, and often good ones, of the most celebrated scenes, but
seldom a word about the vast tracts between; and it would seem as if
many Tourists had used their eyes only in those places where they had
been told by common fame there was something greatly to admire. Travel
in the faith, that go where you will, the cravings of your heart will be
satisfied, and you will find it so, if you be a true lover of nature.
You hope to be inspired by her spirit, that you may may read aright her
works. But such inspiration comes not from one object or another,
however great or fair, but from the whole "mighty world of eye and ear,"
and it must be supported continuously, or it perishes. You may see a
thousand sights never before seen by human eye, at every step you take,
wherever be your path; for no steps but yours have ever walked along
that same level; and moreover, never on the same spot twice rested the
same lights or shadows. Then there may be something in the air, and
more in your own heart, that invests every ordinary object with
extraordinary beauty; old images affect you with a new delight; a
grandeur grows upon your eyes in the undulations of the simplest hills;
and you feel there is sublimity in the common skies. It is thus that all
the stores of imagery are insensibly gathered, with which the minds of
men are filled, who from youth have communed with nature. And it is thus
that all those feelings have flowed into their hearts by which that
imagery is sanctified; and these are the Poets.

It is in this way that we become familiar with the mountains. Far more
than we were aware of have we trusted to the strong spirit of delight
within us, to prompt and to guide. And in such a country as the
Highlands, thus led, we cannot err. Therefore, if your desire be for the
summits, set your face thitherwards, and wind a way of your own, still
ascending and ascending, along some vast brow, that seems almost a whole
day's journey, and where it is lost from your sight, not to end, but to
go sweeping round, with undiminished grandeur into another region. You
are not yet half-way up the mountain, but you care not for the summit
now; for you find yourself among a number of green knolls--all of them
sprinkled, and some of them crowned with trees--as large almost as our
lowland hills--surrounded close to the brink with the purple
heather--and without impairing the majesty of the immense expanse,
imbuing it with pastoral and sylvan beauty;--and the