Puslapio vaizdai
PDF
„ePub“

Like a stern angel taught humility!

Oh! when he spoke, my heart stole out to him!
There was a spirit-echo in his voice,

A sound of thought—of under-playing music—
As if, before it ceased in human ears,

The echo was caught up in fairy-land."

Here be glittering words in abundance; but if they do not, in their combination, constitute unmitigated nonsense, I know not what nonsense is.

The lady escapes to her lover by that original device (especially since Romeo and Juliet was published) of taking a draught which makes her seem to be dead. Then all the parties are brought before the Duke in the manner of a police-office inquiry. The usurer performs some strange antics of generosity, bestowing all the lands and houses of Isabella's father upon the mad painter, in order to enable him to settle comfortably with Isabella for his wife. The usurer himself, however, does not remain a bachelor-he marches off, having Zippa, the glover's daughter, under his arm, and with an understanding that he is to marry her, and retire into the country.

Such is a modern drama by a popular author. I consider the extracts I have given to be rather favourable specimens than otherwise, of the modern school of dramatic writing to which the author belongs.

100

CONTINENTAL EXCURSIONS.

I AM not among those who think that foreign travel is useless and unprofitable; but much farther am I removed from such as uniformly prefer Continental excursions, and look upon home-tours as a comparatively dull and commonplace mode of enjoying leisure. As for those who run about merely for the sake of the momentary impression made upon their eyes and ears, and without reference to the permanent thoughts that observation should supply, there is not much use in wasting words upon them, further than to hope they may some time or another acquire habits more worthy of rational creatures. As for others, who go to this place or to that, merely because it is the fashion, and that they may be able to say they have ridden over some much-talked-of mountain, or sailed upon some much-frequented river, they also be classed with the foolish ones. What an immensity of trouble they go to for so very paltry an end! If human beings were like the gnats that one sees of a summer evening, every one apparently with a separate existence, and yet directed by a law of their nature to dance and wheel about in crowds, each preserving his relative position towards each, as follower or leader if this were the condition of our being,

may

then were the travellers from compliance with fashion somewhat excusable; but creatures who are endowed with reason-with a sense of duty -with feelings and passions to be at once exercised and governed-with powers of observation and discrimination-with a natural aptness for admiration of the just and the beautiful, and abhorrence of the unjust and the unfit, beings such as these—that is, rational human beings-ought to be ashamed of a mode of existence which is merely imitative of the gnats.

Now as to the pleasure which natural scenery produces, in all its varieties, whether of the richly rural kind, or the sternly and awfully wild, or the picturesque, where all the eye delights in is thrown together with the beautiful irregularity which nature alone can reach -as to all these, they may undoubtedly be found within the British islands in a much nearer approach to perfection than in any ordinary tour the Continent. For though you will find higher mountains in Switzerland than you can at home, and a certain freezing awe at the contemplation of those regions of eternal silence, where the snow never melts; and an indescribable charm of contrast when turning from these to the greensward by the brawling brook that dashes through the valley, or to the quiet chalet of which the very poverty and humility heightens the contrast by bringing into

upon

play a train of ideas as much as possible opposed to the sense of the sublime, which the enormous mountains create-though this may be found in Switzerland, yet much there will be wanting which might be found at home, and even at home there are mountains sufficiently high, and valleys sufficiently lonely, to make as profound an impression of the sublime and the simple, as most minds are capable of receiving.

But, after all, the great multitude of travellers from England to the Continent, do not go to the mountainous regions, nor to any scenery which will bear one moment's comparison with the best scenery of England, Ireland, and Scotland. France is, taking it in the general, an extremely ugly country, compared with England; and Belgium is even worse, with the exception of the scenery of the Meuse, and the drive from Liege to the frontier of Rhenish Prussia, by the Chaude Fontaine Road. Yet Belgium is very well worth visiting for the sake of the beautiful buildings in the cities, and especially the Gothic churches, which are indeed most magnificent, and rich in the finest works of Reubens and Vandyke. Let it be noticed also that there is one drive in Belgium, that from Dinant to Liege, some five-and-forty miles by the side of the Meuse, which out of our own country cannot be equalled, until the Alps come in sight. The river is of a respectable breadth, but not deep; for the most part

there is a margin, about twice the breadth of the river, of rich land; verdant meadow or waving corn; and then the hill shoots up from three to five hundred feet, or more, exceeding steep, and yet for the most part covered with wood, which comes out in every variety of shape from the irregular surface, while ever and anon the bare crag stands forth, defying vegetation and challenging the storm. These rugged protuberances of cold grey stone, contrast beautifully with the rich green foliage above, beneath, and around them, and frequently assume the appearance of ruins more picturesque in their wild variety than the real ruins of the Rhine and the Moselle.

As to the Rhine, the grandeur of "the exulting and abounding river" is unquestionable, and to the erudite, whether in historical or legendary lore, it is exceedingly rich in associations. But the simple and unsophisticated lover of the picturesque and beautiful, is not so captivated with the Rhine as book-makers would have one to be. It has no green margin, with pretty cottages to please the taste, which has been formed in our beloved land. In that part which is most celebrated, the steep bank rises almost from the water's edge, often indeed crowned with ruined castles, beautiful in their decay, but their great number vulgarises them to the mind, and besides these we have nothing but brown bareness, or one of the ugliest crops

« AnkstesnisTęsti »