236 JULY. 



sunset the evening star following with its 

 silvery lamp, the fading day, or the moon 

 showering her pale lustre, through the balmy 

 night air, with a fancy that kindles and soars 

 into the heavens before him; there, that we 

 have all felt the charm of woods and green 

 fields, and solitary boughs waving in the 

 golden sunshine, or darkening in the melan- 

 choly beauty, of evening shadows. Who has 

 not thought how beautiful was the sight of a 

 village congregation, pouring out from their 

 old grey church on a summer day, and stream- 

 ing off through the quiet meadows, in all direc- 

 tions to their homes ? Or who that has visited 

 Alpine scenery, has not beheld with a poetic 

 feeling, the mountaineers come winding down 

 out of their romantic seclusions on a sabbath 

 morning, pacing the solitary heath-tracks, 

 bounding with elastic step down the fern-clad 

 dells, or along the course of a riotous stream, 

 as cheerful, as picturesque, and yet as solemn 

 as the scenes around them ? 



Again I say, I love field paths, and stiles of 

 all species, ay, even the most inaccessible piece 

 of rustic erection ever set up in defiance of age, 

 laziness and obesity. How many scenes of 



