“But fain, I must, before ye make descent, Direct your vision’s utmost farthest gaze, To Andes’ lofty chain in wonderment; Let fancy’s pinion have her flights amaze, And here her eager sight enchanted raise, Lost in the greatness of its vast extent, Of Chimborazo’s height commanding praise, Loftiest ’mong lesser hills of beauty blent; Yet now I would call off on further progress bent. LVII. With that he led them down the vale beneath, Sweet spot like Enna’s soft enchanting scene, Where flushed Adonis flow’r with perfumed breath, And roses wild sprang up ’mong hillocks green; In loveliness of beauty, gathering seen To pluck half hid Sicilia’s flowery mead, Persephone herself, the fairest queen, Who drew the gloomy eye of Pluto dread, Thus snatched from violet banks to dwell among the dead. CANTO II. ARGUMENT. Four ways leading to Nature, Literature, Art, and Science--The Entrance Porch of Nature Portrayed--Alpine Scenery--Polar Regions--The Torrent--The Atlantic Ocean--A Ship tossed by the Waves, and a Calm--The Gorge, Jungfrau--Floating Islands and Hot Wells--Staffa--Fingal’s Cave--Lake of Killarney--The Isle of Skye--Jura and the Lake of Geneva--Digression--Object and Aim proposed--Progress continued--The Forest--Wild Beasts’ Lair--The Constrictor--The Contrast in reference to Eden--Millennium--The Discourse--The Grove and Lovely Valley--Variety of Nature unexplored--The Poet’s Instruction. CANTO II. LVIII. Four ways branched forth from out yon sylvan vale, Each entrance varied, formed t’ arrest the eye Of those, the explorers of that thymy dale, Who thirsted for, and did for knowledge sigh; No wassailler nor grovelling soul passed by, Or strove to seek its more than pleasant spot; Their mind a blank who have no sympathy With nature; science, art, attract them not; And literature may woo and charm in vain, I wot. LIX. Right ’fore them stood Nature’s wide opening, made Precipitous, o’ergrown with shaggy wood, ’Neath two high banks that cast an awful shade, As if for solemn rites some priestess stood To minister beneath its entrance rude; At once their guide, with gaze of awe led on In quest of mysteries dread, did silent brood How to unveil, not mere sublime alone, But attributes of power Omnipotence make known. LX.