Thirty Years Since; or, The Ruined Family. A Tale — John Shaqi
Thirty Years Since; or, The Ruined Family. A Tale
General
Thirty Years Since; or, The Ruined Family. A Tale
Fiction
"I do not know that," replied Burrel. "There may be newer scenery, and
perhaps more sublime scenery; but whether the more sublime be
calculated to produce a finer or sweeter effect upon a man's heart and
mind than softer and gentler pictures, I much doubt, There is
something in an English landscape to be found nowhere else--an air of
rich, sweet, happy repose--of safe tranquillity and successful
industry, that is in itself almost sublime. Let your eye now run over
that view as the coach climbs the hill. Where did you ever behold a
scene on which sight can so pleasantly repose? The rich scattered wood
in front, full of old England's grand primeval oaks. Then look how,
bending over a thousand slopes, in the true lines of beauty, the
hedgerows wind along, dividing wealthy field from field--now giving
skips and glances of fair towns and uplands, and now massing together,
till the eye believes them to be deep groves; then that catch of the
river, glistening under the hill, while the sunshine streams through
the valley, and that broad shadow of some cloud we do not see, passes
slowly on--at every change that it effects in the light and shade of
the landscape, bringing out some new beauty, as if it itself delighted
in the loveliness it produces. Then again cast your eyes up yonder to
the village church hanging half way down the hill, with its neat
parsonage embowered in tall elms; and looking, as it is, the abode of
peace and virtue. As good a man dwells there as the whole world can
produce, and a true representative of the great majority of the
much-belied English clergy. But say, did you ever see a fairer scene?"
"Seldom, indeed," replied his companion, whose attention, called to
the principal points of a purely English picture, found more beauties
in it than custom suffered him to see before. "But still," he added,
"I am fond of mountain scenery."
"And so am I," replied Burrel. "I am fond of every kind of scenery,
from the bold blue mountain, with its purple heath, as bare, as naked,
and as wild as the banks of Loch Awe itself can show, to the rich and
undulating plains of Champagne, where soft line beyond line of faint
and fainter shadows, vanishing away in Claude-like sunshine, are all
that mark the wide extent over which the eye can roam. There is such a
thing as the economy of admiration; and by husbanding that faculty
properly, you will not find a scene in all the world on which you can
not afford to bestow some small portion thereof."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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