Chapter IV

… It was not without the most powerful emotion that, for the first time, I cast my eyes on that solemn, that majestic vision, the Alps! – how often had the idea of those stupendous mountains filled my heart with enthusiastic awe! – so long, so eagerly, had I desired to contemplate that scene of wonders, that I was unable to trace when first the wish was awakened in my bosom – it seemed from childhood to have made a part of my existence – I longed to bid adieu to the gayly-peopled landscapes of Zurich, and wander amidst those regions of mysterious sublimity, the solitudes of nature, where her eternal laws seem at all seasons to forbid more than the temporary visits of man, and where, sometimes, the dangerous passes to her frozen summits are inflexibly barred against mortal footsteps. The pleasure arising from the varying forms of smiling beauty with which we were surrounded, became a cold sensation, while expectation hung upon those vast gigantic shapes, that half-seen chaos which excited the stronger feelings of wonder, mingled with admiration. But I was obliged, with whatever regret, to relinquish for the present a nearer view of those tremendous objects, since private affairs left me only sufficient leisure to visit the cataract of the Rhine before I returned to Basle; whence, however, I soothed myself with the hope of being soon able to depart in search of the terrific scenes of the Alps, and the rich luxuriant graces of the Italian valleys of Switzerland.