which, in the conclusion, rages around him, with all the energy of an exalted mind. power and 1 I feel in very deed The firm earth rock: the thunder's deepening roar In dreadful opposition the wild winds Rend the vex'd air: the boisterous billows rise V. A country, destitute of mountains, may be rich, well cultivated, and even beautiful, but it can in no instance be sublime or transporting: and to what a degree, boldness of scenery has the power of elevating the fancy, may be, in some measure, conceived from an anecdote, recorded of an epic and descriptive poet. When Thomson heard of Glover's intention of writing an epic poem, the subject of which should be Leonidas of Sparta, "Impossible,” said he; "Glover can never be idle enough to attempt an epic! He never saw a mountain in his life!" Burnet, (Theory of the Earth), says, that mountains inspire the mind with thoughts and passions, that naturally recal the greatness of God. It is a passage not unworthy the most celebrated of our descriptive poets 2. St. Francis used to retire to Mount Avernus to 1 Potter. 2" Hæc autem dicta vellem de genuinis et majoribus terræ montibus: non gratos Bacchi colles hîc intelligimus, aut amonos illos monticulos, qui viridi herba et vicino fonte et arboribus, vim æstivi solis repellunt: hisce non deest sua qualiscunque elegantia, et jucunditas. Sed longe aliud,” &c. &c. pray; and there, and in that manner, he was engaged, when he saw, as in a vision, a seraph with six wings; with hands and feet nailed to a cross. Two of his wings covered his body; two were raised over his head; and with the other two he flew down from Heaven. Petrarch had long wished to climb the summit of Mount Venoux; a mountain presenting a wider range of prospect, than any among the Alps or Pyrenees. With much difficulty he ascended. Arrived at its summit, the scene presented to his sight was unequalled! After taking a long view of the various objects, which lay stretched below, he took from his pocket a volume of St. Augustine's Confessions; and opening the leaves at random, the first period, that caught his eye, was the following passage: “Men travel far to climb high mountains; to observe the majesty of the ocean; to trace the sources of rivers; but they neglect themselves." Admirable reasoning! conveying as admirable a lesson! Instantly applying the passage to himself, Petrarch closed the book; and falling into profound meditation, "If," thought he, "I have undergone so much labour, in climbing this mountain, that my body might be the nearer to Heaven, what ought I not to do, in order that my soul may be received in its immortal regions1." Let us, my Lelius, while climbing any of our British Alps, be visited by similar reflections, and be actuated by similar resolutions! "Mirantur aliqui altitudines montium, ingentes fluctus maris, altissimos lapsus fluminum, et oceani ambitum, et gyros syderum, et relinquunt seipsos, nec mirantur, &c." ST. AUGUSTINE. Marcus Antoninus has a sentiment, embracing the same result. Lib. ii. s. 13. There is a similar one in Philostratus, in Vit. Apollon. lib. ii. c. 5. VI. Though the view of mountains serve to elevate the mind, the inhabitants of those regions are, undoubtedly, more prone to rapine and to warlike enterprise, than the inhabitants of vales. This has been supposed to arise from the austerity of their climate', and the comparative poverty of their soil. But this remark, though perhaps true, when generally applied, is not so in particular. For though in the time of Cesar, the Helvetii, inhabiting that part of Switzerland lying round the lake of Geneva, were the most warlike people of Gaul; yet they were not more so than the Parthians, who were natives of unexplored deserts. The Assyrians and the Chaldees, both originally descended from the mountains of Atouria, with the Persians, inhabiting a country abounding in hills, were those people the most remarkable for having established extensive empires: yet we must not thence infer, that their conquests arose from that severe energy, which is imbibed from the keen air of mountainous regions: since we find people, residing in plains, acquiring empires equally extensive. The Arabians, for instance; so remarkable for their conquests during the middle ages: the Egyptians, in more remote times: the Tartars, who, for many centuries, were a successful race of warriors: and the Romans, who conquered not so much by the sword, as by the arts. For it was the severity of their discipline, and not the severity of the Apennines, which subdued the world for of all their numerous legions, not one-tenth, : "In Liguribus omnia erant," says Livy, " quæ militem excitarent: loca montana et aspera," &c. &c. Lib. 39. in the time of Augustus or of Trajan, had ever breathed the air of Italy. VII. Mount St. Catherine overlooks Mount Sinai. Its soil is a speckled marble, in which are configurations of trees and other vegetable substances. On this mount are many convents and chapels, particularly the convent of St. Catharine. The monks, belonging to this convent, live with great abstemiousness; though to strangers they are hospitable, and frequently profuse. When a pilgrim arrives, his feet are washed, and his head sprinkled with rose-water, in the presence of all the society; who sit in the great hall listening to sacred music. , Mount Olympus was called the "Seat of the Gods," because its top, being above the clouds, was always serene'. The most picturesque parts of Asian Tartary are those, in the neighbourhood of the Armenian and Ararat mountains, on which the ark is said to have rested. This celebrated eminence, on the top of which stand several ruins, rises in the form of a pyramid, in the midst of a long extended plain. It is always covered with snow from its girdle to the summit; and for several months of the year is totally enveloped by clouds. The modern "Celsior exurgit pluviis, auditque ruentes "Sub pedibus nimbos, et rauca tonitura calcat.” Claudian, de Consulat. Man. Theod. 2" In Armenia," says Haiton, "est altior mons, quàm sit in toto orbe terrarum, qui Arath vulgariter nuncupatur. **. Nemo valeat ascendere illum, semper tamen apparet, in ejus cacumine quoddam nigrum, quod ad hominibus dicitur esse arca." Cap. ix. vid. Marco Polo, b. i, ch. 4. Armenians esteem this mountain holy'; and constantly observe its appearances in different years, in respect to ice and snow. They regulate their sowing, planting, and reaping by the melting. It is a mountain of bears, lynxes, tigers, lions, snakes, hawks, and eagles; and it serves as a city of refuge for every species of outlaw. We are told that a hermit once lived upon its top five-and-twenty years: during all which time he never felt a breeze of wind or a drop of rain. What scenes in Russia are comparable to those in the neighbourhood of the Oural and Riphean mountains? which the inhabitants, in all the simplicity of ignorance, believe to encompass the earth; in the same manner as the Malabars imagine the sun to revolve round the largest of theirs. Where does the Spaniard behold nobler landscapes, than at the feet and between the sides of the blue ridge, that back the Escurial; among the wilds of the Asturias; or among the vast solitudes of the Sierra Morena? With what feelings of awe does the Hungarian approach the Carpathian mountains, that separate him from Gallicia, studded with vineyards, and gemmed with beautiful glens! With what rapture does the traveller see from the walls of Pekin the stupendous blue range, separating China from Tartary: and with what joy and admiration does an African traveller, long lost among deserts and continents of sand, hail the first peak, that greets his sight, among the Mountains of the Moon! Can the American painter rest on finer scenes, than those which are exhibited among the glens of the Laurel, the Morier, 2d Journ. Persia, p. 345, 6. |