to our sight; and we experience, as it were, a desire mingled
with terror, to approach the waves and to deaden our thoughts by their
tumult.

Towards the evening all was calm. Corinne and Lord Nelville walked into
the country; they proceeded with a slow pace silently enjoying the scene
before them. Each step they took crushed the flowers and extorted from
them their delicious perfumes; the nightingales, resting on the
rose-bushes, willingly lent their song, so that the purest melodies were
united to the most delicious odours; all the charms of nature mutually
attracted each other, while the softness of the air was beyond
expression. When we contemplate a fine view in the north, the climate in
some degree disturbs the pleasure which it inspires: those slight
sensations of cold and humidity are like a false note in a concert, and
more or less distract your attention from what you behold; but in
approaching Naples you experience the friendly smiles of nature, so
perfectly and without alloy, that nothing abates the agreeable
sensations which they cause you. All the relations of man in our climate
are with society. Nature, in hot countries, puts us in relation with
external objects, and our sentiments sweetly expand. Not but that the
south has also its melancholy. In what part of the earth does not human
destiny produce this impression? But in this melancholy there is neither
discontent, anxiety, nor regret. In other countries it is life, which,
such as it is, does not suffice for the faculties of the soul; here the
faculties of the soul do not suffice for life, and the superabundance of
sensation inspires a dreamy indolence, which we can hardly account for
when oppressed with it.

During the night, flies of a shining hue fill the air; one would say
that the mountain emitted sparks of fire, and that the burning earth had
let loose some of its flames. These insects fly through the trees,
sometimes repose on the leaves, and the wind blows these minute stars
about, varying in a thousand ways their uncertain light. The sand also
contained a great number of metallic stones, which sparkled on every
side: it was the land of fire, still preserving in its bosom the traces
of the sun, whose last rays had just warmed it. There is a life, and at
the same time, a repose, in this nature, which entirely satisfies the
various desires of human existence.

Corinne abandoned herself to the charms of this evening, and was
penetrated with jo