PANORAMAS. 457 



satirically described by Vitruvius and the Egyptian, Julius Pol- 

 lux, as "exaggerated representations of rural adornments of the 

 stage," and which, in the sixteenth century, were contrived by 

 Serlio's arrangement of Coulisses to increase the delusion, may 

 now, since the discoveries of Prevost and Daguerre, be made, in 

 Barker's panoramas, to serve, in some degree, as a substitute 

 for travelling through different regions. Panoramas are more 

 productive of effect than scenic decorations, since the spec- 

 tator, enclosed as it were within a magical circle, and wholly 

 removed from all the disturbing influences of reality, may the 

 more easily fancy that he is actually surrounded by a foreign 

 scene. These compositions give rise to impressions which, 

 after many years, often become wonderfully interwoven with 

 the feelings awakened by the aspect of the scenes when actu- 

 ally beheld. Hitherto panoramas, which are alone effective 

 when of considerable diameter, have been applied more fre- 

 quently to the representation of cities and inhabited districts 

 than to that of scenes in which nature revels in wild luxuri- 

 ance and richness of life. An enchanting effect might be 

 produced by a characteristic delineation of nature, sketched 

 on the rugged declivities of the Himalaya and the Cordilleras, 

 or in the midst of the Indian or South American river valleys, 

 and much aid might be further derived by taking photographic 

 pictures, which, although they certainly cannot give the leafy 

 canopy of trees, would present the most perfect representation 

 of the form of colossal trunks, and the characteristic ramifica- 

 tion of the different branches. 



All these means, the enumeration of which is specially 

 comprised within the limits of the present work, are calculated 

 to raise the feeling of admiration for nature; and I am of 

 opinion that the knowledge of the works of creation, and an 

 appreciation of their exalted grandeur, would be powerfully 

 increased if, besides museums, and thrown open like them, to 

 the public, a number of panoramic buildings, containing alter- 

 nating pictures of landscapes of different geographical lati- 

 tudes and from different zones of elevation, should be erected 

 in our large cities. The conception of the natural unity, and 

 the feeling of the harmonious accord pervading the universe, 

 cannot fail to increase in vividness amongst men, in propor- 

 tion as the means are multiplied, by which the phenomena of 

 nature may be more characteristically and visibly manifested. 



