Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1833-10-17
From Hamil,on's Men and Manners in America
THE MISSISSIPPI.

N'"'" A~"ton hcn anu Manners in America.
THE MISSISSIPPI.
IL has been the fashion with travel.
lers to talk of the scenery of the Mis-.
srssippi as wanting grandeur and beau.
~. Most certainly il has NEITHER.
But there is no scenery on earth more
striking. The dreary and presidential
solitudes, untroddeD save by the foo,
ofthe Indian; the absence Oft all the OBJ.
jects, save the huge alligators which
fioat past, apparently asleep, on the
driit wood, and an occasional vulturc,
attracted by its impure prey on the'sur
face OF the waters, the trees, with long
and hldeous drapery of pendant moss,
fiuttering TO the wind; and the giant
river rolling onward the vast volume
of its dark and turbid waters through
the wilderness, form the features of
one of the most dismal and impressive
landscapes on which the eye of man
ever rested.
Ii any man think proper to believe
that such objects are not in themselves
sufficient, | beg only to say that diff.
fer with him in point cf taste. Rocks
ind mountains arc fine things, undoubt.
edly, but they could add nothing of
! sublimity to the Mississippi. Pelion
might be piled on Ossa, Alps on An.
dcs, and still, to the heart and percep.
| tons Of the spectator, the Mississippi
would be alone. Ii can brook no Ri
val, and finds none. No river in the
world drains so large portion Of the
earth's surface. 1t is the traveller of
five thousand miles, more than two.
thirds of the diameter Of the globe
The Imagination asks, whence come
its waters, and whittier tend thev?--
They come from the distant regions of
the vast continent, where the foot Of
the civilized man has never yet been
planted. They flow into an ocean yet
vaster, the whole body of which nc.
knowledge their influence. Through
what varieties of climate have they
passed! On what scenes of lonely and
sublime magnificencc have they gazed!
They have penetrated
Inc hCafy tOrCSts, sttli Inc BisOD'S screen.
Where stalk d tn MANN oh 10 his shaggy lair.
Thro paths aud alley =, rooi'd with sober green,
Thousands Of years fore the silent air
Was pierc'd by whzzing shaft Ct hunter keen I"
In short, when the traveller has ask
ed and answered these questions and "a
thousand others, il will be time enough
to consider how far the scenery of the
Mississippi would be improved by the
presence of rocks and mountains. lie
may then be led to doubt whether any
great effect can be produced by COM
bination Of objects of discordant cha
ractcr, however grand in themselves.
The Imagination is, perhaps, suscept-
bic but OF single powerful impression
at time. Sublimity is uniformly con.
nected with unity of object. Beauty
may be produced by the happy adap-
! tation of multitude Of harmonious de-
tails but the highest sublimity of effect
can proceed but from one glorious and
paramount object, which impresses its
own character on every thing around.
The prevailing character of the Mis-.
sissippi is that of solemn gloom. have
troddcn the passes Of Alp and Appe.
nine, yet never felt how awful thing
is nature, till | was borne on its waters
through regions desolate and uninhabit-
able. Day after day, and night after
night, we continue driving right down.
ward to the south; our vessel, like some
huge demon of the wilderness bearing
fire in her bosom, and canopying the
eternal forest with the smoke of her
nostriis. How looked the hoary river
god know not; nor what thought the
alligators, when awakened from their
slumber by u vision so astounding
But the effect on my own spirits was
such as have never experienced be-
fore or since. Conversation became
odious, and passed my time in a sort
of dreamy contemplation. At night
| assembled to the highest deck, and lay
for hours gazing llstlessly on the sky,
the forest and the waters, amid silence
only broken by the changing of the en-
CINE. All this was very pleasant; yet,
till reached New Orleans, | could
scarcely have smiled at the best joke
in the world; and as for raising laugh
it would have been quite as easy to
quadrate the circle.
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