Travelers' Original Accounts: 1 801 -1 840 



scious that I saw millions on millions of tons of water dashing 1827-28 

 down before me at every second, at the distance of only a few 

 yards ; — and even ceased to recollect that the sound I heard 

 came from the greatest cascade in the world. Still, however, in 

 spite of these abstractions — which I made no attempt to restrain 

 — I was all the while sensible that something very delightful 

 was passing. 



The effect of this mighty cataract upon the mind, might per- 

 haps be worthy of the attention of a metaphysician. With me, at 

 least, the influence of one overpowering but indefinite sensation 

 at times absorbed the active operation of the senses, and pro- 

 duced a kind of dizzy reverie, more or less akin to sleep, or 

 rather to the intoxication described by opium eaters, during which 

 a thousand visions arose connected with the general sentiment 

 of sublimity. And it may help to give some idea of the extrava- 

 gant length to which the over-indulged fancy can carry the 

 dreamer on such occasions, to mention that once, for some sec- 

 onds, I caught myself thinking that I had fairly left this lower 

 world for the upper sky, — that I was traversing the Heavens 

 in company with Sir Isaac Newton, — and that the Sage was 

 just going to tell me about the distance of the fixed stars! 



The awakening, if so it may be called, from these roving 

 commissions of the mind, to the stupendous reality, so far from 

 being accompanied by the disappointment which usually attends 

 the return voyage from these distant regions in the world of 

 fancy, was gratifying far beyond what I remember to have 

 experienced upon any former occasion, during a life of pretty 

 constant and high enjoyment. 



This, and a hundred other extravagancies which I could add 

 upon the subject, however absurd they must of course seem in 

 sober prose, may possibly give some notion of the effect produced 

 by looking at the Falls of Niagara — an effect analogous, per- 

 haps, to that produced on the mind of the poet by ordinary cir- 

 cumstances, but which less imaginative mortals are made con- 

 scious of, only on very extraordinary occasions. 



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