302 THE MOOR, OR UPLAND. 



scene, save the white tops of the cat's-tail grass, 

 (phleum alpinum^) playing over some little morass, 

 like spray over a rock in the midst of the dark sea, 

 and where the ear catches hardly a sound, save the 

 patting foot-fall of the deer, as he springs buoyant in 

 the invigorating atmosphere, the booming of a bittern, 

 as he shakes the quagmire in some hollow, or the 

 croak of the raven, as he limps cold and sullen from 

 behind some stone; whether it be this, which is 

 wedded to sublimity, and would be sublime if there 

 were not so much of it, or any of the gradations down 

 to the common, which just rises above the fertile fields, 

 with its green bushes browzed to perfect hemispheres, 

 and its cowslips and wild hyacinths, with the twitter 

 of the little birds, the chirp of the grasshopper, as 

 he dances careless from flower to flower, or the tinkle 

 of that sheep-bell, the least musical of metallic instru- 

 ments, one stands in doubt which the most to admire ; 

 and can resolve it only by admiring them all. They 

 are admired in turn, according to the mood of the 

 mind ; or rather, each one has the power of raising the 

 mind to that mood which is best adapted to its own 

 admiration. 



When we come to consider those elevated and 

 seemingly barren portions of the earth's surface, with 

 a proper reference to that by which they are sur- 

 rounded, we find that, though they be apparently 

 unproductive themselves, they are the causes of pro- 

 ductiveness. The flat summits, which are kept cold 

 by moss and damp, attract the air, and by the con- 

 densation arising from their cold, make it part with 

 its humidity ; and thus lay up a store of water, 



