Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1860-08-30
OR,

row he had caused them, and imploriug tn
death that would rest and release his bur
dened heart. To avoid much of repetition
we will give the MSS in our own words
Herbert Willoughby was scarcely twent..
years of age when he left America to con
clude his studies on the Continent. HI
travelled under the care of his tutor, Mr.
Mouckton, man in every way worthy a
to mental and moral training, but so com
pletely welded to intellectual pursuits, a
to be utterly incompetent, so far as discip
line and compauionship were concerned, t.
restrain the wilful, impossible and volatile
Herbert W. The restlessuess of travel in
creased this natural disposition Of fckleues
and versatility, and declaringit was impossi
bic for him to study until he had visited clas
sic Italy and caught some inspiration from
the poet land, he persuaded Mr.. Moncktol
to accompany him thither. Some whimsl
cal caprice led him to take the name o
Howard, declaring it was not only mor'
poetical, but more chivalric and noble thar
Willoughby, and by this name he insisted
upon being addressed.
Arriving in Italy, his life there was lik'
dream of fairy land. Now he woule
study clouds, mists, streams, watery rocks
and emerald turf beneath the shadow o.
the Alps; listen to the crash and roar o
the laundering music of the avalanche; o.
in the heart of Switzerland's grandeur
gaze on the snowy monarch of the noun
tains, its huge glaciers, its granite peaks
its beautiful wales, still and shining like
picture. Here with air, earth, ice, rocks
and mist, he would study the glorious i'm
ages of Dante, whose burning pen hac
traced what bis imagination had painted o
Paradise for surely here was where the
angels of God, brighter than the sun, as
ceud and descend how blind old Milton
would claim his worship, as the HeecJ
clouds, like cohort of angels brushed the
summit with their wings, the sunlight re-
Aecting from the snow to the clouds, from
the clouds to the SNOW, making a glowing
and dazzling splendor. And then what ar
Eden below! Forests of the richest, deep
est green; vast masses of umbrageous foil
age; the opening of the rich valleys, lead
ing off the eye in perspective wilderness:
ofidleness and beauty; the broad imprisoned
lakes, the rivers springing from their crysta
sleeping sources, gliding swift and graceful
as an arrow; or bursting from the guarding
glaciers laundering sullenly on. The min
iature cascades falling like wells of silverJ
lace; the vines trellised among the rocks
the flowers worthy of Paradise ; the lu1u
rance and sublimity, the desolation and the
beauty struck hispoetic sense with such ex
quisite pleasure, as to forbid all graver OIL
more practical pursuits. These wanderings
aud reveries by solitary streams and noun
tain passes, this study of the poetry of the
middle ages, its lofty strains according well
with the surrounding aisles of the din
woods > their checkered light, their Gothic
grandeur; this listening spirit, that heard
the wild song of the glaciers and the thrill
ling tales murmured by rivers from noun
tain solitude; this music Of brook and wa
terfall; the sighing of the wind among
the leaves, the carroling of the birds in the
air, the tinkling sound Of the distant vii
lagos was to him as the evening song of the
angels. His vivid Imagination, his southern
'indolence, in fact the 'dolce fur maente' Of
his nature, was led completely captive, and
his wilfulness would minister to that and
to that alone. Now he would away to the
land of Tasso, of Dante, of fAriosto, and by the
memory-hauuted Mediterranean, he would
dwell on the glories of the past, while en-
joying the charms of the present. He would
study diplomacy from their great states
men their brave heroes should teach him
courage and daring; and then noble poets,
ah their poets, should teach it is impos'
sible, Not to love all things in world so
filed where the breeze MARBLES and the
mute still air is slumberiug on her instru.
ment.' He would study Titian's radiant
pictures of sensuous beauty, glowing with
their gorgeous tints, OF the dreamy land
scapes of Claude Lorraine-soft, breezy,
dewy; or wonder at the gloomy grandeur
and terrible magnifcence of Salvador Rosa,
Praxiteles and Phidias; the sculptors of
Grecian fame, should give his dreaming
mind fresh models of beauty and grace, and
from every temple and arch and breathing
statue, would he gather luxurious and fasc-
mating memory. He would visit Athens;
muse on the banks of the Iyssus with Soc
rates, or sit in the academy of Plato. Now
he would ascend Parnassus, and sitting by
the Castalian fount, worship Apollo aud the
muses., and with the sunlight of festivals
and the moonlight of ruins, he would forget
that a career of mind is action that has an
aim, and indulge in blissful reverie-that
heritage of women. If Mr.. Moncktou dared
to expostulate as to this waste of time,
Herbert would Indignantly declare he was
accomplishing the most earnest labors, pur-
suing the most arduous study. For was
not eloqueuce, with mute persuasive strain
stirring his soul to deeds of daring and of
blood? Was not philosophy, rich in intel
lect, acute in metaphysics, and sparkling
with admirable morality, breathing in every
record of the past? Was not poetry, the
enchanting Priestess-with allegory, fable
and fiction, daily opening rich mines OF
precious ore? No, in Dante, he would study