Tairy Rings, 115 



plants utterly unable to support themselves. Nay, the mo- 

 mentary actions of nature are ceaseless successions of mi- 

 racle ; evaporation, condensation, suspension of odour, and 

 vibration of sound. Even poetry is surpassed ; for what 

 fairy grotto ever equalled the feathery crystallisations of a 

 frosted pane, glistening and sparkling in splendid brilliance? 

 Or what sparry groves or coral caves of the Nereids, 

 deep in the vast abysms of ocean, could ever vie with a silent 

 frost-forest ; heavily still, and candied with spikes of hoary 

 rime, spangling and blushing in the earliest beams of the 

 golden sun ? What gigantic palace of enchantment copes 

 in splendour with the columnar shafts of icicles congealed 

 around a winter waterfall ? or, in curious castellets, embra- 

 sures, and bastions, with the masses of powdery snow sifted 

 fantastically through a hedge into a deep lane ? Thus, though 

 lost in the immensity of boundless space, all breathing with 

 creation, the humble student of nature, one of the happiest of 

 earth's creatures, may exclaim with the sublime Callias (in 

 AnacJiarsis\ " The insect which obtains a glimpse of infinity 

 partakes of the greatness which overwhelms it ;" and may 

 cordially say with the philosopher, " Even to such an one as I 

 am, an idiota, or common person, no great things, melan- 

 cholising in woods and quiet places, by rivers, the goddesse 

 herself, Truth, has oftentimes appeared :" but on opening his 

 eyes on the pampered and artificial world (whether civil or 

 religious), he will feel with King Lear's honest fool, that 

 "Truth's a dog that must to kennel ; he must be whipped 

 out, when Lady, the brach, may lie by the fire and stink." 

 It is an unconfutable truth, that among people who have 

 made the greatest progress in natural history, their ideas of 

 the Deity have always been more refined, exalted, and sublime ; 

 while in the darkness of theirs where that science has slept, 

 or been sluggish, their notions of his nature and attributes 

 have been derogatory, detestable, and even diabolical. 



But to my intention ; or I shall be like Bayle, who, in his 

 work on comets, has forgotten them, and filled his volumes with 

 every thing beside, eccentrically erratic : and so may I be here- 

 in like a stuffed toucan, all bill and no body. I was led into 

 this lengthened preliminary by some reflections on fairy rings, 

 for the cause of which I think I can account, without offence 

 to that airy people, for whom I confess I have a hankering 

 fondness, in consideration of one William Shakspeare, and 

 his fanciful brethren, who have given them a permanent 

 ascendency they long ere this had lost, but for the embalming 

 power of song ; so I shall proceed with all due loyalty to the 



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