At the time now
referred to, his fire was low and his strength distilled away; but
the residue of his life was neither irritability nor discontent.
He was unfit to mingle in society, for conversation was a pain to him;
but let us observe the great Man-child when alone. He is at the
village of Interlaken, enjoying Jungfrau sunsets, and at times
watching the Swiss nailers making their nails. He keeps a little
journal, in which he describes the process of nailmaking, and
incidentally throws a luminous beam upon himself.
'August 2, 1841.--Clout nailmaking goes on here rather considerably,
and is a very neat and pretty operation to observe. I love a
smith's shop and anything relating to smithery. My father was a
smith.'
From Interlaken he went to the Falls of the Giessbach, on the
pleasant lake of Brientz. And here we have him watching the shoot
of the cataract down its series of precipices. It is shattered into
foam at the base of each, and tossed by its own recoil as water-dust
through the air. The sun is at his back, shining on the drifting
spray, and he thus describes and muses on what he sees:--
'August 12, 1841.--To-day every fall was foaming from the abundance
of water, and the current of wind brought down by it was in some
places too strong to stand against. The sun shone brightly, and the
rainbows seen from various points were very beautiful. One at the
bottom of a fine but furious fall was very pleasant,--there it
remained motionless, whilst the gusts and clouds of spray swept
furiously across its place and were dashed against the rock.
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