SOUNDS FROM INANIMATE NATURE. 295 



out once more on the open plain, and repeat with unusual 

 distinctness the various sounds from wood, village, and 

 farm. During the winter they enjoy a long heyday of 

 freedom ; they hold a laughing revelry in the haunts of 

 the dryad, and seem to rejoice as they sing together over 

 the desolate appearance of Nature. 



When the sun gains a few more degrees in his meridian 

 height, and the snow begins to disappear under the fervor 

 of his beams, then do the sounds from the dropping eaves 

 and the clash of falling icicles from the boughs of the 

 orchard-trees afford a pleasant sensation of the change ; 

 and the utterance of these vernal promises awakens all 

 the delightful anticipations of birds and flowers. The 

 moaning of winds has been plainly softened by the new 

 season, and the summer zephyrs, that occasionally pay 

 us a short visit from the south, and signalize their com- 

 ing by the crimsoned dews at sunrise, loosen a thousand 

 rills, that make lively music as they leap down the hill- 

 sides into the valleys. Yet of all these sounds from 

 inanimate Nature, there is not one but is hallowed by 

 some glad or tender sentiment, of which it is suggestive, 

 and we have but to yield our hearts to their influences 

 to feel that for the ear as well as for the eye, Nature 

 has provided an endless store of pleasure. 



I believe the agreeable sounds from the inanimate 

 world owe their principal effect to their power of gently 

 exciting the sentiment of melancholy. The murmur of 

 gentle gales among the trembling aspen-trees, the noise 

 of the hurricane upon the sea-shore, the roar of distant 

 waters, the sighing of wind as it flits by our windows 

 and moans through the casement, have the power of ex- 

 citing just enough of the sentiment of melancholy to 

 produce an agreeable state of the mind. Along with the 

 melancholy they excite there is something that tranquil- 

 lizes the soul and exalts it above the mere pleasures of 

 sense. 



