MELLOW ENGLAND. 163 



pleased me so in the seeing that I must tell it again. 

 It is worth a voyage across the Atlantic to see the 

 bridges alone. I believe I had seen little other than 

 wooden bridges before, and in England I saw not 

 one such, but everywhere solid arches of masonry, 

 that were refreshing and reassuring to behold. Even 

 the lanes and by-ways about the farm, I noticed, 

 crossed the little creeks with a span upon which 

 an elephant would not hesitate to tread, or artillery 

 trains to pass. There is no form so pleasing to look 

 upon as the arch, or that affords so much food and 

 suggestion to the mind. It seems to stimulate the vo- 

 lition, the will-power, and for my part, I cannot look 

 upon a noble span without a feeling of envy, for I 

 know the hearts of heroes are thus keyed and forti- 

 fied. The arch is the symbol of strength and activity, 

 and of rectitude. 



In Europe I took a new lease of this feeling, this 

 partiality for the span, and had daily opportunities to 

 indulge and confirm it. In London I had immense 

 satisfaction in observing the bridges there and in 

 walking over them, firm as the geological strata, and 

 as enduring. London Bridge, Waterloo Bridge 

 Blackfriars, etc., clearing the river in a few gigantic 

 leaps, like things of life and motion to pass over 

 one of these bridges or to sail under it awakens the 

 emotion of the sublime. I think the moral value of 

 such a bridge as the Waterloo must be inestimable. 

 It seems to me the British Empire itself is stronger 

 for such a bridge, and that all public and private vir- 



