106 UNDER THE TREES. 



to the ethereal which pervades the very air, can 

 escape the threefold thought of Life, Death, and 

 Immortality ? 



The silence that has already fallen upon the 

 jubilant voices of summer will extend and deepen 

 day by day until even the thoughtless babbling of 

 the brooks ceases and the hush becomes universal. 

 The earth, that a little time ago was producing 

 such an endless variety of forms of life and beauty, 

 will give birth to a myriad thoughts, deep, spiritual, 

 and far-reaching ; translating into the language of 

 spirit the vast movement of the year, and complet 

 ing its mysterious cycle with a vision of the sublime 

 ends for which Nature stands, and to the consum 

 mation of which all things are borne forward. And 

 when the time is ripe there will come a transforma 

 tion like the descent of the heavens upon the earth, 

 flooding the dying world with unspeakable splen 

 dors ; the sunset which closes the long summer 

 day and leaves through the night of winter the 

 fadeless promise of another dawn. 



