and up the rugged passes from Italy to Switzerland and thence to Germany
and Paris, and to see through the unspoiled eyes of an enthusiast the
beauties of that playground of the nations, but it would be but the
repetition of an oft-told tale, and I must hasten on, making but a few
extracts from the diary. No thrilling adventures were met with, except
towards the end, but they enjoyed to the full the grand scenery, the
picturesque costumes of the peasants and the curious customs of the
different countries through which they passed. The weather was sometimes
fine, but more often overcast or rainy, and we find this note on August
15: "How much do a traveller's impressions depend upon the weather, and
even on the time of day in which he sees objects. He sees most of the
country through which he travels but once, and it is the face which any
point assumes at that one moment which is brought to his recollection. If
it is under a gloomy atmosphere, it is not possible that he should
remember it under other form or aspect."

On Sunday, August 28, he watched the sunrise from the summit of the Rigi
under ideal conditions, and, after describing the scene and saying that
the rest of the company had gone back to bed, he adds:--

"I had found too little comfort in the wretched thing that had been
provided for me in the shape of a bed to desire to return thither, and I
also felt too strongly the emotions which the scene I had just witnessed
had excited, to wish for their dissipation in troubled dreams.

"If there is a feeling allied to devotion, it is that which such a scene
of sublimity as this we have just witnessed inspires, and yet that
feeling is not devotion. I am aware that it is but the emotion of taste.
It may exist without a particle of true religious feeling, or it may
coexist and add strength to it. There are thousands, probably, who have
here had their emotion of taste excited without one thought of that Being
by whom these wonders were created, one thought of their relation to Him,
of their duty to Him, or of admiration at that unmerited goodness which
allows them to be witnesses of his majesty and power as exhibited in
these wonders of nature. Shut out as I am by circumstances from the
privileges of this day in public worship, I have yet on the top of this
mountain a place of private worship such as I have not had for some time
past. I am alone on the mountain with such a scene spread before me that
I must adore, and w