Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1859-09-01
LEISURE SKETCHES.
BY J. WOOD DAVIDSON.
NUMBER VII.
NIAGARA.

NlAtAhA.
at length find myself in the presence of the
greatest natural wonder in the world. Poets have
done much to drag down the true majesty of Nj
agara, by attempting to speak for the many a
mighty truth which, while it is catholic, receives
its tone from the utterer too palpably to be sue
cessful Because, you know, one mans Ntterance,
though that man be even q great poet, must fall
far short Of another mans conception; unless,
indeed, the latter be a far feeber mind Niagara
has been called the "Sovereign of the world of
foods" "Americas young shout of liberty; )" and
its roar has been called tremendous hymn" a
"hoarse anthem" "voice of many waters, an
"unceasing roar" and ii o ''bold babbler." All
this, while it is doubtless the best that could be
done under the circumstances, does not 60 very far
towards giving us any idea of the presence of the
cataract Nor am about attempting any such
thing. The suggestion that shall throw out, is
perhaps as near an approach TO an idea as shall
be able to give. 1t is this. The cataract before
US flor write in the very presence) has the power
of intensifying and subliming the leading idea,
emotion, or general tendency of feeling, in the
being who earnestly takes in its great significance
who truly listens to its solemn voice. Not the
present feeling merely; but all great feelings OF
life come rushing back by memory, and live again
in the present. The heart that has been happy,
hears glorious echo of all that gadDess, as his
soul swells with the remembrance to the ma gni-
tude of the great One before it. The heart that
has wept finds here so deep-toned sympathy
that the very anguish of its past becomes lux
ury in the dignity of such a 'orroU-the sable
garments of woe become empurpled in this light,
and the broken spirit moves monarch clad in
the royal robes of its remembered sorrowings.-
The heart that has loved can never beat here
alone-rapture snatches every glorious charm and
blends them all into one image, and one presence
the infinite power that lifts the soul, elevates
it to the height of its devotion, its alteration, its
idolatry; and the Israfaeian Niagara seems about
to utter the unutterablc mystery Of Love- Theheart,
in fine, that has ved before, must here live again.
Hence, the Niagara of one is not the Niagara of
another Like the Linden tree Of the German
tale, it speaks to one of some darker hour whose
shadow still remains to another it may speak of
the first kiss of love. Who, then, can tell what
Niagara is, till he first know apho it is that asks
him? The theory of this mnemonic power is
that Niagara eleyates the soul to the range to
which it had been elevated by the grander pas
sions of life-by hope, love, despair and woe.
But there are those who prefer facts to this
kind of speculation and for these givea few
The difficulty lies in avoiding what absolutely
everybody knows already. There are two Falls,
the American and the Horseshoe, separated by
Goat Island. The former is about 900 feet wide,
and l63 feet down. The latter is 1000 feet wide
and 154 down. A hundred million tons of water
an hour tumble over. The precipice is worn a.
way about foot year; and in about hundred
and sixteen thousand years it will Cut up to lake
Erie. Then all those fourishing cities-Sandusky,
Cleveland, Erie, Dunkirk, and Bufalo-will sink
for, rather, risc to the insgni6cance of nanders.
Father HENYEPIN, French Jesuit missionary was
the first white man that ever saw Niagara, 181