SEPTEMBER. 273 



heard the bleat of the flock across their solitary ex- 

 panses, and the wild cry of the mountain-plover, the 

 raven, or the eagle ; and seen the rich and russet 

 hues of distant slopes and eminences, the livid 

 gashes of ravines and precipices, the white glittering 

 line of falling waters, and the cloud tumultuously 

 whirling round the lofty summit ; and then stood 

 panting on that summit, and beheld the clouds 

 alternately gather and break over a thousand giant 

 peaks and ridges of every varied hue, but all silent 

 as images of eternity; and cast his gaze over lakes 

 and forests, and smoking towns, and wide lands to 

 the very ocean, in all their gleaming and reposing 

 beauty; knows nothing of the treasures of pictorial 

 wealth which his own country possesses. 



But when we let loose the imagination from even 

 these splendid scenes, and give it free charter to 

 range through the far more glorious ridges of con- 

 tinental mountains, through Alps, Apennines, or 

 Andes, how is it possessed and absorbed by all the 

 awful magnificence of their scenery and character ! 

 The sky-ward and inaccessible pinnacles, the 



Palaces where nature thrones 

 Sublimity in icy halls ! 



the dark Alpine forests, the savage rocks and pre- 

 cipices, the fearful and unfathomable chasms filled 

 with the sound of ever-precipitating waters; the 

 cloud, the silence, the avalanche, the cavernous 

 gloom, the terrible visitations of Heaven's con- 



