all balmy, bright, and sweet; she affords none of those
blighted ones so common in the life of man and so like the fabled apples
of the Dead Sea--fresh and beautiful to the sight, but when tasted full
of bitterness and ashes. I have already mentioned the strong effect
produced on my mind by the stranger whom I had met so accidentally at
Paestum; the hope of seeing him again was another of my motives for
wishing to leave England, and (why, I know not) I had a decided
presentiment that I was more likely to meet him in the Austrian states
than in England, his own country.

For this journey I had one companion, an early friend and medical
adviser. He had lived much in the world, had acquired a considerable
fortune, had given up his profession, was now retired, and sought, like
myself, in this journey repose of mind and the pleasures derived from
natural scenery. He was a man of a very powerful and acute
understanding, but had less of the poetical temperament than any person
whom I had ever known with similar vivacity of mind. He was a severe
thinker, with great variety of information, an excellent physiologist,
and an accomplished naturalist. In his reasonings he adopted the
precision of a geometer, and was always upon his guard against the
influence of imagination. He had passed the meridian of life, and his
health was weak, like my own, so that we were well suited as travelling
companions, moving always slowly from place to place without hurry or
fatigue. I shall call this friend Eubathes. I will say nothing of the
progress of our journey through France and Germany; I shall dwell only
upon that part of it which has still a strong interest for me, and where
events occurred that I shall never forget. We passed into the Alpine
country of Austria by Lintz, on the Danube, and followed the course of
the Traun to Gmunden, on the Traun See or lake of the Traun, where we
halted for some days. If I were disposed to indulge in minute
picturesque descriptions I might occupy hours with details of the various
characters of the enchanting scenery in this neighbourhood. The vales
have that pastoral beauty and constant verdure which is so familiar to us
in England, with similar enclosures and hedge-rows and fruit and forest
trees. Above are noble hills planted with beeches and oaks. Mountains
bound the view, here covered with pines and larches, there raising their
marble crests capped with eternal snows above the clouds. The