18 THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE CHAP. 



destroying almost every vestige of natural 

 beauty. 



But if this be true, is it not all the more 

 desirable that our people should have access 

 to pictures and books, which may in some 

 small degree, at any rate, replace what they 

 have thus unfortunately lost ? We cannot all 

 travel ; and even those who can, are able to 

 see but a small part of the world. More- 

 over, though no one who has once seen, can 

 ever forget, the Alps, the Swiss lakes, or the 

 Riviera, still the recollection becomes less 

 vivid as years roll on, and it is pleasant, 

 from time to time, to be reminded of their 

 beauties. 



There is one other advantage not less 

 important. We sometimes speak x as if to 

 visit a country, and to see it, were the same 

 thing. But this is not so. It is not every 

 one who can see Switzerland like a Ruskin 

 or a Tyndall. Their beautiful descriptions 

 of mountain scenery depend less on their 

 mastery of the English language, great as that 

 is, than on their power of seeing what is 

 before them. It has been to me therefore a 



