82 WOOD SORREL. 



His brother is, or was, the pastor of a near 

 village ; and I have pleased myself with 

 thinking, that from beside the gushing 

 streamlet, where it flows from the rocky 

 bank into the old stone trough. Nature's 

 poet has gazed upon the lone and wooded 

 valley with its precipitous and sunny din- 

 gles. Poetry is one of heaven's choicest 

 gifts ; and thrice happy is the poet, who, 

 led by his Christian feeling, and the dis- 

 position of his mind, considers Nature in 

 all her beautiful changes, and associates 

 with her productions, thoughts of peace 

 and purity. To him the gushing rivulet 

 speaks in language inaudible to the dull 

 ear of common observation; the rich hues 

 of evening have a voice which the mind 

 of the Christian poet only heareth, and in 

 the dewy freshness of the misty dawn, and 

 the " rich morning and silent evening lights," 

 are joys to him with which a stranger inter- 

 meddleth not. 



