CHAPTER XXX. NO PART OF THE EARTH REALLY SOLITARY.--THE SONG OF THEFAIRIES.--THE SACRED SPOT.--THE WITCH OF THE EVIL WINDS.--THE SPELL ANDTHE DUTY OF THE FAIRIES.
BUT in what spot of the world is there ever utter solitude? The vanityof man supposes that loneliness is _his_ absence! Who shall say whatmillions of spiritual beings glide invisibly among scenes apparently themost deserted? Or what know we of our own mechanism, that we should denythe possibility of life and motion to things that we cannot ourselvesrecognize?
At moonlight, in the Great Court of Heidelberg, on the borders of theshattered basin overgrown with weeds, the following song was heard bythe melancholy shades that roam at night through the mouldering halls ofold, and the gloomy hollows in the mountain of Heidelberg.
The Pilgrims of the Rhine Page 63