found contemplation. It was in the spring of the year, however, when Nature arises from her slumber, when the whole animate world exults with joy, and the inanimate is covered with a mantle of verdure, decked and bespangled with her inconceivable variety of flowers, and budding blossoms, that I wandered forth, in a contemplative and susceptive mood, in the cool of the day, into this romantic and charming vale. As I advanced, my thoughts became particularly directed towards that Being who created this elysium. Awe, reverence, and love took possession of my mind, the majesty of the Almighty being evidently shadowed forth in the majesty of those works upon which my eye rested; for they are noble monuments of creative energy-sure signs of immortality. In this mood I took a prospective glance at the future. I felt, with the immortal Milton, as though "The deep transplanted mind may soar "Above the wheeling poles, and at Heaven's door The prospect is particularly calculated to inspire thoughts like these. Now it was that infidelity, that unbelief of the human heart which often tinges some of the best thoughts of man, seemed, for a time, to be dethroned, and reason and faith to take their lawful, yet unwonted seats. I thought of the spirits of those good men who had departed this life, and I wondered whether they were permitted to visit terrestrial scenes, that they might be taught more perfectly to fear, while they were allowed to praise and adore. I sought, in imagination, for the tutelary deities of the Athenians and Corinthians, willing, for a moment at least, to encourage the idea of their being invested with the power and authority which a deluded people had given them. I called to mind the land of Eden, and the promised land of the Israelites. Though more fertile, and with a clime more genial, they could not, I imagined, present a prospect more majestic, more fitted in one respect to inspire fear, and awaken belief. Sages may reason, and divines propound, but what speaks so eloquently of God as the scene which now lay before me? To think of it as the creation of one Being, is to acknowledge it as one of the strongest evidences of infinite wisdom, power, and goodness; to regard it as a work that must pass away, and be reduced to its primary state-to something, at least, not tangible, is admitting the existence of a Power that can distance the combined influence of every mind in every age and country, by degress of infinite and immeasurable extent. Pursuing this train of thought, which I was willing to indulge, the shadows of the evening overtook me. The boldness of the outline that surrounded me was relieved by the dusky hues of twilight; the time and the locality had the effect of soothing and tranquillizing my thoughts. The impressions wrought upon them, however, were but partially removed: philosophy now took the place of admiration, and my imagination wandered into those regions which conduct to the same object -God, to the same end-futurity, but by different roads. I began to think of mind, for which the earth, in all its surpassing beauty and unspeakable variety, was created. It was this principle, I knew, had thus thought, and through the avenues of whose organs scenes had been presented, which were capable of inspiring and elevating it to such an extent. What, I asked myself, would be the fairest land-the sublimest scenery-the most fertile plains what the wilderness or the desert without mind? The extinction of the mental principle would, I argued, be followed by the annihilation of this planetary variety. It is obvious the one was made for the other; and so soon as creation had run its course, and death had passed upon all men, and all minds been gathered to their last homes, I felt conscious that this globe would no longer supply a resting-place for the sole of the foot of man, but that with the heavens it would pass away, and be no more seen. What a revolution this! and where, in this great and mighty change, we are taught and incited to enquire, is the never-dying principle, mind? To what purposes had it been applied, while it could call that globe its home, its native orb? What was done to give it proper directions, and stimulate it to seek for wisdom and virtue in the course of its pilgrimage there? What to elevate it above the brute, over whom man ventures to call himself lord? What to rouse it to a lively sense of its own responsibility and importance?—As these questions occurred to me, I thought of its nature, the series of powers it possesses, the greatness of the privileges it enjoys. Ruminating thus, I found myself arrived at a spot of inconceivable grandeur: it is one that excites a degree of awe by the desolation and boldness of its character; the eye finding no relief, save in the beautiful foliage which decks the opposite mountainous bank; the ear hearing nothing but the screeching of the sea-gull, or the bubbling of the little rivulet gliding smoothly on its course at the bottom of the tremendous precipice on which I then stood.* Here I fancied all the Genii of a fairy land may revel in their voluptuousness without molestation; and the spirits of another world walk, meeting no one by the way to whom they could impart a portion of that influence which they are reasonably sup *See Note A. posed to possess over men. It was destined, however, I should be deceived; for near a rock, Where drops the lingering stream, a form I saw Seemingly entranc'd in melancholy thought. Till now a solemn gloom had been cast upon my path, the stars being the only bodies that afforded me light enough to pursue my perilous course with tolerable safety, and enable me to enjoy that majestic stillness which is peculiar to this valley in a serene and starlight evening. The turrets of rock, and the dark green foliage reflected the feeble rays of these little luminaries, and gave forth a tiny light which prevented their being entirely concealed from view. In the distant horizon the moon was just making herself perceptible, and eclipsing these small but welcome bodies in brilliancy. The craggy steeps and headlands first received her rays, and by degrees my path, which lay far beneath them. Below me the valley was in comparative darkness, "till the moon, "Rising in clouded majesty, at length "Apparent queen, unveil'd her peerless light, At this juncture my mind was solemnly bent upon those strange scenes through which we are all doomed to pass. The great and eternal Jehovah stood before my mental eye in all his tremendousness; death and the grave passed in review before me, and seemed, for a while, in the complete absorption of my thoughts, to lose their sting; while the day of judgment, when the wicked shall call upon the mountains and hills to bury them, presented a more anomalous mixture of awful events than had ever, on any previous occasion, obtruded themselves upon my reflecting moments. Reaching the spot at which I had seen the person in silent attitude, he accosted me. His appearance was grave and sedate, but the expression of his countenance was benevolent and mild. Approaching me with peculiar grace and ease, and a smile of condescension and benignity, which was just perceptible in the dimness of the light, he addressed me in a soft and mellifluous voice, as though its intonations and cadence found no impediment from uncouth or ill-formed organs of speech." The magnificence, Sir, of this scene," he observed, "is not surpassed in any part of the British Island, and scarcely so in any part of the Continent. It is one which addresses itself to those powers of the mind which are capable of experiencing the emotions of wonder and fear, and of tracing retrospectively and prospectively the progress of man, and the links of creation, from the clod of the valley to the supreme Author of all.”. "These very powers," I replied, "have been singularly called forth in me during my evening ramble. The beatific visions that have crossed my mind, and which have been, as it were, elicited from the scene before us, are such as I could scarcely describe. The last vision of any moment, however, was of mind itself. It is a subject of constant and increasing interest to me, and one with which I desire to become more intimately acquainted."- "The delight you experience," he observed, "in mental recreations of this kind is pleasing in the sight of God, and to such an one as myself they afford infinite satisfaction.But why seek you so constantly scenes of this character? Is it because the gloom brings a solace to your mind already disposed to melancholy? Your fondness for this sombre retreat tells me what reflections are the most pleasing to you. I have been long watching your studious |