Page images
PDF
EPUB

language. After a spell of tutoring, fan-painting, &c., he finally settled down to honest and creditable hackwork till his death in 1763. Another of the company of collaborators was George Sale (1697-1736), Oriental scholar, born in Kent and bred to the law. Besides helping with the Universal History, he was author of the General Dictionary, but is best known by his unrivalled translation of the Koran, with notes and introduction (1734; new ed. 1882-86). James Granger (1723-76), out of whose name has been coined the term for a collectors' fad, was born at Shaftesbury, and died vicar of Shiplake, Oxfordshire. He published a Biographical History of England (1769; 5th ed. 1824), and insisted much on the utility of a collection of engraved portraits.' His advice led to extraordinary zeal in collecting portraits, and 'grangerised copies' of books of biography, history, topography, &c. were embellished' with engravings gathered from all quarters. William Tytler (1711-92) of Woodhouselee, an Edinburgh Writer to the Signet, combated Robertson's views on Queen Mary in his Inquiry into the Evidence against Mary Queen of Scots. It was a son of this Tytler (17471813), another lawyer, raised to the Bench as Lord Woodhouselee, who compiled a general history of the world; and his grandson was author of the well-known History of Scotland. Robert Henry (1718-90) was an Edinburgh minister who produced a history of England 'on a new plan' (6 vols. 1771-93), including sections on the constitution, learning, commerce, and social aspects of the period. Robert Watson (1730?-81), Principal of St Salvator's College at St Andrews, prepared a history of Philip II. of Spain that was long a standard work. Gilbert Stuart (1742-86), son of an Edinburgh professor, became notorious as an unscrupulous reviewer, and wrote a history of the Reformation in Scotland, and a history of Scotland from the Reformation to the death of Queen Mary, well written but not trustworthy. William Russell (1741-93), a Selkirk farmer's son, made a name for himself in London as author of a history of America, and of an unfinished but meritorious history of modern Europe (1779-84).

Thomas Reid (1710-96), the principal light of the Scottish school of philosophy, was born at the manse of Strachan in Kincardineshire ; studied at Marischal College, Aberdeen; and became minister of New Machar, Aberdeenshire. In 1752 he was appointed Professor of Moral Philosophy in King's College, Aberdeen, a post he quitted in 1763 for the chair of moral philosophy in Glasgow. His Inquiry into the Human Mind, published in 1764, was an attack on the 'ideal theory' of Berkeley, and on the sceptical conclusions which Hume deduced from it. The author had the candour to submit it to Hume before publication; and Hume, with his usual complacency and good nature, acknowledged its

merit. In 1785 Reid published his Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man, and in 1788 those on the Active Powers. The ideal theory which he combated taught that nothing is perceived but what is in the mind which perceives it; that we really do not perceive things that are external, but only certain images and pictures of them imprinted upon the mind, which are called impressions and ideas.' This doctrine Reid had himself believed, till, finding it led to alarmingly negative consequences in Hume's hands, he was startled as Kant also was, and asked himself the question: What evidence have I for this doctrine, that all the objects of my knowledge are ideas in my own mind?' He set about an inquiry, but could find no evidence for the principle, he says, excepting the authority of philosophers. He took refuge in the verdict of what he called, rather unfortunately, common-sense. For it was not to the summary conclusions of ordinary unreasoned consciousness that he appealed, but to the common reason of mankind as constituted by a series of fundamental judgments expressed in the very structure of human language and intuitively recognised by the mind as true. His successor at the head of the Scottish school, Dugald Stewart, said of Reid, that it was by the logical rigour of his method of investigating metaphysical subjects— imperfectly understood even by the disciples of Locke still more than by the importance of his particular conclusions, that he stood conspicuously distinguished among those who had hitherto prosecuted analytically the study of man.

Hamilton shared Stewart's high opinion of Reid, and produced the standard edition of his works (1846-53; completed by Mansel iz 1863), which became known in France through Royer-Collard and Cousin, and were translated into French by Jouffroy. There is a monograph on Reid by Professor Campbell Fraser (1898).

Alexander Gerard (1728-95), born at the manse of Chapel of Garioch in Aberdeenshire, who from 1750 was professor in Marischal or in King's College, Aberdeen, deserves a place here as having influenced many subsequent writers on æsthetics, taste, and criticism at home and abroad. In 1759 he published an essay to which the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh had given a prize, its main contention being that taste consists chiefly in the improvement of those principles which are commonly called the powers of imagination, including the sense of novelty, beauty, sublimity, imitation, harmony, ridicule, virtue, and giving scope to the principle of association, further followed out by Alison.

Lord Kames, Henry Home (1696–1782), was the son of George Home of Kames in Berwickshire; was called to the Bar in 1723; in 1752 was raised to the Bench, assuming the title of Lord Kames; and in 1763 he was made one of the Lords of Justiciary. In 1728 he published Remarkable Decisions of the Court of Session. In his Essays on the Principles of Morality and Natural Religion (1751), he combated those theories of human

nature which deduce all actions from some single principle, and attempted to establish several principles of action. He maintained philosophical necessity in support of morality and religion, and, like so many others, was directly or indirectly writing against Hume-yet he narrowly escaped a citation before the Edinburgh Presbytery on account of this book. In 1762 appeared his most notable work, The Elements of Criticism, in three volumes, which, discarding all arbitrary rules of literary criticism derived from authority, sought for rules in the fundamental principles of human nature itself. Dugald Stewart held this to be the first systematic attempt to investigate the metaphysical principles of the fine arts, and declared that it had, in spite of numerous defects both in point of taste and philosophy, infinite merits.' Its style was heavy and crabbed; Dr Johnson pooh-poohed it; and it was superseded by Campbell's book. When near eighty years of age Kames published Sketches of the History of Man (2 vols. 4to, 1774), containing many curious disquisitions on society. In Loose Hints on Education (1781) he anticipates some doctrines which have since been popular; and he was a copious writer on law and constitutional history. As an amateur agriculturist and improver of land, he was moved to produce The Gentleman Farmer (1777), which he described as 'an attempt to improve agriculture by subjecting it to the test of rational principles.'

Walter Goodall (1706?–66), a Banffshire man, educated at King's College, Aberdeen, became assistant librarian to the advocates at Edinburgh under Ruddiman and Hume, and published in 1754 an Examination of the Letters said to have been written by Mary Queen of Scots, which has the distinction of starting one of the most lively and inveterate of Scottish historical controversies. It embodies the first systematic attempt to prove the spuriousness of the famous Casket Letters, and it was so far successful as to show that the published French versions were not originals but merely translations. An imperfect scholar and a truculent controversialist, Goodall was yet a man of some ability and acuteness, although Mr Skelton was guilty of ridiculous extravagance in comparing his work with that of Scaliger and Bentley. His edition of the chronicles of Fordun and Walter Bower, published in 1759, was a great improvement on that of Hearne.

Robert Lowth (1710-87), born at Winchester, was educated there and at New College, Oxford, where in 1741 he became Professor of Poetry. Appointed successively Archdeacon of Winchester, rector of East Woodhay, prebendary of Durham, and rector of Sedgefield, he was in 1766 called to fill the see first of St Davids and then of Oxford, and in 1777 that of London. He published a long and widely famous treatise, De Sacra Poesi Hebræorum (1753), a Life of William of Wykeham, and a new translation of Isaiah. A Fellow

of the Royal Society from 1765 on, he was one of the first to treat the Bible poetry as literature.

The Earl of Chatham, William Pitt 'the elder' (1708-78), was the younger son of Robert Pitt of Boconnoc in Cornwall. Educated at Eton and Trinity College, Oxford, he obtained a cornetcy in the Blues, and in 1735 entered Parliament for the family borough Old Sarum. His talents for debate were soon conspicuous; and erelong, as leader of the young 'Patriot' Whigs, he joined in the opposition to Walpole. In 1756 Pitt was made Secretary of State, a position which, next year, under the nominal leadership of the Duke of Newcastle, became virtually that of Premier; and henceforward his life is part of the history of Britain. His war policy was characterised by unusual vigour, sagacity, and success. French armies were beaten everywhere by Britain and her allies-in India, in Africa, in Canada, on the Rhine-and British fleets drove the few French ships they did not capture or destroy from almost every sea. Driven from office after the accession of George III., Pitt again became a Minister in 1766 in the Duke of Grafton's Cabinet; but in 1768 he resigned to hold office no more. He spoke strongly against the arbitrary and harsh policy towards the American colonies, and warmly urged an amicable settlement of the differences. But when it was proposed to make peace on any terms, ill though he was, Chatham came down to the House of Lords (2nd April 1778), and by a powerful address secured a majority against the motion. But exhausted by speaking, on rising again to reply to a question, he fell back into the arms of his friends, and died in the following month. His imposing appearance and his magnificent voice added greatly to the attractions of his oratory; his haughtiness irritated even his friends. In 1740 he made a memorable reply to the elder Horatio Walpole (brother of Sir Robert), who had taunted him for his youth; a reply quoted on the authority of Dr Johnson, who then reported the parliamentary debates for the Gentleman's Magazine. The substance of the speech may be Chatham's; the form is obviously in large measure Johnson's. But the speech is too famous a fragment in literature to be omitted, though the contrast to Chatham's own style, as illustrated in the next extract, is marked enough.

Reply to the Charge of being Young. SIR-The atrocious crime of being a young man, which the honourable gentleman has, with such spirit and decency, charged upon me, I shall neither attempt to palliate nor deny, but content myself with wishing that I may be one of those whose follies may cease with their youth, and not of that number who are ignorant in spite of experience. Whether youth can be imputed to any man as a reproach, I will not, sir, assume the province of determining; but surely age may become justly contemptible, if the opportunities which it brings have

passed away without improvement, and vice appears to prevail when the passions have subsided. The wretch who, after having seen the consequences of a thousand errors, continues still to blunder, and whose age has only added obstinacy to stupidity, is surely the object either of abhorrence or contempt, and deserves not that his gray hairs should secure him from insult. Much more, sir, is he to be abhorred who, as he has advanced in age, has receded from virtue, and become more wicked with less temptation; who prostitutes himself for money which he cannot enjoy, and spends the remains of his life in the ruin of his country. But youth, sir, is not my only crime; I have been accused of acting a theatrical part. A theatrical part may either imply some peculiarities of gesture, or a dissimulation of my real sentiments, and an adoption of the opinions and language of another

man.

In the first sense, sir, the charge is too trifling to be confuted, and deserves only to be mentioned that it may be despised. I am at liberty, like every other man, to use my own language; and though, perhaps, I may have some ambition to please this gentleman, I shall not lay myself under any restraint, nor very solicitously copy his diction or his mien, however matured by age, or modelled by experience. But if any man shall, by charging me with theatrical behaviour, imply that I utter any sentiments but my own, I shall treat him as a calumniator and a villain; nor shall any protection shelter him from the treatment he deserves. I shall on such an occasion, without scruple, trample upon all those forms with which wealth and dignity intrench themselves; nor shall anything but age restrain my resentment; age, which always brings one privilege, that of being insolent and supercilious, without punishment. But with regard, sir, to those whom I have offended, I am of opinion that if I had acted a borrowed part, I should have avoided their censure; the heat that offended them is the ardour of conviction, and that zeal for the service of my country which neither hope nor fear shall influence me to suppress. I will not sit unconcerned while my liberty is invaded, nor look in silence upon public robbery. I will exert my endeavours, at whatever hazard, to repel the aggressor, and drag the thief to justice, whoever may protect him in his villainy, and whoever may partake of his plunder.

Against Employing Indians in the War with the American Colonies.

I cannot, my lords, I will not, join in congratulation on misfortune and disgrace. This, my lords, is a perilous and tremendous moment; it is not a time for adulation; the smoothness of flattery cannot save us in this rugged and awful crisis. It is now necessary to instruct the throne in the language of truth. We must, if possible, dispel the delusion and darkness which envelop it, and display, in its full danger and genuine colours, the ruin which is brought to our doors. Can ministers still presume to expect support in their infatuation? Can parliament be so dead to their dignity and duty as to give their support to measures thus obtruded and forced upon them; measures, my lords, which have reduced this late flourishing empire to and contempt? But yesterday, and England might have stood against the world: now, none so poor to do her reverence! The people whom we at first despised as rebels, but whom we now acknowledge

scorn

But, my

as enemies, are abetted against you, supplied with every military store, have their interest consulted, and their ambassadors entertained, by your inveterate enemy; and ministers do not, and dare not, interpose with dignity or effect. The desperate state of our army abroad is in part known. No man more highly esteems and honours the English troops than I do; I know their virtues and their valour; I know they can achieve any. thing but impossibilities; and I know that the conquest of English America is an impossibility. You cannot, my lords, you cannot conquer America. What is your present situation there? We do not know the worst; but we know that in three campaigns we have done nothing and suffered much. You may swell every expense, accumulate every assistance, and extend your traffic to the shambles of every German despot; your attempts will be for ever vain and impotent-doubly so, indeed, from this mercenary aid on which you rely; for it irritates, to an incurable resentment, the minds of your adversaries, to overrun them with the mercenary sons of rapine and plunder, devoting them and their possessions to the rapacity of hireling cruelty. If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my arms: Never, never, never! lords, who is the man that, in addition to the disgraces and mischiefs of the war, has dared to authorise and associate to our arms the tomahawk and scalping-knife of the savage; to call into civilised alliance the wild and inhuman inhabitant of the woods; to delegate to the merciless Indian the defence of disputed rights, and to wage the horrors of his barbarous war against our brethren? My lords, these enormities cry aloud for redress and punishment. But, my lords, this barbarous measure has been defended, not only on the principles of policy and necessity, but also on those of morality; 'for it is perfectly allowable,' says Lord Suffolk, ‘to use all the means which God and nature have put into our hands.' I am astonished, I am shocked, to hear such principles confessed; to hear them avowed in this house or in this country. My lords, I did not intend to encroach so much on your attention; but I cannot repress my indignation-I feel myself impelled to speak. My lords, we are called upon as members of this house, as men, as Christians, to protest against such horrible barbarity! That God and nature have put into our hands! What ideas of God and nature that noble lord may entertain, I know not; but I know that such detestable principles are equally abhorrent to religion and humanity. What! to attribute the sacred sanction of God and nature to the massacres of the Indian scalping-knife! to the cannibal savage, torturing, murdering, devouring, drinking the blood of his mangled victims! Such notions shock every precept of morality, every feeling of humanity, every sentiment of honour. These abominable principles, and this more abominable avowal of them, demand the most decisive indignation. I call upon that right reverend, and this most learned bench, to vindicate the religion of their God, to support the justice of their country. I call upon the bishops to interpose the unsullied sanctity of their lawn; upon the judges to interpose the purity of their ermine, to save us from this pollution. I call upon the honour of your lordships, to reverence the dignity of your ancestors, and to maintain your own. I call upon the spirit and humanity of my country to vindicate the national

character. I invoke the Genius of the Constitution. From the tapestry that adorns these walls, the immortal ancestor of this noble lord frowns with indignation at the disgrace of his country. In vain did he defend the liberty and establish the religion of Britain against the tyranny of Rome, if these worse than Popish cruelties and inquisitorial practices are endured among us. Το send forth the merciless cannibal, thirsting for blood! against whom? your Protestant brethren! to lay waste their country, to desolate their dwellings, and extirpate their race and name by the aid and instrumentality of these horrible hell-hounds of war! Spain can no longer boast pre-eminence in barbarity.

She armed herself with blood-hounds to extirpate the wretched natives of Mexico; we, more ruthless, loose these dogs of war against our countrymen in America, endeared to us by every tie that can sanctify humanity. I solemnly call upon your lordships, and upon every order of men in the state, to stamp upon this infamous procedure the indelible stigma of the public abhorrence. More particularly I call upon the holy prelates of our religion to do away this iniquity; let them perform a lustration, to purify the country from this deep and deadly sin. My lords, I am old and weak, and at present unable to say more; but my feelings and indignation were too strong to have said less. I could not have slept this night in my bed, nor even reposed my head upon my pillow, without giving vent to my eternal abhorrence of such enormous and preposterous principles.

At his last tragic appearance in the House of Lords, emaciated and swathed to the knees in flannel, Chatham on rising lamented that his bodily infirmities had so long and at so important a crisis prevented his attendance on the duties of Parliament. He declared that he had made an effort almost beyond the powers of his constitution to come down to the House on this day, perhaps the last time he should ever be able to enter its walls, to express the indignation he felt at the idea which he understood was gone forth of yielding up the sovereignty of America.

'My lords,' continued he, 'I rejoice that the grave has not closed upon me, that I am still alive to lift up my voice against the dismemberment of this ancient and noble monarchy. Pressed down as I am by the load of infirmity, I am little able to assist my country in this most perilous conjuncture; but, my lords, while I have sense and memory, I never will consent to tarnish the lustre of this nation by an ignominious surrender of its rights and fairest possessions. Shall a people so lately the terror of the world, now fall prostrate before the house of Bourbon? It is impossible! In God's name, if it is absolutely necessary to declare either for peace or war, and if peace cannot be preserved with honour, why is not war commenced without hesitation? I am not, I confess, well informed of the resources of this kingdom, but I trust it has still sufficient to maintain its just rights, though I know them not. Any state, my lords, is better than despair. Let us at least make one effort, and if we must fall, let us fall like men.'

Chatham's Life by F. Thackeray appeared in 1827 (2 vols.), and his Correspondence in 1838-48 (4 vols.). More attractive and accessible are Macaulay's two brilliant essays and the monograph by W. D. Green (1901).

son of

William Melmoth (1710-99), the William Melmoth the elder (1666–1743), a lawyer who wrote a book on A Religious Life, is chiefly known as author of an exceptionally graceful and accurate translation of Pliny's Letters. Under the name of 'Sir Thomas Fitzosborne,' Melmoth also published a volume of Letters on Several Subjects, remarkable for elegance of style (1742, and often reprinted; best edition 1805). He also translated Cicero's Letters and the treatises De Oratoribus, De Amicitia, and De Senectute. His style, though sometimes feeble from excess of polish and ornament, is generally correct, perspicuous, and musical.

Jacob Bryant (1715-1804) engaged the attention of the learned world throughout a long life by his erudition, inventive fancy, and love of paradox. His most celebrated works are A New System or Analysis of Ancient Mythology (1774-76), Observations on the Plain of Troy (1795), and a Dissertation concerning the War of Troy (1796). The object of Bryant was to show that the expedition of the Greeks as described by Homer is fabulous, and that no such city as Troy existed. A host of adversaries rose up against him, and his theory never obtained any considerable support-though comparatively modern attempts were made to resolve Homeric incidents and persons into solar mythology. Bryant also wrote theological treatises, papers on classical subjects, books against Tom Paine, on the Land of Goshen, and the gypsies. Though this able and amiable man doubted and denied concerning Homer, he was so confident a believer in Chatterton's fabrications that he took up his pen to prove the authenticity of the Rowley poems.

John Brown (1715-66), son of the curate of Rothbury, became minor canon of Carlisle and chaplain to the Bishop, and held livings near Colchester and in Newcastle. He was popular in his own day as author of Essays on the Characteristics of the Earl of Shaftesbury (1751); and of an Estimate of the Manners and Principles of the Times (1757), written when there was general dissatisfaction with public men and measures, which by its caustic severity and animated appeals excited much attention. In Cowper's words:

The inestimable Estimate of Brown

Rose like a paper kite, and charmed the town. But Pitt was called to the helm, things looked brighter, and down came the paper Estimate:

For measures planned and executed well,
Shifted the wind that raised it, and it fell.

Brown wrote also on The Union of Poetry and Music and The Progress of Poetry, and had early in life shown his command of verse by a poem on Honour (1743) and by an Essay on Satire, addressed to Warburton, and prefixed by Warburton to his edition of Pope. From this Essay comes the famous line, 'And coxcombs vanquish Berkeley with a grin,' as also the couplet :

Dauntless pursues the path Spinoza trod, To man a coward and a brave to God, quoted imperfectly from memory by Burns ('the daring path Spinoza trod') in an autobiographical letter. In almost every department of literature this versatile and indefatigable writer ventured with tolerable success. His two tragedies, Barbarossa and Athelstane (1754 and 1756), were brought out by Garrick, and he himself was praised by Wordsworth as one of the first in leading the way to a worthy admiration of the scenery of the English Lakes. This was in 1753; Gray, usually ranked amongst the earliest explorers of our romantic districts, did not visit the Lake country till 1769. Some suggestions of Brown's on a school system for Russia were submitted to the Empress Catharine, who straightway summoned him to St Petersburg, paying his expenses beforehand. But his health was broken, his friends and his doctor protested, and in his disgust at the collapse of his scheme Brown committed suicide. He had long been known to be verging on insanity.

The Vale of Keswick.

In my way to the north from Hagley, I passed through Dovedale; and, to say the truth, was disappointed in it. When I came to Buxton, I visited another or two of their romantic scenes; but these are inferior to Dovedale. They are all but poor miniatures of Keswick, which exceeds them more in grandeur than you can imagine; and more, if possible, in beauty than in grandeur.

Instead of the narrow slip of valley which is seen at Dovedale, you have at Keswick a vast amphitheatre, in circumference about twenty miles. Instead of a meagre rivulet, a noble living lake, ten miles round, of an oblong form, adorned with a variety of wooded islands. The rocks indeed of Dovedale are finely wild, pointed, and irregular; but the hills are both little and unanimated; and the margin of the brook is poorly edged with weeds, morass, and brushwood. But at Keswick, you will, on one side of the lake, see a rich and beautiful landscape of cultivated fields, rising to the eye in fine inequalities, with noble groves of oak happily dispersed and climbing the adjacent hills, shade above shade, in the most various and picturesque forms. On the opposite shore, you will find rocks and cliffs of stupendous height, hanging broken over the lake in horrible grandeur; some of them a thousand feet high, the woods climbing up their steep and shaggy sides, where mortal foot never yet approached. On these dreadful heights the eagles build their nests: a variety of waterfalls are seen pouring from their summits, and tumbling in vast sheets from rock to rock in rude and terrible magnificence; while, on all sides of this immense amphitheatre, the lofty mountains rise round, piercing the clouds in shapes as spiry and fantastic as the very rocks of Dovedale. To this I must add the frequent and bold projection of the cliffs into the lake, forming noble bays and promontories; in other parts, they finely retire from it; and often open in abrupt chasms or clefts, through which at hand you see rich and uncultivated vales; and beyond these, at various distance, mountain rising over mountain; among which

new prospects present themselves in mist, till the eye is lost in an agreeable perplexity:

'Where active fancy travels beyond sense,

And pictures things unseen.'

Were I to analyse the two places into their constituent principles, I should tell you that the full perfection of Keswick consists of three circumstances-beauty, horror, and immensity united-the second of which alone is found in Dovedale. Of beauty it hath little, nature having left it almost a desert; neither its small extent, nor the diminutive and lifeless form of the hill, admit magnificence. But to give you a complete idea of these three perfections, as they are joined in Keswick, would require the united powers of Claude, Salvator, and Poussin. The first should throw his delicate sunshine over the cultivated vales, the scattered cots, the groves, the lake, and wooded islands; the second should dash out the horror of the rugged cliffs, the steeps, the hanging woods, and foaming waterfalls; while the grand pencil of Poussin should crown the whole with the majesty of the impending mountains.

So much for what I would call the permanent beauties of this astonishing scene. Were I not afraid of being tiresome, I could now dwell as long on its varying or accidental beauties. I would sail round the lake, anchor in every bay, and land you on every promontory and island. I would point out the perpetual change of prospect; the woods, rocks, cliffs, and mountains, by turns vanishing or rising into view: now gaining on the sight, hanging over our heads in their full dimensions, beautifully dreadful: and now, by a change of situation, assuming new romantic shapes; retiring and lessening on the eye, and insensibly losing themselves in an azure mist. I would remark the constrast of light and shade, produced by the morning and evening sun; the one gilding the western, the other the eastern, side of this immense amphitheatre; while the vast shadow projectei by the mountains, buries the opposite part in a deep and purple gloom, which the eye can hardly penetrate The natural variety of colouring which the severa objects produce is no less wonderful and pleasing: the ruling tints in the valley being those of azure, green, and gold; yet ever various, arising from an intermixture of the lake, the woods, the grass, and corn-fields; these are finely contrasted by the gray rocks and cliffs; and the whole heightened by the yellow streams of light, the purple hues and misty azure of the mountains. Sometimes a serene air and clear sky disclose the tops of the highest hills; at other times, you see the clouds involving their summits, resting on their sides, or descending to their base, and rolling among the valleys, as in a vast furnace. When the winds are high, they roar among the cliffs and caverns like peals of thunder; then, too, the clouds are seen in vast bodies sweeping along the hills in gloomy greatness, while the lake joins the tumult, and tosses like a sea. But in calm weather, the whole scene becomes new; the lake is a perfect mirror, and the landscape in all its beauty; islands, fields, woods, rocks, and moun'tains are seen inverted and floating on its surface. By still moonlight (at which time the distant water falls are heard in all their variety of sound), a walk among these enchanting dales opens such scenes of delicate beauty, repose, and solemnity, as exceed all description. (From a Letter.)

« EelmineJätka »