Lucullus with a smile, " do you imagine, that I have less sense, than storks and cranes? shall they change their habitations with the season, and Lucullus remain in one residence all the year?" The great khans of Tartary, as well as the present emperors of China, are accustomed also to change their resi dences according to the seasons. Since then the emoluments of Nature are not to be enjoyed, to the fullest advantage, all the year, I would in this aspire to imitate the conduct of Lucullus. January, therefore, I would spend in Portugal; February in the Madeiras; and March in Spain. April in Sicily; May in Lapland; June in Italy; July in Switzerland; and August in France. September in England; October among the variegated forests of America; November in Crete; and December in the islands of the Cape de Verd. We have now travelled the globe; from east to west; from south to north; noticed every description of climate; alluded frequently to the natural productions of the various soils; traced men in various stages of society; and noticed many of their peculiar customs. 'What is the result? We find, that in islands, and in countries the most beautiful, as well as in those, the most savage and forlorn, great crimes disgrace the inhabitants. Warm climates dispose to indolence; cold ones to labour. In some islands, where Nature is most luxuriant and profuse, we observe, not only no genius, but no humanity; whether those islands are in the temperate, or the torrid zones. There are differences in manners; and modifications in the display of mental capacities: but for the causes of all these, we must look to other reasons than to those, arising from the difference of climate. For whence proceeds it, that, in Persia and Arabia, poetry is almost characteristic of the people; and yet in Egypt, nearly in the same parallel of latitude, though it is, as it were, the eldest of nations, not a single poet has ever been known in the country! Then as to times and seasons: Orpheus lived in the infancy, as it were, of the human mind; Euripides in the vigour of Grecian liberty; Virgil in the morning of Roman slavery; Boethius in the evening of learning; Dante in the darkness of violence and superstition; and Camoens in the dawn of maritime discovery. Genius depends, then, not on climates, nor on countries; on times, nor on seasons. It nowhere rises or falls with the barometer. It is the gift of Nature only; and its developments depend on an infinite variety of circumstances. Arguing on the principles of Montesquieu, Raynal, Winkleman, Du Bos, and other plausible writers, it would be impossible to account for that distinct variation, which is observed in the dispositions, habits, and genius of those people, residing on the opposite banks of frontier rivers; on the transverse sides of high mountains; and particularly of the same people, at different periods of their history. Of this the ancient and the modern Greeks afford a curious exemplification. Both enjoyed the same soil, and the same climate; yet the former as much excelled the latter, as purple and white surpass yellow and brown. An artist may yet enliven the forests of America, or the solitudes of Siberia: a Gessner may soothe the savannahs of Africa: a Raphael may delineate near the wall of China; a Palladio may adorn the harbour of St. Peter and St. Paul; and even a Newton may arise in Lapland. • Winkleman insists, that Englishmen are incapable of much excellence in painting; not only from natural incapacity, but from the unfavourable nature of their climate! :- "I have often b This may serve to remind us of a passage in Theophrastus: wondered," says he, in his Proem to the Characteristics, written in the ninetyfirst year of his age, “and perhaps shall never cease to wonder, how it shall come to pass, that there should be so great a diversity in our manners, since all Greece lies under the same air, and all its inhabitants receive a like education." Theophrastus was mistaken;-the Greek states had, by no means, the same education. Before I quit this subject, let me say something of the AZORES. They are full of beauty, combining every thing that can be wished or imagined by the painter or poet:Mountains, rocks, precipices, and the ocean, beheld through vistas of the most splendid and luxuriant vegetation, peculiar to tropical regions; as well as other vegetable existences (if we may so call them), belonging to many other parts of the globe. The climate is the most delicious upon earth! The poor live with ease. The cold is never intense; and, what is still better, the heats are seldom inconvenient. The perfumes, in certain times of the year, from the trees in blossom, the fruits ripe, and myriads of flowers, are scarcely to be imagined by an European. The springs are past all description; and during the greater part of the year, the air is pure, and the temperature soft. As to the splendour of the vegetation, we may judge from the circumstance, that the fuschia is arborescent, and the camellia japonica a tree of the forest. Singing birds! their numbers are incredible: especially canaries, black-birds, thrushes, totonegroes, and avenigneiras. These, of a night and morning, sing vespers and matins, as it were, beyond all that is heard in any other quarter of the world. Then the depth, blueness, and purity of the waves below; and the splendour and sublimity of the skies above! The moon appears of virgin silver; and sometimes, when the sun is setting, its colour resembles that of a rose-leaf. A botanist might revel here by day; and an astronomer might, also, adjust his telescope with a sublime rapture by night; so splendid are the stars; so pure and balmy is the midnight breeze. & This, thought I, some years ago,—should I ever be fortunate enough to be able to plant a colony;—this is the spot I would select beyond all others. It lies between the old world and the new. It has the vegetation of both: it might have the enlightenment of both: and here a little society of a Discovered by some Flemings: they were uninhabited; and peopled by the Portuguese in 1449. kindred spirits might live in plenty and peace; with just sufficient uncertainty as to subsistence as to make employment necessary; and a sufficiency of the lemon, as it were, to make the orange constantly palatable. I thought of this till I resolved to endeavour to put it in practice. I wrote, in consequence, to the Portuguese ambassador (Baron de Moncorvo ), requesting him to forward a proposal, to his government at Lisbon, for establishing twenty families on one of the Azores; stating that the plan was almost strictly agricultural; and that it embraced the simplest method of life. To this his Excellency was pleased to reply, that, never having himself been in the Azores, he could form no opinion as to the wisdom of esta "TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE BARON DE MONCORVO. "EXCELLENCY, 66 Sept. 3, 1835. "I have, with about twenty other persons, a wish to establish a colony in one of the islands of Azores. Will you be so obliging as to causé me to be informed, whether such an undertaking would be agreeable to the Portuguese Government; and, if so, whether a certain quantity of land could be engaged, on what terms, and in which of the islands? "The plan is almost strictly agricultural; embracing the most simple line of life; with leave to establish some manufactory;-of what nature will depend on future consideration. "Should your Excellency be unable to give an answer to this application, I should be obliged if you would be pleased to forward this letter to the Portuguese Government, and receive an answer on my behalf. "I have the honour to be "Your Excellency's most obedient servant," &c. &c. "Portuguese Legation, London, Sept. 7th, 1835. “SIR,—I beg to acknowledge the receipt of the letter you did me the honour to address on the 3rd instant, and to inform you that I have forwarded a copy of the same letter to my Government, whose decision I shall lose no time in acquainting you with. "It is impossible for me to venture an opinion on the subject of the colony you propose to establish, with some other persons, in the Azores. Having never been in any of those islands, I am unable to give you any information respecting its localities. But, as far as my private way of thinking on this enterprise goes, I shall feel extremely happy, if the decision of my Government is favourable to it. "I have the honour to be, Sir, "CHARLES BUCKE, ESQ." "Your most obedient and humble servant, "MONCORVO." blishing a colony there; but that he would forward the application to the ministry at home, and should feel happy if their decision should be favorable. After a lapse of rather more than two years, I received a communication from the ambas sador, politely implying a negative. THE LOVE OF COUNTRY AND NATIONAL PRIDE. SCENERY, among its other beneficial results, never fails to increase the regard, which is entertained by every one for his native country. Even the nabob, who forsook his country after wealth, and marked a foreign soil with rapine, purchases comparative ease from his reflections in the groves of his native village. Breathes there a man, with soul so dead, This is my own, my native land! From wandering on a foreign strand! To the vile dust, from whence he sprung, Unwept, unhonour'd, and unsung. Lay of the Last Minstrel, cant. vi. Inhabitants of wild and desolate regions, of long-extended plains, of heaths, of moors, and of the busy city, can transport themselves into the most distant regions of the globe, and still find fields and plains, and moors and streets, resembling those they have quitted, to awaken, at intervals, all the agreeable associations, which are connected with their native land. These associations are ardent; but they never exalt to that wild and ungovernable transport, which animates the moun |