October 



and indispensable of all the seasons, but like 

 many practical and indispensable people, none 

 the less wearisome on that account. Summer 

 is an amiable season, and consequently rather 

 milk -and -watery . 



If hope be the watchword of spring, faith, 

 which is the assurance of hope, is that of 

 autumn. Both seasons point forward : spring, 

 into this life; autumn, into the life to come. 

 The voice of spring is a joyous, ringing 

 soprano ; that of autumn, a deep, full, and 

 serious contralto. And why should we not say 

 that icy and blustering winter is vigorously 

 masculine, with the tone and temper of a sonor- 

 ous bass? 



In the autumnal season a mature and serious 

 air overspreads every natural object. It is a 

 hushed and foreboding time. An expectant 

 stillness pervades the landscape, a waiting look 

 is in the massive, slumberous clouds that hang so 

 fixed and solid in the clear blue sky. An al- 

 most human sense of life finds mute expression 

 in the dark, motionless, and almost contem- 

 plative trees ; there are whisperings sadly pleas- 

 ing in the soft winds, that are never heard at 

 other times ; and the rustle of the leaves has an 

 ominous, as well as a retrospective sound. It is 



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