The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 3, November, 1834Various
History
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 3, November, 1834
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
There is something truly grand and impressive in forest scenery. The
lofty trees stretching high toward heaven; the graceful and majestic
waving of the branches, breathing nature's own soft music, which
scarcely removes the impression of profound silence--or which, to
parody the words of Milton, "just makes silence audible;" the deep, and
seemingly "boundless contiguity of shade," and the awful solitude, make
man shrink into himself, and feel that he is in the presence of the
Eternal. The weak spirit of a creature frail as man, is soon
overpowered, if it give itself up to the impressions naturally produced
by contemplating, in solitude, the grandeur of creation. The first
feeling is delight,--next admiration,--then wonder,--then awe,--and
then oppression;--and when it arrives at this point, the sight of such
a little cart-path as I have mentioned, is a great relief to the
feelings: for it shows that a being having passions, and feelings, and
sympathies like his own--as short lived, as dependant, as insignificant
as himself, is, or has been near. The deep shade has been penetrated;
the solitude has been interrupted; and an unbroken and eternal silence
has not forever reigned in the forest.
If the reader wishes, we will follow this path, and see whither it will
conduct us. Its course is a little devious, probably to avoid the
trunks of the trees, for not one appears to have been felled to shorten
the distance, which is about three fourths of a mile, under the
unbroken shade of the same noble woodland. Now the path begins to
descend a little, and by almost imperceptible degrees, you arrive in a
valley lying between two lofty ridges, that become more and more abrupt
as you advance; and when you have proceeded about the fourth of a mile,
they seem nearly perpendicular on either side. And their summits being
crowned by the lofty trees of the same far stretching forest, adds much
to the apparent depth of the valley, and you feel as if verging towards
the centre of the earth. That little ripling stream in the valley,
beside which we have been walking, now begins to widen, and presently
expands itself into a mimic lake, restrained on the one hand and on the
other by the mountain side, leaving just room enough on the left for
the unbroken cart-path. Your ear is now assailed by the sound of
rushing waters, and a roof appears beyond the lake--so that a
habitation of man is near. No, it is a mill; the dwelling house is
sixty rods below: there it lies, on a beautiful swell in the narrow
valley, made, it would seem, on purpose for its site--and the again
diminished stream is softly murmuring by its side. That is the Cottage
in the Glen. If you please, we will descend, and take our station in
front of it. Before we turned that angle to attain this spot, you were
about to exclaim, "This is the very home of solitude, shut out from the
rest of creation." But look straight down the valley, and far--far off,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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