The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1881-08-18
Venus and the Dog Star.

ucSc uIc uoyS nS''1 =.
friendly protected clouds, the radia'
ting slopes Of our streets, the tow
ering uncomely hills. house tops.
open spaces. and even the green
woods and adjacent lakes seem to
turn everything that surround them
into q furnace of blistering heat,
and when the impious ejaculation
is heard on every side that Hades
is an ice house in comparison. The
weather has no friends among the
vast mass of sweltering humanity.
But if it is hot-hot as the new
version cannot express tive shall
stand by the summer season as the
best of the cycling year and appeal
to our younger readers to sustain us
in it's defense. 1t is above all times
best adapted to star gazing in small
crowds of two, as these younger
readers know. Though as king and
queen on the same throne at early
morn, at dewy eve two bright stars,
objects OF all lovers interest, reigns
apart, and when Sirius mounts to
mid heaven, red and fiery as the
cleaning torch Of the Furies, Venus
wields her rigorous sceptre in the
west and sends Cupid forth beneath
the leafy boughs, upon the broad
piazzas, in the shadows Of the mos
sy bank, on the shores Of the sea,
amid the picnicers and among the
young and happy people that now
look to the rural festival, the fete
champetre, as the most gladsome
period of the year. Little as it
may appear so, and when Hades
seems too threatenigly near to con-
template, they tell US that summer
is really the season of love. And it
is natural that it should be, for in
spring, as Tennyson tells US, a
young mans fancy lightly turns to
thoughts of love. There is lack of
seriousness in his vernal homage,
which shows to the discriminating
object of his adoration-and they
are all discriminating on this sub
ject-that he has not yet ripened in
to the fullness of determination.
The fact is young men, and perhaps
young women to, need the fervid
warmth of summer to unfold with
in them in full vigorous growth,
the embryonic flower of the holy
passion.
Winter TO be sure, sometimes de-
velopes enterprlsing success Of this
kind, but like all products of arti-
fetal heat, these passion flower ex-
otics which have only budded under
glass-lack the fragrance as we'll as
vigor of a more natural growth.
Aud again, the country rather than
the city affords the best field for
Cupid. From the rural fountains
the wary little archer more keenly
tips his darts and wings them with
tenfold more force amid the attrac-
tions OF nature than among the
appliances of art. In fact, the sly
Irritation by the light of the chan
delier, needing a glass of wine to
stimulate 1t, is as far removed from
the pure, noble affections of the
human heart as the fitting light Of
the FREELY is from the radiant beams
of the rising sun. In truth, human
life is more in harmony with ma
ture IN summer time than at any
other period of the year. The
days work is done, toll for the time
is DER, and all enjoy the common
respite. as free from care as the re-
freshing air they breathe. Some
thing OF the sweet influences of the
season thus waited into the heart
disposes it to sympathetic tender
ness. 1t is only when removed from
the restraint and conventionalities
of our morbid social life that the
better shows ITSELF Out in the
woods the restraints of elaborate
courtesy are broken and the genu-
inc social kindness there met-far
more admirable than grace-is not
the thin crust of cordiality, but
the spontaneous sympathies Of hu-
manlty in unison with Its kind.
Summer, therefore, is the time for
social enjoyment, for wreathing
anew friendships faded garlands
and laying them fresh and green
again upon the alters Of neighborly
amity and confidence.