Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1860-07-28
THE NINE O'CLOCK BELL.

THE NINE O'CLOCK BELL
1t is a beautiful custom which prevails in
many towns and villages in New England
this ringing of the church bells at the good,
wholesome hour of nine o'clock in the evening.
1t is an observance, too, sanctioned by time
honored Usage handed down to us by our pu-
ri.an fathers,-redolent of antiquity, and of
those good old days when people went to rest
betimts, slept soundly and sweetly upon hard
beds, and arose with the sun, or the larks, if
you please.
There is to us something inexpressibly pleas
ant in this ringing of the bells at nine o'clock,
and we never pass a night in a strange village,
but we feel more at hom in it-more tranquil
and fitted for repose, if we chance to hear at
the usual time some faithful sentiment in a
neighboring steeple, sending forth its evening
chime. There is more than we think in the
power of early associations. We never forget
the mellow tones of the churh bell which graced
the belfry of the village church in our native
hamlet. Its cadences will ever and anon sound
in our ears all our lives long, though many
dreary miles of land or sea make a gulf between
us and our early home.
Who has not some particular bell in his
memory, which to his boyish eyes seemed the
largest bell upon earth? What an interest it
had in his eyes! How he watched with eager
ness for its ringing, and with what a feeling of
curiosity, mingled with awe, he mounted, for
the first time the rickety staircase, wound his
way up through the unfinished garnet, and stood
face to face with the object of his admiration
or look down from the dizzy hight upon mother
earth far below. and the blue hills in the dis
lance, standing up like armed sentinels against
the sky. What a variety of cadences the old
bell possessed On gala-day it rang a merry
peal, and the child's heart leaped for joy. On
the Sabbath its tones were more solemn and
majestic, according well with the solemnity of
the day and seeming to say to all within the
sound of its voice, "this is none other than the
house Of prayer, the very gate of heaven = but
when it tolled the knell of a departed soul, the
tones were sad and mournful, dying away upon
the air with a tremulous sound, like a mourner's
sob.
We have read that the travellers in foreign
lands with The broad ocean rolling between
them and home, have sometimes awakened at
night, and seemed to hear the church bells
ringing in their homes beyond the sea, and so
real did it seem to them. that it was difficult to
dispel the Illusion, if such it be. May it not be
possible that i'll certain peculiar states of the
mind,-that wonderful creation of a divine
hand,-the faculties become so acute, so inten-
siiied, the delicate nerves of sensation so en-
HANGED in power, that time and space are ami
hilated, and we are borne OF the wings of the
wind as il were, very near our home and friends.
1t was not all an illusion when the heroine of
that most delightful novel--Jane Eyre-seemed
to hear the voice of Rochester calling to her in
the darkness. Who has not in his own expert
ence known instances similar to this, of those
who heard voices in the nightwatches, and
gained strength and courage thereby.
"Perclicd Gods right hand in thpt darkness,
And were lifted up and strengthened
One need not 90 to the city for sweet-toned,
pnuStca1 halle /, ,an Of tbn r,ra1 ,,lln.n, -
the north country, we may hear as rich, full
tones,-as harmonious cadehces as ever fell up
on the ~listning air of the evening from cathe-
dral dome or lofty church-spire. 1t is after all,
the associations, the memories awakened, that
render the tones of even u dimunitive bell more
majestic and soul moving than organ music to
our ears.
We recollect one bell in an obscure country
village whose mellow tones will live forever in
our heart. In the clear evenings of mid sum
mer, as the shadows d~eepened along the land
scape and the stars peeped out one by one sin
the infinite meadows of heaven" its clear, sill
very tones might be heard echoing among the
hills, proclaiming the hour of nine o'clock, and
saving not inaudibly, TO all the dwellers round
about, The night cometh sleep on now and
take your rest, for all is WELL ~ 1t is impossible
to describe the tranquilizing influence its tones
exerted-the happy recollections is awakened
in the hearts of those who nightly listened to
its welcome music. At such a time, under the
clear sky of a midsummer night,
"The friendships old and the early loves
Come back with n Sabbath sound as of doves
In quiet neighborhoods.'
Let us cherish with a feeling akin to veneer
alton anything that tends to occasionally sep
arate us from the busy toll and style of life's
battle,-soothe and calm our troubled spirits,
and fit us for repose! Long may it be before
the time-hallowed customs die out in New Eng
land which sets the church bells a ringing Il at the
good hour Of rine o'clock, for with it would
vanish one of the most valued associations of
childhood.
I'VE may build more splendid habitations,
Fill our rooms with paintings and with sculptures,
but we cannot
Buy with gold the old associations"