the mouth of the Conway. The charm of association is, also, kept alive by cuckoos, thrushes, woodlarks, blackbirds, wrens, redbreasts, and turtle-doves. In Wales, however, there are no nightingales. In the German district of the canton of Berne is seen the stag; the roebuck on the skirts of Mount Jura; and the chamois on the higher Alps, whence it gradually descends at the approach of winter; and the cries and roarings of the lynx, wolves, and brown bears, occasionally add to the savage wildness of the rocks and glens.

Near the lakes are seen the stork; the bittern, the kestril; occasionally the wild swan: and not unfrequently the water-ouzle,-shy, silent, and solitary. The golden eagle, too, and the eagle owl; the great white pelican; the golden plover; the ptarmigan, and the snow-finch: the alpine warbler, the honey-buzzard, and the nut-breaker. Among groves, the black and green woodpecker build their nests; and in winter the wallcreeper haunts the villages. Most of these animals are unknown in Wales. But in the lakes of Zug and Neufchatel is found the salmo alpinus of Llyn Peris; and in that of Geneva the gwyniad of Llyn Bala.

In two instances, Wales and Switzerland present remarkable contrasts. In Switzerland, lawsuits are scarcely known; and in the time of Kaims, many of the inhabitants had never heard of an advocate, nor even of an attorney. In Wales it is otherwise. For though in that country, as well as in Switzerland, travellers are safe, and bolts and bars are, for the most part, unnecessary precautions: yet the nearest of neighbours will sometimes ruin themselves, their wives,

and their children, merely from irritability, or a most extraordinary obstinacy of disposition.-Indeed, I have seen such instances, as,-speaking even philosophically, has entirely and absolutely astonished me! It is a species of mental and moral aberration, of which neither an Englishman, a Scotchman, or an Irishman, can have any conception without repeated personal observation. What is the result? Law is the curse of the land; and lawyers,—with a few insulated exceptions, -the very disgrace of the soil! An English solicitor is a very god, in comparison with a Welch one, who has little or no money in his pocket. This is strong language, but I appeal to all the more respectable Welch lawyers themselves, if I have not spoken the truth.-May this publicity effect some honourable change! particularly since the people themselves are, for the most part, honest, hospitable, humane, and obliging.

The other striking point of contrast is exhibited in the penury of great men in the one country, and their abundance in the other. Howel Dha, Taliesin, Lloyd, and Inigo Jones, are almost the only men of Wales, whose fame has reached to Gloucester; much less to London or to Paris. But Switzerland has made itself known by its writers, not only in Europe, but in almost every region of the civilized world. This may, in some degree, be attributed to the peculiarity of national language. The Welch speak a language confined to their own mountains: the Swiss, on the other hand, have no national language to boast. The books published at Geneva are written in French; and those published at Zurich

in German. The Swiss, therefore, have all the advantages to be derived from two great literary countries; whose languages, as well as that of Italy, constitute their own.

CHAPTER III.

WITH What interest have we hung upon the lips of Philotes, when he has delineated the source of the Aar, where every object constitutes a picture; or the gigantic mountain of the Grande Chartreuse, on the top of which stands the celebrated convent of St. Bruno; near which several cascades dash to the vale, whence their echoes ascend in repeated repercussions. When he has described the lake near Naples, on the banks of which stand the Grotto del Cane, in the midst of scenery, beautiful and romantic, yet almost entirely deserted, on account of its poisonous exhalations, we have called to mind the accounts, we have received, of the deleterious exhalations of the lake Asphaltites; where Tasso places the garden of Armida,' and whence Dante is supposed to have conceived the idea of the bituminous lake, which he calls La Mortagora. Then we have contrasted the accounts of the same lakes by modern writers, in which its waters are described as swarming with fish; birds flying over its bosom in safety; fruits of exquisite flavour growing on its banks; and the scenery around composed of all that is awful, grand and stupendous !

1 Jer. Del., cant. x. 62; xvi. 71.

With what earnest attention, too, have we listened to him, when he has sketched the scenery of Statenland! where rocks, covered with eternal snow, terminate in a thousand ragged points; or with cliffs, hanging over the sea, separated and rent in all directions. Then has he, with happy transition, wafted our imagination to the vale of Buccamet, which he has compared to the glen of Vaucluse, or to the island of Samar, where wild beehives hang from the branches of trees; and where the atmosphere is perfumed with wild jessamine and the roses of China.

I have frequented assemblies; I have attended public meetings of various kinds; I have mixed, occasionally, with men pre-eminent for wealth, station, fame and ability;-I have listened to the most splendid and most logical orators of the age; and I have seen the best dramas, performed by the best actors.-1 have heard the finest performers exercise themselves in giving utterance to the finest of musical language ;-I have been present at most of the large public assemblages, for several years; and a hearer of many of the most interesting and celebrated debates in both Houses of Parliament. I have seen large fleets riding at anchor; and have been present at reviews and mock battles, performed by ten, fifteen, and twenty thousand men. All these objects and scenes have affected me in various ways and in various degrees; yet memory takes but small delight, in resting upon any one of them. From Nature and her varied phenomena, on the contrary, I derive enjoyment, whensoever I reflect upon them. I could dwell on them for ever! and never do I see a

beautiful landscape, but I fix it so firmly in mind at the first glance, that I could write a description of it at any distance of time. The features of men I frequently forget; but those of the natural world never! But there are different degrees of feeling. Thus I can witness the moon rising in Hampshire, but I cannot derive the pleasure from it there, that I have enjoyed in seeing it rise over the mountains of Cader Idris, or over the valley of Langollen! The Thames winds along villas, but it never murmurs like the Dee; nor does it roll with such force and majesty as the Severn. The ocean rages on the coast of Norfolk, Kent, Lincolnshire and Sussex, but it sleeps, even with the slumber of death, when compared with the thunder, with which its waves strike on the rocks of Denbigh, Pembroke, and Carnarvonshires! There, indeed, the sea is frequently a perfect emblem of a chaos; and yet a chaos, which acknowledges for its creator a Power, capable of lulling it to peace.

CHAPTER IV.

IF from individuals we ascend to communities of men, we shall find the natural love of mankind for the pleasures of Nature still operating. It may be traced in hamlets and in villages; in towns and in cities. There is scarcely a square in any of the larger cities of Europe, that is not embellished with plots of green; with beds of flowers; with shrubberies, or