Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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When I Read A Description Of Those Places In India That Are
Embellished By Running Waters And A Vigorous Vegetation, My
Imagination Retraces A Sea Of Foam And Palm-Trees, The Tops Of Which
Rise Above A Stratum Of Vapour.
The majestic scenes of nature, like
the sublime works of poetry and the arts, leave remembrances that are
incessantly awakening, and which, through the whole of life, mingle
with all our feelings of what is grand and beautiful.
The calm of the atmosphere, and the tumultuous movement of the waters,
produce a contrast peculiar to this zone. Here no breath of wind ever
agitates the foliage, no cloud veils the splendour of the azure vault
of heaven; a great mass of light is diffused in the air, on the earth
strewn with plants with glossy leaves, and on the bed of the river,
which extends as far as the eye can reach. This appearance surprises
the traveller born in the north of Europe. The idea of wild scenery,
of a torrent rushing from rock to rock, is linked in his imagination
with that of a climate where the noise of the tempest is mingled with
the sound of the cataract; and where, in a gloomy and misty day,
sweeping clouds seem to descend into the valley, and to rest upon the
tops of the pines. The landscape of the tropics in the low regions of
the continents has a peculiar physiognomy, something of greatness and
repose, which it preserves even where one of the elements is
struggling with invincible obstacles.
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