SOOTHING INFLUENCE OF SCENERY. 71 



the imperfections of my nature, which would have been 

 the same in the midst of crowded cities as in the loneliest 

 valleys. It is not necessary that when alone our minds 

 should be constantly revolving some subject of medita- 

 tion. There is a kind of tranquil happiness independent 

 of the exertions of the understanding, and even little con- 

 nected with the excursions of fancy. During such moments 

 we feel a kindness as it were for everything around us, 

 animate and inanimate, all dislikes and animosities are 

 forgotten, and we feel a disposition that is well expressed 

 by the word ' good ' in its best and noblest signification. 

 The heart is in a state of complete harmony, the images 

 of hills, trees, waters, fields, and all the appearances of 

 nature, make us virtuously inclined. We can then sit upon 

 the bank of a stream, or the side of a hill, and look around 

 us with feelings of contentment and peace ; and even with 

 the existence of sorrow, everything looks so quiet and so 

 blessed, that grief itself partakes of the universal joy." 



A few years after this, the sober experience of life, and, 

 we may add, a sounder theology, materially weakened Mr 

 Wilson's faith in nature as the panacea for the ills of mor- 

 tality ; but they only deepened his love of the landscape, 

 and gave him intenser consciousness of that benign and 

 adorable Presence to which it owes at once its life and its 

 beauty. At the risk of wearying the reader, we cannot 



