366 RETROSPECT. [CHAP. xxi. 



scenes. A moonlight night, with the clear heavens and the dark 

 glittering sea, and the white sails filled by the soft air of a gently- 

 blowing trade-wind ; a dead calm, with the heaving surface polished 

 like a mirror, and all still except the occasional flapping of the canvas. 

 It is well once to behold a squall with its rising arch and coming fury, 

 or the heavy gale of wind and mountainous waves. I confess, however, 

 my imagination had painted something more grand, more terrific in the 

 full-grown storm. It is an incomparably finer spectacle when beheld 

 on shore, where the waving trees, the wild flight of the birds, the dark 

 shadows and bright lights, the rushing of the torrents, all proclaim the 

 strife of the unloosed elements. At sea the albatross and little petrel 

 fly as if the storm were their proper sphere, the water rises and sinks 

 as if fulfilling its usual task, the ship alone and its inhabitants seem the 

 objects of wrath. On a forlorn and weather-beaten coast, the scene is 

 indeed different, but the feelings partake more of horror than of wild 

 delight. 



Let us now look at the brighter side of the past time. The pleasure 

 derived from beholding the scenery and the general aspect of the 

 various countries we have visited, has decidedly been the most constant 

 and highest source of enjoyment. It is probable that the picturesque 

 beauty of marry parts of Europe exceeds anything which we beheld. 

 But there is a growing pleasure In comparing the character of the 

 scenery in different countries, which to a certain degree is distinct from 

 merely admiring its beauty. It depends chiefly on an acquaintance 

 with the individual parts of each view : I am strongly induced to believe 

 that, as in music, the person who understands every note will, if he 

 also possesses a proper taste, more thoroughly enjoy the whole, so 

 he who examines each part of a fine view, may also thoroughly 

 comprehend the full and combined effect. Hence, a traveller should be 

 a botanist, for in all views plants form the chief embellishment. 

 Group masses of naked rock even in the wildest forms, and they may 

 for a time afford a sublime spectacle, but they will soon grow mono- 

 tonous. Paint them with bright and varied colours, 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 superior 

 to anything which we beheld, I except, as a class by itself, that of the 

 intcrtropical zones. The two classes cannot be compared together; 

 but I have already often enlarged on the grandeur of those regions. 

 As the force of impressions generally depends on preconceived ideas, 

 1 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 ot 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 pre- 

 dominant, or those of Tierra del Fuego, where Death and Decay 



