INTRODUCTION. 



into the operation of her forces, yea, almost of 

 , the special character of the objects that are 

 surveyed. When, for instance, the eye rests 

 Upon the surface of some mighty plain, covered 

 with a monotonous vegetation, or loses itself 

 in the horizon of a boundless ocean, whose 

 waves are rippling softly to the shore, and 

 strewing the beach with sea-weed, the feeling 

 of free nature penetrates the mind, and an ob- 

 scure intimation of her "endurance in con- 

 formity with inherent everlasting laws," takes 

 possession of the soul. In such emotions there 

 dwells a mysterious power ; they are exciting, 

 yet comnosing ; they strengthen and quicken 

 the jaded intellect ; they soothe the spirit, pain- 

 fully commoved by the wild impulses of pas- 

 sion. All of earnest and of solemn that dwells 

 with us, is derived from the almost unconscious 

 sentiment of the exalted order and sublime reg- 

 ularity of nature ; from the perception of unity 

 of plan amidst eternally recurring variety of 

 form — for in the most exceptional forms of or- 

 ganization, the General is still faithfully reflect- 

 ed ; and from the contrast betwixt the sensu- 

 ous infinite and the particular finite, from which 

 we seek to escape. In every climate of the 

 globe, wherever the varying forms of animal 

 and vegetable life present themselves, in every 

 grade of intellectual eminence are these benef- 

 icent influences vouchsafed to man. 



Another kind of enjoyment of nature, which 

 is likewise wholly and solely addressed to the 

 feelings, is that which we experience, not from 

 the simple presence of unbounded nature, but 

 from the individual characters of a country, and 

 for which we have to thank the peculiar physi- 

 ognomical attributes of the surface of our plan- 

 et. Impressions of this kind are more lively, 

 more definite, and therefore especially adapted 

 to particular moods of the mind. Here, it is 

 the magnitude of the masses, exposed amidst 

 some wild conflict of the elements, that arrests 

 us ; there, it is a picture of the immoveably 

 fxed that meets the eye, as in the waste and 

 stillness of the boundless prairies of the New 

 World and of the steppes of Northern Asia ; or 

 it is a softer and more hospitable view that at- 

 tracts us— a cultivated country, or the first 

 hermitages of man amidst the wilderness, sur- 

 rounded by craggy peaks, on the margin of the 

 leapmg brook. For it is not so much the 

 strength of the emotion that indicates the de- 

 gree of the particular enjoyment of nature, as 

 the determinate circle of ideas and feelings 

 which induce and give it endurance. 



If I might here, for a moment, yield to my 

 own recollections of grand natural scenery, I 

 would revert to the ocean, under the softness 

 of a tropical night, with the vault of heaven 

 pouring down its planetary and steady, not 

 twinkling, starlight upon the heaving surface 

 of the world of waters ; or I would call to mind 

 the wooded valleys of the Cordilleras, where, 

 instinct with power, the lofty palm-trees break 

 through the dark canopy of foliage below, and 

 rising like columns, support another wood 

 above the woods(*) ;" or, I transport myself to 

 the Peake of TenerifTe, and see the cone cut 

 off from the earth beneath by a dense mass of 

 clouds, suddenly becoming visible through an 

 opening pierced by an upward current of air, 

 and the edge of the crater looking down upon 



the vine-clad hills of Orotava, and the Hesperi- 

 dian gardens that line the shore. In scenes like 

 these, it is no longer the still creative life of 

 Nature, her peaceful strivings and doings, that 

 address us ; it is the individual character of the 

 landscape, a combination of the outlines of 

 cloud and sky, and sea and coast, sleeping in 

 the morning or the evening light ; it is the 

 beauty of the forms of the vegetable world, and 

 their groupings, that appeal to us ; for the im- 

 measurable, and even the awful in nature — all 

 that surpasses our powers of comprehension — 

 becomes a source of enjoyment in a romantic 

 country. Fancy brings into play her creative 

 powers upon all that cannot be fully attained 

 by the senses, and her workings take a new 

 direction with each varying emotion in the mind 

 of the observer. Deceived, we imagine that 

 we receive from the external world what we 

 ourselves bestow. 



When, after a lengthened voyage, and far from 

 home, we for the first time set foot in a tropical 

 land, we are pleased to recognize in the rocks 

 and mountain masses, the same mineral spe- 

 cies we have left behind — clay slate, basaltic 

 amygdaloid, and the like, the universal distri- 

 bution of which seems to assure us, that the 

 old crust of the earth has been formed inde- 

 pendently of the external influences of exist- 

 ing climates. But this well-known crust is 

 covered with the forms of a foreign flora. Yet 

 here, surrounded by unwonted vegetable forms, 

 impressed with a sense of the overwhelming 

 amount of the tropical organizing force, in pres- 

 ence of an exotic nature in all things, the na- 

 tive of the northern hemisphere has revealed 

 to him the wonderful power of adaptation in- 

 herent in the human mind. We feel ourselves, 

 in fact, akin to all that is organized ; and though 

 at first we may fancy that one of our native 

 landscapes, with its appropriate features, like 

 a native dialect, would present itself to us in 

 more attractive colours, and rejoice us more 

 than the foreign scene with its profusion of 

 vegetable life, we nevertheless soon begin to 

 find that we are burghers, even under the shade 

 of the palms of the torrid zone. In virtue of 

 the mysterious connection of all organic forms 

 (and unconsciously the feeling of the necessity 

 of this connection lies within us), these new 

 exotic forms present themselves to our fancy 

 as exalted and ennobled out of those which 

 surrounded our childhood. Blind feeling, there- 

 fore, and the enchainment of the phenomena 

 perceived by sense, in the same measure as 

 reason and the combining faculty, lead us to the 

 recognition which now penetrates every grade 

 of humanity, that a common bond, according 

 to determinate laws, and therefore eternal, em- 

 braces the whole of animated nature. 



It is a bold undertaking to subject the magic 

 of the world of sense to dissection, to a separa- 

 tion of its elements ; for the character of gran- 

 deur in a landscape is especially determined by 

 this, that the most impressive natural phenom- 

 ena present themselves at once and together 

 to the mind — that a host of ideas and feelings 

 are simultaneously excited. The extent of 

 mastery over the feelings which is thus gained, 

 is most intimately connected with the unity of 

 the impression. But if we would explain the 

 power of the entire impression by the diversity 



