40 STUDIES IN THE FIELD AND FOREST. 



pile of ruins, an old house or an old church, venerable 

 with the mosses of time and decay. There are other 

 objects, scenes, and situations that produce similar 

 effects upon the mind, such as a sight of the ocean when 

 agitated by a tempest, from a place of security. A 

 beacon and a light-house belong to the same class of 

 objects ; and above all, a monument by the sea-shore, 

 erected to commemorate some remarkable shipwreck, 

 awakens a train of melancholy reflections nearly allied 

 to the sentiment of -ruins. But it is not every scene of 

 ruins that is capable of yielding pleasure to the be 

 holder. There is nothing agreeable in a view of the 

 embers of a wide conflagration, except the gratification 

 of the curiosity. Such a spectacle brings to the mind 

 only the idea of destruction and misfortune, which is 

 painful, and there is nothing connected with it to awaken 

 any counteracting sentiment. On the other hand, every 

 mind is agreeably affected by the sight of an old house, 

 no longer the habitation of man, serving only as the 

 day retreat of .the owl, and the fancied residence of 

 beings of the invisible world. There is a propensity 

 among men to associate every ruined edifice, however 

 great or humble, with some romance or superstition ; 

 and our own people, who have no magnificent ruins, 

 indulge the sentiment which is awakened by them, in 

 their legends of haunted houses, and by identifying 

 these superstitions with every deserted habitation. 



It is worthy of remark that although a cottage is 

 more poetical than a palace, when each is in a perfect 

 condition a ruined palace is more poetical than a 

 ruined cottage. A certain amount of grandeur must 

 be associated with a ruin to render it very effective. 

 After a family have deserted their habitation of luxury 

 and splendor, when they themselves have gone down to 



