Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/410

Rh in Switzerland. Nature is on a grander scale there; nor does the mountain of Aderundack now before me in Western New York, nor yet the green hills of Vermont, aspire to the height of the Alps; but their forms are picturesque, combined with a certain degree of grandeur and boldness, and over the whole bold and cheerful district now shines a beautiful August sun, declining towards its setting, and filling the clouds with an indescribable golden splendour. The mountain called Le lion couchant seems possessed of life, and about to rise up in the splendid glow—a magnificent giant form. And there are many other mountains in this neighbourhood, which possess strongly-marked symbolic shapes.

We, Mrs. S. and myself, are at the house of the ex-president of the academy, Mr. W., where I was kindly invited by both father and daughters. It is a noble and beautiful family, in which domestic devotion is practised, and where a mother only is wanted. This mother has now been dead two years, and is yet tenderly sorrowed for by her children, three sons and three daughters, all agreeable and highly-gifted young people. The father of the family, a stately, elderly gentleman, and strict Puritan, four ells in height, I fancy (and on whose arm as we walked together I hung like a swing in a tree), has a strongly-marked countenance, and keen, but kind eyes; he is a firm whig, and not favourable to the democrats; but in all other respects an extremely polite and agreeable gentleman, very entertaining to me in conversation, from his perfect knowledge of the ecclesiastical state of the country, from the clearness of all his views, though I could not accord with them all, and his agreeable manner of communication. The house is a villa near the city, and is possessed of all the charm and comfort of an Anglo-American home.

Yesterday we went on a pleasure party across the lake to Aderundack mountain, on the New York shore. The day