Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

AUTUMN ON THE RHINE.3ül

deed, devoid of a kind of beauty; but grandeur without gi`ace soon fatigues. What pleasure can the traveller have in traversing immense spaces, whose surface and whose horizon are always destitute of feature ? Such monotony aggravates the fatigue of locomotion, by rendering it fruitless. Surprises must always constitute a great portion of the enjoyment of travelling; and the hope of them must always furnish much of the stimulus that keeps alive the zeal of the traveller.

It is with sensations of real happiness that I find myself at the elose of the season in a varied and beautiful country. I cannot express the delight with which I stray, and for a moment lose myself among large woods, where showers of leaves have strewed the earth and obliterated the paths. I am carried back to the descriptions of Rene; and my heart beats as it beat formerly while reading that sorrowful and sublime conversation between nature and a human soul. That religious and lyrical prose has lost none of its power over me ; and I have said to myself, astonished at my own easily-affected feelings, youth will surely never end ! Sometimes I perceive through the foliage, brightened by the first hoar-frost, the vapoury distances of the valley of the Lahn, contiguous to the most beautiful river in Europe; and I greatly admire the grace and calm of the landscape.

The points of view formed by the ravines, which serve as channels for the tributaries of the Rhine, are infinitely varied; those of the Volga all resemble each other. The aspect of the elevated plains that are here called mountains, because they separate deep valleys, is in general cold and monotonous; still this cold and monotony is light, life, and motion, after the