LILY-PONDS. 



SOME of the most delightful prospects are comprised 

 within a narrow compass ; and such, indeed, are the aver- 

 age of those scenes which have been selected for the paint- 

 er's canvas. When we ascend a high mountain, we gen- 

 erally observe that the most enchanting views are beheld 

 from some point not far from its base, where the objects 

 of attention are circumscribed by surrounding eminences. 

 A valley of small extent, inshrined among wooded hills, 

 if it be not so exhilarating as a scene of wider view, is 

 certainly more satisfactory and more picturesque. Here 

 the imagination finds scope for agreeable exercise, with- 

 out the weariness produced by a view of illimitable space, 

 and the consequent seeking after something beyond our 

 ken. Nature does not surfeit her intelligent creatures 

 with scenes of beauty or grandeur. She economizes her 

 wealth and her resources, and makes no attempt, like 

 ambitious men, when improving her works, to dazzle the 

 sight with uninterrupted splendor. She has opened many 

 little valleys among the hills, to collect within them a 

 greater amount of beauty than she assigns to ordinary 

 places ; and to crown them with the highest attractions 

 she has placed a lily-pond in their centre, to present at 

 one view all that is charming in landscape, either to the 

 painter or the poet. 



All the beauty of nature and all the life of the woods 

 gather spontaneously about a lily-pond. Here assemble 

 the water-birds of various plume, attracted by the fishes 

 and the plants that are gathered around the shore. The 



