276 



NOSMET IPSI — ENJOYING A BREEZE. 



"What a delightful prospect/' said I to ray friend, 

 having reached, by a narrow and steep path, Staddon 

 Height. " How grand and beautifully picturesque 

 the natural scenery — how stupendous the artificial 

 dispositions from the combined labour of tiny man ! " 

 for on our left front lay the Breakwater, as a line 

 .upon the liquid sheet, and below, huge ships, which 

 appeared as dots thereon, with, at a short distance, 

 an inward-bound steamer, running like a thing of life 

 upon the surface. 



" Nature and Art,'' said my friend, " appear for 

 once competitors, and were I called upon as umpire, 

 I should almost decide for the latter.'' 



"And why," I rejoined, "when we behold 

 Nature so gay and gallant ? " 



" I know not why," said my friend, " for in giving 

 my voice against Nature — with whom, who or what 

 can cope ? — I give it against my philosophy : and 

 yet," continued he, " I am, on the present occasion, 

 disposed to be more obstinately positive than becom- 

 ingly philosophic, when I see passing, and before 

 me, such surprising effects of human ingenuity. 

 These are, to me at least, novely' he continued, " the 

 cause perhaps of my decision — my inclination from 

 truth ; and here be pleased to accept novelty as my 

 * because,' With the grandeur of Nature's local 

 doings years have made me familiar ; but the works 

 of Art, as now before me, are new — thence, more 

 eno'agingly attractive — thence my preference ! So 

 tolerate my obstinate conclusion ; and fancy, by the 

 same rule, that, at times, an automaton butterfly will 

 be more an object of our delight and wonder than 

 the inimitably exquisite natures papilio.'' 



"There is before us," said I, " ample food for the 

 mind also." 



"Ample indeed," replied my friend, "deliciously 

 inviting. If in his route Xenophon had viewed the 

 Breakwater, he might have called his ten thousand, 



