‘I need not tell you that the mountains are very beautiful; especially, to my mind, when a white cloud, which has been, as it were, quite blotting them out, is lifted, and one beholds the glorious peaks and wooded valleys, lovely in the bright sunshine. It reminds one of the American Poet’s striking lines on a yet loftier theme,—
‘“Soon shall the whole
Like a parchéd scroll
Before my amazéd eyes uproll,
And without a screen,
At a burst be seen,
The Presence in which I have ever been!”
‘Ah, dear Maria, well may we exclaim—
‘“O to be ready, ready, for that Day—
Who would not cast Earth’s dearest joys away!”’