Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1857-02-25
LADIES DEPARTMENT..
For the Spirit of the Age.
TO THE SOCIAL CIRCLE.
Sabbath Musings-No. 70

&&S4 49, -
ton stands written in unmistakable char
acters. However beautiful or grand, aught
connected with earth alteration dare not
follow the senses which it delights; for it
is ever held in check by the consciousness
that the iron tooth Of time and decay may
be even now gnawing at the core, or if
not yet, soon will be actively employed
upon the pleasure inspiring object. Child
hood with its sunny brow and gleesome
laugh-youth with the early dreams of
a glorious manhood flashing meteor-like
athwart his dazzled vision-manhood in
the full development ofawe-inspiring facul-
ties-old age with the silvery traces of
times fingers cleaning from the spot where
raven blackness swept the brow, have all
gone down in the very perfection Of their
beautyto that cold, damp, Unsuitable charnel
house-THE GRAVE.
The purposes of love, the perfection of
business, contracts the development of dis
coveries; the benefits from science are rent
asuuder lightly, as if woven by the hand
Of infancy. Pleasures, offices, emoluments,
occupations, whatever their objects or end,
are toys ; vain, idle empty TRIES, to
the messenger Of time. But turn we
from the varied avenues of human life,
where quiet loves, jarring discords, far
reaching ambition, and christian content
are every where blended, and shall we more
successfully search for exemption from the
stern law Of change? Nature has a pom
derous volume, which a protracted lifetime
cannot fathom but there is no law ofcon-
stancy Inscribed upon her pages. Spring
time decks the earth in verdant beauty,
robes the sky in azure brightness, and
filings her beautiful gifts Of leaves and bios
SONS, music aud gladness, with no meager
hand upon hill and dale, over forest and
field. Summer treads upon her heels with
scorching breath, willing the flower but
forming the rich and luscious fruit. Au-
tumn comes with matronly grace; her arms
full Of perfected grain and tempting clus-
tersj yet wearing the garb of conscious and
contented dignity Time gazes awhile but
stays not his hand. The frost kiss presses
the forest brow, and though the blush ava
kened by the salutation may be at first more
gorgeously attractive than the gentler face
she wore, yet beneath the changing glow
lie the ripening seed of dreary desolation
and decay. Then winter, with despotic
rlgoT, sets in, sealing up brooklets, crisping
buds, willing the last pale flower and throw.
ing her Clustering sheet over all. The for.
est population, which as a mighty giant
band seem 20 defy the power of God OIL
man, writhe and groan beneath the huri
canes devastating fury, and wrung and
beaten from their towering pride presen.
no vestige Of their glorious strength
Haunts, which nature had lavished all he,
magic art OF adornment upon, and to which
pristine beauty the hand of innovation ha,
added no detraetiDg Improvement, has beef
broken up into disordered fragments by th
heavings Of the monster earthquake, or ha
sunk far down into the abyss created by it,
commissions. The harmonious blendins
OF tints in the glorious arch which span
HeaVen's high dome, is evanescent as beau
tiful. The monarch flower upon its enc
raid throne, which Solomon in all his glor,
and grandeur could not equal, soon greet
the late admiring eye a blasted and uncarec
for thing. Even the 'bold babbling" o
Niagara's writhing waters, as it ~stunningl
prOclaims
81 have no tale to tell of man
God is my thence"
and though invested by the high hand i
recognizes with the power
"To chronicle the ages back
and lotch His centuries in the eternal rocks,
must obey the mandate of that Maste
voice which to the thunder's deafenin
roar and tempest's clashing fury said
"Peace, be still - and there was a grea
calm. Nay, the unceasing whirl of tn
enraged and destructive Maelstrom, in il
widespread devastation and grandeur Blu
another
flight wave
That breaks and whispers Of its Makers might
at the same reproving tones will forevt
cease its roar. The rugged mou tai
whose eternal foundations seem to be lai
IN earth's very centre, rearing aloft i
craggy brow until not even the hardie,
pine "dare uprear a veteran front in tn;
drear atmosphere" must eventually exp,
rience natures general CONFUSION and di
appear amid the dissolution of matter an
the 6nal downfall Of the doomed univers
Changing, still changing, bursts..the CT
from the tortured heart and changin
still changing rings the echo back fro
forest and hill from mountain brow an
sunny slope. Beautiful, varied, brigh
Overwhelmingly beautiful, is the impress OF
Masters hand upon the earth's fair fac
We gaze entranced until the soul grow
full to overlooking with the fitness of j
adaptation TO our comforts and pleasure
its harmony, Its completeness, its perfe,
loneliness and yet our conceptions Al
too limited, too weak to comprehend on
half of its glories. All it is well that '
know the summers sun may be obscure
by the murky storm cloud, where the luri
lightnings Turk and the crashing thunde
sleep. 1t is well that we know the ocean
glittering face may be dashed into angr
surges, and TIE lovely wales desolated
the blasting breath of the ~sirocco. 1t
well that the thorn springs up by the sic
OF the blushing rose, and the drear win,
of autumn sweep the dead leaves throue
the dim forest isles. Yes, it is well-it
well-it is well. Yet are not nature
changes all sad
From the Oarth's bare breast, and the mountai
crest,
The fragrant AOwrSt springs;
And the leahoss bough grows musical now,
With songs the linnet sings.
around the lone halls and Wondering walls
VI fanes that ruined lie,
Doth the ivy leaves Irvine in glossy wreaths
Otdaues that never die.
Tere the bee may hum, and the birding com
10 nUIn hAW