Ptof. Hausmann on the Physiogjiomy of Scandinavia. 75 



we derive the general character of the physiognomy of a coun- 

 try, out of the agreement among the features of its individual 

 districts. 



As the impression which the countenances of men make upon 

 our feelings can frequently be modified, in no inconsiderable 

 degree, by means of art, such as the arrangement of the hair, 

 an ornamental head-dress, and many other circumstances ; so 

 undoubtedly works of art have a great influence on the impres- 

 sion which a country naturally makes upon us. Houses, 

 bridges, fields, gardens and the like, are instances. Perhaps 

 we would not know a land again, were these additions to it 

 removed. By cutting down forests, or draining marshes, art de- 

 stroys to a greater or less extent the impressions which nature 

 has stamped upon individual regions, or entire countries. But 

 Nature will never entirely lay aside the chissel, with which she 

 shaped out the crust of the globe. When thousands of years 

 have, Jby their lapse, occasioned a remarkable change in the con- 

 struction of any feature of a land, we are not aware of the con- 

 tinual operation of the hand of Nature. Beds of shells situated 

 high above the present level of the sea ; eruptions and streams 

 of lava from volcanoes ; layers of soil upon solid rocks bearing 

 luxuriant vegetation ; debris at the foot of mountains ; mounds 

 of debris formed and carried along by the descent of the gla- 

 ciers : the constant reforming of the surface of the earth by 

 means of water ; these are all eloquent proofs of the same acti- 

 vity of Nature. She guides her chissel slowly, but with firm- 

 ness and constancy ; and she seldom effaces, by means of any 

 sudden or violent commotion, any feature which she has been 

 at pains to express. 



When a person travels from the southern mountainous part of 

 lower Saxony towards the north, the hills of the northern bound- 

 ary of the Hartz, which are characterized by gently waving 

 fines, first sink out of view: Next, those mountains of the 

 Hartz, which suri-ound the foot of the venerable Brocken, 

 and which are marked out by a more angular outline, disap- 

 pear : At last the Brocken conceals his bald head beneath 

 the horizon. And wherever the traveller turns his eye, he sees 

 a boundless plain covered with sand, moor, and heath, upon 

 which he. sees at one place a miserable juniper bush, at another 



