A love of Nature is said peculiarly to distinguish the Dooraunes. "The delight, with which they dwell," says an observing traveller, "on the moments, passed in their beautiful vallies; and the enthusiasm, with which they speak of the varieties, through which they pass, when travelling in other countries, can never, in such an unpolished people, be heard without pleasure and surprise."

The public walks of the Athenians were along the banks of the Cephisus and Ilyssus: while those around the city of Smyrna, whose atmosphere is frequently charged with a light vapour, tinged with crimson, and washed by the waters of one of the most beautiful bays in all the world, are represented as highly pleasant and agreeable, particularly on the west side of the Frank: where there are groves of orange and lemon trees; which, being clothed with leaves, blossoms and fruit, regale three of the senses at the same time.

The public promenade, on the banks of the Neva, at St. Petersburg is represented as being as fine as any in the world. At Berlin the squares, which are the most elegant, are those, in which are planted shrubs and trees. The entire city is surrounded by gardens; while that of Vienna, whose dirty and narrow streets inspire nothing but disgust, is encircled by a wide field, having a singular appearance; and such as no other capital can boast. Most of the genteeler sort live within the ramparts in winter, but among the suburbs in summer. The gallery

Elphinstone's Caubul.

of this city contains upwards of thirteen hundred paintings; forty-five of which are by Rubens, and forty-nine by Titian. Why is not this gallery translated into the suburbs?

II.

Even the Dutch merchant, dull, cold, and phlegmatic, as he is, and whom no one would accuse of being feelingly alive to imaginary delights, pleases his imagination, during youth, with the hope of retiring to a villa, on the banks of a canal; and on its portico inscribing a sentence, indicative of his happiness. "Rest and pleasure ;"-" shade and delight;"-" pleasure and peace ;"-" rest and extensive prospect ;”—“ peace and leisure." These, and similar inscriptions are frequently observed on the porticos of the villas near Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Leyden.

Nothing can be more agreeable than the terrace or Belvidere of the castle of Beziers, in France; commanding, as we are told, a most enchanting prospect of the fine country, adjacent to the town, and the valley (through which runs the Orbe), rising gradually on each side, and forming an amphitheatre, enriched with fields, vineyards and olive-trees. The city of Dijon, the ancient capital of the Duke of Burgundy, has delightful walks, both within and without the town-the streets of Dantzic are studded with trees; and the inhabitants of Bruges have planted several stately rows, even in the public market place. Most of the cities in France are embellished with public walks. Those at Toulouse, particularly the esplanade

on the banks of the Garonne, and the promenade at Aix, in Provence, called the Ortibelle, are represented as being exceedingly delightful. The terrace, too, at Montpellier, called La Place de Peyron, and the esplanade shaded by olives, are remarkably fine. The latter enjoys a noble domestic landscape; while from the former on a clear day may be seen, to the east, the Alps, forming the frontiers of Italy; to the west, the Pyrenees; to the south, the magnificent waters of the Mediterrannean sea!—But of all the public walks in Europe, the Marina of Palermo is said to possess the greatest advantages: the Parks of Westminster, the Elysian Fields of Paris, and the Prado at Madrid, having, we are told by the Abbate Balsamo, nothing to compare with it. The cities of Sucheu and Hang-cheu, in China, too, are said to have so many public walks, that the Chinese believe them to be upon earth,' what the heavens are above.

III.

In England many are the towns and cities, which boast of agreeable walks and promenades. At Oxford, Cambridge, Hereford, Worcester, Ludlow, Shrewsbury, Southampton, Carmarthen, and at Brecon, we have witnessed them. Among the last Helvidius and Constance stopt" to dry their clothes after their shipwreck." Their hearts were touched with all that they had suffered. Constance shed tears; but Helvidius walked into the groves adjoining the priory,

1 Thevenot, p. 124.

sub silentia luna, and casting his eyes towards the east and south-western horizon, beheld the planets, rolling, as it were, round the summits of the Beacons ; and lifted his contemplation to that exalted Being, who alone has power "to bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades, and to loosen the bands of Orion." He returned soothed and satisfied! and the more so, since it was on that very evening that your letter reached him, in which you were pleased to offer incense to his vanity, by asserting, with so much earnestness and so much affection, that it seemed to be his fate, as well as that of Constance, frequently to suffer from persons, entirely beneath themselves.

But London is the city; and its parks the Paradise of intellectual beings. The most picturesque views of this metropolis of the earth,-superior to ancient Thebes, Memphis, Nineveh, Babylon, and even Rome, in every point but architecture,—are from the Hampstead and Highgate Hills on the north, the Surrey Hills on the south, and from Greenwich Park on the south-east. The last of these is, of its kind, the finest in the world! There are other

scenes in Nature, far more beautiful and sublime, in reference to landscape; but it is impossible to fix upon any spot, on the entire globe, where the reflections, excited by a combination of objects, created by man, are so varied and profound;-and where the emotions, which those reflections create; are so powerful and transporting.-Here-innumerable evidences bear witness to the astonishing powers of MAN; and operate, as so many arguments to prove 2 A

VOL. III.

the divinity of his origin. In other scenes it is the God of Nature, that speaks to us;-in this it is the GENIUS of MAN. All the wealth, that the industry of nations has gathered together, seems to be extended before us :-and on this spot, the east, the west, the south, and the north, appear to concentrate. From the multitude of objects, presented to our sight, the idea of infinity shoots into the mind. The first feeling is the feeling of matter; the last feeling is the feeling of spirit. Tired of this diurnal sphere,-the soul acknowledges the divinity of its origin; it gravitates towards its centre; it springs forward, and rests in the bosom of the Eternal !

CHAPTER V.

In the middle ages, all taste for the sublime and beautiful was confined to the monks. This taste did not originate with the earliest founders of the monastic orders; for Paul, the first hermit, resided in a cave ; and St. Anthony on Mount Colzim, a dreary and pathless desert! The lives of hermits and saints afford as much solid entertainment, as the guilty pages of historians. St. Jerom devoted several years to solitude, abstinence and devotion, in a hideous desert in Syria; St. Isidore retired to a solitude in the neighbourhood of Pelusiota: Paschomius, among the ruins of a deserted village, on an island formed by the Nile, erected the first regular cloister; and