66 Towy," said Helvidius to Colonna, "watering your plants, wandering by the sea-shore, cultivating your garden, and contrasting the general peace of Nature with the tumults and petty whirlwinds of human passions, you appeared to be happy! Now "Fortune was envious of me; she saw, that I despised those gifts, which men value so highly; and she revenged herself upon my indifference, by plunging me into the gulf of misfortune; leaving me only the consolation of having deserved a better return." "Misfortune? Did you lose your wife, or your children? Did a friend relapse into an enemy? You are above poverty; you are insensible to ingratitude-you are superior to calumny!" ،، Neither of all these. I lost neither my wife, nor my children; no friend relapsed into enmity; poverty I can bear; ingratitude I am accustomed to; as to calumny-it is an inheritance for all men-even of the tyrant." ،، What, then, could so mightily disturb you?" "Ah! my friend, to you I may confess the weakness of my heart. I was unable to fulfil my engagements! Since that time my heart has been a prey to secret anguish. I have not yet been enabled to redeem my pledges; and though I have many inducements for life, I shall never enjoy it, till I can sing, as it were, to these mountains, 'I have fulfilled my engagements, and therefore am I free!"" During this conversation, Colonna sat with his friend at the door of his cottage; a mountain rose immediately behind them; a woody valley, enriched with the tints of autumn, stretched below; with a river brawling through it. On one side sat Helvidius; on the other Marcella, with her two children'; one in her lap, the other on a stool at her feet. The Severn sea rolled at a distance; the hills of Somerset rose in the perspective; and the sun, mellowing the sky with its tint of Isabella, it were almost impossible to wish themselves in Italy or in Greece. "Let us dismiss all sombre reflections," exclaimed Helvidius; "and let nothing disturb the delight, which the scenes before us are so capable of producing. In the bosom of a virtuous and affectionate family, we enjoy the best society in the midst of solitude. Instead of brooding over past difficulties, or calculating future ones, much more wise is it to permit the soul to rest in those delightful impressions, which arise from the investigation of honourable motives. Investigate, therefore, the anatomy of your own soul: trace the causes of your misfortunes, in order to overcome them by industry of body, or by exertion of mind. At all events, let this evening be passed in tranquillity. Let us amuse ourselves in drawing pictures of savages, softened; the ignorant, enlightened; the luxurious, hardened into temperance; and the atheist converted to a belief, and a wise acknowledgment of a God. For here, and at this season, the mind, following an agreeable direction, would derive a sensible gratification from any endeavour to simplify laws, and to investigate the plans and the operations of Nature." With all my heart," returned Colonna. "Let us walk leisurely up this mountain, and discourse on subjects so congenial to our hearts for the hours I devote to the study of Nature, and to the society of my family and friends, are those only, which I consider as pertaining to life." "Ah! my friend," returned Helvidius, "with all your difficulties, Nature has formed your mind and heart for some of her best enjoyments. As to the misfortune you allude to, fortune will, one day, enable you to recover the ground you may have lost. For the present, let this spring whisper consolation to you, in the language of a poet, whose fables have so often delighted you in your boyhood: for the moral of his distich will teach you, that though the mild voice of patience attacks melancholy only by degrees, it seldom fails to overcome at last. Quid magis est durum saxo? Quid mollius unda? "If I were in Greece," replied Colonna, "I should almost fancy, that I heard the voice and the language of Plato. Let us climb this mountain; let us sit down upon yon old grey stone, half covered with moss; and, watching the last tints of the descending sun, anticipate the glories of immortal life." GROTTOS. THE names of deities were given to GROTTOS, as well as to fountains. The serenity of an Italian sky served to render those occasional retreats peculiarly agreeable to the Roman nobility; hence were they frequently to be found in the shrubberies and gardens of that extraordinary people. The poets, at all times willing to celebrate whatever adds to their enjoyments, have left us some elegant descriptions of those recesses, formed in the sides of rocks, at the feet of mountains, or on the banks of rivulets. Many of these still remain in Italy; containing multitudes of small paintings, representing vases, festoons, leaves, butterflies, shells, and fruits. . Pausanias gives a remarkable account of a grotto at Corycium; and Statius describes an elegant one in his third Sylva; but that, which was the most celebrated in ancient times, was the grotto of Egeria; still existing, though in a state of ruin. When this grotto was first made by Numa, it was formed with such skill, as to appear totally untouched by art: in the reign of one of the emperors, however, it entirely lost its simplicity; and, being adorned with marble and other splendid ornaments, it acquired a magnificence totally foreign to its original character. This provoked the satire of the indignant Juvenal: but it is now said to have returned to its a Diverse Maniere d'adornare i Cammini Roma, p. 23, fol. 1769. b In Villa Justiniana, extat ingens lapis quadratus solidus in quo sculpta hæc duo Ovidii carmina sunt: Ægeria est quæ præbet aquas dea grata Camœnis Illa Numæ conjunx conciliumque fuit. Qui lapis videtur ex eodem Egeriæ fonte, aut ejus vicinia isthuc comporta tus.-MONTFAUCON. primitive simplicity; being adorned with moss, violets, sweetbriars, honeysuckles, and hawthorns. The grotto, which Pope formed at Twickenham, was one of the most celebrated ever erected in this kingdom. In the first instance, it was remarkable for its elegant simplicity. As the owner, however, advanced in years, it became more and more indebted to the refinements of art: but the recollection of its having amused the last years of that illustrious poet atones to the heart of the philanthropist, for what it loses to the eye of imagination and taste. The inscription, he wrote for this fountain, seems to have been conceived from the following laconic fragment: Nymphae. loci. bibe. lava. tace. Gaffarel, librarian to Cardinal Richlieu, wrote a history of all the vaults, mines, caves, catacombs, and grottos, which he had visited during his travels of thirty years: the principal grottos of which were that of Pausilippo; that of the serpents near Civita Vecchia; the Witches' Grotto near the Ganges; those in the Highlands of Scotland; on the banks of the Onon and Yenisei in Siberia; the bone-caves in Egypt; the yellow cave in the valley of Alcantara; that of Pilate among the Alps; as well as those of Bruder Bahn, and of Glaris: those of the Carpathian mountains, and the Dragon's Cave in the landgravate of Hesse Darmstadt; and the immense caverns at Alcantara, near the city of Lisbon. In natural grottos it is that we may occasionally find the most beautiful specimens of spars; while artificial ones are not unfrequently decorated with shells, worthy the residence of Doris and the Nereids. In that of may be seen the feather, white with brilliant stains of carnation; the hebraica, white, with spots as black as jet; the cloth of silver, and the cloth of gold. The first race of men are said to have been born, and to a d have resided in caves and grottos. These were the dwellings of the Cimmerians; to whom Homer and Herodotus so frequently allude. Mary, the Virgin, too, is traditionally said to have suckled the Christian Messiah in a grotto; and leaving some drops of milk upon the ground, the grotto has ever since been supposed to have the valuable faculty of restoring milk to mothers. And here we may observe, en passant, that in Russia there is a cave so large as to contain several subterranean lakes and meadows; and that the Mammoth cave of Indiana is from six to nine miles in length, and abounds in sulphate of magnesia, of a very superior kind. The grotto of Antiparos, one of the Cyclades, however, is the most celebrated, on account of its remarkable petrifactions: the island, in which it is situate, being a rock of marble, sixteen miles in circumference. It is very curious, however, that none of the ancients appear to have known any thing of it. It is mentioned neither by Pliny nor Strabo. LAKES. FROM rivers, fountains, and grottos, let us turn to LAKES. Those of England and Switzerland present so many features of beauty and grandeur, that an idea of something, peculiarly worthy of admiration, presents itself, when we hear them mentioned, even in the most casual manner. What enthusiastic emotions did the lakes of Switzerland generate in Rousseau! And while some of the most agreeable hours of united labour and pleasure were indulged by Gibbon on the banks of the Leman, the lake of Zurich charmed many an a For a description of the cave of the Nemean Lion; of Pan in the Acropolis of Athens; on the plain of Marathon, and on mount Rapsana; vide Dodwell's Travels in Greece, vol. i. 304, 5, 550; vol. ii. 213. For those of the Western Highlands of Scotland; vide Macculloch's Descript. vol. i. 517; vol. ii. 225, 321, 494. b Strabo, v. p. 374. e Gmelin. с Odyss. ix. v. 86. d Lib. ii. c. 10; vii. c. 5. |