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 ? v 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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