HARMONIES. 



out which it is merely an isolated object. Let us 

 select a few examples. 



To see the aerial gazelle, accompany a troop 

 of Bedouin Arabs across the great Syrian desert. 

 Grand and awe-inspiring in its boundless immen- 

 sity, unearthly and ocean-like, the eye shrinks 

 from contemplating the empty, cheerless solitude, 

 and vainly wanders round for some object which 

 may relieve the sense of utter loneliness and deso- 

 lation. Across the plain, far away towards the 

 west, where the fiery glow of the setting sun 

 brings out their forms in dark relief, a long inter- 

 rupted line of columns is seen stretching away 

 below the horizon; while, as the troop approaches, 

 prostrate heaps cf ruins appear, groups of broken 

 shafts and bases of columns, huge platforms of 

 stone, and fallen capitals, while here and there a 

 solitary monumental pillar rears itself above the 

 rest in solemn majesty. At the end of the sandy 

 plain, the eye at length rests upon the lofty colon- 

 nades of the Temple of the Sun, encompassed by a 

 dark elevated mass of ruined buildings; but be- 

 yond, all around, right and left, as far as the eye 

 can reach, extends the vast level naked flat of the 

 great Desert, over which the eye runs in every 

 direction, exploring the boundless horizon, with- 

 out discovering a human being, or a vestige that 

 tells of existing human life. Naked, solitary, un- 

 limited space extends around, where man never 

 enjoys the refreshment of a shadow, or rests his 

 limbs under cover of a dwelling. There is a deep 

 blue aerial haze spread over the surface, but the 

 distant horizon is nevertheless clear and sharply 

 defined: not an eminence rises to break the mo- 

 notonous flat, higher than the slight hillocks of 

 sand sprinkled with a withered herbage, which are 

 undiscerned except in their immediate proximity, 

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