Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1843-09-08
LITERARY GEMS.
Selected for the Pennsylvania Enquirer)
From the Works Of Miss T.. Bremen.
THE SICK CHAMBER.

Health and the Sun have been always
sung and praised; | will not celebrate sick
ness and shade. | will celebrate thee, bod
lily sickness, when thou laycst thy hand on
the head and heart of man, and sayest to
the sul1erings of his spirit, " Enough -
Thou art called on earth an evil {; alb how
often art thou good, "A healing balsam, I'M
der whose benign influence the soul rests
after its hard struggles, and lis wild storms
are still more than once hast thou prcven-
ted suicide, and preserved from Madness
The terrible, the bitter words which destroy
the heart are by degrees obliterated during
the feversh dreams of illness the terrors
which lately seemed so near us are drawn
away into the distance; we forget,-God be
thanked, we forget and when at las, we
arise with exhausted strength from the sick
bed, our souls often awake as out of long
night into new morning. So many things,
during the illness of the body, conspire to
soften the feelings; the still room; the mild
twilight through the window curtains; the
low voices and then more than all, the kind
words of those who surround us, their attcn-
ton, their solicitude, perhaps tear in their
ewes; all this does us good; and when the
wise Solomon enumerated all the good things
which have their time upon the earth, he
forgot 10 celebrate sickness among the rest.
THE SPIRIT OF LOVE.
Meanwhile the spring appeared. With
an expression of Gods love, the sun smiled
down upon the earth she felt it, awoke
from her sleep, and breathed out her morn
ing prayer, in the silent but delicious fra
GRANGE of the fresh flowers. would gladly
know what goes on within you, o Earth,
when thy birds begin to sing, thy waves to
dance, when thou arrayestt myself in so beau
tiful a garment, that, even under the shad-
ows of night, the stars of heaven and the
eyes of men look upon thee with love, when
millions of small winged beings arise from
thy nower-beds, and fill the air with the har-
monious murmur of their gay existence,
when thrill of joy goes through their veins,
when the whole inspired nature is a look of
love and a hymn of gadness; | would glad
ly know, if thou ieelcst the gladncss which
goes out from thee, the infinite delight which
thou causest. What | know is, that thou
eivest new life to the heart of man; to hls
blood a quicker circulation that thou deliv-
crest his spirit from the oppressive gray
winter of life, that, resting on the bosom OF
Nature, he can feel a joy independent of all
things else, a pure feeling of love of life, a
love of living. o! that could lead ou
whoever is sick, in body or mind, on spring
morning; lay him among the young flowers
let him look up to the dark blue sky, and or
the bright and living splendor of the eartI
, about him let him feel the warmth of tho
sun-beams, the healing GOODNESS of the air
all the sweet influences of life and of ma
ture, which speaks to the heart like TIN
$ voice of friend, like smile from God
Certainly, the unhappy man would here for
S get for time the ungrateiul one who has in
n jured him; forget the cares which are was
ting away the threads of his life; even re
: morse would here be slilled, believing i
= forgiveness the often deceived would hop
4 anew; certainly the child of sorrow would
before his death, have few hours of undis
n turbed felicity; when the evening comes
}, he could still look back upon this sprip
!. morning and say ~ too have been happ
!. upon the earth"