THE MOUNTAIN. IX 



Kish, hunting his father's asses, thou slialt be "among 

 the prophets," and find a kingdom. 



Rebellious transgressor! Science has long struggled 

 for thee ; Nature has importuned thee, come, be a fact, 

 do a thing, be saved ! 



The struggle has been to set the claims of the moun- 

 tain to the music of science and nature. It was a pre- 

 sumptuous effort, and much time, labor, suffering, and 

 certain failure were inevitable. Hence, friend sub- 

 scriber, somewhat annoying, even galling it must be 

 acknowledged, had become your oft-repeated queries: 

 Why don't you print that book we subscribed for ? What 

 are you so long about? (as if a book were a "toby 

 cigar," and its leaves could be rolled up in a minute!) 

 What have you found on that old mountain to interest 

 you? What can you say about it worth hearing? What 

 scribblings about its old rocks and trees, its air and 

 waters, can you make that any one will read? For 

 Heaven's sake tell us, what is the book about? and, 

 whatever it is, why don't you print it? 



True, they are plain old rocks and trees, plain old 

 crystalline skies, limpid waters, and piny heights very 

 plain to seared and bleared eyes; plain to benumbed 

 brains and nauseated stomachs; plain as square acres 

 of the old salt sea, monotonous as square miles of Lib- 

 yan sand deserts. But reflect, profane interrogator, 

 on this sublime fact : a wheelbarrow load of desert frag- 

 ments, a pailful of ocean water, could not be exhausted 

 by science in a thousand years ! 



Be patient, then; meditate; be considerate, subscriber! 

 Any undue haste in the narration of the advantages of 

 tlie rural life, so imposing and beautiful ; any undignified 

 hurry in a dissertation on the sacred and sublime theme 

 of the "Paradise regained" by man's physical redemp- 

 tion from vice and disease, and his attainment of the 

 healthy life, the painless death, and blissful transit to 

 immortal joy, would be to ignominiously profane these 

 subjects; and any indecorous precipitancy in the re- 

 hearsal of the august oratorio of the mountain, would 

 be almost impious and sacrilegious, certainly a crime 

 indictable before the high court of Propriety. 



