The Beauties of Nature

e might, and none as yet appreciate fully, the beauties and wonders which surround us. The greatest traveller cannot hope even i

s likely to rain. In the same field the farmer will notice the crop, geologists the fossils, botanists the flowers, artists the col

maintained, as for instance by Victor Hugo, that the general effect of beauty is to sadden. "Comme la vie de l'homme, même la plus prospère, est toujours au fond plus triste que gaie, le ciel somb

beauty of the scenes around him, intensified the emotions, as all keen perception of beauty does, but it did not add to their joyousness. We speak of the pleasure which nature and art and music give us; what we really mean is that our whole being is quickened by the uplifting of the veil. Some

s soothing and consoling; when bright and beautiful, not only

never d

loved her; 'tis

years of this

joy: for she

t is within

ss and beaut

ghts, that neit

nor the sneers

where no kindn

ntercourse o

evail against

aith, that all

of bless

man was not with me, I had companions in every bee, and flower and pebble; and never idle, because I could not pass a swamp, or a tuft of heather, without finding in it a f

uy the merry madness of an hour with the long penitence of after time." The love of Nature, again, helps us greatly to keep ourselves free from those mean and petty cares which

re loved by, Nature spirits,-of Sir Launfal and the Fairy Tryamour, who

u puttest thy

old thou sh

favoured. All those who love Nature she loves in return, and will richly reward, not perhaps with the good things, as they are commonly called, but wi

e birds sing: as he walks along, the flowers stretch out from the hedges, or look up from

think they show a love of flowers by gathering them. How often one finds a bunch of withered blossoms on the roadside, plucked only to

o each of us, we should certainly be entranced by the beauty of the morning and evening tints. The golden rays of the morning are a fortune in

more

s it sel

ould open, and they should quit their dark abode to come to us; where they should immediately behold the earth, the seas, the heavens; should consider the vast extent of the clouds and force of the winds; should see the sun, and observe his grandeur and beauty, and also his creative power, inasmuch as day is occasioned by the diffusion of his light through the sky; and when night ha

vulgar, m

golden memorie

eks-to our own ancestors,-every River or Mountain or Forest had not only its own special Deity, but in some sense was itself instinct with life. They were not only pe

ry account all the more dangerous; while the Mountains and Forests, the Lakes and Seas, were the abodes of hideous ghosts and horrible monsters, of Giants and Ogres, Sorcerers and Demons. These fears, though vague,

flat fields in geometrical squares, or on the continent by narrow strips. Here and there indeed we meet with oases, in which beauty has not been sacrificed to

neiss in Cornwall: inland we have the chalk Downs and clear streams, the well-wooded weald and the rich hop gardens; farther westwards the undulating gravelly hills, and still farther the granite tors: in the centre of England we have to the east the Norfolk Broads and the Fens; then

larger rivers, but per

l Thamis w

nnel, down al

OR CA

ce pa

untry houses and crowned by Windsor Castle itself (see Front

ks for houses, or cover for game. Even from this more prosaic point of view, how much there is to wonder at and admire, in th

iness or occupation with reference to which the same might not be said. The triviality or vulgarity does not depend on what we do, but on the spirit in which it

lso raise the profession we adopt, and smooth the way for those who come after us. But, even for those who are not Agriculturists, it must be admitted that the country has special charms. One per

think they do not care for it, b

ame place. Let me find them morning after morning, the starry-white petals radiating, striving upwards up to their ideal. Let me see the idle shadows resting on the white dust; let me hear the humble-bees, and stay to look down on the yellow dandelion disk. Let me see the very thistles opening their great crowns-I should miss the thistles; the reed grasses hiding the moor-hen; the bryony bine, at first crudely ambitious and

id enjoy the change

seful. Marriage is monotonous; but there is much, I trust, to be said in favour of holy wedlock. Living in the same house is monotonous; but three removes, say the wise, are as bad as a fire. Locomotion is regarded as an evil by our Litany. The

mphantly, "At last we too are crossing the Atlantic. At last the dream of forty years, please God, would be fulfilled, and I should see (and happily not alone), the West Indies and the Spanish Main. From c

better, and especially for the more sensitive natures, to live mostly in quiet scenery, among fields and hedgerows, woods and downs; but

lly remote from centres of population; that our great cities are grimy, dark, and ugly; that factories are creeping over several of

ve thus unfortunately lost? We cannot all travel; and even those who can, are able to see but a small part of the world. Moreover, though no one who has once seen, can ever forg

of mountain scenery depend less on their mastery of the English language, great as that is, than on their power of seeing what is before them. It has been to me therefore a matter of much interest to know which aspects of Nature have given the greates

though by quoins and windows of white Sarsden stone, with high peaked French roofs, broken by louvres and dormers, haunted by a thousand swallows and starlings. Old walled gardens, gay with flowers, shall stretch right and left. Clipt yew alleys shall wander away into mysterious glooms, and out of their black arches shall come tripping children, like white fairies, to laugh and talk with the girl who lies dreaming and reading in the hammock there, beneath the bl

ywhere finish and polish; Nature perfected by the wealth and art of peacefu

out; over, and enclosing us, like Aphrodite's arms; as if the dome of the sky were a bell-flower drooping down over us, and the magical essence of it filling all the room of the earth. Sweetest of all things is wild-flower air. Full of their ideal the st

would describe the summit of the Peak of Teneriffe, when a horizon layer of clouds, dazzling in whiteness, has separated the cone of cinders from the plain below, and suddenly the ascending current pierces the cloudy veil, so that the eye of the traveller may range from the brink of the crater, along the vine-clad slopes of Orotava, to the orange gardens and banana groves that skirt the shore. In scenes like these, it is not the peaceful charm uniformly spread over the face of nature that moves the heart, but rather the peculiar physiognomy and conformation of the land, the features of the landscape,

cial praise the following descript

most beautiful productions of the inter-tropical regions. In the midst of bananas, orange, cocoa-nut, and breadfruit trees, spots are cleared where yams, sweet potatoes, sugar-cane, and pine-apples are cultivated. Even the brushwood is a fruit tree, namely, the guava, which from its abundance is as noxious as a weed. In Brazil I have often admired the contrast of varied beauty in the banana, palm, and orange tree; here we have in addition the breadfruit tree, conspicuous from its large, glossy, and d

n-and the case is not peculiar to myself-have these arid wastes taken so firm possession of my mind? Why have not the still more level, the greener and more fertile pampas, which are serviceable to mankind, produced an equal impression? I can scarcely analyse these feelings, but it must be partly owing to the free scope given to the imagination. The plains of Patagonia are boundless, for they are

and artistic power make his opin

declines, its thousand shadows lengthen, pure as the cold green azure in the depth of a glacier's crevasse, and the illuminated snow takes first the tender colour of a white rose, and then the f

e description of tropical forest scenery given

emselves on the branches. Amongst these are large arums that send down long aerial roots, tough and strong, and universally used instead of cordage by the natives. Amongst the undergrowth several small species of palms, varying in height from two to fifteen feet, are common; and now and then magnificent tree ferns send off their feathery crowns twenty feet from the ground to delight the sight by their graceful elegance. Great broad-leaved heliconias, leathery melastom?, and succulent-stemmed, lop-sided leaved and flesh-col

ts, the bright browns and yellows of English woods; much less the crimsons, purples, and yellows of Canada, where the dying foliage rivals, nay, excels, the expiring dolphin in splendour. Unknown the cold sleep of winter; unknown the lovely

plain of the Obi-the most beautiful spectacle, he says, which he had ever witnessed. Behind him were barren rocks and the snows of winter, in front a great plain, not indeed entirely green, or green

f has derived the keenest enjoy

, we have presented to us in the vegetable and animal worlds an infinite variety of objects adorned with the most beautiful and most varied hues. Flowers, insects, and birds are the organisms most generally ornamented in this way; and their symmetry of form, their variety of structure, and the lavish abundance with which they clothe and enliven the earth, cause them to be objects of universal admiration. The relation of this wealth

ower is born t

sweetness on t

as easy,-that in the progress of discovery man would, sooner or later, find out an

s with special admirat

is greater glory." Speaking of the ranges and promontories of sterile limestone, the same writer observes that their colours are as austere and delicate as the forms. "If here the scar of some old quarry throws a stain, or there the clinging of some thin leafage spreads a bloom, the stain is of precious gold, and the bloom of silver. Between the blue of the sky and the tenfold blue of the sea these bare ranges seem, beneath t

s partly due to the sky being so often overcast. In parts of the tropics, however, the air is calm and cloudless throughout nearly the whole of the year. Ther

aient par degrés. Sa lumière se répandait insensiblement sur les montagnes de l'?le et sur leurs pitons, qui brillaient d'un vert argenté. Les vents retenaient leurs haleines. On entendait dans les bois, au fond des vallées, au haut des rochers, de petits cris, de doux murmure

ns rapidly in brilliancy, flashes and vibrates like a flame in the wind. Often two or even three arches appear one over the other. After a while coloured rays dart upwards in divergent pencils, often green below, yellow in the centre, and crimson above, while it is said that sometimes almost black, or at least very dark violet, rays are interspersed among the rings of light, and heighten their effec

d, but we must not complain; our winters are mi

have the len

" the first

the open

oung leaves and

the song

he sweet n

the summe

" the gol

ber " th

" the au

oar frost on trees

t, the holidays of Christm

n January, for we have then be

w

, can spring be

vive us all. In th

spake, and

e, my fair one,

the winte

is over

s appear o

he singing of

e turtle is hea

utteth forth h

the tender grape

by the name of the Indian summer. The day, immeasurably long, sleeps over the broad hills and warm wide fields. To have lived through all its sunny hours, seems longevity enough." Yet does not the very name of Indian summer imply the superiority of the summer itself,-the real, the true summer, "when the young corn is bursting into ear; the awned heads of rye, wheat, and b

cience. Over and above what is visible to the unaided eye, the two magic tubes, the telescope and m

ichly endow us, that fewer hours of labour will serve to supply us with the material necessaries of

e leisure, and for it we

fire or ruin ... covered with a roof which glitters in one fashion by day, and in another by night. Whence comes the breath which you draw; the light by which you perform the actions of your life? the blood by which your life is maintained? the meat by which your hunger is appeased?... The true God has planted, not a few oxen, but all the herds

TNO

hoses

ordsw

o, De Nat

Thor

Spen

s Voyage of

rton's L

Shel

s Book of t

ca, De Be