326 SEPTEMBER. 



fresh spirit-elating breezes sounding through 

 the dark pine grove; the ever- varying lights 

 and shadows, and aerial hues ; the wide pros- 

 pects, and, above all, the simple inhabitants ! 



We delight to think of the people of moun- 

 tainous regions ; we please our imaginations with 

 their picturesque and quiet abodes : with their 

 peaceful secluded lives, striking and unvarying 

 costumes, and primitive manners. We invo- 

 luntarily give to the mountaineer heroic and 

 elevated qualities. He lives amongst noble 

 objects, and must imbibe some of their nobility; 

 he lives amongst the elements of poetry, and 

 must be poetical ; he lives where his fellow- 

 beings are far, far separated from their kind, 

 and surrounded by the sternness and the perils 

 of savage nature; his social affections must there- 

 fore be proportionably concentrated, his home- 

 ties lively and strong ; but, more than all, he 

 lives within the barriers, the strong-holds> the 

 very last refuge which Nature herself has rear- 

 ed to preserve alive liberty in the earth, to 

 preserve to man his highest hopes, his noblest 

 emotions, his dearest treasures, his faith, his 

 freedom, his hearth, and home. How glorious 

 do those mountain-ridges appear when we look 



