Wonder
(Golder Project subject term)
Represented in
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Canto First in The New Zealand Survey
- Thus where the waters have scooped furrows deep / In cultivated soil, as well as where / The river’s banks are broke, like some wild freak / Of Nature’s fancy, will some mystery strange / Itself discover, in some buried tree,
- to the painter’s muse unfolds / A scenery richly picturesque and grand / Apart from ought of tameness, as to need / Some fancy touches of his penciling art / T’ attractth’ observer’s wonder loving eye!
- They form a prospect charming to behold, / As seen before the distant azure sky, / And gilded by the sun’s enliv’ning beams; / Such, ev’ry other thought, save to admire, / Absorbs, and fills the mind with calm delight!
- leave our frigid heights / And lofty seated forests to ourselves! / As we thy admiration still may claim, / To cheer you ’mid the cares of worldly toils!”—
- fondly view / Surrounding scenery of the grandest kind / In native splendour, unadorned by man; / And of variety, that makes one feel / Spell-bound in admiration of the whole!—
- Who may look back on unrecorded time, / And feel unawed at the momentous view; / When nothing but what is sublimely great / Unfolds itself in every phase and form?—
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Advertisement to the Crystal Palace in The New Zealand Survey
- I could not but regard the project of the great exhibition, with some admiration, feeling convinced that its ultimate results might lead to great moral revolutions, all tending to the welfare of the human family at large.
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Canto Fifth in The New Zealand Survey
- But whence this solitary race of men? / How have they here got planted?—may be asked.— / A race of savages without a date,— / Or record of their early history / To trace their lineage!—They’re ever prone / To deal in wonders, and tradition’s lore / Much mixed with fable, contrary to aught / That’s probable, or may be reckoned true; / Crude fancy’s pictures ever over drawn / On some poetic, but untutor’d mind, / Which would try to expound the reason why / The ancient sires got landed on these shores; / While facts with fictions of the basest kind / Are so comingled, no dependance can / Be placed upon each theory declared: / But what can be expected from such minds, / Whose ignorance was darkness multiplied? / Whose ideas, the shades of wand’ring dreams / Of evanescent nature, hard to hold! / Or like the ignus fatuus wand’ring wide, / And leading the benighted far astray / From the sure path,
- oft he loved to tell / Of the heroic man of peace, and his / “Kaipuka”—his majestic looking ship— / As monarch of canoes; and how he felt / Sensations strange of wonder, and of awe / At such a sight;
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Preface in The New Zealand Survey
- after a sojourn among the valleys, where the eye is circumscribed to narrow limits; then coming into such an open space where the eye can find an abundant scope for its roving
- lifting the eye towards the opposite horizon and seeing forest-clad hills overtopping others, and beyond these the snow crested summits of a loftier range rising before an azure sky, the mind begins to feel as overwhelmed in a sort of inexpressible delight.
- from such a height to overlook an extensive valley filled with one dense mass of forest, the mind is filled with awe to contemplate the amount of labour required before such can be subdued;
- New Zealand is the land for scenery; such that contains a vast amount of grandeur and picturesque beauty; not only so, but it also contains much that prompts enquiring wonder, when first is seen its lofty ridges covered with evergreen forests, and its deep ravines from which issue its many purling brooks, all beckoning and inviting the reflective mind to go far into the past of time, there to witness scenic phenomina which language almost fails to describe.
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Canto Second in The New Zealand Survey
- ’Tis well should we with sense of the sublime, / Endeavor information to increase / From Nature and her works! ’Tis well though we / Should excavate our knowledge from earth’s depths, / Or glean it from the surface, where such signs / Protrude themselves, as ’twere unwittingly, / To prompt th’ enquiring mind t’ interrogate / Appearances around!
- So here, though clothed in Nature’s vernal robes / This scene delightful, calling forth our praise, / And admiration, still, all speak of change / And revolutions buried in the past; / But which oblivion fails such things to veil, / Though such might ’scape the less enquiring eye / That doats on beauty, willing to admire!
Searching
For several reasons, including lack of resource and inherent ambiguity, not all names in the NZETC are marked-up. This means that finding all references to a topic often involves searching. Search for Wonder as: "Wonder". Additional references are often found by searching for just the main name of the topic (the surname in the case of people).
Other Collections
The following collections may have holdings relevant to "Wonder":
- Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, which has entries for many prominent New Zealanders.
- Archives New Zealand, which has collections of maps, plans and posters; immigration passenger lists; and probate records.
- National Library of New Zealand, which has extensive collections of published material.
- Auckland War Memorial Museum, which has extensive holdings on the Auckland region and New Zealand military history.
- Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, which has strong holdings in Tāonga Māori, biological holotypes and New Zealand art.
- nzhistory.net.nz, from the History Group of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage.