Download or read book The Knickerbocker, Vol. 23 written by Charles Fenno Hoffman and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2017-03-04 with total page 644 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Knickerbocker, Vol. 23: Or New-York Monthly Magazine Whatever the poets may say, it is incontrovertible that the great majority of men look upon the beauties and glories Of Nature that sur round them with almost entire indifference. We shall not inquire whether this is the result of a natural incapacity to perceive and ad mire the beautiful and sublime, or whether it is that their impressions are so deadened by familiarity as to be passed by unnoticed. Probably the former is the case with the greater number; although we cannot believe with some writers, that all our ideas of beauty are but the results Of association, or of our perceptions Of the roportion, or fitness, or utility of things. When we say that some ings are naturally agreeable, and others naturally disagreeable, we have said all that we know about the matter; and this amounts to nothing more than a con fession of our ignorance. Yet, if we admit in all men the existence of a natural sense of beauty, daily observation shows us that the pleasure arising from it is in most cases very feeble and evanescent. How many live in the midst of the most magnificent natural scenery, and never perceive its beauties until they are pointed out to them by some intelligent traveller! And often if admiration be professed, it is of that vague, undistinguishing kind, which indicates little knowledge of the causes why they admire. Even among men of cultivated tastes, there is much more of affected than real enthusiasm. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.