more searching and awful lessons. As the 

 physical falls away the spiritual comes into 

 clear and compelling distinctness. Who 

 that goes abroad in these quiet days, and 

 feels the subtle change from the grosser 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 completing its mysterious 

 cycle with a vision of the sublime ends for 

 which Nature stands, and to the consumma- 

 tion of which all things are borne forward. 

 And when the time is ripe there will 

 come a transformation like the descent 

 of the heavens upon the earth, flooding 

 156 



