The surface of
the earth exults with animation, especially tending to the gratification
of the senses; and, without the artificialness which reminds man of the
necessity of his own labor, without the opposing influences which call
for his resistance, without the vast energies that remind him of his
impotence, without the sublimity that can call his noblest thoughts into
action, yet, with every perfection that can tempt him to indolence of
enjoyment, and with such abundant bestowal of natural gifts, as might
seem to prevent that indolence from being its own punishment, the earth
appears to have become a garden of delight, wherein the sweep of the
bright hills, without chasm or crag, the flow of the bending rivers,
without rock or rapid, and the fruitfulness of the fair earth, without
care or labor on the part of its inhabitants, appeal to the most
pleasant passions of eye and sense, calling for no effort of body, and
impressing no fear on the mind. In hill country we have a struggle to
maintain with the elements; in simple blue, we have not the luxuriance
of delight: here, and here only, all nature combines to breathe over us
a lulling slumber, through which life degenerates into sensation.
199. These considerations are sufficient to explain what we mean by the
epithet "sensuality." Now, taking these three distinctive attributes,
the mysterious, the graceful, and the voluptuous, what is the whole
character? Very nearly--the Greek: for these attributes, common to all
picturesque blue country, are modified in the degree of their presence
by every climate.
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