Music — Poetry — Fiction 



It is impossible for Niagara to disappoint, unless through the 1834 

 infirmity of the conception that fails to grasp it. Its resources s ' 8 ° urney 

 are inexhaustible. It can never expand itself, because it points 

 always to God. More unapproachable than the fathomless 

 ocean, man cannot launch a bark upon its bosom, or bespeak its 

 service in any form. He may not even lay his hand upon it, 

 and live. Upon its borders he can dream, if he will, of gold- 

 gathering, and of mill-privileges; but its perpetual warning is, 

 "Hence, ye profane!" 



Let none, who have it in their power to change their places 

 at will, omit a pilgrimage to Niagara. The facilities of travelling 

 render it now a very different exploit from what it was in the 

 days of our fathers, who were forced to cut away with their 

 axes the branches intercepting the passage of the rocky roads. 

 Those whose hearts respond to whatever is beautiful and sublime 

 in creation, should pay their homage to this mighty cataract. No 

 other scenery so powerfully combines these elements. 



Let the gay go thither to be made thoughtful, and the religious 

 to become more spiritually-minded. Yet let not the determined 

 trifler linger here to pursue his revels. Frivolity seems an insult 

 to the majesty that presides here. Folly and dissipation are 

 surely out of place. The thunder-hymn of the mighty flood 

 reproves them. Day and night it seems to repeat and enforce 

 the words of inspiration : " The Lord is in his holy temple : 

 let all the earth keep silence before Him." — Hab. ii:20. 



SlGOURNEY, Mrs. LYDIA H. Niagara. (In Barham, William, 

 Descriptions of Niagara; selected from various travellers. 

 Gravesend: n. d. Pp. 159-161.) 



SlGOURNEY, Mrs. L. H. Niagara. (In her Illustrated poems. 

 Phila.: Lindsay and Blakiston. 1860. Pp. 134-136.) 



Flow on for ever, in thy glorious robe 

 Of terror and of beauty. Yea, flow on 

 Unfathom'd and resistless. God hath set 

 His rainbow on thy forehead, and the cloud 

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