Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1860-11-08
Autumn.

How melancholy, and yet how beautiful,
is now the face of nature. What splendid
variety does she present 10 the sye in the
col3ring Of the forest. and what lovely spec
tacle in the brilliant amber Of the evening
sky fading as it ascends into the deep, soft
azure of the ceru lean vault Of heaven. The
clouds. too, of every shape. FURNISHED with
melted gold, and hanging lazily above the
western horizon, give splendor to the dying
glories of departing day. But the forest
ah who can paint the rich and beautiful
tints of the foliage, seen by tho mellow light
ofah autumnal sun Amidst the rich brown
and sombre green may be perceived the
scar and yelloy leaf" harmonizing with the
hues around it, but indicating tho gradual
decay of vegetable life. How STILL and calm
and me'an choly, is this landscape-and how
pensive is the feeling it produces To Mil
ton, Thomson, and some other men OF geni-
US, this WAS the favorite season of inspira-
tion-as if, while they contemplated the de-
caying beauties of nature, they experienced
a warmer glow of Imagination. and deeper,
richer, a1d more luxuriou, gush of soul. =
Its livery is certainly splendid, but iis moral
associations are not calculated, in some
minds. to beget that tone of feeling which is
to be coveted The idea that the desolation
of all that.was gay, y,and beautiful, and lovely,
in the vegetable kingdom is rapidly approach
ing, is apt to spread a gloom over the mind
which it cannot resist, and which mars the
| pleasures that its varied charms would 9th
erwise produce. 1t reminds us of the desc
lation of winter-of the end of life: and to
many this is not subject of pleasing con-
temptation, though it may be necessary and
salutarv one.
g Nan is, but always to be best
In the spring of life a thousand brilliant
phantoms play before his intellectual vision,
thousand forms of anticipated pleasure
autter before his imagination; sunny ra-
dance surrounds his whole being, and
"Hope enchanted smil.s, and waves her golden
hair"
He lives in o world o: enchantment, in a
fairy land, where every object is gilded with
the golden bues Of Imagination. He looks
on the fashionings of poetry as the embodied
essence of bright and all radiant substance;
every sweet rosied thought is pleasant song
to his dreaming, asshrined sanctity TO his
mind ; and be thinks not of the coming
clouds that are to darken the bright sunny
surface of his existence. A few short years
roll over his head, and all these sweet, poet
ic, and rapturous visions pass away He
feels the dull realities of life-and encoun-
ters the turmoil, business and cares of the
world. The friends of his youth have sunk
into the grave, or become his enemies or ri
walls; the realization Of his dreams has dis.
appointed him. or he discovers them to be
vain and unsatisfying. He fHds mankind
cold and heartess-each seeking his own in
terest, and tramrling upon him who stands
in his way, or checks his career. He feels
that life is dull routine of siokly joys, insi.
pid Pleasures, and splendid miseries; and
his mind, soured by disappointment, and
sickened with the world, looks forward al
last to the real and undying glories of futu-
rity. 1t is we'll that it is SO. An entire
freedom from pain and misery, and an unin
terrupted succession of epjoyments, would
render the bare idea of quitting life too pain
ful to be endured, and preclude all hope O
preparation for a future state. Heaven il
its wisdom has strewed the path of life with
thorns as well as roses, that, in this scene O
probationary trial, the future may not be los
in tho enjoyment of the present, and that The
great end Of human existence, preparation
for that boundless eternity to which we ar,
all Fastening. may be accomplished.