The native American., 1838-04-28
PROSE sKETCHE S.
BY A POET.

THE JuRA.--I was leaning indolenty over
the carriage window, and throwing all the
wishes and feelings of my heart along the val
leys as they opened on me, and thinking how
happy | could have been among them, when
the courier suddenly announced that the first
sight of the Alps was visible. The first sight
of the Alps! Time was, when | should have
sprang breathlessly from the seat, and run on,
or cheered, as an Englshman does when he is
eminently happy, or danced as might the
Frenchman but time, or rather intense exer-
else of thought, or both, had overweight and.
queted in me, all those first springbursts of
feeling, whose chief foundation is animal glad
ness; and yet not the less full were mine! A
host of recollections flashed before me-visions
of Hannibal, and of the old and modern time;
and my breath began to come thickly. | was
aware was close upon seeing what had read
of, and dwelt on, and dreamed of from nine
years OF age, when, like every other enthusiastic
boy, and | was made up of enthusiasm, (and,
as man, | have not altered my opinion here,
l thought Hannibal the greatest soldier that
ever existed. Then | began to fear dsappoint-
ment-and then | walked ranidly on; and SO /
-talled in :. wisn, winch was to come, at FIRST,
calm before all great appearances and 10 reflect
on my own impressions. Vain dream Of the
closet! Nature calls on that self which then
laughs at the meshes of art while breaking
through tnem, ana unltlHg, In neF own IaSnlOn,
our congenial sympathes.
The descent became abrupt and rapid: the
road made sudden turn between two enor-
nous gorges of the rocky hill, which seemed
like unfolding gates; when on passing between
them, I can compare it to nothing else, the
old world seemed suddenly shut out from be- )
hind me, and lost, and a new one expanded
beneath my eye in all its infnity of prospect
Stretched out beneath me further than the eye
could sweep along the level, the Lake Leman
looking like blue ribbon eddying along it
when fancifully drifted by the wind! and seem.
ing, in the distance, il it belted the Alps with
an azure grdle! Woods streams, cities, towers
and hamets, dotting its rich surface of bound
less expansion, till the eye itself failed to tax
it in, and after vaguely wandering over it, rest
ed at last for relief on the boundaries Of noun
tains rising upon mountains from north to south
in every widest form which imagination could
conceive, reminding me of the Titanic heaps
of Pelon on Ossa and as azure as the heaven ol
which they seemed the pillars.
There is no view in the world more superb
than the chain of Alps as seen from the Jura
mountains-at glance one seizes a hundred
leagues, from the Dauphine to ST. Gothard.
The curve of the earth, and the perspective,
concur to lessen the height of the distant noun
tains, and as they really diminish in height al
the two extremities Of the chain, one sees the
high SUBMITS of the Alps lessen insensibly at
the right and left of Mont Blanc as they retire
in distance from their majestic sovereign.
Upon them, or rather above them, rested ma
ny clouds; while was gazing on them they all
lifted as a curtain, and slowly rolled away-all,
excepting three enormous masses which re-
mained immoveable. 1t was a long time be-
fore | could be convinced, against the positive
evidence of my senses, that those apparent
clouds were the triple SUBMITS of the Mont
Blanc; that they were as steadfast and as ever
lasting as He who fixed them there, to be the
wonder and the worship Of all place, of all peo-
pie, of all ages, and Of all time!
The whole scene, at first, gave me sensa-
tion of doubt, almost unbelief; and confused
feeling. had shaped such things when boy;
but had never dreamed to see such visions rise
embodied before me- My eyes were concentra-
ted wistfully on those everlasting clouds, and
was affected with crowd Of emotions; for
saw the one object Interchangeable still, which
had fixed the attention, and which had survived
the changes Of ages, as forgotten as the clouds
of yesterday. Nature, too, speaks to US always
in parallels; to enjoy the truth, we must search
for it-for in the search, as after happiness, is
more than half the enjoyment. Thus, here,
read the visible handwriting Of the Eternal on
the walls of Nature, clearly as did Belshaz-
his palace walls; as if it said to the scep-
tic, Doubt not this!' Nature, say and have
ever felt it, speaks to us in parallels and in
analogies. looked again, and saw manifest
ed before me, in that mountain, reared above
all, the white, the spotless lootstool, and the
altar for alteration to kneel on, anu TO pour it.
self away in its prisons to the Highest While
was gazing on it, the setting sum- that glorious
shadow of its Maker, cast on its molten sides
the. last effulgence of its decaying radiance. |
felt these impressions the spot, and felt
the full conviction of their truth. The first
offerings of man to thatsublme object must have
been ever the same; firstly, doubt and then
wonder, and then the feeling of the existence
of Deity and sense Of alteration 1t forms
type also of the operations of the ImmateriaI
on the mind Of him who sits down earnestly to
search for truth; and who discovers, at last, as
there, that it is not passing shadow, but a sub
stantlal thing. | then was reminded of the
restlessness of ambition, nor which oceans nor
mountains can bound-I was reminded of it, by
imagining how the first sight of these mountains
must have astonished the veterans of Cesar, and
must have still more excited his ardent mind
The Jura, in the time of Julius Cesar. separated
the Helvetians from those people Of Gaul. who
were named fhe Spuuani and ,,ho :.