St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1883-07-20
August.

August, Notwithstanding its robust
name, is sort of tlabby, Watering
place, Irritation time. 1t is period of
general listlessness and indecisiOn. 1t
is said to be very difficult in August to
make up the mind either to accept him
or reject him. And, worse still, it is
apt to be the latter part of the month
before he makes up his mind to pro-
pose. Indeed, to speak of making up
the mind at all in August Is nearly ab-
surd, for there is no mind to make up.
Nature and people-if the expression
may be permitted-fe seedy. Inland
it is muggy, on the sea-coast it is
foggy. In the cities all the taste has
gone ont of life; even i'll the hills
every body is languid, and disposed to
lounge on piazzas and watch things
simmer. The world, like the garden,
owns itself played out. The days are
growing short again, and it might be
expected that the intemperate heat of
July would abate, but the heat con-
tinues, although it is not the clear sun
heat of the lusty growing season, but
IA sort of Oven-heat steaming up from
the earth. 1t is the month to get away
from everything, even from ones self.
Yet there are good things about
August. The schools are shut up, the
everlasting process of education is
eased off, and Il chance is given for the
mind to stretch itself and grow little
naturally. People forget that the mind
needs those periods of semi-doze in
which to ripen. We understand all
about the cOnvOlutiOns and the gray
matter of the brain, and know Just
where the memory cells are, and where
lie the coils of imagination and ideal
ity, can put our finger on the spot that,
if excited, makes IA man willing to pay
his debts, and on the spot where exists
the impulse to forgive our debtors if our
creditors will fOgive us, but no one can
tell how it is that if thought is
dropped into the brain overnight, and
left to simmer there, and, indeed, re
mains for II time wholly unheeded, it
will he found, when again called up, to
have bloSsomed into Il sermon, or an
essay, or magazine paper worth ten
dollars page. | know Il clergyman
who is obliged to set his sermon over
night in this way, exactly like batch
of bread, or it will not rise in the
morning. The little idea seems to b,
Yeast, and that furnished, the brain
will 90 on uncOnsciOusly, and work
out the rest itself. The trouble Will
good many sermons and essays il
that they have no yeast in them. Per
! haps August, which seems so stupid, ii
the yeast month of the year, and per
haps this is the reason that so many
. authors find September the most fruit
full month of the year.
August is also lawyers vacation, an,
their clients have rest, and an Oppor
tunity to settle up their differences il
an amicable way. When the lawyer
! quit the ship it is a sign that every
t body else ought to go-to be off to TIN
5 Rockies, to the North woods to Norway
= to the rocks by the sounding sea,
/ there is 10y that time a rock anywher
! on our thousands of miles of cOas
= that has not young lady sitting on il
v with spread parasol and a novel il
:. her hand, and a still more interestin
d work of nature and art at her fee
p talking to her languidly about friend
o ship, and how you can know if tw
= people are suited to each other, don
e you know. 1t is the harvest month
IS the novelist, for then if ever one want
It a novel-tO put in the pocket in til
d woods, or TO carry down to the beacl
W or to leave lying round with the spl
le zephyr. People will buy novels
= August, if they cannot borrow then
: and if they are in cheap editions.
y is nice holiday, August, just becaut
a it has no vitality in it. Pity it cann
lie be more of holiday to more peOpl