Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1872-10-31
THE RUTLAND HERALD.
Autum,,ai Reflections.

Aufumnai Reflections.
The falling leaves and decaying yege-
tation of these autumnal days, fading
memorials of the instability of human
friendships and the perishable nature of
all earthly things, lie scattered at our
feet in. all their dying splendor. They
speak to us in emblematic language
which canuot be misunderstood, of the
coming dissolution of human life, and
the garnering of the harvest of death,
which must come to all the living.
There is a melancholy sadness in the
waning year, yet it is mingled with
gladness. This is the season of all the
year that attains the soul to the SYM
phOnies and beauties of creation. Nature
unfolds her ample volume and compels
us TO read her instructions. The mild
and chastened beams of an October sun
spread golden radiance over hill and
valley. The forests are decking them
selves in all the gorgeous colors, as if
preparing for holiday.
The harvest will soon be gathered in
and the husbandman will be at leisure to
review the labors of the season and pre-
pare for the rigors of coming winter.
Soon the November winds will chant their
melancholy dirge as an interlude to the
winter king. Autumn mnst soon resign
her sceptre to the stern monarch of Win
ter. Though at its. approach the hand
of death seems to strike all animated
existence, it kindles the fires of the
domestic hearth and draws the members
of the family circle into closer commu-
MON.
We cannot more forcibly impress au-
tumnal reflections than by giving an
editorial article from the Springfield Re
publican, upon autumn leaves and the
sermon they preach:
The falling leaf has been the theme
and illustration of many homily on the
the worthlessness and vanity of all hui
man things, the feeting nature of human
aspirations and the utter insignificance
of life. But this is the view of asceti-
cism rather than of philosophy enlight-
ened by science. Now that occasional
naples are waving their flaming torches
in the somber landscape, all the more
brilliant that they are not yet smoked by
the frosts, and as the autumn tints are
to half the busy world a mystery as well
as beauty, we purpose recreation
from the monotony of politics in botan-
ical examination Of this interesting phe-
nomenon.
The leaf is tea-kettle. A tree may
be considered in the grotesque attitude
of having its branches hung with thou
sands of tea-kettles, or more correctly,
perhaps, of being one immense tea-kettle
with thousands of tiny sprouts, from
which steam is gradually pouring. The
steam, like that from the human body,
is invisible, it is so light, but it is there;
and if thrifty plant or tree is put un-
der glass receiver, the inside of the
receiver will soon moist over and drip
with exhaled vapOr. This is what be-
comes of all the water with which
plants are watered; it is absorbed into
the roots, passes up through mysterious
cooling processes by which the plant eX-
tracts nutriment from it, and passes out
at the leaves. But this wafer is loaded
with mineral substances, after having
soaked in the earth, or is - hard, as the
housewives say. Over the kitchen fire,
it sometimes leaves thick deposit in the
iron tea-kettles, and after being boiled in
the tree it leaves a thick deposit in the
leaves. The pores of the leaves are not
very large, of course, being quite invisi-
BILE to the naked eye, and finally fill up
with this deposit from the water. The
filing up renders them quite useless as
leaves, and changes their COloring matter
to the brilliant dyes of the autumn time.
But here there remains a still unexplained
mystery-the strangeness of these
changes, how is it that the ordinary
beech leaves change to rich brown
while the leaves of the b.Own beech,
reversing the order, change to green,
and the maple to a red, and despite our
wisdom, we shouldn't dare to be asked
how it is that the evergreens don't
change at all.
But there is another singular and pc
culiarly moral point in the economy of
the falling leaf The leaf dosen't drop
off until il has, so to speak, made its will
and provided for its heirs. The leaf Is,
therefore, an example of the most world
ly prudence rather than of vanity. Lest
its separation from the bough should
wound the parent support, it goes to
work and carefully cuts the dividing
line, all but few shreds of tough, dead
skin, and heals the scar before it is made.
After this scar is well bandaged over by
the healing indictments of nature, the
work of the leaf is done, its mission ac-
complished. From that day on it aban-
dons itself to the bright coQuetries of a
being of leisure, and losses merrily in
the breeze, with the consciousness of a
duty done and a playday earned. And
when at length it flutters to the earth
and resigns itself to the burial of winter,
it is with no vain longings after its past
life, but, we doubt not, with secret
pride and dissatisfaction, that it has
exchanged mission of useful beauty
for one of beautiful utility.