118 HISTORY OF 



&i ' 



CHAPTER XII. 



: >:h ; , // .'>.[ ?'. ! ill *' ''i.HC. 



OF MOUNTAINS. 



HAVING at last, in some measure, emerged from 

 the deeps of the earth, we come to a scene of 

 greater splendour ; the contemplation of its ex- 

 ternal appearance. In this survey, its mountains 

 are the first objects that strike the imagination, 

 and excite our curiosity. There is not, perhaps, 

 any thing in all nature that impresses an unac- 

 customed spectator with such ideas of awful so- 

 lemnity, as these immense piles of nature's erect- 

 ing, that seem to mock the minuteness of human 

 magnificence. 



In countries where there are nothing but 

 plains, the smallest elevations are apt to excite 

 wonder. In Holland, which is all a flat, they 

 show a little ridge of hills, near the sea-side, 

 which Boerhaave generally marked out to his 

 pupils as being mountains of no small considera- 

 tion. What would be the sensations of such an 

 auditory, could they at once be presented with a 

 view of the heights and precipices of the Alps, 

 or the Andes ? Even among us, in England, we 

 have no adequate ideas of a mountain prospect; 

 our hills are generally sloping from, the plain, 

 and clothed to the very top with verdure. We 

 can scarcely, therefore, lift our imaginations to 

 those immense piles whose tops peep up behind 

 intervening clouds, sharp and precipitate, and 



