Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1902-02-14

overlook the smaller ,rees: tn
dogwood, with its GLOSSY. berries ant
many tinted leaves; e- the poplar
the pine and MANI another plant
even humber, perhaps, and yet eaci
with some exquisite beauty and grac'
of its own, SO that we must al
sometime feel our hearts overflowins
with gladness and gratitude, as il
the woods were full Of music-as il
"The woods were. flied so fun with son,
There seemed no. room for sense o
wrons."
On the whole, no Doubt, wood
lands are less beautiful in winter
yet even then the delicate tracery oI
the branches, which cannot be 81
we'll seen when they are clothed
with leaves, has a ssecisI- beauty oi
its OWE; while every now ard ther
hoar frost orepow settles like silver
on every branch and twig, lighting
up the forest as if BY enchantmenI
in preparation for some fairy fes,
tival. With wood, water seems tc
be naturally associated. Without
water no landscape is complete
While overhead the clouds add
beauty to the heavens themselves
the spring. the brook, the river and
the lake seem to give life to Nature.
Water is beautifuilin the morning
mist, in the broad lake, in the
glancing stream or the river pool,
in the wide ocean, beautiful in all
its varied moods. II nourishes vege-
tation, it clothes the lowiands with
green and the mountains with snow.
The refreshing power of water upon
the earth Is scarcely greater than
that which it exercises Oh the mind
of man. After long spell of work
how delightful it is to SIT by lake
or river, or on the seashore, and
ENJOY
"A little murmur In mine ear,
A little ripple at may feet"
The seacoast is always interesting.
When we think Of the cliff sections,
with their histories of bygone age;
the shore itself teeming with sea-
weeds and animals, waiting for the
return of the tide, or thrown up
from deeper water by the waves; the
weird cries of seabirds; the delight
full feeling that with every breath
we are laying in store of fresh life
and health and energy. 1t is impossi-
BILE to overestimate all we owe to
the sea. The sea is, moreover, al
ways changing-it is sometimes vio-
let, sometimes blue and at other
times dull gray.
To water, again, we owe the mar
vellous spectacle of the rainbow
"God's bow in the clouds" 1t is,
indeed, truly heavenly messenger,
and so unlike anything else that it
scarcely seems to belong to this
world. Many things are colored, but
the rainbow seems to be color itself.
First the flaming red
Sprang vivid forth; the tawny orange
next.
And next delicious yellow; by whose
side
Fell the kind beams af all-refreshing z
green. ~
Then the pure blue that swells au,umual
skies,
Ethereal play'd; and then, of sadder hue
Emerged the deeper indigo (as when
The heavy -skirted evening droops with
frost),
While ,,ns, the last gleamhgs of reiracted
Died in the faintipg vioIet away"
Mountains seem to have been built
for the human race; with their gates
of rock, pavements Of cloud, choirs
OF stream and stone. altars of snow
and vaults of purple traversed by
the continual stars shey seem as
catbedrals of earth.
And when we raise cur ewes from
earth, who has not Dmetimes felt
the witchery of the oft blue sky?
Who has not watched cloud float
ing upward as If OF its way to
heaven?
But exquisitely ovsly as is the
blue arch of the midday sky, with
it's inexhaustible variety of clouds,
there is yet light which the eye
invariably seeks with a deeper feel
ing OF the beautiful, the light Of the
declining or breaking lay, and the
flakes of scarlet cloud burning like
watch-fres in the greer sky of the
horizon.
The evening colors, indeed, soon
fade away, but as night comes on
how glorious is the ornament with
its numberless stars and silvery light
of the moon!
We generally speak of a beautiful
night when it is calm and clear aud
the stars shine brightly overhead.
How magnificent also IS the wild
ways of Nature, SO magnificent when
the thunder rolls and th4 lightning
flashes "between gloom and glory"
when
From peak tn neak the r,,tIy,o ,ra vo