St. Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (St. Charles City [Charles City], Iowa) 1857-1861, 1859-12-08
branches of December, glittering like


arches and corridors of silver and
, crystal in the enchanted palaces of
, fairy-land-sparkling in the morning
sun with winters jewelry, diamond
and amethyst, and ruby aud sapphire;
the cathedral aisles of painless woods,
the mournful hemlock, the cloud
seeking pinc,-hung with dropping
creepers, like funeral banners pen
dant from the roof of chancel or tran
sept over the graves of the lords of
the soil these all retained for him to
the close of his life an undying charm
But though he ever clung with fond
ness to the wild mountain scenery
amidst which he was born and passed
his youth, he loved nature in all her
other aspects. The simple beauty to
which he had brought his farm at
Marshiield, its approaches, its grassy
lawns, its well-disposed plantations on
the hill-sidcs, unpretending but taste
full, and forming a pleasing inter
change with its large corn-iields and
turnip patches, showed his scnsibility
to the mldcr beauties of civilized cul-
turc.
He understood, no one better, the
secret sympathy of nature and art,
and often conversed on the principles
which govern their relations with
each other. lie appreciated the in
finite bounty with which nature fur
nishes materials to the artistic powers
of man, at once her servant and mas
ter and he knew not less that the
highest exercise of art is but to imi-
tate, interpret, select, AMI combine the
properties, atlimitics, and proportions
of nature that in reality they are
parts of one great system for nature
is thesDivine Creators art, and art is
rational mans creation.
But not less than mountain and
plain Ire loved the sea. lie loved to
walk and ride and drive upon that
magnificent beach which stretches
from Green Harbor all round to the
Gurnet. He loved to pass hours, |
may say days, in his little boat. He
loved to breathe the hcalthful air of
the salt water. He loved the music
of the ocean, through all the mighty
octaves deep and high of its far-rc-
sounding register from the lazy p!ash
of midsummer's ripple upon the mar
gin Of some oozy creek to the sharp
howl Of the tempest, which wrcnchcs
a lighthouse from its clamps and bolts,
fathoms deep in the living rock, as
easily as gardener pulls weed from
his fiowcr-bordcr.
There was, in fact, manifest SYM
pathy between his great mind and
this world-surrounding, deep-bcaving,
mcasureless, everlasting, infinite deep.
His thoughts and conversation often
turned upon it, and its great organic
relations with other parts of nature
and with man. have heard him al
lude to the mysterious analogy be-
tween the circulation carried on 10y
vains and arteries, heart and lungs,
and the wonderful interchange Of We
nous and arterial blood that miracu-
lous complication which lies at the
basis of animal life, and that equally
complicated and more stupendous cir
cnlation of river, ocean, vapor, and
rain, which from the fresh currents of
the rivers fills the depths of the salt
sea then by vaporous distilIation
carries the waters which are under
the armament up to the cloudy cis-
terms Of the waters above the tirma- /
ment ; watts them on the dripping
wings of the wind against the noun
tain sides, prccipitates them to the
earth in the form of rain, and leads
them again through thousand chan
nels, open and secret, to the beds Of
the rivers, and SO back to the sea.