164 DESCRIPTION OF THE 



from my worthy preceptor. Yet, somehow or other, 

 such is human nature, and so much more durable 

 are pleasing than disagreeable impressions, that I 

 found myself looking back with pleasure to Ovid's 

 Metamorphoses, and, forgetting the said thumps 

 on the head, had actually got ready and carried 

 in my cap a copy of the lines which begin — 

 " Est nemus Hsemonise," &c. 



in order to be able to read the description as I 

 rode alono;. 



Pain, it seems, makes not so durable an impres- 

 sion as pleasure, although its temporary influence is 

 ten-fold greater ; and many scenes in which there 

 may have been a considerable degree of alloy, 

 disappointment, or even pain, become, after a lapse 

 of time, not only not painful to recur to, but even 

 pleasing to call to one's recollection. 



The extreme beauty and grandeur of Tempe 

 baffles all attempts at description ; I had heard 

 a great deal of it from persons who had before 

 visited it, I had formed most extravagant notions 

 concerning it, yet, so far from exj^eriencing any 

 feeling of disappointment, I found the reality far 

 exceed my expectations. I was enchanted more 

 than I am able to express ; I could willingly have 



