INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. xxiii 



And now, as I close these remarks, let me 

 say, that if I could but arouse in other minds 

 that ardent and ever-growing love of the beau- 

 tiful works of God in the creation which I feel 

 in myself, — if I could but make it in others 

 what it has been to me, 



The nurse, 

 The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul 

 Of all my moral being ; 



if I could open to any, the mental eye which 

 can never be again closed, but which finds, 

 more and more clearly revealed before it, 

 beauty, wisdom, and peace, in the splendours 

 of the heavens, in the majesty of seas and 

 mountains, in the freshness of winds, the ever- 

 changing lights and shadows of fair landscapes, 

 the solitude of heaths, the radiant face of bright 

 lakes, and the solemn depths of woods, then 

 indeed should I rejoice. Oh ! that I could but 

 touch a thousand bosoms with that melancholy 

 which often visits mine, when I behold little 

 children endeavouring to extract amusement 

 from the very dust, and straws, and pebbles 

 of squalid alleys, shut out from the free and 

 glorious countenance of Nature, and think how 

 differently the children of the peasantry are 

 passing the golden hours of childhood; wander- 

 ing with bare heads and unshod feet perhaps, 

 but singing a "childish wordless melody," 



