252 SEPTEMBER. 



rich and russet hues of distant slopes and emi- 

 nences, the livid gashes of ravines and preci- 

 pices, the white glittering line of falling waters, 

 and the cloud tumultuously whirling round the 

 lofty summit ; and then stood panting on that 

 summit, and beheld the clouds alternately gather 

 and break over a thousand giant peaks and 

 ridges of every varied hue, — but all silent as 

 images of eternity ; and cast his gaze over lakes 

 and forests, and smoking towns, and wide lands 

 to the very ocean, in all their gleaming and 

 reposing beauty, knows nothing of the treasures 

 of pictorial wealth which his own country pos- 

 sesses. 



But when we let loose the imagination from 

 even these splendid scenes, and give it free 

 charter to range through the far more glorious 

 ridges of continental mountains, through Alps, 

 Apennines or Andes, how is it possessed and 

 absorbed by all the awful magnificence of their 

 scenery and character ! The sky-ward and in- 

 accessible pinnacles, the 



Palaces where Nature thrones 

 Sublimity in icy halls ! 



the dark Alpine forests, the savage rocks and 

 precipices, the fearful and unfathomable chasms 

 filled with the sound of ever-precipitating wa- 

 ters ; the cloud, the silence, the avalanche, the 

 cavernous gloom, the terrible visitations of 



