The preface to "Laon and Cythna" shows what a powerful impression had been made upon him by the glaciers, and how he delighted in the element of peril.

There is a tone of exultation in the words which record the experiences of his two journeys in Switzerland and France:--"I have been familiar from boyhood with mountains and lakes and the sea, and the solitude of forests.

Danger, which sports upon the brink of precipices, has been my playmate.

I have trodden the glaciers of the Alps, and lived under the eye of Mont Blanc.

I have been a wanderer among distant fields.