AUTHOB'S PKEFACE. 



TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



WITH some diffidence, I here present to the public a series 

 of papers which originated in the presence of the noblest 

 objects of nature, on the Ocean, in the forests of the 

 Orinoco, in the Savannahs of Venezuela, and in the soli- 

 tudes of the Peruvian and Mexican Mountains. Several 

 detached fragments, written on the spot, have since been 

 wrought into a whole. A survey of nature at large, proofs 

 of the co-operation of forces, and a renewal of the enjoyment 

 which the immediate aspect of the tropical countries affords 

 to the susceptible beholder, are the objects at which I aim. 

 Each Essay was designed to be complete in itself; and one 

 and the same tendency pervades the whole. This aesthetic 

 mode of treating subjects of Natural History is fraught with 

 great difficulties in the execution, notwithstanding the mar- 

 vellous vigour and flexibility of my native language. The 

 wonderful luxuriance of nature presents an accumulation of 

 separate images, and accumulation disturbs the harmony and 

 effect of a picture. When the feelings and the imagina- 

 tion are excited, the style is apt to stray into poetical prose. 

 But these ideas require no amplification here, for the fol- 

 lowing pages afford but too abundant examples of such devia- 

 tions and of such want of unity. 



Notwithstanding these defects, which I can more easily 



