XXIII. The mind, too, is sobered down to a more regular, or perhaps less LETTER irregular, scale of feeling; yet, upon similar occasions now, the delight, altho not so rapturous, is still instantaneous and powerful.' Unit. Serv. Journ. Feb. 1832. It is the universal beauty of nature, which excites that perpetual love of it, which Col. Clavering mentions with a just appreciation of its impressions. 'One of the purest charms of life is the view of natural scenery; the change of the seasons; the contrast of morn and noon, evening and night. The love of nature, as we grow older, still augments; perhaps it is a little more chastened, but it is not less warm. It never tires and it never fades. The magnificence and beauty of natural scenery have none of the imperfections of animate nature. There is something in the chords of our bosoms which responds to it, like the harp to the wind. For years together I have never failed to watch the first dawn of day.' Metrop. Mag. 1822, p. 40. All regions are found to be thus pleasing. SYRIA has been experienced to be so. 'I travelled in Syria just after the short, but violent rainy season had ceased. It is not easy to describe a more beautiful and fruitful land. The plains were covered with that fresh green tint, so rare in an eastern sky. The orange and lemon trees were clothed with fruit and blossom. I galloped over an illimitable plain, fragrant with aromatic herbs. A soft fresh breeze brought vigour to my frame. Day after day I journey, and meet no sign of human existence; at an immense distance, the sky and the earth mingled in an uniform horizon. Sometimes the land would swell into long undulations; and sometimes from a dingle of wild bushes, a gazelle would rush forward, stare, and bound away. It was the burst of spring. Nothing could be more delightful. The heat was never intense. The breeze was ever fresh and sweet. The nocturnal heavens, luminous and clear to a degree which it is impossible to describe.' B. D'Israeli, Contar. iv. p. 154. The SKY is every where as beautiful as the earth. It is thus described to us as it appears in CANA DA. 25 Dec.-The lake was a solid ice. The noise made by the air when the ice first fixes is, in the night, awful; it is heard at a distance of five or six miles from the shore, a deep rending and crackling runs along the ice. The sun sets brilliantly, while a tender red or violet hue over the eastern sky would portend a keen frost. When the moon arose, her pale brilliance shining on the white plains, cannot be described; LETTER and among the stars to the north, the aurora borealis played almost incessantly. The moon and stars of America shine with a lustre far surpassing the same luminaries here. The clearness of the air seems to permit more of their lustre to fall on the earth; for, unlike the bright unsteady glare of a tropical night, they emit in Canada, not merely a brighter, but a steadier light. Sometimes returning from a neighbour's late at night over the frozen lake, how bright and beautiful have the heavenly host appeared! undimmed by the damps of Europe, they seemed new worlds. Tho the degree of cold to the thermometer be much lower than any experienced in this country, yet, from the dryness of the air, and the constant accompaniment of sunshine, it is not so unpleasantly manifested to the feelings, as a much higher degree in England. There are few days in a Canadian winter, near Lake Simcoe, that a man may not labour out the whole day.' Narrative of a Settler in Canada. Mrs. Trollope notices the effect of the moon in North America, on the Mississippi. ‹ The weather was dry and agreeable, and the aspect of the heavens by night surprisingly beautiful. I never saw moonlight so clear, so pure, so powerful.' Vol. i. p. 42. In the man of right feeling and observing mind, the elements of nature, which are at times inconvenient to us, yet excite interesting recollections and emotions. Mr. James makes one of the characters in his interesting compositions, give this reply to a person who was uttering imprecations on the rain, for its temporary annoyance: Call it not accursed, my son, O no! remember that every drop. that falls, bears into the bosom of the earth a quality of beautiful fertility. Remember that each glorious tree and herb, and shrub and flower, owes to these drops its life, its freshness and its beauty. Remember that half the loveliness of the green world is all their gift, and that without them we should wander thro a dull desert, as dusty as the grave. Take but a single drop of rain, cloistered in the green fold of a blade of grass, and expose it to the morning sun, and what lapidary can cut a diamond which shall shine like that! O no! blessed for ever be the beautiful drops of the sky; the refreshing soothers of the seared earth, the nourishers of the flowers; that calm race of beings, which are all loveliness and tranquillity, without passion or pain, or desire or disappointment, whose life is beauty and whose breath is perfume!' Henry Masterton. XXIII. Quotations like these, of the gratifying ideas and LETTER sensations which nature, in its various scenes, has excited in the bosoms of travellers in every region of the globe, might be multiplied to a great extent. But I will not add any more; the above passages, taken promiscuously as they occurred to my notice, from several different classes of minds and characters, are quite sufficient to support the reasonings with which this letter began. Nature is interesting and delightful in all her forms, and has manifestly been specially framed and arranged by its Maker to be so to us, and purposely to give us the pleasure which it produces; an effect quite distinct from our necessary maintenance, and life's usual comforts. It is always an addition to these, and means to be, and becomes thereby, an universal assurance to us of the benevolent love of our munificent Creator to every individual of His human race; for every bosom is susceptive of the gratification, and it is generally presented unexceptingly to all. XXIV. LETTER XXIV. DIVISIONS OF MANKIND INTO THE PERMANENT DIVERSITIES OF CIVILIZED AND UNCIVILIZED NATIONS - MY DEAR SYDNEY, LETTER THE dispersion of the renewed race of mankind, to which we have already alluded, has been followed by the consequence which must have been intended to result from it; the rise and spread of numerous populations on the globe, very dissimilar to each other in mind, manners, actions and improvements. From the time they first separated from each other at Babel, it has been a distinguished character of the human kind, as an order of beings, that they should exist on this earth, during their life upon it, in a state of very multifarious diversity, both mentally and morally. In every quarter of the world, the disparted race has grown up into distinct tribes and nations, of which each has such peculiarities, as to make its individual and collective state a contrast to all others. From the universality and perpetuation of this result, we must infer that it was meant to take place. It was not produced for any temporary purpose; but it has been steadily maintained, and made the continuing course and abiding character of human society, as if it had been designed to be its permanent condition. Hence, no one universal, absorbing and assimilating empire has been suffered to arise; and all advances to the XXIV. formation of such a one have been resisted and soon LETTER nullified. Man has not been made to be a one uniform being, like the lion or the antelope. But the system of Providence has been, that he should be a very diversified being, varying in every new generation, and varying in each one, individually, as it subsists. In ancient time he appeared in those distinct. nations which we read of; and altho these have passed away, the diversifying and separating principle has not closed its agency. On the contrary, it has been increasing in vigor and effect; for at no former period of the world, have there been so many varied forms of human nature on the earth together, as are now presented to us in its different regions. We are therefore entitled to say, that the Deity has chosen and preferred, that His human race should diverge into this multiform diversity, and at present remain in it. It has fulfilled His purposes better than any other form of society would have done; tho it is always possible that, as time rolls on, His plan may require that these discrepancies should be diminished, and that a more general union and assimilation should begin to take place. Such an event will not occur, until it is best and happiest for mankind that all should thus blend into greater resemblances; but as both moral and intellectual perfection might be promoted by it, and indeed lead to its production, it may be the ulterior state of our completed progression. The division and dispersion of mankind gradually occasioned, at an era so early as to be anterior to all the remains and memorials of profane history, two very contrasted states of the human population, by which it has ever since been distinguished. These |