Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1843-11-09
MlISOIslhlhAAN IEGUSo
AUTUMN.

The return Of Autumn is fitted to in
spire serious and seasonab!e reflections.
Gay Summer has glided away like sha-
dow over the plain. We seem now to
have obtained cool retreat from its fer.
vid heats as well as solemn view Of the
declining year. Nature is eloquent, va.
rious, beautiful, sublime. Who hath not
heard her voice A poet Of high rank
speaks Of the "power Of philosophical
melancholy" as claiming to exert influ.
ence with this opening season. Rather
should not the Genius of Beauty and of
Bene6cence ascend the throne at the Au-
tumna period, and bless the vision of the
minds creative eye." Where is not
beauty? Is it rot in the line that sepa-
rates the retiring summer from The ap-
preaching Autumn? Is it not revealed in
the blessed influence of these proximate
periods? | now speak of moral beauty,
of the charm Of its existence at such a
season as this. Who hath not felt it p
He indeed, whose intellect has been OBJ
scured and whose sensibiliies have been
supplied by moral obliquity or vicious in
diligence of some kind, may say, hare
not, but the thoughtful observer of the de-
velopements Of nature and the flight Of
time will be studious of the lessons thus
inculcated.
"The truth, divinely breaking the mind,
Elates his being, and unfolds his powersi
Or in his breast heroic virtue burns"
That the seasons by their original con-
stitu,ion we're intended to act upon the in
tellectual and moral, as well as physical
powers of man, cannot be doubted oy
those who have observed how in fact mind
has been quickened and exalted by their
influence. To the imagination especially
they seem to minister the very aliment of
its life and beauty. How does the soul Of
The sweet Psamlst of Israel kindle under
sush nhueacei OF uninspired poetry an
instance or two will suiiice-ihe Pastorals
of Virgil, and the Seasons of Thompson.
Nor are these merely works OF the imagi-
nation. As they are the product of intel
lectnaI labor so it requires intellectual Ia
Dor to understand them. They cannot be
SKINNED. There is deep and divine phi
losophy in them. The intellectis ins:ruc-
ted and expanded, the love of truth invig-
GRATED, the resolute endeavor after good is
encouraged, and the whole man improved.
The pure and holy Teacher from Heaven
did not disdain TO appeal to the modest lily
Of the field and the winged denzens Of the
air, for the enforcement of a point of in
struction. Ii Genius then, as well as Pr
ETY., has so uniformly been walked into ex-
ercise by external Nature, is it not a just
inference that the Creator of mind and
matter has established this law? That he
has linked the outward to the inward by
millions of chords too attenuaied TO be
perceived by the common eyeg Look
forth, then, reader, upon the beauty of the
beauty Of the Season. Here is one Of the
serene and meek-eyed sisters of this love-
ly family, four in number, acknowledging
common Father, happy in has smile, liv-
ing on his bounty, rejecting his glory
In the hand Of this one you see bunch
of faded flowers. She received Them from
her gay and joyous sister, as she departed,
but then they were in all their bloom and
freshness. Now they are withered. The
truth emblematically taught is, that eve
all do fade as leaf" Autumn would
thus silently breathe into our hearts les
son, which it is the interest Of all to learn.
Ii nov we contemplate the forest or the
field, as each begins to assume the Au-
tumnal hue, the idea Of beauty still fingers
in the mind. True, it is the beauty of the
expiring year, but this heightens the emo
ZION of the soul, as it would kindle at the
spectacle of dying believer, whose pal
lid features are llumined with the bright.
ness of hope, or tremble with the ecstacy
Of JOY.
Suggestion, too, comes in to aid the i'm.
preston. Il there was no expected Spring
when all shall look green again, the spir-
it of melancholy might well come over
us. But again will the younger sister oil
the group return, wreathed in smiles and
redolen. OF fragrance, to wake the echoes
of the human heart. So there is spring
time for mortal man, when the corrupt
BILE shall put on interruption, and the NOR
tai shall put on immortality, when the an
imal shall be lost in the spiritual, and
DEATH swallowed up in VICTORY. Il is
the analogy of nature. 1t is applied by
the Author of nature himself in the per-
son of Jesus Christ. II is so beautiful a
thought, that il is repeated by the Chief
Apostle, and can never lose IFS interest.
The 6enifcence Of the closing year is so
well fitted to excite gratitude, that he who
is stranger to this emotion should sus.
pect some mental or moral obl;quty, and
wonder that he can live in the midst of the
4 4 IL r.