96 LAKES. 



send up" to the mountain peaks volumes of clouds, 

 laden with fresh materials for the action of their ap- 

 pointed part in the beautiful design, they afford to the 

 naturalist a field of never-wearying interest, and to 

 rational man a theme for gratitude, adoration, and love. 

 To the enthusiast in the picturesque, nature no 

 where presents an aspect of such varied beauty as 

 amid these combinations of hill and water and glade. 

 That monotony which characterizes a wide expanse of 

 unbroken plain, even when clothed in a mantle of 

 uniform hue, and that unrelieved sense of awe and 

 loneliness which a mountain range, without this sooth- 

 ing accompaniment, is apt to suggest, are, alike, absent 

 here. All that is most sublime is softened by all 

 that is most beautiful; and all that is most beau- 

 tiful, is elevated by all that is most sublime. The 

 pervading and perpetual presence of water clothes the 

 earth in its richest robe of verdure ; and there is a spirit 

 of life and motion over all, which prevents that feeling 

 of oppression and melancholy with which man finds him- 

 self bowed down in the immediate presence of nature, 

 in her mightier agencies. The air is full of soothing 

 sounds, poured from a thousand natural sources, the 

 ripple of the mimic wave upon the mimic beach ; the 

 murmur of the cascade ; the roaring of the cataract ; 

 the sighing of the breeze, or the rushing of the blast 

 among the rocking woods ; all blend into one wild, but 

 enchanting harmony, repeated by a thousand voices, 

 from hill and grove and glade, that it might well sug- 

 gest a mythology like that of the Greeks of old, and 

 lead the imagination to people every cliff and stream 

 and tree with a dryad or a faun, 



