THE FOOL AND THE PHILOSOPHER.

333

just rested the book on my knee, to admire the mag-nificent scene which lay before me: every swell-.ing knoll and abrupt crag on the huge back of BenVenue, and all the feathery crest of the leafy gar-niture of the Trosacks brightly illuminated by thedeclining beam, softened off and lost in the deeppurple shadows of the glens and hollows. As Igazed, the last segment of the solar disk sunkbehind the mountain, blending the distance of thelandscape in one deep mass of shade, but mark-ing more strongly the grand outline of BenVenue and his stupendous congeners; strikinglydisplaying the superior sublimity of scenery stillbearing the impress of the finger of Nature overthe proudest efforts of aspiring mortals. Full ofthe romantic;—the place, the hour, the monoto-nous sound of the neighbouring waterfall, and theuniversal stillness which prevailed, threw me intoa reverie which, gradually settling into sleep, pro-duced the following dream.

The scene upon which I had been gazing, andwhich had laid such hold upon my imagination asto continue present to my mind for some time after