232 MEMOIR OF DR. HARVEY. 



therefore gave up all thoughts of examining in detail the 

 wonders it contained, and had to content myself with the 

 " grand tableau" which is like a vision of fairy-land, or an 

 " Arabian Night " scene. Some few things arrested my particular 

 attention, and the result is a vivid impression on my retina of 

 the general effect, with a detailed feature here and there, and a 

 confused assemblage of images, like those that sometimes float 

 in the brain between sleeping and waking, or in fever under the 

 effects of opium. 



I am glad to hear that you have seen Niagara, though your stay 

 there was greatly too short for a full enjoyment of that glorious 

 scene. As a waterfall it is indeed unequalled, and those who 

 are disappointed in it are either unreasonable or unthinking. 

 Yet I think Mrs. Jameson, the art-lady, 1 expresses disappoint- 

 ment. It must be from some defect of vision, or from a wish 

 to be different from the rest of the world. On me the effect 

 was very much as you describe. An overpowering feeling of 

 awe at the display of quiet majesty — a feeling partly made up 

 from the scene passing before my eyes, and partly from the 

 thought that those waters had been rolling in the same manner 

 unruffled, unmuddied, and undiminished for untold ages : that 

 summer and winter, storm and sunshine made no difference more 

 than as a passing shadow. These, and the thousand kindred 

 thoughts which they suggested, have left an impression on mj 

 mind that I hope may last for my life-time. 



To Br. Robert Ball. 

 My deak Ball, t - c - D " Member 13th, 1851. 



The Neilgheri plants from Mr. Johnston are a very im- 

 portant addition to our Indian collection, and have interested 

 me much. As yet I have only had time in a cursory way to 

 run over the bundles ; but I see a great many which we had 

 not before, and the specimens are very well dried — remark- 

 ably so for tropical plants. Captain Munro happened to be 

 with me when the plants came, and we went through them 

 together, he recognizing many an old friend, which he had been 

 the first to collect. We looked in vain, however, for the curious 



1 Author of " Memoirs of the Early Italian Painters," and other works. 



