The reader is not
to suppose, however, that it was the picturesque alone which so
strongly attracted his attention. The spot was very lovely, of a
truth, and it was then seen in one of its most favorable moments,
the surface of the lake being as smooth as glass and as limpid as
pure air, throwing back the mountains, clothed in dark pines, along
the whole of its eastern boundary, the points thrusting forward
their trees even to nearly horizontal lines, while the bays were
seen glittering through an occasional arch beneath, left by a vault
fretted with branches and leaves. It was the air of deep repose--
the solitudes, that spoke of scenes and forests untouched by the
hands of man-- the reign of nature, in a word, that gave so much
pure delight to one of his habits and turn of mind. Still, he
felt, though it was unconsciously, like a poet also. If he found a
pleasure in studying this large, and to him unusual opening into
the mysteries and forms of the woods, as one is gratified in getting
broader views of any subject that has long occupied his thoughts,
he was not insensible to the innate loveliness of such a landscape
neither, but felt a portion of that soothing of the spirit which
is a common attendant of a scene so thoroughly pervaded by the holy
cairn of nature.
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