308 RETROSPECT. 



I except, as a class by itself, that of the intertrop- 

 ical zones. The two classes cannot be compared 

 together ; but I have already often enlarged on the 

 grandeur of those regions. As the force of impres- 

 sions generally depends on preconceived ideas, I 

 may add, that mine were taken from the vivid de- 

 scriptions in the Personal Narrative of Humboldt, 

 which far exceed in merit anything else which I 

 have read. Yet, with these high-wrought ideas, 

 my feelings were far from partaking of a tinge of 

 disappointment on my first and final landing on the 

 shores of Brazil. 



Among the scenes which are deeply impressed 

 on my mind, none exceed in sublimity the prime- 

 val forests undefaced by the hand of man ; whether 

 those of Brazil, where the powers of Life are pre- 

 dominant, or those of Tierra del Fuego, where 

 Death and Decay prevail. Both are temples filled 

 with the varied productions of the God of Nature: 

 no one can stand in these solitudes unmoved, and 

 not feel that there is more in man than the mere 

 breath of his body. In calling up images of the 

 past, I find that the plains of Patagonia frequent- 

 ly cross before my eyes ; yet these plains are pro- 

 nounced by all wretched and useless. They can 

 be described only by negative characters ; without 

 habitations, without water, without trees, without 

 mountains, they support merely a few dwarf plants. 

 Why, then, and the case is not peculiar to myself, 

 have these arid wastes taken so firm a hold on my 

 memory ] AVhy have not the still more level, the 

 greener and more fertile Pampas, which are ser- 

 viceable to mankind, produced an equal impres- 

 sion ] I can scarcely analyze these feelings ; but it 

 inust be partly owing to the free scope given to the 

 imagination. The plains of Patagonia are bound- 

 less, for they are scarcely passable, and hence un- 



