The feeling, so
intense in his case, is known to most if not all of us; but we
feel it faintly as a disquieting element in nature of which we
may be but vaguely conscious.
Most travelled Englishmen who have seen much of the world and
resided for long or short periods in many widely separated
countries would probably agree that there is a vast difference
in the feeling of strangeness, or want of harmony with our
surroundings, experienced in old and in new countries. It is
a compound feeling and some of its elements are the same in
both cases; but in one there is a disquieting element which
the other is without. Thus, in Southern Europe, Egypt, Syria,
and in many countries of Asia, and some portions of Africa,
the wanderer from home might experience dissatisfaction and be
ill at ease and wish for old familiar sights and sounds; but
in a colony like Tasmania, and in any new country where there
were no remains of antiquity, no links with the past, the
feeling would be very much more poignant, and in some scenes
and moods would be like that sense of desolation which assails
us at the thought of the heartless voids and immensities of
the universe.
He recognizes that he is in a world on which we have but
recently entered, and in which our position is not yet
assured.
Here, standing on this mound, as on other occasions past
counting, I recognize and appreciate the enormous difference
which human associations make in the effect produced on us by
visible nature.
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