18 THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE CHAP, 
destroying almost every vestige of natural 
beauty. 
But if this be true, is it not all the more 
desirable that our people should have access 
to pictures and books, which may in some 
small degree, at any rate, replace what they 
have thus unfortunately lost? We cannot all 
travel; and even those who can, are able to 
see but a small part of the world. More- 
over, though no one who has once seen, can 
ever forget, the Alps, the Swiss lakes, or the 
Riviera, still the recollection becomes less 
vivid as years roll on, and it is pleasant, 
from time to time, to be reminded of their 
beauties. 
There is one other advantage not less 
important. We sometimes speak as if to 
visit a country, and to see it, were the same 
thing. But this is not so. It is not every 
one who can see Switzerland like a Ruskin 
or a Tyndall. Their beautiful descriptions 
of mountain scenery depend less on their 
mastery of the English language, great as that 
is, than on their power of seeing what is 
before them. It has been to me therefore.a 
