I 



X. 



SABBATH IN THE WOODS 



I AROSE early, that I might behold the glory 

 of morning among the mountains. As my 

 eyes opened, the eastern sky was already over- 

 spread as with a thin silvery veil, with the least 

 trace of amber and gold amid the threads ; while 

 one solitary star, like a great opal, hung suspended 

 in the translucent atmosphere, with its rich heart 

 glowing with red and yellow flame. 



My camp was made on the very ridge-board of 

 the continent. Below me, to the south, stretched 

 the Silurian beach, upon which, as Agassiz believes, 

 the first ripples broke when God commanded the 

 dry land to appear. As I lay reflecting upon the 

 assertion of science, — that these mountains were 

 among the first to rise out of the Profound, that here 

 the continent had its infancy, that amid these 

 heights the earth began to take shape and form, — 

 I seemed to be able to overlook the world. Nor was 

 it at the cost of any great effort of the imagination 

 that I seemed to hear, as the dawn brightened in 

 the east and the rose tints deepened along the sky, 

 as the darkness melted, the vapors floated up, and 



