Year: 1870




secret hooks as handily offer themselves
The garden vegetables, if not got in, arc
ripe to their utmost fulness and the will
ted vines and haulms lie decaying over
the spots where but yesterday they erected
columns and spires of freshest yerdure. 1t
is a more than half sad feeling that rises
in the heart now, as one opens the little
garden-gate and strolls down the central
walk to the summer-house not quite of
sorrow, nor of regret that all the green
pomp Of summer is gone; but a tender
and delicious grief, such as one would not
avoid, that seems to flow out of the very
sun and air into the receptive soul. And
that is just the secret; we are in closer
harmony with earth and its mysterious in
fuences, at this season, and disposed,
like little children, to throw ourselves up
on her charitable love and into her open
arms This autumnal magnetism works
purgatively on the whole years spiritual
humors, expelling what is incapable of as
similation with our natures, and, by hold
ing us half asleep and dreamy in the adyta
of carths quetude, bringing us into more
intimate and holy relations with ourselves
than we were conccious of before. In this
regard, the Autumn days are indescrib-
ably peculiar; the soul runs over with
happiness, and we know it for a truer
and purer happiness because it has no i'm
petuosity, no superficial heat or hurry,
but rather an undertone of sadness that
cannot be forced to the surface in Ian
guage.


If | were compelled to give up all but
one particular portion of the year, this
should be the one | would cling to the
longest. Because these arc, of all the
others, the most truly 1ivine days in the
calendar; fuller Of spiritual meaning and
spiritual delight. These invite contem-
plation more than the others; fill all the
respiratory organs of the soul with the
oxygen Of their calm purity; are peopled
with more visions of genuine imaginative
beauty and are more clear of those films
and cloudy screens that at other times
overcast the spirits canopy, They take us
to heights in the landscape of life where we
get larger views than before. They So
Der our impulses, calm our restlessness,
hold us with gentle frmncss to our own
proper plane, establish the c2ntrpetal force
within us, and develop personal insight
that stands forth first in the order of the
souls faculties. If they have not brook
like torrent of JOY dashing and foaming
through them, like some few other days
Of the year, they arc, nevertheless, seam
ed and groovcd deeply with those streams
that run by silently, and with accumulat-
cd power.


Nature calls to u, every one, ,--"Come
out, come out! and let us know one an
other bettcr.' One feels the expression
and the emphasis of the call, when one
goes thoughtfully skirting the rustling
corn6elds, thick with the yellow ears, OF
passes dcvoutly within the illuminated
temple of the woods, glorifcd with the
combined colors of the year. Even the
semicircular army of turkeys, ranging the
pastures for the skipping fatlings of the
grass, seem as much part of the scene,
and their low, melancholy cry is as much
a real voice of the time, as the skies and
the woods and the hazy smoke themselves
The cows that Craze along the hill-sides
are of contemplative mien, and look mildly
up at you, thus disturbing their soltudes.
as if they would fain inquire whether
you be of their way or no. And all a.
mong the shy little coverts, where was
the dark secrecy of green leaves through
early summer, is now reflected the bright
light of hanging cloths of russet and Grim
son and gold The wild crecrer on the
stone wall has been dipped in the dyes of
the transmitting atmosphere, and come
out a frill of brlliancy that makes the old
wall regal in the memory aftcrward


How gayly chatters that frolicsome red
squirrel overhead, about affairs at home,
including his prospects for the winter
As who should say to the crafty woods
man, skulking with gun and dog to sur
prise him, ,-' Sir, be content, if you
please to live and let live. You would be
in better business if you would 90 in quest
of bigger game" The pond is mottled
with the painted antumn leaves, and its
broad floor paved with the same gay mo-
sale SO recently reflected in its surface. A
covey of plump quails start up from under
the rail fence, making a whirring sound
with their wings that almost stops the





caroling their hymns now, but even they
appear to have drawn into their little
breasts the peculiar soberncss of the air.
They fit by but it is in silence, for they
are packing up for lower latitudes.


All sounds and voices now are freighted
with another meaning. The cawing of
sable hocks of crows in the woods-the
bleat of sheep in the pastures-the shout
of boys to the toiling oxen in the cornfeld
the lowing of cattle across the distant
hills-the bark of the Watchdog, or the
report Of the huntsman's rifle, or the moi
sy cackling of hens about the barn-reach
the ear on so subdued and sweet a key,
that one cannot but wish that he might
feel the waves of so soft medium beating
about him through all the year, presorv-
ing the poetic qualities of sound as per-
fectly as flies are preserved in amber
The laughter of the children, nutting in