THE EEXEWAL OF NATURE. 17 



after the dreariness of winter, those studies of the 

 works of God which are so delightful, my mind was 

 powerfully struck with that Almighty decree which, 

 amidst continual change, maintains an everlasting- 

 order. Man grows old, but Nature is ever young ; 

 the seasons change, but are perpetually renewed:— 

 " While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest- 

 and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day 

 and night shall not cease." Beautifully has the Ame- 

 rican poet sung of this : — 



*'Has Nature in her calm majestic march 

 Falter'd with age at last ? does the bright sun 

 Grow dim in heaven ? or in their far blue arch, 

 Sparkle the crowd of stars when day is done 

 Less brightly ? When the dew-lipp'd Spring comes on, 

 Breathes she with airs less soft, or scents the sky 

 "With flowers less fair than when her reign began ? 

 Does prodigal Autumn to our age deny 

 The plenty that once swell'd beneath his sober eye ? 



" Look on this beautiful world, and read the truth 

 In her fair page : see, every season brings 

 New change to her of everlasting youth ; 

 Still the gi-een soil with joyous living things 

 Swarms ; the wide air is full of joyous wings ; 

 And myriads still are happy in the sleep 

 Of Ocean's azure gulfs, and where he flings 

 The restless surge. Eternal Love doth keep 

 Li his complacent arms the earth, the air, the deep." 



Bryant. 



The shingle beach presently becomes sand as we 

 approach the angle of the bight, and after a few yards 

 the shore is covered with a wilderness of rugged shape- 

 less masses of conglomerate that have fallen from the 

 cliff. Ledges of flat or very slightly inclined rock ran 

 out into the sea in several successive spits at this 



C 



