Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/162

Rh Nature! Is not Nature human, or at least full of the human element in the bad and the good, the beautiful and hideous? She must have human dreams. The primeval forest exhibits on a colossal scale porticoes and vaulted temples, pyramids, grottoes, sphinxes and dragons, flower-crowned columns, temples of joy, triumphal arches, and profound, quiet tombs. The primeval feast presents a dream of the world of man; and with what a richness of detail, what a depth of poetry! I dreamed myself back as I beheld this sight to the third day of creation, when, in obedience to the creative “Let there be!” the earth opened her maternal bosom, and brought forth the vegetable world in its morning pomp, still prophetical warm from the dream of night. You, my friend, who have so much of the poet in your soul, will not be offended that I, in this case, see rather through the eye of the biblical Genesis, than through that of science. The former beholds in one moment that which the latter beholds in a succession of periods; yet they both behold the same reality.

It was an especial delight to me to recognise among the common productions of these woods many which I had seen as rare species when I walked with you through the botanic garden at Copenhagen; of these I remember particularly the tulip-tree, and the fan-palm or palmetto, which is one of the most common indigenous trees of the Southern States.

If life in the Northern States is a grand epic, a poem full of great teaching, then is that of the Southern States a romance of infinitely-picturesque beauty—yes, even though slavery and sandy deserts exist there. As belonging to the romantic life of these States must be mentioned the negroes, with their enigmatical character, their songs and religious festivals; the cities full of orange-groves, and their many kinds of beautiful flowering trees; their piazzas, covered with honeysuckle and roses,