The Litchfield County post. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1826-1829, 1827-10-04

stretch of imagination to suppose, that mi
mute crystals of ice may be suspended at a
great height in the atmosphere, sufficiently
| high even TO be exposed to the suns rays,
which of course pass obliquely over the globe
when the arctic circle is enveioped in the
earth's shadow If this could take place the
rays might be retracted by clouds of the con-
gealed atoms towards the North Pole, and
cause the phenomenon Of the aurora bOrealis;
and towards the South in less degree, pro-
portiOnate to the supposed quantity of float
ing crystals IN comparatively warmer region
forming the aurora australis. The visible
phenomenon then, is here considered to be
an atmospheric reflection of the refraction of
the suns rays through floating medium of
crystazed water. And according to this view
of the case the various mOmentary move
! ments, extinctions, and re-illuminations of the
phenomenon must be effected by the rising.
falling, sudden chrystiliZation, expansion, al
iteration of form, and aggregation OF the mi
mute crystals, varied infinitely by currents of
wind, chemical and other causes unknown.
The following beautiful illustration of Life,
is from the celebrated Bishop Heber's fare
well Sermon. delivered upon the eve of his
departure for India, to his Pensioners at Hold
net, in England.
Life bears us on like the stream of a
mighty river. Our boat, at FIRST, glides swift
iy down the narrow channel through the play
full murmurings of the little brook, and the
windings of its grassy border. The trees
shed their blossoms over our young heads :;
the flowers on the brink seem to offer them
selves to our young hands we are happy in
hope, and we grasp eagerly at the beauties a.
round us; but the stream hurries lis on, and
still our hands are empty.
"Our course in youth and manhood is a
long wider and deeper food, and amid OBJ
jects more striking and magnificent. We are
animated ny the moveing picture Of enjoy
ment and industry passing before us, we are
excited by some short livid success, or de-
pressed and rendered miserable by some e.
qually short-lived disappointment. But our
energy and our dependence are both in vain.
The stream bears us on, and our Joys and
our grefs alike are left behind u.s. we may
be ship-wrecked but we cannot anchor; our
voyage may be fastened but cannot be de-
Iayed; whether rough or smooth, the river
bastens towards it home. till the roaring of
the ocean is in our ears. and the tossing of
his waves is beneath our keel, and the lands
lesson from our eyes, and the floods are lift
ed up around us, and the earth loses sight of
us,and we take our last leave Of earth and its
inhabitants, and of our further voyage there
is no witness but the Infinite and Eternal
'And do we still take SO much thought for
the future days. when the days which have
gone by have so strangely and uniformly de-
on the creatures OF God. When we ind, BY
sad experience, that the Creator only is per-
manent! Or shall we not rather lay aside eve
~ sin which does most easily beset us, and
think of ourselves henceforth as wayfaring
persons only, who have no abiding inheri.
lance but in the hope of better world, and
to whom even that world would he worse
than hopeless, if it were not for our Lord Je-
sus Christ, and the interest which We have
obtained in his mercies p