IN this refulgent summer, it has been a luxury
to draw the breath of life. The grass grows, the
buds burst, the meadow is spotted with fire and
gold in the tint of flowers. The air is full of birds,
and sweet with the breath of the pine, the balm-of-
Gilead, and the new hay. Night brings no gloom
to the heart with its welcome shade. Through the
transparent darkness the stars pour their almost
spiritual rays. Man under them seems a young
child, and his huge globe a toy. The cool night
bathes the world as with a river, and prepares his
eyes again for the crimson dawn. The mystery of
nature was never displayed more happily. The
corn and the wine have been freely dealt to all
creatures, and the never-broken silence with which
the old bounty goes forward has not yielded yet
one word of explanation. One is constrained to
respect the perfection of this world in which our
senses converse. How wide; how rich; what invi-
tation from every property it gives to every faculty
of man! In its fruitful soils; in its navigable sea;

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