Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1855-10-10

Family the winds are signing; q
Summers gone" =
--" Other days come back to me g
With recollected music" :
The magnificent Autumn, the royal spend 5
thrift of the year, is now wearing its proud I
regality. To me, there is-no season so love-
ly as Autumn ; there is 4 tender melanchol- !
ly about it inexpressibly soothing. Decay
is visible in all things around, yet is it not
emblematical Of the human heart our hopes
and our joys have alike faded, and the heart
left to mourn Ger life's dearest ties. There
isalanguor in the airwhich harmonises with
our dependency, and the poetry of memory
is in every dropping flower and falling leaf.
The purple and golden hues of nature now
lear the signs of that evanescent splendor,
very type of all our earthly glories. The
leaves now wear the colors which have been
worn by the flowers, and the pomp and glory
Of Autumn is around us. There is some
thing peculiarly mournful in the sound of
the Autumn wind it has none of the mer-
ry, joyous sound which belongs to earlier
Spring neither has it the dreamy melody
Of summer, when the flowers give their soft
pess and sweetness to its tones. Still less
has 1.-THE desolate wall of winters blast; but
it has o music of its own-sad, low and plain
tive, like the lost sighings of a forsaken lutte.
Autumnal breezes! in your blast,
Come memories Of the happy past;
To me, your lone, chill winds are dear,
And my sadness and gloom doth ever cheer.
Memories of the past, the bright, the hap
Ply past are around me. Remembrance with
her busy train sits at my heart and recalls
each radiant dream and rainbow illusion of
Iife's unspotted page. Other friends and
other days are before me-. I pause, as it
were, upon existence, waive the future afar
off, take no note of the present, and com.
mune with the past, the joyous past. Old
friends and associations welcome are ye o.
mid ife's hustle and turmoil, thou comes
like music from the spheres, angel voices tt
soothe our sorrows and enhance our pleas
ures.
IT'S strange how much is marked on mem
ory! it can recallthe fond hearts hopes an
fears, its earliest dreams and transient sol
rows. its genial atmosphere breathes tn
fragrance of former years, when each crush
ed hope was in the bud and life took its hu
from the flowers. Memory the star thc
5 guides us far, far back through the vista {
fermer years. Memory the key which vi
locks the heart and lifting the curtain of oil
! l%ivion, surveys each scene of life's varie
! dream. Memory! by thy magic power II
? ? bosom turns back ;to.s.its early feeling
T like the dow shedding it's sweetness o'cr II
sleeping flowers until all their morning fres
d ness is revived.
This dear, delightful season. not only
l. wakcns pleasing recolloctions, but by i
n calm, soothing influence invigorates DO
t. mind and body" brings health in {
l. breeze" and energy to the pale, weary st
- dent. lie now renews his studies with i
creased zeal, and with animated hope loo
:, Forward to the consummationof allhis cart
ly hopes-he thinning Of a deathLess nan
Is For that, he tolls for that he bends his
at tcnuated form Ger the musty volumes of 4
us cient lore, wasting health, strength, and t
pride of manhood in the pursuit of kno,
nut edge. Knowledge is power" but not hi
IN piness. Pale watcher by the midnight tape
ne when the distant goal is won, when the wres
OF fame and renown is yours when liste
- ing assemblies, and admiring crowds ha
enraptured, s%pell-bound by your magic DC
ers, and splendid oratory, you will find Il
glory is not happiness, pride is not strenp
and the world applause but mocks the on
ing tiness, the bitterness of a heart whose We
en- nings and aspirations are not vet filed. F
d a to a soul great and lofty, a heart pure :
Mss good, and a mind properly balanced. m
earthly glories will not suffice unto its h
ur- piness. Ambition! thou gilded bubble
my which SO many sacrifice all life's blessir
!. how empty are all thy dreams, how vain
most cherished hopesl Power, that h;eI
,ob pinnacle of greatness too often gilded
i'm row and splendid misery are thy handma
GRO Fame a fanciedlife in others breath /" nj
round the head, but comes not to the hear
bv Worldly greatness what is Is? " Your
hev to view above life's weakness and its 9
ton forts too"
not Christianity, the blessed instrument
only of our redemption butourregeneratic
OF in its pure and holy teachings alone is
y piness to be found,
Ma "Virtue only makes our bliss below,
And all our knowledge is ourselves to knc
lder To the deyotees of pleasure and am
the ment life has its charms and its brill