These few words Foe Lady whispered, while we stood and gazed athered together, all, in still delight, Nx without awe. Thence passing on, she said flow pure his spirit! in what vivid hues Ha mind gives back the various forms of things, Even as he sees; but when his voice hath ceased, More had she said- but sportive shouts were heard; And each resigned the oar which he had seized. -Ah! that such beauty, varying in the light And unsought pleasures springing up by chance; The same should be continued to its close. One spirit animating old and young, A gipsy fire we kindled on the shore Of the fair Isle with birch-trees fringed-and there, Merrily seated in a ring, partook The beverage drawn from China's fragrant herb. -Lanched from our hands, the smooth stone skimmed the lake; With shouts we roused the echoes;-stiller sounds The lovely Girl supplied — a simple song, Whose low tones reached not to the distant rocks To be repeated thence, but gently sank Such product, and such pastime did the place And season yield; but, as we re-embarked, Leaving, in quest of other scenes, the shore Of that wild Spot, the Solitary said In a low voice, yet careless who might hear, With birch-trees fringed; my hand shall guide the "The fire, that burned so brightly to our wish, helm, While thitherward we bend our course; or while We seek that other, on the western shore, - "Turn where we may," said I, "we cannot err They ceased not to surround us; change of place, Where is it now! Deserted on the beach Of that which is no longer needed, see This plaintive note disturbed not the repose Soft heath this elevated spot supplied, And choice of moss-clad stones, whereon we couched The general aspect of the scene; but each Scattered through half the circle of the sky; While from the grassy mountain's open side "Eternal Spirit! universal God! Power inaccessible to human thought, Save by degrees and steps which Thou hast deigned To the infirmity of mortal sense Of thy paternal splendours, and the pomp Of those who fill thy courts in highest heaven, "So fare the many; and the thoughtful few, filled, the hope accomplished; and thy praise e sung with transport and unceasing joy. Once," and with mild demeanour, as he spake, la beaming eye that had been raised to Heaven, inds which themselves had fashioned, to promote hen, in the bosom of yon mountain cove, If those terrific Idols, some received murmuring) was too weak to overcome, hough aided by wild winds, the groans and shrieks If human Victims, offered up to appease Ir to propitiate. And, if living eyes be thing that hath been as the thing that is, And full assemblage of a barbarous Host; All cares forgotten, round its hallowed walls! For You, in presence of this little Band Whose love, whose counsel, whose commands have made Your very poorest rich in peace of thought This Vesper service closed, without delay, Her mooring-place; where, to the sheltering tree To enfeebled Power, From this communion with uninjured Minds, What renovation had been brought; and what Degree of healing to a wounded spirit, Note 1, p. 556. · much did he see of Men." At the risk of giving a shock to the prejudices of artificial society, I have ever been ready to pay homage to the Aristocracy of Nature; under a conviction that vigorous human-heartedness is the constituent principle of true taste. It may still, however, be satisfactory to have prose-testimony how far a Character, employed for purposes of imagination, is founded upon general fact. I, therefore, subjoin an extract from an author who had opportunities of being well acquainted with a class of men, from whom my own personal knowledge emboldened me to draw this Portrait. "We learn from Cæsar and other Roman Writers, that the travelling merchants who frequented Gaul and other barbarous countries, either newly conquered by the Roman arms, or bordering on the Roman conquests, were ever the first to make the inhabitants of those Countries familiarly acquainted with the Roman modes of life, and to inspire them with an inclination to follow the Roman fashions, and to enjoy Roman conveniences. In North America, travelling merchants from the Settlements have done and continue to do much more towards civilizing the Indian natives, than all the Missionaries, Papist or Protestant, who have ever been sent among them. It is farther to be observed, for the credit of this most useful class of men, that they commonly contribute, by their personal manners, no less than by the sale of their wares, to the refinement of the people among whom they travel. Their dealings form them to great quickness of wit and acuteness of judgment. Having constant occasion to recommend themselves and their goods, they acquire habits of the most obliging attention, and the most insinuating address. As in their peregrinations they have opportunity of contemplating the manners of various Men and various Cities, they become eminently skilled in the knowledge of the world. As they wander, each alone, through thinly inhabited districts, they form habits of reflection, and of sublime contemplation. With all these qual tions, no wonder, that they should often be, in re parts of the country, the best mirrors of fashion, a censors of manners; and should contribute much k polish the roughness, and soften the rusticity of peasantry. It is not more than twenty or thirty yes, since a young man going from any part of Scotiantu England, of purpose to carry the pack, was considered as going to lead the life, and acquire the Fortune, « a Gentleman. When, after twenty years' absence, a that honourable line of employment, he returned with his acquisitions to his native country, he was regard as a Gentleman to all intents and purposes." Heron's Journey in Scotland, Vol i p Note 2, p. 572. "Lost in unsearchable Eternity!" Since this paragraph was composed, I have mad with so much pleasure, in Burnet's Theory of t Earth, a passage expressing correspondent eentines excited by objects of a similar nature, that I camt forbear to transcribe it. "Siquod verò Natura nobis dedit spectaculum. hâc tellure, verè gratum, et philosopho dignum, id mel mihi contigisse arbitror; cùm ex celsissima ro speculabundus ad oram maris Mediterranei, hinc ®) ~~ cæruleum, illinc tractus Alpinos prospexi; nihil que magis dispar aut dissimile, nec in suo genere, mas egregium et singulare. Hoc theatrum ego facile pr tulerim Romanis cunctis, Græcisve; atque id ord natura hic spectandum exhibet, scenicis ludis omn aut amphitheatri certaminibus. Nihil hic elegans venustum, sed ingens et magnificum, et quod plert magnitudine suâ et quâdam specie immensitatis H intuebar maris æquabilem superficiem, usque et use diffusam, quantum maximùm oculorum acies ferr potuit; illinc disruptissimam terræ faciem, et vasta moles variè elevatas aut epressas, erectas, propendentes rec'inatas, coacervatas, omni situ inæquali et turbido. Placuit, ex hac parte, Naturæ unitas et simplicitas, et xhausta quædam planities; ex altera, multiformis cofusio magnorum corporum, et insanæ rerum strages: 11 cùm intuebar, non urbis alicujus aut oppidi, sed confracti mundi rudera, ante oculos habere mihi visus sum. "In singulis ferè montibus erat aliquid insolens et mirabile, sed præ cæteris mihi placebat illa, quâ seden, rupes; erat maxima et altissima, et quà terram respiciebat, molliori ascensu altitudinem suam dissimualat: quà verò mare, horrendum præceps, et quasi ad perpendiculum facta, instar parietis. Prætereà facies la marina adeò erat lævis ac uniformis (quod in rupites aliquando observare licet) ac si scissa fuisset à fummo ad imum, in illo plano; vel terræ motu aliquo, aut fulmine, divulsa. "Ima pars rupis erat cava, recessusque habuit, et mieos specus, euntes in vacuum montem; sive naturâ ordem factos, sive exesos mari, et undarum crebris ctibus: In hos enim cum impetu ruebant et fragore, tuantis maris fluctus; quos iterum spumantes reddidt antrum, et quasi ab imo ventre evomuit. "Dextrum latus montis erat præruptum, aspero saxo et nudâ caute; sinistrum non adeò neglexerat Natura, arboribus utpote ornatum : et prope pedem montis rivus pidæ aquæ prorupit; qui cùm vicinam vallem irriraterat, lento motu serpens, et per varios mæandros, qousi ad protrahendam vitam, in magno mari absorptus sobito periit. Denique in summo vertice promontorii, ommodè eminebat saxum, cui insidebam contemplabandus. Vale augusta sedes, Rege digna: Augusta ripes, semper mihi memoranda!" P. 89. Theoria sacra, &c. Editio secunda. Note 3, p. 578. "Whate'er Abstraction furnished for my Or purposes;" Telluris needs ["It seems a paradox only to the unthinking, and it - a fact that none, but the unread in history, will deny, that in periods of popular tumult and innovation the more abstract a notion is, the more readily has it been found to combine, the closer has appeared its affinity, with the feelings of a people and with all their immedate impulses to action. At the commencement of The French Revolution, in the remotest villages every ongue was employed in echoing and enforcing the Almost geometrical abstractions of the physiocratic liticians and economists. The public roads were crowded with armed enthusiasts disputing on the inalenable sovereignty of the people, the imprescriptile laws of the pure reason, and the universal constitation, which, as rising out of the nature and rights of tao as man, all nations alike were under the obliintor of adopting." .. "It is with nations as with individuals. In tranquil moods and peaceable times we are quite practical. Facts only and cool common sense are then in fashion. But let the winds of passion swell, and straightway men begin to generalize; to connect by remotest analogies; to express the most universal positions of reason in the most glowing figures of fancy; in short, to feel particular truths and mere facts, as poor, cold, narrow, and incommensurate with their feelings. "The Apostle of the Gentiles quoted from a Greek comic poet. Let it not then be condemned as unseasonable or out of place, if I remind you that in the intuitive knowledge of this truth, and with his wonted fidelity to nature, our own great poet has placed the greater number of his profoundest maxims and general truths, both political and moral, not in the mouths of men at ease, but of men under the influence of passion, when the mighty thoughts overmaster and be come the tyrants of the mind that has brought them forth. In his Lear, Othello, Macbeth, Hamlet, principles of deepest insight and widest interest fly off like sparks from the glowing iron under the loud anvil.” COLERIDGE: The Statesman's Manual, a Lay Sermon.' H. R.] Note 4, p. 579. "Of Mississippi, or that Northern Stream." "A man is supposed to improve by going out into the World, by visiting London. Artificial man does; he extends with his sphere; but, alas! that sphere is microscopic; it is formed of minutiae, and he surrenders his genuine vision to the artist, in order to embrace it in his ken. His bodily senses grow acute, even to barren and inhuman pruriency; while his mental become proportionally obtuse. The reverse is the Man of Mind: He who is placed in the sphere of Nature and of God, might be a mock at Tattersall's and Brookes's, and a sneer at St. James's: he would certainly be swallowed alive by the first Pizarro that crossed him: But when he walks along the River of Amazons; when he rests his eye on the unrivalled Andes; when he measures the long and watered Savannah; or contemplates, from a sudden Promontory, the distant, vast Pacific - and feels himself a Freeman in this vast Theatre, and commanding each ready produced fruit of this wilderness, and each progeny of this stream-His exaltation is not less than Imperial. He is as gentle, too, as he is great: His emotions of tenderness keep pace with his elevation of sentiment; for he says, 'These were made by a good Being, who, unsought by me, placed me here to enjoy them.' He becomes at once a Child and a King. His mind is in himself; from hence he argues, and from hence he acts; and he argues unerringly, and acts magisterially: His mind in himself is also in his God; and therefore he loves, and therefore he soars."- From the notes upon The Hurricane, a Poem, by WILLIAM GILBERT. The Reader, I am sure, will thank me for the above Quotation, which, though from a strange book, is one of the finest passages of modern English prose. |