42O Lakes of Killarney. 



where the intensity of admiration may create 

 emotions of a more painful than pleasurable 

 description. 



Mount Blanc and its fellow Alps, though 

 in height and magnitude infinitely surpassing 

 M'Gilly Cuddy's Reeks, are, in sublimity, 

 greatly inferior. This superiority, I conceive 

 to arise out of the magic powers of light and 

 shade. The brilliancy of Mount Blanc, by the 

 refraction of the rays of light from its snow- 

 clad silvery sides, is ever bedecked in smiling 

 gaiety ; while the dark solemn and rich tints of 

 purple heath crown M'Gilly Cuddy's Reeks 

 with deep gloomy melancholy. They might 

 not inappropriately be compared to the courts 

 of tragedy and comedy. Here Melpomene 

 might erect her throne, and find a superlative 

 stage for the exhaustion of all human sym- 

 pathies in tales of woe while her laughing 

 sister would fly to Mount Blanc, or revel in the 

 softer beauties of Windermere, and captivate 

 her votaries without diminishing their powers 

 of enjoyment, or producing satiety. 



It was impossible to quit this scene without 

 extreme regret : to have thought I was bidding 

 it adieu for ever would have been extremely 

 painful j I will cherish the fond hope of once 



