LETTER II. DENBIGH, JULY 14, 1794. IT was late in the evening when we left Bala, and therefore, contrary to our original intentions, we took up our quarters for the night, at the Druid house, a folitary place only eight miles diftant from that which we had last quitted; and early the following morning we pursued our journey to Llangollen. The face of the country now became more interesting. The scene gradually affumed a lefs rugged appearance; the dark brown mountain, and the defolated heath, foftened by diftance, formed a beautiful contraft to the wild and irregular scenery that fucceeded. We felt our spirits, which had before been depreffed from the barren and gloomy country country we had traverfed, now much exhilarated, and we feemed to breathe a freer air. There is an analogy in nature throughout, from the most torpid state of vegetable exiftence to the most refined fubtlety of animal life; and he who has not confidered this attentively, will be furprised, upon reflection, to perceive that his own self importance is folely derived from the contemplation of external objects; for deprive him of thefe, shut him out from nature, fuppofe him to be totally unacquainted with the harmony of this beautiful fphere, he muft confider himself in the most contemptible point of view, created for no purpose, endued with powers of perception and reasoning for no poffible good; his would be a mere comfortless state of existence, with a mind that could have no adequate idea, if any at all, of the deity; his would be á fitua tion unworthy the character of his fpecies, and little elevated above the brute creation. Certainly there is a chain of caufes and effects throughout every creative world, whether mineral, vegetable, or animal; and all has an effect upon the mind of man. When we approach a defolate and cloud-capt country, an uncultivated and dreary scene, what is the caufe that we frequently feel a damp upon our spirits? Why does it affect the mind, as it were, with a leaden weight, and depress the active springs of the imagination? It is from the analogy which na ture, under every form she may affume, bears to the varied life of man. Memory backward turns her view, and affimilates the objects before her, to fome certain paffage of our life, that impreffes upon the mind a shade of melancholy or joy, according as thofe paffages may have been abfo been marked with pleasure, or with pain. It is not therefore that there is any lute impreffion made upon the mind, from the scene before us, whether it be bright with sunshine, or overcast with clouds, but it is memory which affociates to it fome event, or tranfaction of former years, which, though fcarcely perceptible, is the caufe of fuch an effect. Our road wound along the banks of the river Dee, which falls murmuring over its pebbled bed at the foot of the mountains, whose steep fides are covered with wood of the largest growth, here and there the shaggy rock, more than half concealed by the furrounding foliage, peering its broken fummit beyond the most extended branches, and threatening, by its fall, to obftruct the course of the river beneath; whilst the spreading beachtree, and mountain ash, that are found in great abundance upon its banks, dipping their their flender branches in the stream, and above all, upon the lofty fummit of a conical mountain, the castle Dinas Brân, rifing in ruined majesty; at once afford an interesting spectacle of grandeur and sublimity, as well as of beauty and cultivation. Llangollen is moft delightfully fituated, but the place itself has nothing to boast of, except a very good inn which fortunately belies its appearance. We were entertained, upon our arrival, by a celebrated Welsh harper, who tuned his ftrings to fo Orphean a measure, that a crowd foon collected round the door of our little inn, fome of whom began to dance after the ruftic fashion of their country; the fimplicity of former times ftruck forcibly upon my mind, and brought back the pleafing recollection of those happy ages, when riches and luxury had not corrupted the heart of man; but when all |