Niagara Falls 



1834 

 1834 FIELDS, Annie, editor. Life and letters of Harriet Beecher Stowe. 



Field. Bost. and N. Y. : Houghton, Mifflin. (1897.) Pp. 89-90. 



Impressions of a visit made in the summer of 1834. Says Mrs. Stowe: 



Let me tell, if I can, what is unutterable. I did not once think 

 w.hether it was high or low; whether it roared or didn't roar; 

 whether it equaled my expectations or not. My mind whirled 

 off, as it seemed to me, in a new, strange world. It seemed 

 unearthly, like the strange, dim images in the Revelation. I 

 thought of the great white throne; the rainbow around it; the 

 throne in sight like unto an emerald ; and oh ! that beautiful water 

 rising like moonlight, falling as the soul sinks when it dies, to rise 

 refined, spiritualized, and pure; that rainbow, breaking out, 

 trembling, fading, and again coming like a beautiful spirit walk- 

 ing the waters. Oh, it is lovelier than it is great; it is like the 

 Mind that made it: great, but so veiled in beauty that we gaze 

 without terror. I felt as if I could have gone over with the waters; 

 it would be so beautiful a death; there would be no fear in it. 

 I felt the rock tremble under me with a sort of joy. I was so 

 maddened that I could have gone too, if it had gone. 



1834 HAWTHORNE, NATHANIEL. Fragments from the journal of a solitary 



Hawthorne man . (/ n Fanshawe, the Dolliver romance, and other pieces. Boston. 

 Osgood. 1876. Pp. 93-96.) 



Hawthorne, Nathaniel. My visit to Niagara. (In Fanshawe, 

 the Dolliver romance, and other pieces. Boston. Osgood. 1876. 

 Pp. 105-114.) 



Never did a pilgrim approach Niagara with deeper enthu- 

 siasm than mine. I had lingered away from it, and wandered 

 to other scenes, because my treasury of anticipated enjoyments, 

 comprising all the wonders of the world, had nothing else so 

 magnificent, and I was loath to exchange the pleasures of hope 

 for those of memory so soon. At length the day came. The 

 stage-coach, with a Frenchman and myself on the back seat, 

 had already left Lewiston, and in less than an hour would set 



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