intense aspiration of gratitude for the bounteous dispensation of the
Almighty, which enabled me to conquer the greatest of human evils by
the cultivation of what has been to me the greatest of human
enjoyments, and to supply the void of sight with countless objects of
intellectual gratification. To those who inquire what pleasures I can
derive from the invigorating spirit of travelling under the privation
I suffer, I may be permitted to reply in the words of the poet,

Unknown those powers that raise the soul to flame,
Catch every nerve, and vibrate through the frame;
Their level life is but a smouldering fire,
Unquench'd by want, unfanned by strong desire.

Or perhaps, with more propriety, I may ask, who could endure life
without a purpose, without the pursuit of some object, in the
attainment of which his moral energies should be called into healthful
activity? I can confidently assert that the effort of travelling has
been beneficial to me in every way; and I know not what might have
been the consequence, if the excitement with which I looked forward to
it had been disappointed, or how much my health might have suffered
but for its refreshing influence.

I am constantly asked, and I may as well answer the question here once
for all, what is the use of travelling to one who cannot see? I
answer, Does every traveller see all that he describes?--and is not
every traveller obliged to depend upon others for a great proportion
of the information he collects? Even Humboldt himself was not exempt
from this necessity.

The picturesque in nature, it is true, is shut out from me, and works