THE GLACIERS.

"So pleas'd at first, the tow'ring Alps we try,
Mount o'er the vales, and seem to tread the sky :
Th'eternal snows appear already past,

And the first clouds and mountains seem the last :
But those attain'd, we tremble to survey
The growing labours of the lengthen'd way:
Th'encreasing prospect tires our wand'ring eyes;
Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise.

POPE.

It was reserved for this age of enterprise to disclose the secret wonders of the Superior Alps. The enormous ridges clothed with a depth of perpetual snow, often crowned with sharp obelisks of granite, styled by the Swiss horns, or needles; the dreadful chasms of some thousand feet in perpendicular height, over which the dauntless traveller sometimes stands on a shelf of frozen snow; the glaciers, or seas of ice, sometimes exceeding thirty or forty miles in length; the sacred silence of the scenes before unvisited, except by the chamois and goat of the rocks; the clouds, and sometimes the thunder-storm, passing at a great distance below; the extensive prospects which reduce kingdoms as it were to a map; the pure elasticity of the air, exciting a kind of incorporeal sensation, are all novelties in the history of human adventure....

.... To enumerate the natural curiosities of Swisserland would be to describe the country. The Alps, the glaciers, the vast precipices, the descending torrents, the sources of the rivers, the beautiful lakes and cataracts, are all natural curiosities of the greatest singularity and most sublime description. Of late the

Glaciers have attracted particular attention; but those seas of ice, intersected with numerous deep fissures, owing to sudden cracks which resound like thunder, must yield in sublimity to the stupendous summits clothed with ice and snow, the latter often descending in what are called avalanches, or prodigious balls, which, gathering as they roll, sometimes overwhelm travellers, and even villages. Nay, the mountains themselves will sometimes burst, and overwhelm whole towns; as happened in the memorable instance of Pleurs, near Chiavana, in which thousands perished, and not a vestige of a building was left; nor are recent instances, though less tremendous, wholly unknown. The vast reservoirs of ice and snow give birth to many important rivers, whose sources deeply interest curiosity. As an example, the account which Bourrit* gives of that of the Rhone may be selected." At length we perceived through the trees a mountain of ice as splendid as the sun, and flashing a similar light on the environs. This first aspect of the Glacier of the Rhone inspired us with great expectation: a moment afterwards this enormous mass of ice having disappeared behind thick pines, it soon after met our sight between two vast blocks of rock, which formed a kind

A citizen of the unfortunate republic of Geneva, now groaning under the yoke of imperial France: he has given an animated and lively description of the Glaciers of Savoy, which he has explored as a poet, while the sagacious M. Desaussure, another citizen of the same republic, explored them as a naturalist.

E

with rapture.

of portico. Surprised at the magnificence of this spectacle, and at its admirable contrasts, we beheld it At length we reached this beautiful portico, beyond which we were to discover all the glacier. We arrived: at this sight one would suppose one's self in another world, so much is the imagination impressed with the nature and immensity of the objects. To form an idea of this superb spectacle, figure in your mind a scaffolding of transparent ice, filling a space of two miles, rising to the clouds, and darting flashes of light like the sun: nor were the several parts less magnificent and surprising. One might see, as it were, the streets and buildings of a city, erected in the form of an amphitheatre, and embellished with pieces of water, cascades, and torrents. The effects were as prodigious as the immensity and the height; the most beautiful azure, the most splendid white, the regular appearance of a thousand pyramids of ice, are more easy to be imagined than described. Such is the aspect of the Glacier of the Rhone, reared by nature on a plan which she alone can execute: we admire the majestic course of a river without suspecting that that which gives it birth and maintains its waters may be still more majestic and magnificent.”....

OLD THOMAS.

"Immediately a place

Before his eyes appear'd, sick, noisome, dark:
A lazar's house it seem'd, wherein were laid
Numbers of all diseased, all maladies.

I'VE often thought, in humble life,
Souls truly good are prov'd

In ranks from ostentation free,
Where men are ne'er by vanity
Or thirst of glory mov'd.

Old Thomas but a peasant was,
A man of poor degree;

MILTON.

Day after day, with heaven's first light,
To toil he rose, and toil'd till night,
Yet proud of heart was he.

In bold and independent tone,
He told and told again,
How often he with manly vaunt
Repell❜d an undeserved taunt

From richer, greater men.

When yet a boy, where Thomas toil'd
My sport I oft confin'd;

And many a question would propound,
Whene'er the good old man I found
To chat with me inclin'd.

Thoughtful, I ask'd him once, when he Would be content to die:

"When with old age my strength is fled, And charity must give me bread," The old man did reply.

May God preserve from such a fate,
Thought I, thy noble heart;
Yet thought I not of half the grief,
When his grey head should need relief,
Dependence could impart.

As late I pass'd the lowly roof
Where this good peasant dwelt,

His little garden told his fate,
Wild weeds grew rank, as it of late
No hand of his had felt.

"And, is old Thomas dead?" I ask'd

A villager that pass'd;

Alas! he was, nor had he died

Till strength no more his wants supplied, Though struggling to his last.

A palsy shook his hardy frame,
Then feeble fast he grew,
Till power so little could he raise,
That all he did in six long days

Was but the work of two.