OCR Text |
Show 248 Early Western Travels [ Vol 26 courthouse in " ruinous perfection.' 9 In its vicinity are some beautiful country- seats. One of these, named " Mound Farm," the delightful residence of Judge B , imbowered in trees and shrubbery, and about a mile from the village, I visited during my stay. It commands from its elevated site a noble view of the neighbouring prairie, the village and river at its foot, and the adjacent farms. Under the superintendence of cultivated taste, this spot may become one of the loveliest retreats in Illinois. Clinton County, III. XXI " To him who, in the love of Nature, holds Communion with her visible forms, she speaks A various language." THANATOFSIS. " The sunny Italy may boast The beauteous tints that flush her skies, And lovely round the Grecian coast May thy brae pillars rise: I only know how fair they stand About my own beloved land." The Skies. - BtYAirr. To the man of cultivated imagination and delicate taste, the study of nature never fails to afford a gratification, refined as it is exquisite. In the pencilled petals of the flower as it bows to the evening breeze; in the glittering scales of the fish leaping from the wave; in the splendid plumage of the forest- bird, and in the music- tinklings of the wreathed and enamelled sea- shell rocked by the billow, he recognises an eloquence of beauty which he alone can appreciate. For him, too, the myriad forms of animate creation unite with inanimate nature in one mighty hymn of glory to their Maker, from the hum of the sparkling ephemeroid as he blithely dances away his little life in the |