THE CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. 179 



NOVEMBER. 



AUTUMN.—FALL OF THE LEAF. 



Autumn ! soul-soothing season, thou who spreadest 

 Thy lavish feast for every living thing, 

 Around whose leaf- strewed path, as on thou treadest. 

 The year its dying odours loves to fling, 

 Their last faint fragrance sweetly scattering ; 



O let thy influence, meek, majestic, holy. 

 So consciously around my spirit cling, 

 That its fix'd frame may be remote from folly. 

 Of sober thought combin'd with gentle melancholy. 



The feelings of the Autumnal period which hare 

 been so happily depicted by one of our. modern Poets 

 in the above lines, must find a response in every heart 

 which has been accustomed to hold communion with 

 nature. This season is one which is peculiar to 

 northern climates like our own, and serves to answer 

 many beneficial purposes. It has been compared to the 

 evening of life ; and if we extend it to the verge of 

 winter, the comparison is a just one : for the beauty of 

 spring, and the maturity of summer, have then left no- 



