Page:Scenes in my Native Land.pdf/290

286 passage distinguished for its elegance should be in his memory, and every image of peculiar felicity familiar to his thoughts. Not to remedy barrenness, or enrich his own productions by purloining from their stores, but because by incessant converse with whatever is great and noble, the soul acquires a correspondent elevation."

After speaking of the necessity of an extensive acquaintance with history, the productions of modern genius, and a close observation of the beauties of nature, he thus proceeds.

"This connection of the events of history and fiction with the scenery of Nature, begets for it an enthusiastic fondness, and enlarges its utility by causing it to excite deeper attention. To a vigorous and highly cultivated imagination the contemplation of nature seems like an intercourse with divinity. The soft luxuriance of a blooming landscape, or the rich and blended tints of an evening sky, fill it with emotions as exquisite, as they are inexpressible. And this sensibility should be strengthened by frequent indulgence as a frame of mind, strongly prompting to poetic effusion. Let not these remarks be derided as the fine-spun labors of a visionary, assiduously describing feelings which never had existence. Most probably they have been experienced by every strongly poetic mind since the hour when David, on the summit of Zion, glanced from the vallies of Judea to the skies, and smitten with their grandeur, broke forth into the rap-