Niagara Falls 



1848 empires into the abyss below, the hades of all created things. 

 We follow the course of the waters, and see, at a prodigious 

 depth, a frightful gulf, scooped out as if to embrace the descend- 

 ing flood, and conduct it to some new destiny ; — as the present 

 receives the past in its passage onward, and impels it by a new 

 impulse, together with all it bears on its tide, to the mysterious 

 future. We stretch our gaze over this yawning deep, and per- 

 ceive that the water has changed its aspect altogether. It now has 

 a milk-like appearance, and is tossed, agitated, whirled, infuri- 

 ated, — heaving its bosom to an immense height, and sending 

 forth its spray and mist to be arched by the rainbow, and painted 

 by sunbeams with every variety of colour; thus imitating the 

 progress of human events in reducing old, great, majestic, time- 

 worn forms of power into chaos, and then handing them over to 

 other agencies to receive some new form, to run in new channels, 

 and push their way into an untried destiny. 



Such were the thoughts which passed through my mind; but 

 who can grasp, who can describe, the combined effect? We 

 have no analogies in nature. These falls are alone in the uni- 

 verse; they stand in peerless majesty; nothing is like them. The 

 sublimity consists in their combined majesty and beauty. Their 

 grandeur is not in the slightest degree in harmony with that of 

 the Alpine mountains, rugged heights, and overhanging rocks, 

 covered with clouds, and lost in darkness. It is rather as if 

 nature had sat in council with herself, to create a living embodi- 

 ment of her utmost power, sovereign glory, irresistible force, rapid 

 motion; and then throw around the representation of her visible 

 symbol — instinct with the life of many, of all, elements — a 

 covering of exquisite, of inexpressible, beauty. 



There this living monument stands, a glorious emblem of the 

 majesty of God! It has been looked upon with wonder next to 

 adoration by a countless number of visitors; these have all 

 received different impressions, in accordance with the structure 

 of their nervous systems, the powers of vision, and the faculty 

 of combination. Many have given their impressions to the 



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