viii.] TRAVELS, 1835. 213 



a temporary seclusion from ordinary habits and impres- 

 sions. These " hours of idleness," as many would term 

 them, are not lost. As far as physical capacity goes, they 

 serve to store up energy, which, distributed over the other 

 ten months of the year, render every labour not only 

 more tolerable, but also more productive. So, too, of the 

 intellect. During the hours of continuous study many 

 ideas float before the mind of every man, and some are 

 caught as they pass ; but he is then too much occupied in 

 the nerve-labour of research, to have much of the super- 

 fluous energy required for invention. It is during these 

 hours of relaxation that thoughts of diviner mould arise 

 unbidden, and that the mind, like a magic mirror which 

 converts the distorted elements of a landscape into a 

 congruous whole, reflects from its untarnished surface 

 the scattered impressions derived from experience and 

 meditation, into one bright focus.' 1 During the previous 

 session he had been delivering a course of lectures on 

 heat ; and as the hot springs of the Pyrenean valleys 

 promised new and interesting observations on this his 

 favourite subject, he thither betook himself early in the 

 May of 1835. 



After some days spent in Paris, he was, as he ox- 

 presses it, * safely delivered by the diligence in its 

 portmanteau fashion at Orleans/ whence, by way of 

 rs and Bordeaux, he reached Pau the beginning of 

 July. 



Journal, July 7. 



' I Ifft Bordeaux at 7 A.M. by diligence for Pau, and 

 was agreeably surprised by the beauty of the country 

 as far as Langon we followed the course of the 

 >nne through a perfect garden of vines and fruit- 

 trees. . . . The approach to Pau is delightful, through a 

 richly-wooded country, with very line chestnut lives ami 



liile the l>n\-tivi- 1- > a|'|r;ir ill the lied 



lav the mountains were shrouded in mist, all hut. 

 their bases, and yet I thought the view from the uj 



1 Unpublished art'W on 



