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A Month in France and Switzerland, During the Autumn of 1824
A Month in France and Switzerland During the Autumn of 1824 Author:John Smith Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: walk and think without fear of interruption, I thought and wrote— What want I here ? the company of those Whom nature gave to lighten cureless woes! To heal t... more »he wounds that sorrow taught to bleed, And sooth the aching heart when most in need. Amid this " stilly solitude," where nature seemed to put on her loveliest look, and smiled on us with such meekness, that we could not avoid the influence of an aspect so benign, we arrived opposite to a small wooden bridge that crossed the river at a point where its stream separates into two. I thought, and wrote again— There stands a bridge amid the silvan scene, Whereon Philosophy herself might lean ! Whereon oft stands the fisher with his fly— Where the lorn lover too, might heave the sigh ! And, 'mid the kindling beauty of the scene, Press to be made as blest as some have been! Ah! land of sweet delight! while life remains Thy fir-crowned rocks and brightly-verdured plains, Shall be remembered with that fond regret, Which springs from scenes we never can forget! How hard the heart that unconcerned can see Thy wonders, Jura! where from tree to tree, From rock to rock, magnificence unfurled Proclaims the God, who spake to life the world! " Versailles and all the gorgeous palaces we saw," said my friend G———, " were the grand in art—this is the grand in nature!" I had written " now," instead of " oft," for a fisher was there with his fly at the moment when I wrote the lines. We ascended a steep acclivity, that, by its windings, gave us a repetition of the landscape; and by the side of the road, as if in contrast with the magnificence around us, two ragged boys were on their knees, with hands uplifted in the attitude of supplication, who began, as we came opposite them, to vociferate loudly in our ears their wants. They ...« less