Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1830-1846, 1842-11-17
From the Token and Allsuiic Souvenir tor lsi3.
TEACHINGS OF AUTUMN.
BYF. W. p. GREENw GOD.

The feelings excited by the auiumnal
season are unyaried. and they are S" true,
so deep, SO near TO the fountain of our
life, that they are always powerful
Time after time we may go into the au-
,umnal wood, and, while the yellow
leaves fall slowly down, and touch the
earth with q sound so soft that II is nj
most silence, the self same thong hts shall
be suggested to Us, and not appear
hackneyed or old. They shall be as
affecting the last time as the first. They
shall even, like the words Of fine poetry,
or ancient prayer, endear themselves by
repetition. Are they not poelry-are
they not prayer? When nature and the
earth converse together, they converse
like old friends, on familiar and domes site
things, on truths that cannot lose their
interest-lhe common but eternal truths
of mortality. So complete is the system
which runs through The visible universe,
that there are evident analogies and
sympaihies between our moral condition
and the condition Of all earthly things
These analoges and sympa,hies are the
same in every age. They a,e observed
felt and uttered at all times. The utter
ancc of them is transmitted from mouth
to mouth They often arise to the same
heart and the same lips but man cannoi
weary of the final truth Of his mortal con-
dition. They are his p"e.ry-his prayer :
his poetry while they rest in the present
world /; and his prayer, when they are
united with the future and with God.
And what are the suggest ms of au-
lnmn /? What do We think, and what do
we say, when we behold the leaves
falling, the grass wilhering, and the
flowers fading' The peasant, MS he
passes ~ his toll, the cottage dame, as
she sits at the door the man of business,
when he quits the paved and crowded
streets the young as well as the old-ay,
aud the gddy and the gay, as well AS
the serious-all express essentially the
same sen,men, which poets express, and
which the prophet exclaimed, aud the
apostle repeated long centuries ago -
GAN flesh is grass" says the prophet,
"and all the goodness thereof rs the
I flower ofihe field" "For all The grass"
repeats the apostle, sand nIl the glory
of man as the flower of the grass. -
That is the moral which never tires. -
That is The feeling which is as old as the
time when the first leaf fell dry and
shrivelled at the feet Of the frs, man,
and as recent as the present season oI
dccadence and death. The conviction
that all the goodness Of mans moria
frame, tha, all the glory Of mans earthly
prospects, hopes, & plans, is as the beau.
,y of wiiheriog grass, and the array %
perishng Aowers,is borne to all hearts by
the signing winds ofauiumn. Oh bend
unbl oxen between natures fairest chill
dren and ourselves! Who is moi con.
scious of its reality and its force Oh
primitive brotherhood between herbs and
blossoms and the Suns of men, between
| green things which spring UP and then
wilhcr, and the bright things which un.
fold and then fade ; between these md
countcnances which blossom and then
change, eyes which sparkle and then are
quenched, breathing and blessed forms
which appear in loyelness and then are
gone, who does not acknowledge its
claims of kindred ! "Surely the people
| is grass ;" surely there is no more sta
bihy in the strongest Of mankind, than
in the grass Of the field, which to day is,
and tomorrow is rasl into the oven"