ON THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES, AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE.. THE RUINS OF ROME. a "WHEN we enter into magnificent palaces," says Tully,whose oratory never relapsed into a thrifty and sanguinary eloquence, as Tacitus strongly expresses it," we are at first struck with the gilded roofs, the marble columns, the costly pavements, and all the other decorations of art. But when we have beheld them often, we are no longer charmed with them; and they make no impression of pleasure on the mind. Whereas, the aspects of the country never satiate us; they are, as it were, ever new; and every day puts on some fresh form to entertain and delight us." Who, that takes pleasure in the cultivation of his shrubberies, has not an innate love of order and harmony, though opportunity, perhaps, has never been allowed for their cultivation? Who, that will stand for hours upon a precipice, and drink in rapture from the una Lucrosæ hujus et sanguinantis eloquentiæ.-De Oratore. touched scenes of Nature, has not the seeds of poesy implanted in his mind? Who, that treads, with secret satisfaction, the spots, which the wise and the good have sanctified by their preference; and who, that delights to stand where the battles of former ages have been fought, would not,-were fortune to present the opportunity,-be the admiration of the world for their patriotism or inflexible constancy? In those, who are alive to interesting associations, and who are travelling in a picturesque country, how glowing are the emotions, produced by those reflections, which, in such scenes, naturally arise! When Dr. Moore beheld the rocks of Meillerie, he seemed to discover the very spot, on which St. Preux looked through his telescope, to catch a glimpse of the house, which contained his idolized Julia. In imagination he traced the route, where he sprung from rock to rock, after one of her letters, which the wind had snatched from his hands. With the same delight, he observed the point, where they embarked to return to Clarens; when St. Preux, in a fit of distraction, was tempted to seize the lovely Julia (then the wife of another), and precipitate both her and himself into the midst of the lake! Numerous are the resemblances, we mentally draw, between those spots, which fascinate us, as we travel on, and those that we have heard described, or seen delineated. In a tour, which La Rochefort made in the summer of **** , among the most delightful scenes, of which this island can boast, many were the ideal resemblances, he fancied. This river reminded him of the Arno, or the Brenta; this mountain appeared to exhibit all the beauties of the Pyrenees, or the Apennines; that wood recalled to his memory the groves, which decorate the classic shores of the Po and the Mincio; this hamlet resembled that, of which Pliny gives so beautiful a description; and that villa Scipio's seat on the banks of the Tiber. These associations are peculiarly awakened on those spots, which have been the theatres of great events, or the abodes of eminent men. Something analogous to this, Milton has embodied in the language of Adam; when the angel informs him, that the leaving the garden of Eden shall be the penalty of his disobedience. Adam, with melancholy feeling, anticipates the pleasure he should have enjoyęd, in pointing out to his children the places, which had been sanctified by the presence of their great Creator. How far more delightful is it to contemplate the beneficence, than the cruelty of man! How much more interesting are those scenes, on the banks of the Dee and the Clyde, on the plains of Devon, and on the Grampian mountains; now, that they are the abodes of the shepherd and the husbandman, than when the horn of the huntsman, and the trumpet of the warrior, were equal heralds of a bloody battle! Sweet Teviot! on thy silver tide The glaring bale-fires blaze no more; Along thy wild and willowed shore : When the French first beheld Moscow, they were delighted, beyond measure, at the beauty of the prospect it presented to them. From the summit of the hill they saw a thousand gilded spires and steeples, which, reflecting the brilliancy of the sun, appeared like so many globes of fire. Moscow, standing in the midst of a fertile plain, through which winds the Moskwa; palaces, without number, surrounded with terraces; obelisks; gilt cupolas; the Kremlin and the towers of Iwan rising above the whole, seemed like enchantment. The French soldiers, enraptured at the view, shouted "Moscou! Moscou!" with extravagant delight. But when they found that the Russians had set fire to their own city; when they saw even women applying firebrands to their own houses, and then hurrying away, as if alarmed at what they done ;-when Labaume, Campagne de Russie, p. 198. Bourgois, Campagne de Moscou, P. 52. they saw, that street after street presented nothing but disjointed columns, porticos, and cupolas illumined by the blaze; and the flames rising in a thousand places at once, and every street thronged with women and children, or desolated with the dying and the dead, nothing could exceed their rage and disappointment! And yet, had the ruins, which every where presented themselves, existed for many ages, and been the result of the enterprises of their ancestors, those very soldiers would have beheld the scene with awe and admiration. So different are the associations, when men see, than from those that arise, when they both see and suffer. The effects of association, awakened by external objects, are well described by Gibbon. "At the distance of five-andtwenty years," said he, "I can neither forget nor express the strong emotions, which agitated my breast, as I first approached the ETERNAL CITY. After a sleepless night, I trod, with lofty step, the ruins of the forum; each spot where Romulus stood, or Tully spoke, was present to my sight." Poggio Bracciolini, amid the same ruins, took pleasure in revolving the various occurrences, each ruin had seen, or given birth to :—and such was his proficiency, that he could trace the history of every palace and of every temple. Among the ruins of the Tarpeian rock, he contrasted the state of Rome,-proud and imperious Rome !-when Tully graced the bar, and Cato the senate, with those ruins, which, at the moment he viewed the city, lay scattered on every side around him. Ruins, which, a Thus Cicero de Finibus :-" Often when I enter the Senate House, the shades of Scipio, of Cato, and of Lælius, and, in particular, of my venerable grandfather, rise to my imagination. In short, such is the effect of local situation in recalling associated ideas to the mind, that it is not without reason some philosophers have founded on this principle a species of artificial memory." b Should the reader desire to form some idea of the ancient splendour of Rome, the Campus Martius, and its environs, he may consult with advantage Piranesi's Ichnography, in Il Campo Marzio dell' Antica Roma, tab. iv. fol., and De Fortunæ Varietate Urbis Romæ, &c. It seems probable, that Gibbon, and perhaps Montesquieu, undertook their respective works from having read, while at Rome, "Grandezze dell' Imperio Romano, conate de Giusto Lipsio e |