152 Walks in New England 



The pensive cadence of these simple words falls 

 with a delicate perfectness of sympathy into the 

 anticipating thought of autumn ; for whether be 

 cause of old religious associations, or because the 

 Sabbath idea is rest, nothing could better express 

 the especial charm of the season. And though 

 long weeks of heat are to come, rounding out the 

 fruit of the orchards and the nuts of the forests, 

 filling the maize ears in the rustling fields and 

 swelling the pumpkins beneath them, yet the Sab 

 bath sense has come into our lives, and the hour 

 of eve has filled us with a curious calm, in which 

 the strange and cruel human world is for a little 

 time alien and absent. 



Resting in such a solemn sweet day upon the 

 shaded ledges of the mountain side, beholding the 

 wonderful great earth stretching away in billowy 

 hills, the peace of God fills the soul. Lapped in 

 the ample bosom of mighty Nature, into every 

 sense steals the deep and still conviction of the 

 Spirit that began not nor ceases, so strong, so 

 sure, so patient, so constant, so harmonious, in its 

 dateless and enduring ages working out its tre 

 mendous and holy purposes. What are we, to 

 fret and labour and curse, and confound our mortal 

 weakness, with the face of God continually before 

 us, and his life throbbing in our veins, and in the 

 birds and the squirrels, the trees and the shrubs, 



