FEELINGS OF THE SUBLIME 85 



We may first observe that the remarkable 

 feelings induced by such experiences are very far 

 from unpleasant, as we should expect them to be 

 on the theory which refers them to the apprehen- 

 sions and dangers of our primitive ancestors. 

 Thus, on May 18, 1832, when the first impressions 

 of a Brazilian forest were freshest in Darwin's 

 mind, he wrote to Henslow, telling him of an 

 expedition of 150 miles from Rio de Janeiro to 

 the Rio Macao. 



Here I first saw a tropical forest in all its sublime 

 grandeur nothing but the reality can give any idea how 

 wonderful, how magnificent the scene is. ... I never 

 experienced such intense delight. I formerly admired 

 Humboldt, I now almost adore him ; he alone gives any 

 notion of the feelings which are raised in the mind on first 

 entering the Tropics.' l 



Furthermore, how are we to account on any 

 such hypothesis for the similarity of the feelings 

 excited by the forest, where enemies might lurk 

 unseen, and the mountain peak, the very spot 

 which offers the best facility for seeing them? 

 It is also difficult to understand why the terrors 

 of primitive man should be specially associated 

 with caves or with the most magnificent forests 

 on the face of the earth. 2 There is no valid 

 reason for believing that any less danger lurked 

 amid trees of ordinary size or lay in wait for him 

 by the riverside, in the jungle, or the rock-strewn 



1 Life and Letters, i. 236, 237. 



* There is grave doubt whether the New World was inhabited 

 by man until long after the Palaeolithic Age. 



D 2 



