1836.] RETROSPECT. 



should be a botanist, for in all views plants form the chief embel- 

 lishment. Group masses of naked rock even in the wildest forms, 

 and they may for a time afford a sublime spectacle, but the" will 

 soon grow monotonous. Paint them with bright and varied co- 

 lours, as in Northern Chile, they will become fantastic ; clothe 

 them with vegetation, they must form a decent, if not a beautiful 

 picture. 



When I say that the scenery of parts of Europe is probably supe- 

 rior to anything which we beheld, I except, as a class by itself, 

 that of the intertropical zones. The two classes cannot be com- 

 pared together ; but I have already often enlarged on the grandeur 

 of those regions. As the force of impressions generally depends 

 on preconceived ideas, I may add, that mine were taken from the 

 vivid descriptions in the Personal Narrative of Humboldt, which 

 far exceed in merit anything else which I have read. Yet with 

 these high- wrought ideas, my feelings were far from partaking of 

 a tinge of disappointment on my first and final landing on the 

 shores -of Brazil. 



Among the scenes which are deeply impressed on my mind, 

 none exceed in sublimity the primeval forests undefaced by the 

 hand of man ; whether those of Brazil, where the powers of Life 

 are predominant, or those of Tierra del Fuego, where Death and 

 Decay prevail. Both are temples filled with the varied produc- 

 tions of the God of Nature : no one can stand in these solitudes 

 unmoved, and not feel that there is more in man than the mere 

 breath of his body. In calling up images of the past, I find that 

 the plains of Patagonia frequently cross before my eyes ; yet 

 these plains are pronounced by all wretched and useless. They 

 can be described only by negative characters ; without habita- 

 tions, without water, without trees, without mountains, they sup- 

 port merely a few dwarf plants. Why then, and the case is not 

 peculiar to myself, have these arid wastes taken so'firm a hold on 

 my memory ? Why have not the still more level, the greener 

 and more fertile Pampas, which are serviceable to mankind, pro- 

 duced an equal impression? I can scarcely analyze these feel- 

 ings : but it must be partly owing to the free scope given to the 

 imagination. The plains of Patagonia are boundless, for they 

 are scarcely passable, and hence unknown : they bear the stamp 

 of having lasted, as tney are now, for ages, and there appears no 







