THE ENJOYMENT OF NATURE. 9 



impressions lead, however vaguely, to the same end as that 

 laborious and extended comparison of facts, by which the 

 philosopher arrives at an intimate persuasion of one indisso- 

 luble chain of affinity binding together all nature. 



It may seem a rash attempt to endeavour to analyse into 

 its separate elements the enchantment which the great scenes 

 of nature exert over our minds, for this effect depends espe- 

 cially on the combination and unity of the various emotions 

 and ideas excited ; and yet if we would trace back this power 

 to the objective diversity of the phenomena, we must take a 

 nearer and more discriminating view of individual forms and 

 variously acting forces. The richest and most diversified 

 materials for such an analysis present themselves to the 

 traveller in the landscapes of Southern Asia, in the great 

 Indian Archipelago, and, above all, in those parts of the new 

 continent where the highest summits of the Cordilleras 

 approach the upper surface of the aerial ocean by which our 

 globe is enveloped, and where the subterranean forces which 

 elevated those lofty chains still shake their foundations. 



Graphic descriptions of nature, arranged under the guid- 

 ance of leading ideas, are calculated not merely to please 

 the imagination, but also to indicate to us the gradation of 

 those impressions to which I have already alluded, from the 

 uniformity of the sea beach or of the steppes of Siberia, to 

 the rich luxuriance of the torrid zone. If we represent to 

 ourselves Mount Pilatus placed on the Shreckhorn ( 2 ), or the 

 Schneekoppe of Silesia on the summit of Mont Blanc, we 

 shall not yet have attained to the height of one of the 

 colossi of the Andes, the Chimborazo, whose height is twice 

 that of Etna ; and we must pile the Eigi or Mount Athos on 

 the Chimborazo, to have an image of the highest summit of 



