THE ANTHEM OF MOEK 



Nature, for the delight of waking eyes, has arrayed 

 the morning heavens in the loveliest hues of beauty. 

 Fearing to dazzle by an excess of light, she first an- 

 nounces day by a faint and glimmering twilight, then 

 sheds a purple tint over the brows of the rising morn, 

 and infuses a transparent ruddiness throughout the at- 

 mosphere. As daylight widens, successive gi'oups of 

 mottled and rosy-bosoraed clouds assemble on the gilded 

 sphere, and, crowned with M^reaths of fickle rainbows, 

 spread a mirrored flush over hill, grove, and lake, and 

 every village spire is burnished with their splendor. At 

 length, through crimsoned vapors, we behold the sun's 

 broad disk, rising with a countenance so serene that every 

 eye may view him ere he arrays himself in his meridian 

 brightness. Not many people who live in towns are 

 aware of the pleasure attending a ramble near the woods 

 and orchards at daybreak in the early part of summer. 

 The drowsiness we feel on rising from our beds is grad- 

 ually dispelled by the clear and healthful breezes of 

 early day, and we soon experience an unusual amount 

 of vigor and elasticity. Nature has so ordered her 

 bounties and her blessings as to cause the hour wliich 

 is consecrated to health to be attended with the greatest 

 number of charms for all the senses ; and to make all 

 hearts enamored of the morning, she has environed it 

 with everything, in heaven and on earth, that is delight- 

 ful to the eye or to the ear, or capable of inspiring some 

 agreeable sentiment. 



