Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1830-10-18
HOLY INFLUENCES.

The following paragraphs are from an article
IN the New Monthly Magazine, purporting to be
irom the pen Of Channels Hunter.
"The Chamois has been confined by ITS Ma
her TO those icy places Of Nature, amidst which
That Makers presence is more Immediately sem
sibly felt. II has always struck me that the
ocean is the fittest emblem, and conveys the
deepest impression Of Gods immensitv and eter-
niy the Alps, Of his unapproachable power and
everlasting unvarlableness. In the sea, wave
succeedswave forever and forever; billow swels
upon billow, and you see no end thereof. But
xpagnihcent spectacle as ocean ever IS, at all
4mes, and under all aspects, 1t still cannot be en-
loved without some alloy. 1t must be seen ell
Their from ship in which man enters much: Or
from the land, which again breaks the entry of
the idea.
The effects of tie scenes among which the
channels hunter lives, Is wakened by no such IN
trusion as this. Mans works enter not there.
From the moment he quits the chalet in which
he has taken his short rest, until his return, he
sees no traces of man; but dwells amid scenery
stamped only with its Creators omnipotence and
immutability. Nature is always interesting
Elsewhere she is lovely. beautiful: here she is
awful, sublime. EiSe,Chs.e she shrouds all
things in temporary repose, again TO cloihe them
in surprising beauty aud yerdure. But here
there is no change: such AZ the first winter be-
held them, after they sprang from the hands of
their Great AT, hitett, such they still are
like himself interchangeable and unapproachable.
Nor summers heat nor winters cold, have any
effect on their everlasting hues; nor can the track
or works of man stain the purity OF their unsul-
lied SHOWS. His voice may not even reach that
upper air to disturb the 'SaCred calm that breathes
around"-that Silly silence which holds Tor ever.
save when the lauwine wakes II with the voice oil
thunder! In such situations it is impossible not
TO feel as far elevated in mind as in body. above
the petty cares, the frivolous pursuits 81 the low
ambition" of this neither world. Ii any one de
sire really to feel that all is vanity here below;
if he wish to catch glimpse OF the yet unde-
yeloped capabilities of his nature, of those mys-
ferrous ongings, after which the heart OF man so
vainly yet 50 earnestly aspires; let him wander
The higher Alps. aud alone.
Scenes like this must be seen and felt; they
cannot be described. Languages were formed
in the plain; and they have words adequately
10 represent the sensations which all must have
experienced among mountain scenery. man
NAV pass ali his life in towns and the haunts OF
men, without knowing he possesses within him
such feelings as a single days chamois hunting
Will awaken. A lighter and purer air is breath
ed there; and the body being in,igorated by ex-
ercise and temperance, reNders the mind more
there are none, have often remarked. amid this
;ssemn .ilence, an undesirable hum which yet
j. not sound, but seems as II were, tie still small
voice of nature communing with the heart, THROUGH
other senses than we are conscious of possessing.
- 1t ever INV earthly spirit has been reused to
more worthy contemplation o! the Almighty Au-
shor'ol Creation. it has been at such moments as
these; when have looked around on a vast am
phitheatre of rocks torn BY ten thousand s'orms,
and of Alps clothed with the spotless mantle OF es-
srIa.tiny snow. Above me. was The clear blue
vault of heaven, which al such elevation seems
so perceptibly nearer and more azure far below
me. the glacier. from whose chilled bosom issues
the future river, which Is there commencing Its
long course to the ocean: high over head those
lev pinaclcs on which countless winters have
spread their dazzling honors: who Is there that
could see himself surrounded BY objects such as
these, and not feel his soul elevated from Natures
Gods Yes, land of the mountain and the tor
rent! land of the glacier and the avalanche who !
would wander amidst thy soitudes Of unri,alled
rnasui6cence without catching portion. at least.
of the in piration they calculated to EXETER
I wonder not that thy sons, cradled among thy
even matchless scenery, should cling with such
alial affection to the mountain breast that nursed
them and yearn for their native cot amid the luxu-
res oil foreign cities; when even stranger born |
in softer lands and passins. sat few months pill
srimaye within thy borders. yet felt himself at
once attached to thee as to second home; nor
vet can hear without emotion the sounds that re-
mind him Of thy hills and freedom" i
-saeae4a-
The special session Of the Supreme Court,
ahich should have been commenced at Columbus
on the first instant, did not meet. in consequence
of the ill health of Judges Hitchcock and Brush.
The former is understood to be dangerously i'll.
The last session Of our Legislature was the
first of the reign Of paryism in our state affairs.
The Jackson party, having majority in both
Houses, set about regulating every thing by.a
party test They elected two Supreme judges.
and made new arrangement of the sittings of the
supreme Court. The consequences have heen
yerv injurious to the administration of Justice
This ought to admonish our politicians Of the inc
policy Of carr,ng contests for the Presidency Vt
che United Sates into the management Of ear 1
a,Ats Affairs --Cussi.aaSii Gsssse-