430 FROM THE VALE OF TEMPE, 
CHAP, extensive arid plains and deserts, are so gene- 
X 
. rally marked by some stamp of their native 
region, that it were almost as nugatory to 
dispute the fact, as it would be to expect 
sublimity in the soul of a Dutchman, or any 
thing hostile to freedom in the mind of a 
Nature of Norwegian. With regard to the scene of 
tr^cere""' Alexander s birth, it may be truly said, all that 
^uxaJ^'^ Nature hath anywhere exhibited of vast and 
jer'iNati- y^ried objccts, possessing either sublimity or 
beauty, had their counterpart here : mountains, 
and hills, and valleys, and plains, and rivers, 
and seas, and islands ; and these, moreover, 
simultaneously invested with every feature 
peculiar to all seasons ; with upland ice and 
snow ; with lowland verdure, and summer 
suns ; with barren rocks, and fertile fields ; 
altogether constituting such an assemblage of 
the works of God, as suggested to the bard of 
Israel his sacred theme of power and might and 
majesty and dominion^ Immediately before his 
eyes, was presented the awful form of Mount 
Olympus, believed to be the throne of Heaven 
itself, — ^the seat of all the immortal deities*; 
(1) See the sublime passafjes of the Psnlms of David, cxlvii. cxlvii. 
wherein all the works of the Creator are made to speak his power and 
praise : also the Revelation of St. John, chap. v. ver. 13, &c. 
(2) Vid. Homer. Iliad. E. 360, 367, &c. &c. 
