AUTHOR'S PREFACE 



FIRST EDITION. 



IT is not without diffidence that I present to the public a series 

 of papers which took their origin in the presence of natural scenes 

 of grandeur or of beauty on the Ocean, in the forests of the 

 Orinoco, in the Steppes of Venezuela, and in the mountain wilder- 

 nesses of Peru and Mexico. Detached fragments were written 

 down on the spot and at the moment, and were afterwards moulded 

 into a whole. The view of Nature on an enlarged scale, the dis- 

 play of the concurrent action of various forces or powers, and the 

 renewal of the enjoyment which the immediate prospect of tropical 

 scenery affords to sensitive minds, are the objects which I have 

 proposed to myself. According to the design of my work, whilst 

 each of the treatises of which it consists should form a whole com- 

 plete in itself, one common tendency should pervade them all. 

 Such an artistic and literary treatment of subjects of natural history 

 is liable to difficulties of composition, notwithstanding the aid which 

 it derives from the power and flexibility of our noble language. 

 The unbounded riches of Nature occasion an accumulation of sepa- 

 rate images; and accumulation disturbs the repose and the unity of 

 impression which should belong to the picture. Moreover, when 

 addressing the feelings and imagination, a firm hand is needed to 

 guard the style from degenerating into an undesirable species of 

 poetic prose. But I need not here describe more fully dangers 

 which I fear the following pages will show I have not always suc- 

 ceeded in avoiding. 



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