"
The scene described here is one as exquisite in detail as majestic
in general effect. And it is characteristic of the region to which
Wordsworth's love was given that there is no corner of it without a
meaning and a charm; that the open record of its immemorial past
tells us at every turn that all agencies have conspired for
loveliness and ruin itself has been benign. A passage of Wordsworth's
describing the character of the lake-shores illustrates this fact
with loving minuteness.
"Sublimity is the result of nature's first great dealings with
the superficies of the Earth; but the general tendency of her
subsequent operations is towards the production of beauty, by
a multiplicity of symmetrical parts uniting in a consistent
whole. This is everywhere exemplified along the margins of
these lakes. Masses of rock, that have been precipitated from
the heights into the area of waters, lie in some places like
stranded ships, or have acquired the compact structure of jutting
piers, or project in little peninsulas crested with native wood.
The smallest rivulet, one whose silent influx is scarcely
noticeable in a season of dry weather, so faint is the dimple made
by it on the surface of the smooth lake, will be found to have
been not useless in shaping, by its deposits of gravel and soil
in time of flood, a curve that would not otherwise have existed.
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