And yet there is
much that makes the attempt attractive; for any expression, however
imperfect, once given to a cherished feeling, seems a sort of
legitimation of the pleasure we take in it. A common sentiment is
one of those great goods that make life palatable and ever new. The
knowledge that another has felt as we have felt, and seen things,
even if they are little things, not much otherwise than we have seen
them, will continue to the end to be one of life's choicest
pleasures.
Let the reader, then, betake himself in the spirit we have
recommended to some of the quieter kinds of English landscape. In
those homely and placid agricultural districts, familiarity will
bring into relief many things worthy of notice, and urge them
pleasantly home to him by a sort of loving repetition; such as the
wonderful life-giving speed of windmill sails above the stationary
country; the occurrence and recurrence of the same church tower at
the end of one long vista after another: and, conspicuous among
these sources of quiet pleasure, the character and variety of the
road itself, along which he takes his way.
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