The mur-
 
 272 NOTES. 
 
 mur of groves and waters," as Dr. Beattie has re- 
 marked, " he has expressed by the accompaniment 
 of tenors ; in the song, 
 
 " On a plat of rising ground, 
 I hear the far-off curfew sound, 
 Over some wide-water'd shore, 
 Swinging slow with sullen roar :" 
 
 He makes the bass imitate the evening bell: in 
 another fine song, 
 
 " Hush, ye pretty warbling choir," 
 
 he accompanies the voice with a flagelet, that 
 imitates the singing of birds : in the song of 
 
 " Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise of folly," 
 
 the chief accompaniment is a German flute, imi- 
 tating occasionally the notes of the nightingale. 
 Vid. Essays on Poetry and Music, Part I. ch. vi. 1. 
 No one, that has heard Mrs. Billington sing the 
 last of these airs, but acknowledges, that the human 
 voice is, of all music, the most exquisite and most 
 touching.
 
 NOTES. 273 
 
 NOTE 37, PAGE 80. 
 
 The Highlands, says Dr. Beattie, are a pictu- 
 resque, but melancholy country. Long tracts of 
 mountainous deserts, covered with dark heath and 
 often obscured by misty weather; narrow valleys, 
 thinly inhabited, and bounded by precipices, re- 
 sounding with the fall of torrents ; a soil so rugged 
 and a climate so dreary, as in many parts to ad- 
 mit neither the amusements of pasturage, nor the 
 labours of agriculture. The mournful dashing of 
 the waves along the friths and lakes that intersect 
 the country, the portentous noises, which every 
 change of the wind and every increasing and dimi- 
 nishing of the waters are apt to raise, in a lonely 
 region, full of echoes and rocks and caverns; the 
 grotesque appearance of such a landscape, by the 
 light of the moon ; objects like these diffuse a 
 gloom over the fancy, which may be compatible 
 enough with occasional and social merriment, but 
 cannot fail to tincture the thoughts of a native in 
 the hour of silence and solitude. Most of their 
 superstitions are of a melancholy cast. That second 
 sight,* wherewith some are supposed to be haunted, 
 
 * An express Treatise has been written on this subject by 
 the Rev. Dean Fraser, entitled AEy7tpo<rx<wna. Mrs. Grant 
 has lately published observations on the superstitions of the 
 
 High- 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 NOTES. 
 
 is considered by themselves as a misfortune, on 
 account of the many dreadful images it is said to 
 obtrude upon the fancy. I have been told, that 
 the inhabitants of some of the Alpine regions do 
 likewise lay claim to a sort of second sight j nor is 
 it wonderful, that persons of a lively imagination, 
 immured in deep solitude, and surrounded with 
 the stupendous scenes of clouds, precipices and tor- 
 rents, should dream, even when they think them- 
 selves awake, of those few striking ideas, with which 
 their lonely lives are diversified, of corpses, funeral 
 processions, and other objects of terror ; or of mar- 
 riages, and arrival of friends and strangers, and 
 such like matters of agreeable curiosity. Seattle's 
 Conjectures on some peculiarities of National Music. 
 
 NOTE 38, PAGE 83. 
 
 Mount Pilate, in Switzerland, affords a singular 
 phenomenon. " At the elevation of five thousand 
 feet," says Archdeacon Coxe, " and in the most 
 perpendicular part of the mountain, is observed in 
 the middle of a cavern, hollowed in a black rock, 
 a colossal statue of white stone. It is the figure 
 
 Highlanders ; a work, which we may consider, in some de- 
 gree, an amplification of Collins's Ode, Makenzie's Inser- 
 tion and Erskine's Additional Stanzas.
 
 NOTES. 275 
 
 of a man in drapery, leaning on a pedestal, with 
 one leg crossed over the other, and so regularly 
 formed, that it cannot be a Lusus Naturcc, and yet 
 it is absolutely inaccessible. This statue is called 
 " Dominic" by the peasants, who frequently accost 
 it from the only place in which it is to be seen, 
 and when their voices are echoed from the cavern, 
 they say, in the simplicity of their hearts, " Do- 
 minic has answered us." Coxe's Travels in Switzer- 
 land, p. 248. 
 
 NOTE 39, PAGE 84. 
 
 There is an Echo near Milan, which is said to 
 report fifty-six times. It is described by Father 
 Kircher and Bartolin. Dionysius's Ear, in the Isle 
 of Sicily, has a remarkable echo, and a curious 
 one is, also, heard in the great church at Agri- 
 gentum, which was the occasion of many singular 
 disclosures of confessions in that city, till the secret 
 was discovered. Vid. Brydone's Travels, p. 52. It 
 has been said, that no art can make an echo, the 
 instance of Dionysius's Ear invalidates the assertion. 
 
 Vane, quid affectas faciem mihi ponere, pictor? 
 
 Aeris et lingua- sum filia : 
 
 Et, si vis siniilem pingere, pinge Somim. 
 
 Auwnius.
 
 276 NOTES. 
 
 NOTE 40, PAGE 87. 
 
 Many of those, mentioned by Livy, may be ac- 
 counted for in this manner, particularly as our 
 supposition, that those hills had echoes, is con- 
 firmed by Horace. Od. xx. 
 
 Visi etiam audire voccm ingentem ex summi cacuminis 
 luco. Liv. Lib. i. c. 31. 
 
 Templo sospitae Junonis nocte ingentem spreditum exor- 
 tum. Lib. 31. c. 12. 
 
 Spreta vox de ccelo emissa. Lib. 31. c. 32. 
 
 Sileotio proximo: uoctis ea Sylva Arsia ingentem editam 
 vocem. Lib. 2. c. 7. Vid. Montesquieu de Ec/io. 
 
 NOTE 41, PAGE 89. 
 
 In the visits of the Orientals, it is usual for a 
 slave to hold a silver plate to each guest, in which 
 they burn aloes and other odoriferous gums ; each 
 guest also perfumes Ms hands, his head and his 
 beard with rose-water. A custom of this sort ob- 
 tained in Greece. 
 
 NOTE 42, PAGE 95. 
 
 Da sacro cineri flores Hie ille Maroni 
 Sincerus mnsa, proximus ut tuinnlo.
 
 NOTES. 277 
 
 Shakespeare describes it as being prevalent at 
 Verona. Vid. Romeo and Juliet, Act IV. Scene 4. ; 
 Act V. Scene 4. St. Ambrose says in his funeral 
 Oration of Valentinian : " Nee ego Jloribus tumu- 
 lum ejus asperagam, sed spiritum ejus Christi odore 
 perfundam ; spargant alii plenis lilia calathis ; nobis 
 lilium est Christus, hoc reliquias ejus sacrato." Am- 
 bros. Orat. Funebri de obitu Valentin. St. Jerome, 
 also, in his Letter to Pammachius, on the Death of 
 his Wife : " While other husbands strewed violets 
 and roses and purple flowers on the graves of their 
 wives, you, Pammachius, bedewed her ashes with 
 the balsam of charity/' Hierom. Epist. ad Pam- 
 maeh. de obitu Uxoris, 
 
 NOTE 43, PAGE 96. 
 
 Lord Macartney's Embassy to China, vol. ii. 
 Mr. Bell informs us, that the suburbs of Pekin are 
 beautifully interspersed with burial-grounds, in 
 which are planted cypress and various kinds of 
 evergreens. Bell's Journey from St. Petcrsburgft to. 
 Pekin. 
 
 The burying-fields of Turkey are, generally, very 
 extensive : " Those about Constantinople," says 
 Lady Montague, " are certainly much larger, than 
 the whole city. It is surprising what a vast deal of
 
 278 NOTES. 
 
 land is lost this way in Turkey. Sometimes I have 
 seen burying-places of several miles, belonging to 
 very inconsiderable villages, which were formerly 
 great towns, and retain no other mark of their an- 
 cient grandeur, than this dismal one. On no ac- 
 count do they remove a stone, that serves for a 
 monument. The ladies have a simple pillar, with- 
 out other ornament, except those, that die unmarri- 
 ed, who have a rose at the top of their monument. The 
 sepulchres of great families are railed in and planted 
 round with trees. Lady M. W. Montague's Travels. 
 One of the churchyards in Madrid forms a square ; 
 it stands upon an eminence and is railed round; 
 " A rivulet runs through the middle of it," says a 
 French Traveller ; " and the ground is covered with 
 violets, jessamine, roses and other flowers, that 
 grow spontaneously. The whole shaded by apple 
 trees. The trees, rivulet, and shade, the beauty of 
 the flowers, and the smell of the roses, all remind 
 me of the gardens, the delicious bowers and happy 
 plains of Elysium." 
 
 NOTE 44, PAGE 97. 
 
 Cymbeline, Act IV. Scene 4. Were Shakespeare 
 always accurate in costume, and never guilty of 
 anachronisms, we might be led to suppose the prac- 
 tice was once prevalent in Denmark and Bohemia.
 
 NOTES. 279 
 
 Vid. Hamlet, Act V. Scene 1 ; Winter's Tale, Act I. 
 Scene 3. The custom is frequently alluded to by 
 the poets. See Giffard's Elegy " I wish I was 
 where Anna lies," and Chatterton's Dirge of " O 
 sing unto my Roundelay." In allusion to the prac- 
 tice, Voltaire, speaking of Mons. de Formont of 
 Normandy, says, " The flowers, which I have been 
 strewing over the grave of our friend, are dry and 
 faded, like myself; age deadens every faculty ; my 
 genius is declining." Delices, Jan. 12, 1759. 
 
 NOTE 45, PAGE 98. 
 
 The same idea occurs in Ausonius, Idyl. 14. 
 Theocritus, Idyl. 23. Orlando Furioso, Book x. ; and 
 how exquisitely beautiful is the following simile of 
 Catullus, nearly allied to the same subject : 
 
 Ut Flos in septis secrettis nascitnr hortis, 
 Ignutus pecori, nullo contnsns aratro, 
 Quern tnulcent aurae, firmat sol, educat imber : 
 Multi ilium pueri, imiltiv optavere puellae. 
 Idem quiim tenui carptus deflornit nngui, 
 N ul li ilium pueri, nullae optavere puellae : 
 Si virgo dura intacta manet, turn cara suis, scd, 
 Qunm castum amisit polluto corpore florem, 
 Nee pueris jucunda manet, nee cara puellis. 
 
 Carmen Nuptiale.
 
 2SO NOTES. 
 
 The celebrated Song of Sappho, beginning 
 " Ah ! virgin bloom, ah I whither art thou gone?" 
 
 was generally sung, by the young women of Sparta, 
 among their flowers and gardens. 
 
 When Mr. Hanway was in Persia, he observed 
 on a monument at Balfrush, which was erected over 
 the wife of Mahomet Khan, an Epitaph, compar- 
 ing life to a flower, " that blossoms in the spring, 
 attains the full lustre of beauty in summer, withers 
 in the autumn, and dies in winter." 
 
 travels in Persia. 
 
 Pope alludes to this shortness of beauty, and 
 takes occasion to offer a fine compliment to his 
 friend Jervas, the painter : 
 
 Beauty, frail flower that every season fears, 
 Blooms in thy colours for a thousand years. 
 
 NOTE 46, PAGE 102. 
 
 On the top of Ben More, a vast and irregular 
 pyramid, the sole inhabitant of which is the eagle, 
 Dr. Macnight observed these aerial tintings. He 
 reached the summit in the afternoon. " And here/' 
 says he, " it is not easy to imagine a view more
 
 NOTES. 281 
 
 truly striking, than what we beheld, like a scene of 
 enchantment, which the few last steps of our ascent 
 had spread instantaneously before the eye. The 
 wind had now died away into a gentle breeze ; the 
 sky was clear, and the weather delightful. In this 
 state of the atmosphere, the first objects, that ar- 
 rested the attention were the colours around the set- 
 ting sun. As they appeared in nature from such a 
 height, these colours were so vivid, that any at- 
 tempt to convey an idea of their beauty, by the 
 most brilliant pencil or animated description, with- 
 out the aid of actual sensation, would be hopeless. 
 They had, in truth, the richness and blaze of an 
 Italian sky ; and the rays of the evening sun, thus 
 refracted into all the variety of irridescent hues, 
 dashing horizontally, with the finest effects of light 
 and shade, amongst the innumerable conical sum- 
 mits, which stand to the west, threw over the land- 
 scape an exquisite finish of glow and splendour." 
 Dr. Macnight on the Mineralogy of certain Districts 
 of the Highlands of Scotland. 
 
 The sky at Malta is beautiful after sunset. The 
 eastern part of the horizon appears of a rich deep 
 purple, and the western in the true yellow glow of 
 Claude Lorraine. Vid. Brydone's Tour through Si- 
 cily and Malta, p. 48.
 
 282 NOTES. 
 
 While in Africa, Vaillant was frequently charmed 
 to ecstasy at the various colours which the sky as- 
 sumed at the setting of the sun, particularly on the 
 sides of the Table Mountain, near the Cape of Good 
 Hope. Vid. Vaillant , vol. i. p. 50. 
 
 Bloomfield describes the appearances of clouds, 
 of a fine moonlight night, in a manner worthy 
 the pen of Virgil : 
 
 Low on the utmost bound'ry of the sight, 
 The rising vapours catch the silver light ; 
 Thence fancy measures, as they parting fly, 
 Which first will throw its shadow on the eye, 
 Passing the source of light; and thence away, 
 Succeeded quick by brighter still than they. 
 For yet above these wafted clouds are seen 
 (In a remoter sky, still more serene) 
 Others, detached in ranges thro' the air, 
 Sptit less as snow, and countless as they're fair; 
 Scatter'd immensely wide from east to ivcst, 
 The beauteous semblance of a flock at rest. 
 These, to the raptur'd mind, aloud proclaim 
 Their MIGHTY SHEPHERD'S EVERLASTING NAME. 
 Bloomfteld's Winter, I. 249. 
 
 NOTE 47, PAGE 103. 
 
 It would seem, also, that the influence of the 
 moon upon the tides was not absolutely unknown 
 to them. Vid. Lucan. Pharsal. Lib. i. /. 413. Clau-
 
 NOTES. 283 
 
 dian de sexto Consul. Honor. Virgil was not igno- 
 rant of the circulation of blood in plants ; nor were 
 the ancient physicians unacquainted with the circu- 
 lation of blood in animals. Perrault labours under 
 an error therefore when he says, 
 
 Ignoroit jusqu' aux routes certaines 
 
 Du meandre vivant qui coule dans les veincs. 
 
 The causes of Eclipses, too, were known to Dion, 
 Pericles, and Sulpitius Severus. Vid. Livy, P/w- 
 tarch, in vit. Dion et Pericles. 
 
 NOTE 48, PAGE 104. 
 
 One of the glories, which are said to surround the 
 throne of heaven, is a rainbow, like an emerald. 
 Vid. Apocalypse, ch. iv. v. 3. and one of Guido's 
 most beautiful pieces represents the virgin and in- 
 fant sitting on a rainbow. " Videmus," says Se- 
 neca, " in Iride aliquid flammei, aliquid lutei, 
 aliquid coerulei, et alia in Picturae modum subtilibus 
 lineis ducta, ut ait Poeta ; ut an dissimiles colores 
 sint, scire non possis, nisi cum primis extrema con- 
 tuleris ; usque adeo mira arte naturae, quod a similli- 
 mis ccepit in dissimilia desinit. Seneca. Nat. Qucest. 
 Lib. 1. cap. 3. The harmonious gradation of co- 
 lours, to which Seneca alludes, is illustrated by a
 
 284 NOTES. 
 
 passage in Philostratus. Icon. Lib. I.e. Pise. Shake- 
 speare is the only writer, that has alluded to the 
 colours, which are reflected on the eye, when it is 
 suffused with tears. 
 
 NOTE 49, PAGE 105. 
 
 A singular phenomenon presents itself at the 
 cataract of Terni. It is thus described by Kotze- 
 bue, in his travels in Italy. " From a perpendi- 
 cular height of two hundred feet, the whole cur- 
 rent of the Velino precipitates itself among the 
 craggy rocks beneath, and the scene, which it there 
 presents, is not a subject either for the pencil or the 
 pen. Your eye is fixed, your ear is stunned, the 
 ground, on which you stand, shakes incessantly; 
 terror almost seizes you, and obliges you to tremble. 
 But a spectacle, delightful, enchanting and unparal- 
 leled, rivets your attention ; you perceive a rainbow 
 A bow did I say? A circle, Yes, you perceive a 
 whole variegated circle, over-arching the fall, and 
 so nearly uniting at the bottom, that not above a 
 twelfth part of its circumference is wanting at the 
 base. This phenomenon is like enchantment. We 
 are so accustomed to see, in the finest rainbows, at 
 most a semicircle, that we are lost in astonishment 
 at this spectacle : And what colours ! such as Iris 
 never painted in the firmament. They all burn ; it
 
 NOTES. 285 
 
 is an artificial fire-work in the midst of the water. 
 But this is not enough. Nature seems to delight in 
 surprising your senses with new wonders: the cir- 
 cle is suddenly reflected on the right and the left; 
 you see four arches at the same time, and the co- 
 lours of these very reflections are as vivid, as those 
 usually exhibited elsewhere by the finest rainbows. 
 The waterfall of Terni is truly beautiful, but infi- 
 nitely more beautiful is the rainbow of Terni, and 
 the recollection of its being a sign of the covenant, 
 between God and man, must be strongest on this 
 spot. I left it with a sentiment of profound melan- 
 choly, and shall remember it with transport as long 
 as I live. It is one of the objects, which will indeli- 
 bly impress on my mind the recollection of Italy : 
 the flaming Vesuvius; the subterraneous Pompeii; 
 and the rainbow of Terni." It is curious, that no 
 ancient writer should have mentioned this cataract- 
 A rainbow, similar though differing in degree to 
 the one above described, has been observed at the 
 celebrated fall of Staubbach, in the bosom of the 
 Alps. The prismatic tints, which were reflected by 
 the artificial water-works at Versailles and Meudon 
 in France, and in the Gardens of St. Ildefonso, near 
 Madrid, were the principal charms of those artificial 
 attempts at creating beauty. 
 
 The rainbow in Greenland, is frequently different
 
 286 NOTES. 
 
 from ours. Its colour is a pale white, fringed with 
 a brownish yellow. This arises from the rays of the 
 sun being reflected from a frozen cloud. Aristotle 
 was the first, who observed or rather described the 
 Lunar rainbow. Perhaps the most beautiful one 
 ^ver seen in this country, and of the longest conti- 
 nuance, was observed by several friends and myself, 
 directly forming an arch over the vale of Usk. It 
 began to exhibit itself about ten minutes past ten at 
 night, and finished about five or six minutes before 
 twelve. Ulloa gives a curious account of circular 
 rainbows, which he saw on the mountain of Pamba- 
 marca, at Quito in Peru. Vid. Ulloa, vol. i. p. 161. 
 
 NOTE 50, PAGE 105. 
 
 Speaking of the Aurora Borealis, Mrs. Rowe, 
 beautiful, elegant, and virtuous ! has the following 
 passage in one of her letters. " The skies seemed all in 
 a glorious confusion. I must own the novelty of the 
 scene pleased me beyond the regular beauty of the 
 moon and stars. When time has run his course, 
 such a glittering disorder perhaps, will be the pre- 
 lude to the general dissolution of Nature." Lett. 
 xxiii. p. 61.
 
 NOTES. 3S7 
 
 NOTE 51, PAGE 109. 
 
 Mons. Houel attributes this singular appearance 
 to a bitumen, that issues from certain rocks at the 
 bottom of the sea. " The subtle parts of this bitu- 
 men being attenuated, combined, and exhaled from 
 the aqueous globules, that are raised by the air and 
 formed into bodies of vapour, give to this condensed 
 vapour more consistence ; and contribute by their 
 smooth and polished particles to the formation of a 
 kind of aerial crystal, which receives the light, re- 
 flects it to the eye, and transmits it to all the lumi- 
 nous points, which colour the objects, exhibited in 
 this phenomenon and render them visible/' Mons. 
 Houel. 
 
 A phenomenon, similar in effect, is observed fre- 
 quently in Greenland. " Nothing," says Crantz, 
 " ever surprised me more, than, on a fine summer's 
 day, to perceive the Islands, that lie four leagues 
 west of our shore, putting on a form quite different 
 from what they are known to have. As I stood 
 gazing upon them they appeared at first, infinitely 
 greater than what they naturally are ; and seemed 
 as if I viewed them through a large magnifying 
 glass. They were not only thus made larger, but 
 brought nearer to me. I plainly described every 
 stone upon the land, and ail the furrows filled with
 
 288 NOTES. 
 
 ice, as if I stood close by. When this illusion lasted 
 for a while, the prospect seemed to break up, and 
 a new scene of wonder to present itself. The 
 Islands seemed to travel to the shore, and represent- 
 ed a wood, or a tall cut hedge. The scene then shift- 
 ed, and showed the appearance of all sorts of curious 
 figures; as ships with sails, streamers and flags; 
 antique elevated castles, with decayed turrets ; and 
 a thousand forms, for which fancy found a resem- 
 blance in nature. When the eye had been satisfied 
 with gazing, the whole group of riches seemed to 
 rise in air, and, at length, vanish into nothing. At 
 such times the weather is quite serene and clear; 
 but compressed with such subtle vapours, as it is in 
 very hot weather ; and these appearing between the 
 eye and the object, give it all that variety of appear- 
 ances, which glasses of different refrangibilities 
 would have done." Crantz's Hist. Greenland. These 
 delusions are not unfrequent on high mountains, 
 and Ulloa informs us, that the images of travellers 
 are reflected on a cloud, as if it were a mirror. 
 
 NOTE 52, PAGE 113. 
 
 Not without sufficient colour of probability has it 
 been conjectured, that Milton, while writing this 
 beautiful Invitation, turned his mental eye to that 
 exquisite passage in the Song of Solomon, where the
 
 NOTES. 289 
 
 poet imagines his mistress to suppose her lover de- 
 siring her to arise and accompany him into the 
 fields. " My beloved spake, and said unto me, rise 
 up, my love, my fair one, and come away : for lo ! 
 the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the 
 flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing 
 birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in 
 our land. The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, 
 and the vines, with the tender grape, give a good 
 smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away." 
 
 NOTE 53, PACE 115. 
 
 Alcoran, p. 204, 410, 433. Before the time of 
 Mahomet, the Arabians imagined, that the same 
 wants and passions of their earthly existence would 
 accompany them into that of the future. They be- 
 lieved also, like the " untutored Indian," that even 
 their favourite animals would accompany them. 
 Millii Dissertat : de Moham. i. 14. Mr. Hughes, in 
 his interesting play of the Siege of Damascus, thus 
 faithfully describes the raptures of a Mahometan 
 paradise. 
 
 Who falls in fight yet meets the prize above, 
 There in the gardens of eternal spring, 
 While birds of Paradise around you sing, 
 Each with his blooming beauty by his side, 
 VOL. i. u
 
 290 NOTES. 
 
 Shall drink rich wines, that in fall rivers glide, 
 Breathe fragrant gales o'er fields of spice, that blow, 
 And gather fruits immortal as they grow ; 
 Ecstatic bliss shall your whole powers employ, 
 And every sense be lost in every joy. 
 
 Siege of Damascus, Act* iii. 
 
 NOTE 54, PAGE 1 18. 
 
 " There appeared to me/' says Mirza, " A vast 
 ocean, planted with innumerable Islands, that were 
 covered with fruits and flowers, and interwoven with 
 a thousand little shining seas, that ran among them. 
 I could see persons, dressed in'glorious habits, with 
 garlands upon their heads, passing among the trees, 
 lying down by the sides of fountains, or resting on 
 beds of flowers ; and could hear a confused harmo- 
 ny of singing birds, falling waters, human voices, 
 and musical instruments. Gladness grew in me 
 upon the discovery of so delightful a scene. I wish- 
 ed for the wings of an eagle, that I might fly away 
 to those happy seats; but the genius told me, there 
 was no passage to them, except through the gates of 
 death, that I saw opening every moment upon the 
 bridge. " The Islands/' said he, " that lie so fresh 
 and green before thee, and covered with which the 
 whole face of the ocean appears spotted, as far as 
 thou canst see, are more in number, than the sand? 
 of the sea shore j there are myriads of Islands be-
 
 NOTES. 291 
 
 hind those, which thou here discernest, reaching 
 farther than thine eye, or even thy imagination can 
 extend itself. These are the mansions of good men 
 after death, who, according to the degrees and kinds 
 of virtue, in which they excelled, are distributed 
 among these Islands, suitable to the relishes and per- 
 fections of those, who are settled in them ; every Is- 
 land is a paradise accommodated to its respective 
 inhabitants." 
 
 There is a tribe of America, who believe, that the 
 souls of good men are conveyed to a pleasant valley, 
 abounding in guavas and other delicious fruits. 
 Rogers, Herera. b. iii. 3. The heaven of the Celts 
 was called Flath-innis, " the Island of the good and 
 brave;" Their hell, Ifurin, " the Island of Cold Cli- 
 mate." The Druids, as we are informed by Am- 
 mianus Marcellinus, believed, that the souls of good 
 men were wafted, in progressive course, from planet 
 to planet, enjoying at every successive change a 
 more sublime felicity than in the last. 
 
 The following account of the happiness, which 
 one of the tribes of Africa expect in a future 
 life, was derived from Addison, vid. Spect. 600. 
 " Their notion of heaven is, that every thing, we 
 there wish for, will be immediately gratified. We 
 find, say they, that our souls are of such a nature,
 
 292 NOTES. 
 
 that they require variety, and are not capable of 
 being always delighted with the same objects. The 
 Supreme Being, therefore, in compliance with this 
 taste of happiness, which he has implanted in the 
 soul of man, will raise up from time to time every 
 gratification, which it is in the humour to be pleas- 
 ed with. If we wish to be in groves or bowers, 
 among running streams, or falls of water, we shall 
 immediately find ourselves in the midst of such a 
 scene as we desire. If we would be entertained 
 with music and the melody of sounds, the concert 
 arises upon our wish, and the whole region about 
 us is filled with harmony/' 
 
 NOTE 55, PAGE 119. 
 
 Lucan places these islands in Cyrene. Phars. ix. 
 Orland. Furios. Cant. xv. Plutarch gives the fol- 
 lowing description of them : " They are two in 
 number, separated only by a narrow channel, and 
 are at the distance of ten thousand furlongs from 
 the African coast. They are called the Fortunate 
 Islands. Rain seldom falls there, and, when it does, 
 it falls moderately: but they generally have soft 
 breezes, which scatter such rich dews, that the soil 
 is not only good for sowing and planting, but spon- 
 taneously produces the most excellent fruits, and 
 those in such abundance, that the inhabitants have
 
 NOTES. 293 
 
 nothing more to do, than to indulge themselves in the 
 enjoyment of ease. The air is always pleasant and 
 salubrious, through the happy temperature of the 
 seasons, and their insensible transition into each 
 other. For the north and east winds, which blow 
 from our continent, in the immense track they have 
 to pass, are dissipated and lost ; while the sea winds 
 bring with them slight and gentle showers, but 
 oftener only a refreshing moisture, which imper- 
 ceptibly scatters plenty on their plains : so that it 
 is generally believed, even among the barbarians, 
 that these are the Elysian Fields, and the Seats of 
 the Blessed, which Homer has described in all the 
 charms of verse." (Odyss. iv.) Plutarch. 
 
 NOTE 56, PAGE 122. 
 
 " I had been for many years familiar with all 
 that nature is capable of producing in her sublimest 
 works/' says Mons. Zimmermann, whose essay on 
 the influence of solitude upon the mind and heart, 
 is an honour to his country, " when I first saw a 
 garden in the vicinity of Hanover, and another, 
 upon a much larger scale, at Marienwerder, about 
 three miles distant, cultivated in the English style of 
 rural ornament. I was not then apprized of the 
 extent of that art, which sports with the most un- 
 grateful soil, and, by a new species of creation,
 
 294 NOTES. 
 
 converts barren mountains into fertile fields and 
 smiling landscapes. This magic art makes an as- 
 tonishing impression on the mind, and captivates 
 every heart, not insensible to the delights of culti- 
 vated nature. I cannot recollect, without shedding 
 tears of gratitude and joy, a single day of this early 
 part of my residence at Hanover, when, torn from 
 the bosom of my country, from the embraces of 
 my family, and from every thing, that I held dear 
 in life, my mind, on entering the little garden of 
 my deceased friend, M. de Hinuber, near Hanover, 
 immediately revived, and forgot, for the moment' 
 both my country and my grief. The charm was 
 new to me. I had no conception, that it was pos- 
 sible, upon so small a plot of ground, to introduce 
 at once the enchanting variety and the noble sim- 
 plicity of nature. But I was then convinced, that 
 her aspect alone is sufficient, at first view, to heal 
 the wounded feelings of the heart, to fill the bosom 
 with the highest luxury, and to create those senti- 
 ments in the mind, which can, of all others, render 
 life desirable." 
 
 NOTE 57, PAGE 124. 
 
 For a description of the manner, in which he 
 passed his time in this island, vid. Les Reveries 
 Promenade, 5, 6, 7. After residing a short time in
 
 NOTES. 295 
 
 this retreat, in a manner delightful to his imagina- 
 tion, he unexpectedly received a peremptory order 
 from the government of Bern to quit the island. 
 Upon receiving the order, finding that fortune was 
 his irreconcilable enemy, he gave himself up to 
 despair, and petitioned, with all the ardour of a 
 disordered mind, to be condemned to perpetual 
 imprisonment ! The only indulgence, he required, 
 was, to be allowed the use of books, and to be per- 
 mitted, at certain intervals, to walk in the open 
 air ! Quidjlebis ? 
 
 NOTE 58, PAGE 127. 
 
 This is the highest mountain of the Pyrenees, 
 and is 1,900 fathoms above the level of the sea. 
 
 Who, that from Alpine heights, his labouring eye, 
 Shoots round the wide horizon, to survey 
 The Nile or Ganges roll his wasteful tide 
 Through mountains, plains, through empires black with 
 
 shade, 
 
 And continents of sand, will turn his gaze 
 To mark the windings of a scanty rill, 
 That murmurs at his feet? 
 
 Pleasures of Imagination.
 
 296 NOTES. 
 
 NOTE 59, PAGE 132. 
 
 In the great market-place of Mexico, says Baron 
 de Humboldt, the native sells no peaches, no ana- 
 nas, nor root, nor pulgne without having his shop 
 ornamented with flowers, which are every day re- 
 newed. The Indian merchant appears seated in an 
 entrenchment of verdure. A hedge, of a metre in 
 height, formed of fresh herbs, particularly of Gra- 
 mina, with delicate leaves, surrounds, like a semi- 
 circular wall, the fruits offered to public sale. The 
 bottom of a smooth green is divided by garlands of 
 flowers, which run parallel with one another. Small 
 nosegays, placed symmetrically between the fes- 
 toons, give to this enclosure the appearance of a 
 carpet strewed with flowers. The European, who 
 delights in studying customs of the lower people, 
 cannot help being struck with the care and elegance 
 the natives display in distributing the fruits, which 
 they sell in small cages of light wood. The sapo- 
 tilles, the mammea, pears and raisins occupy the 
 bottom, while the top is ornamented with odorife- 
 rous flowers. This art of entwining flowers had its 
 origin, perhaps, in that happy period, when long 
 before the introduction of inhuman rites, the first 
 inhabitants of Anahuac, like the Peruvians, offered 
 up to the Great Spirit, Teotil, the first fruits of 
 their harvests.
 
 NOTES. 297 
 
 NOTE, PAGE 137, LINE 11. 
 
 The science of agriculture was much cultivated 
 by the Persians, and, as Rollin justly observes, those 
 Satrapae, whose Provinces were the best cultivated 
 had the best and surest claims to the favour of their 
 Prince. Vid. Rollin on the manners of the Assyrians 
 and Persians, Anc. Hist. vol. ii. p. 283. 
 
 To neglect the cultivation of a farm in Ancient 
 Italy, was esteemed an offence, cognizable by the 
 Censor, Censorium Probum. 
 
 NOTE, PAGE 138, LINE 8. 
 
 Howel compared the Republic of Lucca in 1621 
 to a hive of Bees. Letter xli. Tasso has a beauti- 
 ful idea, Aminta, act ii. sc. 2. taken from Achilles 
 Tatius. Lib. ii. c. 5. " Soft sounds spread along 
 the wood/' says Ossian ; " the silent valleys of the 
 night rejoice, so, when he sits in the silence of the 
 day, in the valley of his breeze, the humming of 
 the mountain bee comes to Ossian's ear : the gale 
 drowns it in his course; but the pleasant sound re- 
 turns again." On the architecture of Bees, see 
 Reaumur Hist, des Insectes, torn. v. mem. viii, and for 
 a dispute between a bee and a spider, Swift's 
 Works, vol. i. p. 404.
 
 298 NOTES. 
 
 In some districts of England grows a peculiar 
 species of the Orchis. This flower has a spot in its 
 breast, resembling a bee, sipping its honey : on this 
 account it is called the Bee-flower. Langhorne thu 
 alludes to it in his Fables of Flora. 
 
 See on that floweret's velvet breast, 
 How close the busy vagrant lies ! 
 His thin-wrought plume, his downy breast, 
 Tli' ambrosial gold, that swells his thighs. 
 
 Perhaps his fragrant load may bind 
 His limbs ; we'll set the Captive free 
 I sought the living bee to find, 
 And found the picture of a bee ! 
 
 NOTE, PAGE 140, LINE 20. 
 
 Pope Urban VIII, being highly delighted with a 
 poem, written by Bracciolini, gave him the sur- 
 name of Delle-api. Ambergris, in the opinion of 
 the Abbe Longuerue, is honey, melted by the sun, 
 dropt into the sea from the mountains of Ajan, and 
 congealed by the water ! A curious and entertain- 
 ing account of a trial of wisdom between Solomon 
 and the Queen of Sheba, which was decided by a 
 swarm of Bees., is related in the Talmud. The 
 Romans considered them as favourable omens. Vid. 
 Plut. in vit. Dion, and Valerius Flaccus, Lib. i. c. vi.
 
 NOTES. 299 
 
 NOTE, PAGE 141, LINE 8. 
 
 Shakespeare has a fine allusion to this barbarous 
 custom, Henry IV. 2nd. part, Act. iv. Virgil says, 
 that Bees live seven years, (neque enim plus septima 
 ducitur JEstas). The marquis of Lansdowne's motto 
 induces a connexion between bees and geometry. 
 Ut apes geometriam. When Addison published his 
 Translation of that Georgic of Virgil, which treats 
 of Bees, Dryden is reported to have said, " after 
 this, my latter swarm is scarcely worth the hiving." 
 Butler published a work on the nature and proper- 
 ties of Bees, 1634, printed in a new style of ortho- 
 graphy, with several characters, adapted from Sir 
 Thomas Smith's and Dr. Gill's systems. 
 
 The Bees suspend their honeycomb from edges 
 of rocks in several parts of South Africa. Mr. Bar- 
 row observes, "that those nests are easily discover- 
 ed by the Hottentots, who implicitly rely on the 
 direction of a little brown bird, denominated the 
 Indicator, or honey-bird, that, on the discovery of 
 a nest, flies in quest of some person, to whom it 
 makes known the fruit of its research by whistling 
 and flying towards the place." Travels in the Inte- 
 rior of Southern Africa. In some parts of France, 
 says Goldsmith, and also of Piedmont, there are 
 floating apiaries of an hundred bee-hives. " As the 
 Bees are continually changing their flowery pasture 
 along the banks of the stream, they are furnished
 
 300 NOTES. 
 
 with sweets before unrifled ; and thus a single float- 
 ing bee-house yields the proprietor a considerable 
 income." Hist. Earth, %c. Vol. iv. p. 170. To 
 these apiaries Rogers beautifully alludes: 
 
 So through the vales of Loire the bee-hives glide, 
 The light raft dropping with the silent tide ; 
 So, till the laughing scenes are lost in night, 
 The busy people wing their various flight, 
 Culling uiHiumber'd sweets from nameless flower* 
 That scent the vineyard in its purple hours. 
 
 Pleasures of Memory. 
 
 The culture of bees was in much repute in At- 
 tica. Solon enacted a law, that every man's stock 
 should be kept at a distance, not less than 300 feet, 
 from that of his neighbour. Pint, in vit. Solon. The 
 Susans combed their purple wool with honey, rub- 
 bed upon the combs : This preserved its beauty and 
 freshness. Plut. in vit. Alexand. 
 
 In addition to what has been said in a former 
 note, we may observe, that St. Augustine, who was 
 a great lover of these insects, draws frequently from 
 them by way of illustration : the same may be ob- 
 served of Milton ; one of whose amusements, before 
 he laboured under the misfortune of a Gutta Serena, 
 was to mark, 
 
 How nature paints her colours, how the Bee 
 Sits on the bloom, extracting liquid sweet.
 
 NOTES. 301 
 
 " I wish," says Seneca, " that Anger, like the 
 bee, could sting but once." The stings, which ille- 
 gitimate pleasures leave behind them, are elegantly 
 compared by Boethius, to those of a bee. It has 
 been thus translated : 
 
 Honey's flowery sweets delight ; 
 Soon they cloy the appetite. 
 Touch the Bee the wrathful thing 
 Quickly flies, but leaves a sting. 
 Mark here the emblems, apt and true, 
 Of the pleasures men pursue : 
 Ah ! they yield a fraudful joy ; 
 Soon they pall, and quick they fly ; 
 Quick they fly but leave a smart 
 Deep fermenting in the heart. 
 
 Bees were wrought in the coronation robes of 
 Charlemagne ; and they contribute, in the present 
 day, to insult the conscience of a reigning despot, 
 after the same manner. Pope Urban VIHth, whom 
 we have mentioned in a former note, chose three 
 Bees for his armorial bearings. To this circum- 
 stance Cassimir, (next to Kosciusko, the chief pride 
 and glory of his country !) has an elegant allusion : 
 
 AD APES BARBERINAS. 
 Cives Hymetti, gratus Atticze lepos, 
 
 Virgineae volucres, 
 Flavaeque Veris filiae :
 
 302 NOTES. 
 
 Gratum f luentis turba pradatrix tliynii ; 
 
 Nectaris artifices, 
 Bonze que ruris hospitae : 
 Laboriosis quod juvat volatibus 
 Crare tenus viridem 
 Perambulare patriam, 
 Si Barberino delicata principe 
 Secula melle fluunt ; 
 Parata vobis secula ? 
 
 NOTE, PAGE 142. LINE 3. 
 
 The modern idea of a wilderness does not apply 
 to that of an ancient one. Spenser's Description of 
 a Wilderness in the Fairy Queen, gives an idea of a 
 wild tract and desert of solitude : Such is the mo- 
 dern acceptation. A Hebrew wilderness, however, 
 was a place, remarkable for its rocky and unculti- 
 vated soil, and yet by no means destitute of inha- 
 bitants : for, if it had been a solitude, St. John 
 might have retired thither to pray, but not to 
 preach. Vide St. Matthew, ch. Hi. v. 1. Mark, ch. 
 i. v. 4. The wilderness of St. John is now converted 
 into a fine country, in which are successfully culti- 
 vated corn, vines and olives. This word is a curi- 
 ous exemplification of a remark, which will be found 
 in a subsequent page : it being compounded of 
 three words, derived from three different languages.
 
 NOTES. 303 
 
 Wild from the Dutch, Der from the British Dur, 
 meaning water, and Ness from a Saxon word, sig- 
 nifying a termination of a tract of land. 
 
 NOTE 60, PAGE 147. 
 
 The Turks derive a sensible enjoyment from sit- 
 ting beneath the shade of a tree or on the banks of 
 a river. 
 
 " For some miles round Adrianople," says Lady 
 Montague, " the whole ground is laid out in gar- 
 dens, and the banks of the rivers are set with rows 
 of fruit-trees, under which all the most considerable 
 Turks divert themselves every evening; not with 
 walking ; that is not one of their pleasures, but a 
 set party of them choose out a green spot, where 
 the shade is very thick, and there they spread a 
 carpet, on which they sit drinking their coffee, and 
 are generally attended by some slave with a fine 
 voice, or that plays on some instrument. Every 
 twenty paces you may see one of these little compa- 
 nies listening to the dashing of the river; and this 
 taste is so universal, that the very gardeners are not 
 without it. I have often seen them and their child- 
 ren sitting on the banks of the river, and playing
 
 304 NOTES. 
 
 on a rural instrument, perfectly answering the de- 
 scription of the ancient fistula, being composed of 
 unequal reeds, with a simple but agreeable softness 
 in the sound. Lady M. W. Montague. 
 
 NOTE 61. PAGE 160. 
 
 After reading Comus and the pictures, presented 
 to the eye in Paradise Lost, how astonishing ap- 
 pears the assertion of Johnson, that Milton viewed 
 Nature " through the spectacles of Books." Mistak- 
 ing allusion for description, this great moralist ima- 
 gines Milton to call in learning as a principal, when 
 he calls it in only as an auxiliary. Equally asto- 
 nishing is the extreme apathy, I had almost said dis- 
 gust, with which Johnson viewed the productions of 
 the descriptive poets, and even the fairy landscapes 
 of Nature herself. When in Scotland, he confessed 
 that he had observed no scene so agreeable to his 
 imagination, as Fleet-street : In criticising Lord 
 Lyttleton's poems, he observes of his " Progress of 
 Love," that it is " sufficient blame to say, it is pas- 
 toral." He condemn's Dyer's Fleece, one of the 
 noblest descriptive poems in the language ! Of 
 Gay's Rural Sports, he says, " it is never con- 
 temptible nor ever excellent." Of Philips' s Cyder, 
 he adopts Cicero's tasteless opinion of Lucretius,
 
 NOTES. 305 
 
 "that it is written with much art, but with few 
 blazes of Genius." Of Somerville's chase, he ob- 
 serves, that " Praise cannot totally be denied." 
 Johnson appears to have waged war against every 
 poet, 
 
 Who walk'd at large amid the Fairy Scenes 
 Of unschooled Nature. 
 
 But, as Beattie has so well and so justly remark- 
 ed, " all persons are not equally susceptible of these 
 charming impressions. It is strange to observe the 
 callousness of some men, before whom all the glories 
 of heaven and earth pass in daily succession, with- 
 out touching their hearts, elevating their fancy, or 
 leaving any durable remembrance. Even of those, 
 who pretend to sensibility, how many are there to 
 whom the lustre of the rising or setting sun ; the 
 sparkling concave of the midnight sky ; the moun- 
 tain forest, roaring to the storm, or warbling with 
 all the melodies of a Summer evening ; the sweet 
 interchange of hill and dale, shade and sunshine, 
 grove, lawn, and water, which an extensive land- 
 scape offers to the view ; the scenery of the ocean, 
 so lovely, so majestic, and so tremendous, and the 
 many pleasing varieties of the animal and vegetable 
 kingdom, could never afford so much real satisfac- 
 tion, as the steams and noise of a ball-room, the in- 
 
 VOL. i. x
 
 306 NOTES. 
 
 sipid fiddling and squeaking of an opera, or the 
 vexations and wranglings of a card-table." 
 
 Beattie's Essay on Poetry and Music, Part I. cA. ii. 
 p. 30. 
 
 NOTE 62, PAGE 160. 
 
 Mr; Wright, in his classical poem of Hor& Iro- 
 nicce, lays the scene of Alcinous's Garden in the 
 Island of Corfu. " It is impossible for any one/' 
 says he, " who traverses the shores of the old har- 
 bour with the Odyssey in his recollection, to doubt 
 the personal acquaintance of Homer with the sce- 
 nery of Corfu, or to hesitate in assigning the gar- 
 den of Alcinous to the spot, here described, which 
 lies at the western extremity of the harbour, and is 
 still exclusively devoted to the same sort of culture." 
 The reader may compare the garden of Alcinous 
 with Mr. Wright's general description of the sce- 
 nery, near the western extremity of the harbour at 
 Corfu. 
 
 Hence to the left extends a spacious plain, 
 Nor rich with pastur'd herds, nor waving grain : 
 There bending vines their purple pride display, 
 And peaches ripen in the Summer ray ; 
 There swells the fig to more than mortal size, 
 And various fruits in rich succession rise :
 
 NOTES. 307 
 
 No chilly blasts the tender germ assail, 
 
 By mountains sheltered from each ruder gale ; 
 
 The ripening fruits no blasting mildews fear, 
 
 Nor hails the vernal promise of the year; 
 
 Oft for these shades, where Nature reigns alone, 
 
 Would great Alcinous quit bis regal throne; 
 
 And 'mid these scenes, whose beauties could inspire 
 
 The mighty father of the Grecian lyre ; 
 
 Nor still the monarch, nor the muse they wrong 
 
 But smile in Nature, as they bloom in song. 
 
 Sir Henry Englefield has observed several coin- 
 cidences between the courts of Alcinous and Solo- 
 mon. Compare Odyssey, 7, 112. Odyssey, 8, 39. 
 Odyssey, 7, 9. with Kings I. c. 4. c. 10. 
 
 The gardens of Alcinous seem to have been an 
 union of the modern kitchen garden of Italy and 
 the orchard of Greece ; but as to extent, beauty, 
 and descriptive elegance, they are no more to be 
 compared with the Garden of Eden, than a Dutch 
 landscape is to be compared with an Italian one. 
 
 NOTE 63, PAGE 161. 
 
 The Chinese distinguish three different species of 
 
 landscape, to which they give the appellations of 
 
 pleasing, horrid, and enchanted. Their enchanted 
 
 scenes answer, in a great degree, to what we call 
 
 x 2
 
 308 NOTES. 
 
 rontantic, and in these they make use of several ar- 
 tifices to excite surprise. Sometimes they make a 
 rapid stream, or torrent, pass under ground, the 
 turbulent noise of which strikes the ear of the new- 
 comer, who is at a loss to know whence it proceeds. 
 At other times, they dispose the rocks, buildings, 
 and other objects, that form the composition, in 
 such a manner, that the wind, passing through the 
 different interstices and cavities, made in them for 
 that purpose, causes strange and uncommon sounds. 
 They introduce into these scenes all kinds of extra- 
 ordinary plants and flowers, artificial and compli- 
 cated echoes, and let loose different sorts of mon- 
 strous birds and animals. In their scenes of horror, 
 they introduce impending rocks, dark caverns, and 
 impetuous cataracts, rushing down the mountains 
 from all sides; the trees are ill formed and seem- 
 ingly torn to pieces by the violence of the tem- 
 pests; some are thrown down, and intercept the 
 course of the torrents, appearing as if they had 
 been thrown down by the fury of the waters; others 
 look as if shattered and blasted by the force of 
 lightning ; the buildings are some in ruins, others 
 half consumed by fire, and some miserable huts 
 dispersed in the mountains, serve at once, to indi- 
 cate the existence and wretchedness of the inhabit- 
 ants. These scenes are generally succeeded by 
 pleasing ones. The Chinese artists, knowing how
 
 NOTES. 309 
 
 powerfully contrast operates on the mind, constant- 
 ly practise sudden transitions and a striking oppo- 
 sition of forms, colours, and shades. Thus they 
 conduct you from limited prospects to extensive 
 views ; from objects of horror to scenes of delight ; 
 from lakes and rivers, to plains, hills and woods. 
 To dark and gloomy colours they oppose such as 
 are brilliant, and to complicated forms simple ones ; 
 distributing, by a judicious arrangement, their dif- 
 ferent masses of light and shade, in such a manner 
 as to render the composition at once distinct in its 
 parts and striking in the whole. Sir William Cham- 
 bcrs*s Essay on the Chinese Manner of Laying out 
 Grounds. 
 
 NOTE 64, PAGE 162. 
 
 Instances might be quoted, in which this great 
 master of the sublime and pathetic has even equal- 
 led Virgil's celebrated Imitation of Apollonius Rho- 
 dius: 
 
 Nox erat, et placidum carpebant fessa soporem 
 Corpora per terras ; silvaeque et saeva quierant 
 jEquora : quum medio volvunttir sidera lapsu, 
 Quum tacet oninis ager, pecudes, pictaaque volucres, 
 Quaeque lacus late liqjuidos, quaeque aspera dumis 
 Kura tenent, somno positae sub uocte silenti,
 
 310 NOTES. 
 
 Lenibant cnras, et corda oblita labonun. 
 At non infelix aniini Phze.nissa, neque nnquam 
 Solvitur in somnos. 
 
 NOTE, PAGE 163, LINE 12. 
 
 " Every river, every rock," justly observes a 
 celebrated Swiss Traveller, " mountain, cataract, and 
 precipice, is respectively distinguished by an infi- 
 nite diversity of modifications, and by all the possi- 
 ble forms of beauty, and magnificence of sublimity 
 or horror. Yet these discriminating variations, 
 which cannot escape the most incurious eye, elude 
 every attempt at delineation, and defy the strongest 
 powers both of the pen and the pencil." Coxe's 
 Travels in Switzerland, page 262. 
 
 NOTE 65, PAGE 164. 
 
 " In ancient Hieroglyphic writing," says the 
 Right Reverend Author of the Divine Legation of 
 Moses, " the sun, moon, and stars, were used to 
 represent states and empires, kings, queens, and 
 nobility : their eclipse or extinction denoted tem- 
 porary disasters, or entire overthrows. So the pro- 
 phets, in like manner, call kings and empires by the 
 names of the heavenly luminaries. Stars, falling 
 from the firmament, are employed to denote the
 
 NOTES. 311 
 
 destruction of the nobility and other great men ; 
 insomuch, that in reality the prophetic style seems 
 to be a speaking Hieroglyphic. Divine Legation, vol. ii. 
 b. iv. s. 4. The Egyptians considered the Lotus 
 flower an emblem of nature. 
 
 NOTE, PAGE 165, LINE 10. 
 
 Many reasons have been assigned for the ancient 
 custom of planting yew trees in church-yards. The 
 popular opinion seems to sanction the belief, that 
 they were planted in order to be used for bows : 
 this opinion, with many others, equally absurd, has 
 been maintained with rigid pertinacity by several 
 writers, whose gigantic genius enables them to cor- 
 rect a date, and whose erudition extends even to 
 the antiquarian pomp of provincial research ! The 
 fact is, the yew-tree has been considered an em- 
 blem of mourning from the earliest times. The 
 Greeks adopted the idea from the Egyptians, the 
 Romans from the Greeks, and the Britons from the 
 Romans. From long habits of association the yew 
 acquired a sacred character, and therefore was con- 
 sidered as the best and most appropriate ornament 
 of consecrated ground. The custom of placing 
 them singly is equally ancient. Statius in his 
 sixth Thebaid calls it the solitary yew : and it was 
 at one time, as common in the church- yards of
 
 312 NOTES. 
 
 Italy, as it is now in North and South Wales. In 
 many villages of those two provinces, the yew- 
 tree and the church are coeval with each other. 
 
 NOTE 66, PAGE 165. 
 
 Behold, fond Man ! 
 
 See here thy pictured life: pass some few years, 
 
 Thy flowery Spring, thy Summer's ardent strength, 
 
 Thy sober Autumn fading into age, 
 
 And pale concluding Winter comes at last, 
 
 And shuts the Scene ! 
 
 Winter. 
 
 It is this striking analogy, which enables Thom- 
 son so intimately to connect the Seasons with each 
 other. 
 
 At the Circensian Games, the contenders were 
 divided into four factions, distinguished from each 
 other by dresses, representing the four seasons of 
 the year. Green was an emblem of Spring ; red of 
 Summer; white of Autumn; and blue of Winter. 
 " Agitatores Circenses in quaternas factiones dispesce- 
 bantur, qua: et diverso vestitu diversas anni horas re- 
 prcesentarent, scilicet, prasina, ver, russea astatem, 
 alba autumnum, et veneta hyemem"
 
 NOTES. 313 
 
 NOTE 67, PAGE 171. 
 
 The following instance has always appeared to 
 me to be one of the most elegant in our language. 
 Polyxenes questions the shepherd, respecting the 
 love, which Florizel bears for Perdita ; the shep- 
 herd replies, 
 
 Never did the moon 
 
 So gaze upon the waters, as he'll stand 
 And read my Daughter's Eyes. 
 
 Winter's Tale. 
 
 If this is one of the most elegant of natural illus- 
 trations, the succeeding is one of the finest. 
 
 He stood 
 
 With Atlantean shoulders, fit to bear 
 The weight of mightiest monarchies; his look 
 Drew audience and attention still as Night 
 Or Summer's Noontide air. 
 
 Paradise Lost, b. 11. 
 
 NOTE 68, PAGE 172. 
 
 " Haller," observes Miss Smith, whose transla- 
 tion of the book of Job, is not only honourable to 
 herself, but to her country, " speaking of the 
 weakness of reason without revelation, says,
 
 314 NOTES. 
 
 Vernunft kan, wic der mond, cin trost dnnkeln Zeitcn, 
 tins durch die braune nacbt mit halbem schimmer leiten; 
 Der warheit morgen-roht zeigt erst die wabre welt, 
 Wann Gottes sonnen-licht durch unser damm-rnng fait. 
 
 Reason, like the moon, a consolation in darkness, 
 can guide us with its faint rays through the dusky 
 night. The morning dawn of truth shews the real 
 world, when the light of the Sun breaks through 
 our twilight. Haller on Reason, Superstition, and 
 Infidelity. Fragments by Miss Smith, vol. i. p. 29. 
 
 NOTE 69, PAGE 174. 
 
 Father Brumoi, speaking of the three great Dra- 
 matic Writers of Greece, ^Eschylus, Sophocles and 
 Euripides, says, " The first, as the inventor and 
 father of Tragedy, is like a torrent rolling impetu- 
 ously over rocks, forests and precipices ; the se- 
 cond resembles a canal, which flows gently through 
 delicious gardens ; and the third a river, that does 
 not follow its course in a continued line, but loves 
 to turn and wind its silver wave through flowery 
 meads and rural scenes." Rollin. Pref. cxvi. The 
 passage quoted from Addison is imitated by Pope, 
 in the second page of his Preface to the Iliad. 
 " Our author's work is a wild paradise," &c. &c.
 
 NOTES. 315 
 
 NOTE 70, PAGE 178. 
 
 In poetical delineation of Marine Landscape, 
 Virgil among the Latins, Homer (Odyssey) among 
 the Greeks, Camoens among the Portugueze, and 
 Falkoner, among the English, bear the palm from 
 all their competitors. 
 
 NOTE 71, PAGE 181. 
 
 From the following passage of Pliny, it would 
 seem, however, that they were not so utterly ig- 
 norant of the chiaro-oscuro, as some writers have 
 supposed. It would have been impossible, as an 
 elegant writer justly remarks, to have exhibited all 
 these objects without some knowledge of perspec- 
 tive : " Ludius, Divi Augusti, aetate primus in- 
 stituit amoenissimam parietem picturam, villas, et 
 porticus, ac topiarca opera lucos, nemora, colles, 
 piscinas, euripos, amnes, litora qualia quis opta- 
 ret; varias ibi obambulantium species, aut navi- 
 gantium. Plin. Lib. xxxv. 10. Vid. also cap. ii. 
 
 NOTE 72, PAGE 182. 
 
 " The noblest and largest landscape of Rubens," 
 says Walpole, " is in the royal collection. It ex- 
 hibits an almost bird's eye view of an extensive
 
 316 NOTES. 
 
 country, with such masterly clearness and intelli- 
 gence, as to contain, in itself, alone, a school for 
 painters of landscape. Anecdotes of Painting in 
 England, 8vo. vol. ii. J5. 145. Sir Joshua Reynolds 
 was accustomed to say, that a single picture of 
 Rubens was sufficient to illumine the darkest gal- 
 lery in Europe. 
 
 NOTE 73, PAGE 185. 
 
 Vroom was made a painter of sea pieces in a 
 singular manner. He had painted several scripture 
 pieces, and was on his voyage from Holland to 
 Spain, when he was shipwrecked on the coast of 
 Portugal. In this distress, he was relieved by se- 
 veral monks, who resided among the rocks: hav- 
 ing obtained refreshment, he went to Lisbon, 
 where a brother-artist engaged him to paint the 
 storm, he described in so lively a manner. This 
 picture was executed so well, that a Portugueze 
 Nobleman gave him a high price for it. This suc- 
 cess flattered him so much, that upon his re- 
 turn to Holland, he entirely devoted himself to 
 Marine Landscape. 
 
 NOTE 74, PAGE 186. 
 
 The following elegant description of a picture, 
 by this master, in a palace at Genoa, strongly
 
 NOTES. 317 
 
 characterizes the pencil of Albani, and the pen of 
 Dupaty : 
 
 " How charming the scene ! 
 
 " In the midst of a valley, crowned by rocks and 
 covered with various kinds of shrubs, we see, by 
 the brink of a fountain, seated at the foot of a 
 willow (it is summer and in the evening), a shep- 
 herd and a shepherdess. The shepherd is playing 
 on his flute ; one of the shepherdesses, holding in. 
 her hand a rose, looks at the shepherd, and is lis- 
 tening ; her hand is already stretched out to pre- 
 sent him with the flower. Impatience for the 
 shepherd to finish, that she may give him the rose, 
 and desire for him to continue, that she may still 
 hear the pleasing sounds, are struggling in her 
 looks. In the mean time, her companion, younger 
 than herself, neither looks at, nor listens to the 
 shepherd, but is wrapt in thought, with her eyes 
 fixed upon the fountain. At the distance of an 
 hundred paces, a number of little children are 
 playing with some lambs, and entwining them with 
 flowers. Is this not an Idyl of Gessner ? 
 
 " The temple of Gnidos, and not a palace of Ge- 
 noa, should have been ornamented with this pic- 
 ture. Montesquieu should have copied it. It is 
 by Albani."
 
 318 NOTES. 
 
 NOTE 75, PAGE 188. 
 
 " The grand scale, on which the beauties of 
 nature appear in Switzerland and the Alps/' says 
 Dr. Moore/' has been considered by some, as too 
 vast for the pencil ; but among the sweet hills and 
 valleys of Italy, her features are brought nearer the 
 eye, are fully seen, and understood and appear in 
 all the bloom of rural loveliness. Tivoli, Albano 
 and Frescati, therefore, are the favourite abodes of 
 the landscape painters, who travel to this country 
 for improvement ; and in the opinion of some, those 
 delightful villages furnish studies better suited to 
 the powers of their art, than even Switzerland it- 
 self. Nothing can surpass the admirable assem- 
 blage of hills, meadows, lakes, cascades, gardens, 
 ruins, groves and terraces, which charm the eye, 
 as you wander among the shades of Frescati and 
 Albano, which appear in new beauty, as they are 
 viewed from different points, and captivate the be- 
 holder with endless variety/' Moore's View of So- 
 ciety and Manners in Italy, vol. ii. p. 342. Wilson, 
 upon his return from Italy, visited North Wales ; 
 a country, which, as he justly observed, exhibits 
 every thing in landscape, a painter can desire. 
 
 NOTE 76, PAGE 190. 
 A female servant, belonging to the Earl of Rad-
 
 NOTES, 319 
 
 nor, told a learned friend of mine, that she never 
 looked at the pictures of Morning and Evening, in 
 his Lordship's collection, but she thought of para- 
 dise ! This is a finer compliment to the genius of 
 Claude, than the celebrated exclamation of the old 
 vicar, when he beheld Grotius. 
 
 NOTE, PAGE 191, LINE 16. 
 
 Besides the painters of landscape we have enu- 
 merated, many others deserve to have been men- 
 tioned : among whom we may particularize Hyeron 
 Mutian ; Ambrosio Lorenzetto, who first brought 
 landscape painting into repute in Italy ; Giacomo 
 Bassano, so celebrated for his night pieces; and 
 Giovanno Soens of Antwerp. Champayne, Forest, 
 Molon, Desportes, Heroult and Parossel j Corne- 
 lius Molinaer of Antwerp ; Jacob Grimmer ; Lucas 
 Gassel ; Joachim Patenier ; Petr de Laer, or Bam- 
 bots, whose landscapes were in miniature. Clau- 
 dius Gelli of Lorrain ; Job. Will. Bawer, and Har- 
 mes of Brunswick. To these we may add other 
 painters of still greater merit ; Ermel, Hackert, 
 Everdingen; Swaneveldt, Tintoret, Saveri; Wou- 
 vermanns ; Watteau ; Jordaens j Paul Brill ; Zuc- 
 carelli ; Sebastian ; Herman of Italy ; Breda ; Cag- 
 liari ; Martin ; Vandermeulen ; Julio Romano j 
 Paul Poter ; Ruysdale, &c. &c. j of all these painters
 
 320 NOTES. 
 
 Jordaens was the only one, who neither " rejected 
 the imperfections, nor selected the beauties of 
 nature." He copied her, as he found her. 
 
 NOTE 77, PAGE 194. Omitted. 
 
 NOTE 78, PAGE 200. 
 
 Poussin, say a modern writer, perfectly under- 
 stood the secret of interesting the heart by attend- 
 ing to the effects of contrast. In a picture of Ar- 
 cadian Festivity, he represents a tomb with this 
 simple but affecting inscription, Et in Arcadia ego ; 
 " I too was once in Arcadia." The effect of this 
 object, combined with the gaiety of the rest of the 
 scene, is beautifully described by de Lille. vid. 
 Essays on the Sources of the Pleasures received from 
 Literary Compositions, p. 189. The Abbe du Bos 
 gives a delightful description of this picture in his 
 " Reflexions Critiques sur la Poe'sie et sur la Pein- 
 ture." Sect. vi. 55. 
 
 In Schidone's Massacre of the Innocents, the pain- 
 ter heightens the general effect of his picture by 
 one of the simplest and most affecting of contrasts. 
 Instead of representing the soldiers of Herod in the 
 actual commission of their horrible crime, he exhi- 
 bits one of them, imparting the fatal tidings to a
 
 NOTES. 321 
 
 group of mothers, the terror and anguish depicted 
 in whose countenances and attitudes form a strong 
 and heart-rending contrast to the exquisite serenity 
 of the sleeping children. In respect to poetical 
 contrasts, perhaps more effecting instances are no 
 where to be found than in Virgil's imitation of Apol- 
 lonius Rhodius, and in the Danae by Simonides. 
 
 NOTE 79, PAGE 201. 
 
 It is somewhat remarkable, that Ferdinand, King 
 of Castile, should have been sensible, in some mea- 
 sure, of the truth of this remark, as we may learn 
 from his answer to those Caslilians, who solicited 
 him to deprive the States of Arragon of their inde- 
 pendence : This he refused to do, alleging as his 
 reason, that " Equilibria potential Regni Regisque 
 salutem publicam contineri; et si contingeret ali- 
 quando alterum alteri preponderate, proculdubio alte- 
 rius aut utriusque Ruinam ex eo secuturam" Thuanus. 
 Mr. Pope illustrates the position : see Essay on Man t 
 Epist. iii. lib. 292. 
 
 NOTE 80, PAGE 201. Omitted. 
 
 NOTE 81, PAGE 201. 
 
 The Count de Tallard was so delighted with Chats- 
 worth, that when he took leave of his host, an an- 
 
 VOL. I. Y
 
 322 NOTES. 
 
 cestor of the present Duke, he said, " When I re- 
 turn into my own country, my Lord Duke, and 
 reckon up the days of my captivity, I shall leave 
 out those I spent at Chatsworth." 
 
 NOTE 82, PAGE 202. 
 
 From the effects of contrast Mr. Webb has drawn 
 an excellent apology for the grandeur of Satan in 
 the Paradise Lost. " To describe a permanent and 
 unchangeable glory, is to paint without shades ; the 
 sun is more delightful in its setting than in its me- 
 ridian. The divine perfection, pure and angelic 
 natures, can have no clouds, no contrasts : they are 
 all one blaze. But, it is not so, in the description 
 of fallen greatness ; of diminished splendour; of a 
 superior nature sunk and disgraced, but emerging, 
 at intervals, from its degradation." Remarks on the 
 Beauties of Poetry, p. 65, 1764. 
 
 NOTE 83, PAGE 208. 
 
 " In this world," .says Bishop Taylor, " men 
 thrive by villany ; and lying and deceiving are 
 accounted just, and to be rich is to be wise, and 
 tyranny is honourable : and though little thefts and 
 petty mischiefs are interrupted by the laws, yet if 
 a mischief become public and great, acted by princes,
 
 NOTES. 323 
 
 and effected by armies, and robberies be done by 
 whole fleets, it is virtue and it is glory." 
 
 NOTE 84, PAGE 211. 
 
 This analogy was observed by the Egyptians : a 
 circumstance sufficient to prove in opposition to se- 
 veral writers on Egyptian customs and opinions, 
 that they believed in the eternity of the soul. The 
 Hieroglyphic, denoting the soul, was a chrysalis ; 
 and the Greeks, adopting the idea, described Psyche 
 under the form of a beautiful female, ornamented 
 with the wings of a butterfly. 
 
 NOTE 85, PAGE 213. 
 
 These contrasts are perpetually exhibited among 
 the Swiss cantons. " It is not labour only/' says 
 Rousseau, " that renders this strange country so 
 wonderfully contrasted : for here Nature seems to 
 have a singular pleasure in acting contradictory to 
 herself, so different does she appear in the same 
 place, in different aspects. Towards the East, the 
 flowers of spring : to the South, the fruits of au- 
 tumn ; and northwards, the ice of winter. She 
 unites all the seasons in the same instant, every cli- 
 mate in the same place, different soils in the same 
 land, and with a harmony, elsewhere unknown, 
 joins the produces of the plains to those of the 
 highest Alps. Add to those, the illusions of vision,
 
 324 NOTES. 
 
 the tops of the mountains variously illumined, the 
 harmonious mixture of light and shade, and their 
 different effects in the morning and evening." The 
 contrasts presented in the island of Sicily are bold 
 and striking. Vide Abbate Balsamo, ch. v. p. 95. 
 
 NOTE 86, PAGE 216. Omitted. 
 
 NOTE 87, PAGE 225. 
 
 " It is impossible," says Professor Pallas, " to 
 move a step in this romantic cojantry, without de- 
 riving real enjoyment. Its grounds are covered 
 with numerous flocks of sheep, which may be seen 
 descending from and grazing on the hills ; the air is 
 embalmed or perfumed by the odour of the March 
 violet, by that of trees in blossom, or from those cut 
 down by the inhabitants, all of which continually 
 exhale the most odoriferous particles. The constant 
 serenity of the season, also, furnishes other enjoy- 
 ments. In short, nothing can equal the delight of 
 a residence, as picturesque as variable, which is 
 afforded by this charming Peninsula, in the grateful 
 season of spring." Pallas's Travels through the 
 Southern Provinces of the Russian Empire. Vol. iv. 
 p. 1289. 
 
 NOTE 88, PAGE 233. Omitted. 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
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