IX. 



gradually bring on pleasant fits of musing ; 

 which are now and then agreeably interrupted 

 by the song of a bird, the distant whistle of a 

 peasant, or perhaps the vagary of some fish, 

 leaping out of the still water, and skimming 

 transiently about its glassy surface." * 



When national sports and pastimes are in strict 

 accordance with all that is improving in body 

 and in mind, they cannot be too zealously cul- 

 tivated among the bulk of a people. They 

 impart to all that practise them a healthy and 

 vigorous tone to the understanding and feelings, 

 and give a wholesome check to such sedentary 

 habits, and recluse indulgences, as have a direct 

 and manifest tendency to foster moping senti- 

 mentality and melancholy depression. What 

 exhilarating and delightful sensations we feel 

 when we gaze upon the river landscape the 

 meadows, the flowers, the trees when in full 

 luxuriant vegetation ! Except melancholy lie 

 at the bottom of the heart in a very obdurate 

 form, we cannot fail to smile on the face of 



* Washington Irving. 



