404 ANNUAL RE GISTER, 1794. 



racteristic beauty of a waterfall is 

 not its glossy smoothness : ~" no ; a 

 rapid stream broken by rocks." say* 

 he, '* and forcing its way through 

 them with impetuous and ill-re- 

 strained fur}', is the interesting 

 feature in a scene removed from 

 mortal tread. A cascade like that 

 described but now, has no merit at 

 all ; the lake would be bettor with- 

 out it, and every painter would be 

 of my opinion." He would no 

 doubt, Mr. C ilpin ; but the inha- 

 bitant of that wa m climate I was 

 mentioniiig, did not retire there 

 with an intent to paint the view, but 

 to enjov it. Descriptions vary ac- 

 cordingtothedescriber'sturnofmind; 

 whilst each arraigns the laste of h\m 

 who spoke bat upon the subject, 

 though perhaps all arc not right. 



P'ariety, diversity, fluciuntion, change, 

 wuiahilily, vicissitude. 



Among these words, though ana- 

 logy may be found, synonymy can 

 liardly be sought : The propriety de- 

 pends upon the place in which they 

 stand : we may therefore, in order 

 to bring them close together, ob- 

 serve, how through the numberless 

 vicissitudes in nature and in life, there 

 isyet less real change {hanjiuctuation 

 of events, less true diversity pei haps 

 than unremarked revolution. Even 

 in thetossings of that sea, whence 

 the third substantive upon our list is 

 derived, I have thought there was 

 not so much mutability as a light 

 observer would imagine. The same 

 waves probably for many years wa-h 

 the same cfiasts — The shells they 

 leave behind them exh bit no vari- 

 ety. F'.sh of the s?me kind haunt 

 the same shores, and no flight of 



time brings turtle to thebayof Dnb- 

 lin, or salmon to Genoa ; — I mean, 

 not in sufficLentqnantity to disprove 

 this observation; for now and then 

 an extraordinary thing will happen, 

 and fl)ing fishes from the Pacific 

 Ocean are at this hour digging out 

 of a mountain near Verona. Pen- 

 nant will tell us, that thesame swal- 

 low occupies the same nest every 

 year; and doctor Johnson said, that 

 no poetcould invent a series or com- 

 bination of incidents the praecognita 

 of which might not be found in 

 Homer : and should we claii.i an ex- 

 ception or two in favour of Shakes- 

 peare and Ariosto, those exceptions 

 would only prove the rule. 



Herschel informs us, that all na- 

 ture's works are rotatory : if then 

 each star, however firmly fixed, has 

 in itself a motion round its own 

 axis, the solid contents of every 

 such ijlobe may be supposed to par- 

 ticipate this spirit of rotation. In 

 our own we see trulh and error, 

 land and sea shifting their stations, 

 with more vicissitude than actual 

 change ; and while the natural sun 

 rises to one half of us mortals, 

 while it sets to the others, we dis- 

 cern in like manner whole regions 

 immersed in darkness at beginning, 

 now brightly illuminated with Ke- 

 velation's beam ; and the tracts of 

 countiy first irradiated, sunk into 

 sad opacity. 



This seems indeed the evening of 

 our earth's natural day — 



Night succeeds impervious night. 

 What (hose dreadful glooms conceal, 

 lancy's glass can ne'er reveal : 

 ■Whci. shall ! uht the scene imprcve .' 

 When shall ticic the vtii remove.' 

 When shall truth my tloubis dispel ? 

 Awful period ! who can tell ? 



Hawkesvvort II 

 World. 



