18 SALMONIA. 



Hal. — One might pursue the metaphor 

 still further, and say, that in its origin, — its 

 thundering and foam, when it carries down 

 clay from the bank, and becomes impure, — it 

 resembles the youthful mind affected by 

 dangerous passions. And the influence of a 

 lake, in calming and clearing the turbid water, 

 may be compared to the effect of reason in 

 more mature life, when the tranquil, deep, 

 cool, and unimpassioned mind is freed from 

 its fever, its troubles, bubbles, noise, and foam. 

 And, above all, the sources of a river — which 

 may be considered as belonging to the atmo- 

 sphere — and its termination in the ocean, 

 may be regarded as imaging the divine origin 

 of the human mind, and its being ultimately 

 returned to, and lost in, the Infinite and 

 Eternal Intelligence from which it originally 

 sprung. 



