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than all the mosques of Turkey, and all the cathedrals of France, Italy, or Spain !"

Shall Nature, my Lelius, present beautiful objects, on which are stamped, in characters indelible, the awful attributes of the Eternal, and we refuse to look upon them? Shall the solitary wanderer of Switzerland, his soul fraught with stupendous ideas, called forth into their farthest latitude by the objects around him—shall he, I inquire, refuse to partake of those sublime emotions, because the scene before him reminds, in strong and energetic language, of his own comparative insignificance?-No! Small as he appears in the general scale of nature, he wanders along the sides of the mountains, fissured into abrupt precipices, with astonished rapture: and as from a cragged rock, the most beautiful and enchanting scenes burst full and unexpected on his sight, his soul, raised before to the utmost limits of awful wonder, bursts into an ecstacy of wild and uncontrollable delight.

*Often,―

"When the rosy messenger of day

Strikes the blue mountains with her golden ray,"

sym

the wanderer of the Alps, in pursuit of a chamois, or a bouquetin, ceases from the pursuit, attracted by the metry of an oak or a sycamore; a trunk covered with moss; a cascade or a cataract; a ruined edifice; a cottage covered with ivy; violets blushing under hawthorns; hyacinths perfuming pendulant rocks; and the enchanter's night-shade, or the Alpina veronica, adorning the most unfrequented solitudes. Then, continuing his course, he beholds on one side every object wearing a sullen uniformity, naked, barren, and of a grey tint; the haunts

of the bird, which alone is able to gaze, undazzled, on the sun. Then, by a magic winding of the valley, scenes present themselves, which appear like monuments of an antediluvian world. Every object gives a new sensation; eternity seems engraven in every character; though an atheist would feel as if the universe were falling into ruin. Seen once, they live for ever in remembrance; and even derive additional interest from the distance of time and place. Imperial grandeur is annihilated! The Colossus, the Jupiter, the Pharos, the Gardens of Babylon, the Mausoleum of Artemisia, the Temple of Ephesus, the Pyramids, and all the labours of men, shrink into the scale of bees and beavers! And what are all the islands, and kingdoms, and empires of the world? The bosom of the Atheist no longer gnaws with vacuity; he feels contempt for all that he has seen before: the severe majesty of this temple strikes him to the dust.

III.

From Gibraltar, the traveller sees the two Continents of Europe and Asia; from Suez, those of Asia and Africa; from Constantinople, those of Asia and Europe; and from Paulowa, those of Asia and America. All these spots give rise to overwhelming reflections. But we have no necessity to travel beyond the limits of our own country. Nature speaks every where; only in some places more eloquently than in others.

As Helvidius was making an excursion among the mountains, stretching to the east of Moelshiabod, he arrived at the bridge, crossing a small rivulet; and sitting down upon the grass, fell asleep under the shade of

a large holly tree. He awoke just as the sun was sinking in the horizon; a slight shower succeeded; all nature became renovated; and the perfumes, which embalmed the air, seemed even capable of wafting him to the Elysian Fields. The tree beneath which he reposed stood in a valley, matchless even in the island of Madagascar; and the cones of several mountains gave an air of grandeur to the perspective, which Nature has forbidden in other regions. He was lost, as it were, in the enthusiasm of his admiration! At that moment, he had the mortification of seeing Lord- pass in his coach, apparently insensible to the scenes, through which he was conveyed. Oh! how an indiscriminate mingling with men blunts the best feelings of the human heart! "Had his lordship," thought Helvidius, "seen these lovely pictures, even a thousand and a thousand times before, he might have derived enjoyment from witnessing them again: since it is the autumnal season of the year; and the woods and shrubs, growing out of the rocks, are variegated in a manner, that even Salvator Rosa would have loved to look upon them!"

Though Helvidius was mortified at this insensibility on the part of the statesman, and felt so ready to condemn his taste and want of sensibility, he was weak enough to feel more at war with himself than with him: and began seriously to question, which were the wiser of the two;—the man who loves, or he who neglects, the varied objects of the material world. "Here is a Peer," said he to himself," a man of education, a statesman,→→ one who is looked up to in the world, as a being, in a manner, pre-eminent over his species; he seems to have

little relish for all these objects, which I have been looking upon with such enthusiasm. It must be folly and weakness in me, therefore, to indulge this humour; a humour which, from what I have seen of mankind, I am sensible, most men, who look not up through every object that he sees, to the architect that makes it, would esteem frivolous and idle, if not criminal. There are no silver mines here; nor does this rivulet leave any gold dust on its shores!" He sat down mortified. To dissipate his chagrin, he took a volume of Epictetus out of his pocket, and opening the book, his eye alighted upon the following passage.—“ As when you see an asp in a golden casket, you do not esteem that asp happy, because it is inclosed in materials so costly and so magnificent, but despise and would shun it, on account of its venom: so, when you see vice, lodged in the midst of wealth and the swelling pride of fortune, be not struck with the splendour of the materials, with which it is surrounded, but despise the gross alloy of its manners and sentiments."— Upon reading this passage, Helvidius became instantly ashamed of his folly, and reconciled to his enthusiasm.

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Though this is a man," said he to himself, "who, like the King of Sweden's enchanted cup, can almost make the wind turn to any point of the compass, which pleases his humour most; though he is perpetually surrounded by persons who, if he were to take his shoe from off his foot, hurl it in the air, and proclaim it a god, would worship it as it fell; and though he is a rising sun,' whom half the world would worship'; yet would I rather be able to trace the power, which formed this holly tree, up to as far as my imagination is capable of soaring, than

be the man for him to shake by the hand; to admit to his banquets; to revel with his minions; to hang, as it were, upon his lips; and to be raised to ecstacy by his smiles! Oh! gracious God!" thought he, " lead me into thy paths, and make me even a Lazaroni, as a penalty for my prayer!

Climb at Court for me, that will, 'Tottering Favour's pinnacle;

All I wish is to be still.

Settled in some secret nest,
In calm quiet let me rest;
And, far from off the public stage,
Pass away my silent age'.'

CHAPTER VIII.

Not only woods, fountains, rivers, and rocks; insects, reptiles, fishes, birds, and quadrupeds, but mountains, have had a sacred character attached to them. Upon their summits the Jews, the Persians3, the Bithynians, the infidel nations round 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, and

1 Stet quicunque volet potens
Aulæ culmine," &c. &c.

2 St. John, ch. iv. v. 20.
4 Deut. ch. xii. v. 2, 3, 4.
Tacitus de Germ. Mor.

VOL. I.

Seneca.
Herodotus, Clio. c. 131.

5 Cæsar de Bell. Gall. lib. 4.
7 Ossian, Songs of Selma.

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