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

202THE PHILOSOPHY OF ADIEUS.

I am unwise in seeking to account to myself for this incomprehensible influence. The torment of my mental faculties, the chief faults of my style, are produced by the necessity of defining the nndefinable : my powers lose themselves in the pursuit of the impossible ; my words suffice no better than my sentiments or my passions. Our dreams, our visions, are, as compared with clear precise ideas, what a horizon of brilliant clouds is to mountains, whose chains it sometimes imitates betwixt heaven and earth. No modes of expression can cleai`ly define and fix those fugitive creations of the phantasy, which vanish under the pen of the writer, as the brilliant pearls of a clear stream escape from the nets of the fisherman.

What is it that can be added to the real beauty of a place by the idea that we are about to quit it ? In thinking that I behold it for the last time, I feel as though I валу it for the first.

Our destiny is so movable as compared with the destiny of things, that whatever recalls to us the shortness of our days inspires us with a renewed admiration. This sentiment of respect for things that last longer than do we, leads us to reflect upon ourselves. The stream that we are descending is so rapid that the objects we leave on the banks seem beyond the influence of time. The waters of the cascade must believe in the immortality of the tree that overshadows them ; and the world seems to us eternal, so rapidly are we passing through its varied scenes.

Perhaps the reason that the life of the traveller is so full of emotions is because the departures of which it is composed are but rehearsals of death. Herein, doubtless, lie the reasons for our discovering beauty in