Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1854-02-03


tense gold, flames shout them, and only
lets them Be seen dimly - if standing in .
blasing furnace.
But they are not harmed. For when
the sun gets behind them. they stand forth
against the sky. large. full, bold and uu-
consumed. They are the last sights that
die out Of the heavens, as night deepsns
and darkens.
But before the light forsakss the horizon
you are already cleanssd Of life's daily
CRIME and dust. That great round horizon
1t is whatever your imagination requires
it to be. 1t is = soma keliing the earth.
Or it is lucid rampant, battlement of
transparent stones, or it is sn ocean full Of
purple islands, whose near waters are GRIM
son taking orange hucs as they recede,
then sapphire, amid white and grey, and
carried up toward the vault with spangled
blue and black. Upon such = ground ss
this nature sets up and takes down her
temple Of clouds with wcndrously facile
architecture. There Is no foo,step left
along that horizon, and no visible hand
But can any one look and not know that
there is an enshrincd spirit there! Is it
not from out Of such passes as these shat
angels come to guard our night watch?
From those cliffs are there no slu1nLerless
eyes that gaze after US?
But there are some hours in which we
feel called to pierce these outguards 0:
heaven, and see that city beyond, from
which the sun himself borrows his light,
as the moon flls itself from his bosom
Why should we stand upon this side Of
the entrance, falling down, like poor Mercy
in Pilgrims Progress, before the gate :?
Thought moy enter, faith dies; bu, tie
body, like an anchor, sticks fast to the
earth, and brings back again the reluctant
soul to her moorings.
Ten thousand stars stand meekly now
in the heavens. Ten thousand sparkling
stars are lit from beneath and rock them
selves in the trembling waters. Yonder,
too, lies that great city with a thousand
shining eyes, erouched down, bu, always
watching, always murmuring, night and
day, like some huge, mutteriug bshemoth,
waiting for its prey in the reeds by the sea
shore.
One who had lived within sound Of the
surf upon Long Island south shore, would
think, If he sat for the first time by my
window, in the night, and heard the dull,
low, mufled roar Of the city, tba. he was
close upon the ocean. If l shut my eyes,
can hear in this sound the sullen plunge
OF Niagara as it came through the night
air to my room 10 the hotel. Nor does the
resemblance cease with the sound. 1t is
the united roll Of single wheels, crushing
and jarring through all the streets Of the
vast city that form its base; just as it is
the singing Of single drops in the choir
Of waves that makes the thunder Of the
ocean.
Morning, noon, nigh. and midnight. you
still have the continuous roar; distant and
soft when the wind sets towards the west !;
near and rushing right towards you when
the winds are from the west. Bat there
is rest from New York. From midnight
Of Saturday till three o'clock Of Monday
morning, the Sabbath charms and ballows
the air. The city sleeps like laboripg
man after his toll. 1t is very impressive
to stand upon radiant Sabbath morning
and feel the hush and solitude Silence
always speaks Of God. The gildcd cross
on the spire Of Trinity, catching the earli.
est glow, shines like star, As if, like that
Of Bethlehem, it would lead men to where
the Savior dwelt.
But on other days nothing can quiet the
great voice Of the city. AL day and all
night it sounds on.
Then, there are the deep measured
strokes Of the ponderous fire. bell, answered
and echoed from bell to bell all over the
city. Nov and then beam of light
shoots up upon the sky, and the city glows
in its conaagratiou. Usually, fires would
come and 60 unknown excep. to lockers on,
were it not for the bells. They are smoth-
cred before they can break out.
Que sits at night aud looks out on that
mysterious space, marked to the eye only
BY lights, cleaning singly, or in files, and
imagines what scenes are transpiring be-
fore him. Should l pierce to that distant
lamp, should land in the wedding group.
Should I overleap that one, and 50 on to
the chamber from which the next shines,
there is child dying, mother wailing.
Should strike through the she'll to the
living kernel, in one place, crime would
spring up disclosed /; another line would
reveal vices Of unimasiued grossuess.
Isay to myself, ss l look forth, there
mother sings her child to sleep; there a
virgin draws angels to her prayers; there
. wife waits for footsteps which once wero
music, but which, ere long, will tread