320 JOURNEY OVER MOUNT GOTTHARD. 



This was the laft perilous ftep on the extraordinary 

 road I went this day ; for Ihortly afterwards we came 

 quite down upon the plain, where I once* more met 

 with meadows and multitudes of beautiful fruit-trees 

 of various kinds* At a little pair ieven I arrived hap- 

 pily at the Staeg which ftands directly before the en- 

 trance of the narrow gut through which I had de- 

 fcended. 



Before I quit the Alps, I cannot refrain from making 

 a general remark or two on the journey over fuch lofty 

 mountains. Since I once made a tour over the Alps 

 in my youth, I have often thought, that he who has 

 never been in fuch mountainous parts has never feen 

 what is rnoft grand, remarkable, and furpriling, in the 

 inanimate productions of nature; and I am now con- 

 firmed in that opinion. All the ideas of power and 

 grandeur, and irrefiftible force, that we cccalionally 

 form of human attempts, here vanifh away like airy 

 bubbles ; and of the grand diipoiitions of nature to 

 the general ceconomy of the globe, we get quite differ- 

 ent ideas and conceptions from thofe acquired by te- 

 dious invefligations and ftudies in the clofet. Thefe 

 remarks to me feem worthy of fome farther eluci- 

 dation. 



The firfr. ideas we form to ourfelves of power and 

 grandeur arife generally from the conlideration of what 

 mankind can do when thoufands of them unite their 

 ftrength, under one bold and enterprifing chief, to the 

 accomplifhment of fome great project. Such a power 

 feems to us the higher! that we can imagine of force 

 and effect. When they march forth to conquer or 



deftroy, 



