Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume II.djvu/123

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Having extended our excursion into the singular valley of Troutbeck, a second Taupe in beautiful and pastoral scenery, we returned to Grasmere by the south-vest side of Rydale lake, under the ro- mantic rocks of Leofrig, with mountains all around us, that had been formed in the uproar of nature; and an unruffled sheet of water spread before us presenting a fine emblem of her in deep tran- quility. Much, however, of the effect of this lake, as well as of Grasmere, is lost, by the trifling circumstance of their being sprinkled with reeds, which shew their waving heads above the water far into the lake. This appearance produces the idea of shallowness, which is naturally connected with insignificance; for water, whatever its form or extent may be, if it do not impress us with the feeling, in some degree, of dread, can never produce a powerful effect upon the mind. Hence it is that a well, if extremely deep, will be a sublime object, whilst a sheet of water, ir very shallow, though spread over a surface of one thousand miles, will never be able to excite ideas of sublimity; for as no notions of terror (the chief constituent of the sub- lime) can arise from the contemplation of thai, from which Reason tells us no danger is to be feared, so, on the other hand, a sense of danger

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