Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub
[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]

that it bids nobody quit the enjoyment of any one thing that his reason can prove to him ought to be enjoyed. 'Tis confessed, when, through the cross circumstances of a man's temper or condition, the enjoyment of a pleasure would certainly expose him to a greater inconvenience, then religion bids him quit it; that is, it bids him prefer the endurance of a lesser evil before a greater, and nature itself does no less. Religion, therefore, entrenches upon none of our privileges, invades none of our pleasures it may, indeed, sometimes command us to change, but never totally to abjure them.

SUNRISE IN THE WOODS.

[William Gilpin, an English traveller and essay writer, Vicar of Boldre and Prebendary of Salisbury,

born at Carlisle, 1724, died 1804, was the author of the

ological and biographical works, and works on the Picturesque in Landscape Scenery and Gardening, etc.,

in a Series of Tours and Essays, with 187 aquatinta en

gravings, London, 11 vols., comprising the following:

The River Wye, 1782; The Lake Country, 1789; Observations on Picturesque Beauty, 1778, etc.; Forest Scenery, 1791; Essay on Prints and Early Engravings, 1798; West

ern Parts of England and Isle of Wight, 1798; Coasts of

Hampshire, Sussex, and Kent.

"Gilpin has described in several justly-esteemed

tours the Picturesque Beauties of Great Britain. . .

All his works abound with ingenious reflections, proper

to enrich the theory of the arts and to guide the practice of them."-Biog. Universelle.]

|

catching lights which touch the summits of every object, and the mistiness in which the rising orb is commonly enveloped.

The effect is often pleasing when the sun rises in unsullied brightness, diffusing its ruddy light over the upper parts of objects, which is contrasted by the deeper shadows below; yet the effect is then only transcendent when he rises accompanied by a train of vapors in a misty atmosphere. Among lakes and mountains this happy accompaniment often forms the most astonishing visions, and yet in the forest it is nearly as great. With what delightful effect do we sometimes see the sun's disk just appear above a woody hill, or, in Shakspeare's language,

Stand tiptoe on the misty mountain's top,

and dart his diverging rays through the rising vapor. The radiance, catching the tops of the trees as they hang midway and there a few other prominent objects, upon the shaggy steep, and touching here imperceptibly mixes its ruddy tint with it were, their upper parts, while their the surrounding mists, setting on fire, as lower skirts are lost in a dark mass of varied confusion, in which trees, and ground, and radiance, and obscurity are all blended together. When the eye is fortunate enough to catch the glowing instant (for it is always a vanishing scene), it furnishes an idea worth treasuring among the choicest appearances of nature. Mistiness alone, we have observed, occasions a confusion in objects which is often picturesque; but the glory of the vision depends on the glowing lights which are mingled with it.

The first dawn of day exhibits a beautiful obscurity. When the east begins just to brighten with the reflections only of effulgence, a pleasing, progressive light, Landscape painters, in general, pay too dubious and amusing, is thrown over the little attention to the discriminations of face of things. A single ray is able to morning and evening. We are often at a assist the picturesque eye, which by such loss to distinguish in pictures the rising slender aid creates a thousand imaginary from the setting sun, though their characforms, if the scene be unknown, and as ters are very different, both in the lights the light steals gradually on, is amused by and shadows. The ruddy lights, indeed, correcting its vague ideas by the real of the evening are more easily distinobjects. What, in the confusion of twi-guished, but it is not perhaps always light, perhaps, seemed a stretch of rising ground, broken into various parts, becomes now vast masses of wood and an extent of forest.

As the sun begins to appear above the horizon, another change takes place. What was before only form, being now enlightened, begins to receive effect. This effect depends on two circumstances-the

sufficiently observed that the shadows of the evening are much less opaque than those of the morning. They may be brightened, perhaps, by the numberless rays floating in the atmosphere, which are incessantly reverberated in every direction, and may continue in action after the sun is set; whereas in the morning the rays of the preceding day having subsided, no

object receives any light but from the immediate lustre of the sun. Whatever becomes of the theory, the fact, I believe, is well ascertained.

BOOKS.

[George Stillman Hillard, an American lawyer and author, born at Machias, Me., 1808, died at Boston, 1879. He graduated at Harvard in 1828, ac

quired an extensive practice at the bar, was City So

licitor at Boston, State Senator in the Massachusetts

Legislature, and U. S. District Attorney for Massachu

setts, 1866-1870. From about 1833 he wrote copiously

for the press, editing The Christian Register, a Unitarian

journal, and afterward the Boston Courier. His principal writings are, Memoir of Jeremiah Mason, Life of Captain John Smith (in Sparks' American Biography), Six Months in Italy, 2 vols., 1853, and Life of George Ticknor (with Mrs. Ticknor), 1873.]

We cannot linger in the beautiful creations of inventive genius, or pursue the splendid discoveries of modern science, without a new sense of the capacities and dignity of human nature, which naturally leads to a sterner self-respect, to manlier resolves, and higher aspirations. We cannot read the ways of God to man as revealed in the history of nations, of sublime virtues as exemplified in the lives of great and good men, without falling into that mood of thoughtful admiration, which, though it be but a transient glow, is a purifying and elevating influence while it lasts. The study of history is especially valuable as an antidote to self-exaggeration. It teaches lessons of humility, patience, and submission. When we read of realms smitten with the scourge of famine or pestilence, or strewn with the bloody ashes of war; of grass growing in the streets of great cities; of ships rotting at the wharves; of fathers burying their sons; of strong men begging their bread; of fields untilled, and silent workshops, and despairing countenances, we hear a voice of rebuke to our own clamorous sorrows and peevish complaints. We learn that pain and suffering and disappointment are a part of God's providence, and that no contract was ever yet made with man by which virtue should secure to him temporal happiness.

In books, be it remembered, we have the best products of the best minds. We

should any of us esteem it a great privilege to pass an evening with Shakespeare or Bacon, were such a thing possible. But were we admitted to the presence of one of these illustrious men, we might find him touched with infirmity, or oppressed with weariness, or darkened with the shadow of a recent trouble, or absorbed by intrusive and tyrannous thoughts. To us the oracle might be dumb, and the light eclipsed. But when we take down one of their volumes, we run no such risk. Here we have their best thoughts embalmed in their best with Castalian dews, and the golden fruit words; immortal flowers of poetry, wet of wisdom that had long ripened on the bough before it was gathered. Here we find the growth of the choicest seasons of the mind, when mortal cares were forgotten, and mortal weaknesses were subdued; and the soul, stripped of its vanities, and its passions, lay bare to the finest effluences of truth and beauty. We may be sure that Shakespeare never out-talked his Hamlet, nor Bacon his Essays. Great writers are indeed best known through their books. How little, for instance, do we know of the life of Shakespeare; but how much do we know of him!

[ocr errors]

For the knowledge that comes from books, I would claim no more than it is fairly entitled to. I am well aware that there is no inevitable connection between intellectual cultivation, on the one hand, and individual virtue or social well-being, on the other. "The tree of knowledge is not the tree of life.' I admit that genius and learning are sometimes found in combination with gross vices, and not unfrequently with contemptible weaknesses and that a community at once cultivated and corrupt is no impossible monster. But it is no over-statement to say that, other things being equal, the man who has the greatest amount of intellectual resources is in the least danger from inferior temptations,-if for no other reason, because he has fewer idle moments. The ruin of most men dates from some vacant hour. Occupation is the armor of the soul; and the train of Idleness is borne up by all the vices. I remember a satirical poem, in which the Devil is represented as fishing for men, and adapting his baits to the taste and temperament of his prey; but the idler, he said, pleased him most, because he bit the naked hook. To a

« PredošláPokračovať »