regardless of his country, and too explicit in his doubts for the welfare of mankind! In a foreign country, which habit and affection had made his own, this celebrated writer enjoyed the most agreeable society, by which he was highly esteemed, beloved, and honoured. In possession of scenes, of which a parallel can scarcely be found in any quarter of the globe, Gibbon not only possessed them, but had the felicity to be gifted with a mind, capable of enjoying them. There, at Lausanne,-proudly situated on the Lake of Geneva, he began and completed that great monument of his fame, his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. There is a mixture of sublimity and pathos in the passage, where he describes the close of his vast undertaking, peculiarly impressive. "I have presumed to mark," says he, "the moment of conception, (amid the ruins of Rome ;) I shall now commemorate the hour of my final deliverance. It was on the day, or rather night, of the 27th of June, 1787, between the hours of eleven and twelve, that I wrote the last lines of the last page, in a summer-house in my garden. After laying down my pen, I took several turns in a covered walk of acacias, which commands a prospect of the country, the lake, and the mountains. The air was temperate, the sky was serene, the silver orb of the moon was reflected upon the waters, and all nature was silent. I will not dissemble the first emotions of joy on the recovery of my freedom, and perhaps the establishment of my fame. But my pride was soon humbled, and a sober melancholy was spread over my mind, by the idea, that I had taken an everlasting leave of an old and agreeable companion; and that, whatsoever might be the future fate of my history, the life of the historian might be short and precarious!" How much do Haller and Hotze, so celebrated by Zimmermann and Lavater, acquire of fame over Hunter and Boerhaave, merely from their imagination being alive to the beauties of their country! While the two last are known chiefly to surgeons and physicians, the two first are known to almost all the world. Klopstock beheld the forests of pine, intermingled with Elysian valleys, near Erfurt; the Falls of the Rhine, near Schaffhausen; the Lake of Zurich; and the vineyards near Winterthur, with inexpressible pleasure. Those scenes alternately wafted him to his friends, and towered his thoughts to Heaven! Bonnet,-the pride of Geneva,-devoted all his hours to the study of Nature. As a As a philosopher, he is placed between Wolff and Leibnitz; as a naturalist, between Haller and Buffon; as a writer, between Rousseau and Montesquieu; while his physiognomy, says a German physiognomist, indicated justness, clearness, fertility, order,-combination of ideas, perhaps unequalled. Occupied in the study of natural history, as he was, and in the enjoyment of some of the finest scenes upon the globe, how mean, how insignificant, appeared the intrigues and passions of the citizens of Geneva ! CHAPTER V. FROM Lakes, the transition is natural, that would lead to Waterfalls and Cataracts. With what rapture does every cultivated mind behold that beautiful waterfall, gliding over a slate rock in two graceful falls, at the extremity of a long, winding, and romantic glen, near Aber, in the county of Caernarvon! But if you would see cataracts, on a grander scale, visit the falls of the Hepsey; those of the Conway; the Cynfael; and the Black Cataract, near the vale of Ffestiniog. Of the two last, few scenes can surpass the beauty of the one, or the bold, the cragged, and gigantic character of the other. By the former of these have we devoted many a captivating hour. Seated on a rock, adjoining an ivy-arched bridge, stretched over a tremendous chasm, we have listened with rapture, not unmingled with a grateful degree of terror, to the roaring of the waters: and, shaded by a fantastic oak, which overshadows the depth, we have derived the highest satisfaction, in comparing the tranquil and innocent delight, in which we were indulging, with the boisterous humours of the table, the cankered anxiety of the statesman, or the dreadful raptures of that man, who has so long insulted all Europe, and disgraced her glens, her mountains, and her valleys, with blood, with rapine, and with sacrilege! But if you would behold one of those waterfalls, which combine sublimity with beauty, visit the admirable instance at Nant Mill, on the borders of the lake Cwellin. Exercise that fascinating art, of which Nature and prac tice have made you such a master;-make a faithful representation of it; clothe it in all its sublimity, in all its grace of beauty, and let the finest imagination in the world of painting or of poetry tell me, if, in all the fairy visions, that the finest fancy has created, a scene more perfect can be formed, than that? The far-famed cataract in the vale of Tempé has nothing to compare with it. In surveying this scene, our feelings resemble those of the missionaries, when viewing the waterfalls of Japan; or those of the celebrated Bruce, when he beheld the third cataract of the Nile'; "a sight," says he, "so magnificent, that ages, added to the greatest length of life, could never eradicate from my memory 2." The Romans were exceedingly partial to waterfalls, as we learn from many of their writers. The seat of Cicero's father had a remarkable one, falling into the Liris; and, sending forth a most agreeable harmony, thither would his son, the accomplished Tully3, frequently retire, in order to meditate on subjects of literature and taste. CHAPTER VI. IF objects of this nature exalt the understanding and the fancy of those, who possess the powers and habits of 1 Vid. also Philostr. in Vit. Apollon. vi. c. 26. In King's Table Land, New South Wales, is a cataract falling over a precipice of more than 1,000 feet, into Prince Regent's Glen. It is named "the Campbell Cataract ;" and is said to be one of the grandest sights the world affords. 3 Cic. de Legibus, ii. reflection, Woods, those indispensable appendages to landscape, diffuse an equal delight by their coolness, their solemnity, and the charm which they spread around us, as we wander beneath their arched and sacred shades. The Romans frequently erected temples and statues to the genius of the place ;-GENIO LOCI. Pliny1 assures us, that Minerva, as well as Diana, inhabits the forests: and Akenside finely alludes to the religious awe, with which woods, boldly stretching up the summit of an high mountain, are beheld by persons of polite imaginations: Mark the sable woods, That shade sublime yon mountain's nodding brow. With what religious awe the solemn scene Commands your steps! as if the reverend form Of Minos, or of Numa, should forsake Th' Elysian seats; and down the embowering glade If to rivers and mountains all nations, at early periods of their history, have conspired to attach the idea of veneration; how much more so have the eminent, in all ages, delighted in paying honours to groves and forests. Pilgrimages were made to the oaks of Mamre, near Hebron, from the time of Abraham to that of Constantine: and the nations surrounding the Jews were accustomed to dedicate trees and groves to their deities; and to sacrifice upon high mountains: customs, which were even practised by the Jews themselves, previous to the building of Solomon's Temple3. Among the woods of Etruria, Numa, to whom Rome was under greater obligations than to Romulus, sought refuge from the 1 Lib. i. Ep. 6. 3 1 Kings, c. iii. v. 2, 3, 4, 2 Calmet, b. i. c. 7. |