e surface of the lake less
interesting than its shores; half of it glowing with the richest green
and gold, the reflection of the illuminated wood and path, shaded with a
soft blue tint. The picture was still further diversified by the number
of sails which stole lazily by us as we paused in the wood above them.
After all this we had the moon. It was impossible not to contrast that
repose, that complacency of spirit, produced by these lovely scenes,
with the sensations I had experienced two or three days before, in
passing the Alps. At the lake of Como, my mind ran through a thousand
dreams of happiness, which might be enjoyed upon its banks, if
heightened by conversation and the exercise of the social affections.
Among the more awful scenes of the Alps, I had not a thought of man, or
a single created being; my whole soul was turned to Him who produced the
terrible majesty before me. But I am too particular for the limits of my
paper.

We followed the lake of Como to its head, and thence proceeded to
Chiavenna, where we began to pass a range of the Alps, which brought us
into the country of the Grisons at Sovozza. From Sovozza we pursued the
valley of Myssen, in which it is situated, to its head; passed Mount
Adula to Hinter Rhine, a small village near one of the sources of the
Rhine. We pursued this branch of the Rhine downward through the Grisons
to Michenem, where we turned up the other branch of the same river, and
following it to Chiamut, a small village near its source. Here we
quitted the Grisons, and entered Switzerland at the valley of Urseren,
and pursued the course of the Reuss down to Altorf; thence we proceeded,
partly upon the lake and partly behind the mountains on its banks, to
Lucerne, and thence to Zurich. From Zurich, along the banks of the lake,
we continued our route to Richtenschwyl: here we left the lake to visit
the famous church and convent of Einsiedeln, and thence to Glaris. But
this catalogue must be shockingly tedious. Suffice it to say, that,
after passing a day in visiting the romantic valley of Glaris, we
proceeded by the lake of Wallenstadt and the canton of Appenzell to the
lake of Constance, where this letter was begun nine days ago. From
Constance we proceeded along the banks of the Rhine to Schaffhausen, to
view the falls of the Rhine there. Magnificent as this fall certainly
is, I must confess I was disappointed in it. I had raised my ideas too
high.

We followed the Rhine downwar