AUTUMN TIDES 



ing of. The spring is the morning sunlight, 

 clear and determined ; the autumn, the 

 afternoon rays, pensive, lessening, golden. 



Does not the human frame yield to and 

 sympathize with the seasons? Are there 

 not more births in the spring and more 

 deaths in the fall ? In the spring one vege- 

 tates ; his thoughts turn to sap ; another 

 kind of activity seizes him ; he makes new 

 wood which does not harden till past mid- 

 summer. For my part, I find all literary 

 work irksome from April to August ; my 

 sympathies run in other channels ; the 

 grass grows where meditation walked. As 

 fall approaches, the currents mount to the 

 head again. But my thoughts do not ripen 

 well till after there has been a frost. The 

 burrs will not open much before that. A 

 man's thinking, I take it, is a kind of com- 

 bustion, as is the ripening of fruits and 

 leaves, and he wants plenty of oxygen in 

 the air. 



Then the earth seems to have become 

 a positive magnet in the fall ; the forge 

 and anvil of the sun have had their effect. 

 In the spring it is negative to all intellec- 

 tual conditions, and drains one of his light- 

 ning. 



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