True, It Is Difficult To Put Even Approximately Into
Words The Kind Of Feelings Thus Called Into Play.
There is a
dangerous vice inherent in any such intellectual refining upon
vague sensation.
The analysis of such satisfactions lends itself
very readily to literary affectations; and we can all think of
instances where it has shown itself apt to exercise a morbid
influence, even upon an author's choice of language and the turn of
his sentences. And yet there is much that makes the attempt
attractive; for any expression, however imperfect, once given to a
cherished feeling, seems a sort of legitimation of the pleasure we
take in it. A common sentiment is one of those great goods that
make life palatable and ever new. The knowledge that another has
felt as we have felt, and seen things, even if they are little
things, not much otherwise than we have seen them, will continue to
the end to be one of life's choicest pleasures.
Let the reader, then, betake himself in the spirit we have
recommended to some of the quieter kinds of English landscape. In
those homely and placid agricultural districts, familiarity will
bring into relief many things worthy of notice, and urge them
pleasantly home to him by a sort of loving repetition; such as the
wonderful life-giving speed of windmill sails above the stationary
country; the occurrence and recurrence of the same church tower at
the end of one long vista after another: and, conspicuous among
these sources of quiet pleasure, the character and variety of the
road itself, along which he takes his way.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 243 of 262
Words from 65196 to 65463
of 70588
