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. Not only near at hand,
in the lithe contortions with which it adapts itself to the
interchanges of level and slope, but far away also, when he sees a
few hundred feet of it upheaved against a hill and shining in the
afternoon sun, he will find it an object so changeful and
enlivening that he can always pleasurably busy his mind about it.
He may leave the river-side, or fall out of the way of villages,
but the road he has always with him; and, in the true humour of
observation, will find in that sufficient company. From its subtle
windings and changes of level there arises a keen and continuous
interest, that keeps the attention ever alert and cheerful. Every
sensitive adjustment to the contour of the ground, every little dip
and swerve, seems instinct with life and an exquisite sense of
balance and beauty. The road rolls upon the easy slopes of the
country, like a long ship in the hollows of the sea.
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