68 WATER SCENERY. 



of these pleasant advantages. Let two parties be placed 

 at opposite points, with a small lake intervening, and 

 though full in sight of each other, they still feel secluded. 

 The pleasantness of their retreat, under these circum- 

 stances, is enlivened by the sight of the opposite party, 

 and they may be amused by observing the motions of 

 the other, and at the same time feel secure from intrusion. 

 But if there were only a meadow of equal width to 

 separate them, the secluded character of the situation 

 would be lost; as the parties are not only in sight, 

 but are liable to be interrupted by a visit from the oppo- 

 site one. A lake may in this way be the occasion of 

 many of those delightful retreats, attended with advan- 

 tages of prospect, which no other combination of scenes 

 could so well afford. The beauty of many of these situa- 

 tions depends greatly on their apparent adaptedness to 

 this kind of recreation and seclusion. 



A river, especially of moderate width, is in many re- 

 spects more beautiful than a lake; and, more than any 

 other collection of water, suggests the idea of infinity 

 and of continued progression. I never look upon a clear 

 stream of narrow dimensions, without thinking of the 

 thousand beautiful scenes it must visit, in its blue course 

 through the hills and plains. What a life of perpetual 

 delight must be led by the gentle river goddess, as she is 

 wafted up and down the stream in her shallop of reeds ! 

 Xow coursing along under banks sprinkled over with 

 honeysuckles, while their fragrance follows the current 

 of the stream, to entice the bees and other insects to their 

 fragrant flower-cups ; then passing through a pleasant 

 forest, where she is regaled by the terebinthine odor of 

 pines mingled with that of flowering lindens, whose 

 branches resound all day with the hum of insects and the 

 warbling of birds. Every green bank offers to her hand a 

 profusion of wild strawberries, and every rocky declivity 



