The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-04-17
Letter from McMinnviIIe.

McMlNNVlLLE, lENN., ApriI "a 1oI4.
| To the Editors of the Herald and Mail:
1t was a lovely afternoon in spring
| Nature seemed to be awakened from heI
| long repose, and we felt the full import oil
| the Divine words: 10, the winter
is past and gone; the time of the singing
birds is come, and the voice of the turtle
| is heard in our land"
The forests, enlivened by returning
songsters, the balmy air filled with the
sweet odor of flowers, and the soft music
of murmuring streamlet invited me to a
ramble in the grove.
| slowly sauntered along, gazing with a
delightful eye upon the beauties around.
Now STOPPING to pluck lovely flower
That by the wayside grew,
And at this quiet, lovely hour
Is sparkling bright as pearly dew.
Suddenly arrived at familiar spot,
under wide-spreading oak. Often, III
days gone by, have sat at the foot of its
gnarled, old trunk, and whiled away
many pleasant moments with one who
was delightful companion. | am here
alone now: she is far away. | often think
of her, and wonder if her life is as joyous
as then! Does she gladden. other hearts
with her bright fresh beauty and winsome
ways as she once did ours l feel assur-
ed, her new circle of friends can answer
in the affirmative.
Almost unconsciously took my favor
tie seat, and was soon lost in a dreamy
reYerie, gazing upon the beautiful pictures
of nature.
On such occasions we forget the pent-
up city, and our hearts futter with JOY
allied to that which animates the wood
land bird when listening in solitude to the
hum of the wilderness. Perpetual free
dom, perpetual and unalloyed happiness,
seem to breathe from every surrounding
object, SO beautifully portrayed by ma
ture's artistic skill.
Who does not delight in sightseeing
amid the clouds? As gaze upward into
yon blue dome, the anXieties of life are
all forgotten, and my heart throbs with
a quicker pulse, and beats with an in
creasing thrill of JOY. Calmness sits en-
throned upon the unmoving clouds,
whose colors are like the sky, only of
brighter hue. One is moving majestical-
ly onward, lone wanderer. Oh that |
could rest upon its gold-fringed skirts
and take an aerial voyage around the
world. Now looking down upon its hum
ming cities, its fruitful and cultivated
plains, and again upon some vast wilder
ness or ocean solitude! But, alas the
peerless beauty of that bright cloud will
be extinguished, when the sun has with
drawn its influence, and if not entirely
dispersed, will take another shape, and
make its home in darkness. But now
how holy and serene those azure depths
of air Strange, that aught so beautiful
should canopy a world of tears, decay,
and death! Yonder sky is the everlast-
ing home of countless worlds: the vast
ethereal chamber, where are displayed the
wonders of the thunder, the lightning,
and rainbow; and mirror, too, rejecting
the glorious majesty, the wisdom and
power of the Omnipotence!
| look again, and 10! there is floating
another cloud white as the driven Stow.
Rearward, there trails alcng another, and
still another, until pile on pile they reach
upward to the very zenith: and oh! how
gorgeous the scenes which my fancy con-
jures up, delighted with their changing
loneliness! One moment | behold
group of angels reclining at ease upo1
the summit of pearly battlement: and
now summoned by a celestial strain of
melody, they spread their pinions for
higher fight-a flight into the diamond
portals of the New Jerusalem. Again
a river of crystal, crested with foam, rolls
swift but noiseless through unpeopled val
leys, hemmed in by airy mountains of Won
drous height, until its waters empty into
a tranquil sea, "boundless and exceeding
Iy beautiful" On this, myriads of swan
like barges are gliding to and fro, while
the voyagers are striking their golden
harps and singing hymns of sweetest
strain and hottest import, whose echoes
die away on the shadowy waves.
Oh that | could WELD the pencil of
Larraine, how wildly would | paint the
thousand scenes, straoge, wild and beauti-
full, which in cloud-land are ever looming
up to my enraptured vision.
But, there all these, like the dreams of
youth, are melting into nothiugness, and
my eyes now rest only upon the calm, but
gorgeously beautiful sky.
The last rays of setting sun recline
upon a scene of splendor Huge heaps
of gold and crimsOn-colored clouds make
the burial place of the day King" As
twilight slowly gathers o'er the plain and
nature sinks pleasantly into a
calm and quiet state. am aroused from
my reverie, and awakened to the stern
realities of life. / sigh to know my bright
dream is only imaginary, but then It's
sweet to think of times;
"When summer skies were far more blue,
Than since they e'er have been
ORLOLA.