OCTOBER. 457 



the difficulties and dangers it presents to the traveller magnify 

 the interest of the situation. I have often seen a whole party 

 affected with an eager desire to obtain possession of a flower 

 that was growing out of the summit of a rocky cliff. Each 

 one would feel a similar desire to climb upon its sides and to 

 obtain a resting place upon its dangerous summit. All these 

 circumstances, which in real nature stimulate the adventurous 

 spirit, become picturesque when represented on canvas, by 

 affording the same kind of stimulus to the imagination of the 

 beholder. Hence the imaginative as well as the adventurous 

 are equally delighted with this kind of scenery, that arouses 

 the enterprise of the one and awakens the poetic feelings of 

 the other. What do we care for a scene, however beautiful, 

 which is so tame as to afford no exercise for the imagination ? 

 Rocks, by increasing the inequalities of the surface, propor- 

 tionally multiply the ideas and images which are associated 

 with landscape. 



Tt is not an uninteresting inquiry why a prospect beheld 

 from a rocky cliff or precipice yields us more pleasure than 

 the same beheld from an even slope. Is it the more agree- 

 able, when we partake of any such enjoyments, to be discon- 

 nected from the objects immediately around us ? Or when 

 standing upon a rock that projects from the surface of the 

 ground may we not experience an illusive feeling of elevation ? 

 In the town of Beverly are many grand and delightful views 

 of the ocean from different points on the neighboring hills 

 and eminences. Some of these views are probably unsur- 

 passed^ by the coast scenery in any part of the country. I 

 have repeatedly observed that parties of pleasure, when mak- 

 ing an excursion among these hills, are not satisfied v/ith a 

 view of the ocean and landscape, until they have beheld them 

 from some elevated or projecting rock. There is probably a 

 poetic feeling of isolation attending us when standing upon a 

 rock, that increases those emotions, whether of beauty or 

 sublimity, which are excited by the prospect. 



Any one who has rambled over the bald hills that bound 

 almost the whole northern shore of Massachusetts Bay, can 

 bear witness to the power of these landscapes to magnify 



VOL. XXI. NO. x. 58 



