10 ON THE STUDY OF 



our curiosity, to elevate and add dignity to our 

 sentiments, or to call forth our most unqualified 

 devotion. Countries of unbounded extent, a very 

 limited proportion of which can be embraced by 

 our imperfect vision, would present to our obser- 

 vation, in some parts, mountains of almost inter- 

 minable elevation, whose summits are enveloped 

 in perpetual snow ; with corresponding vallies, 

 whose abysses cannot be contemplated without 

 horror. In others, more moderate elevations, 

 which, while they add variety to the scene, attract 

 and give direction to those winds, which, charged 

 with moisture, drop fertilizing showers on the 

 vales below ; or, upon extensive plains, clothed 

 with vegetation in all its shades and varieties, 

 possessing vitality, growth, and the power of 

 regeneration to an indefinite degree; and sup- 

 porting a still higher class of animate substances 

 which, from the important place they hold in the 

 creation, deserve a separate notice. 



This unparalleled display of beauty would be 

 further diversified by noble forests, which, while 

 they confer grace and dignity on the surrounding 

 objects, combine, with the other parts of vegeta- 

 tion, the most useful capabilities ; or, by innume- 

 rable streams, which, in due season overflowing 

 their boundaries, irrigate and fertilize the soil 

 with which they come in contact, and uniting, 

 return their superfluous waters in majestic order 

 to their grand receptacle, the ocean, from which 

 they derived their supply. 



