IMPRESSIONIST SKETCH 241 



the ripening apples is due to the same pigment as that in 

 the withering leaves of the Virginian creeper, or in the 

 gorgeous petals of the viper's bugloss, which is still erect 

 like a standard, amid the dead and dying on the moor. 



The drops of water rise to the apex of the sunlit fountain, 

 enter for a brief moment into the formation of a rainbow, 

 and are hurried to the earth again. Such is life. The 

 organism rises to the crest of the wave, reaches its limit of 

 growth, and reproduces; then is hurried from the climax 

 of loving to the last crisis of dying. So all around us in 

 Autumn we see the little child Love, as in the world-famous 

 picture, holding the door against stalwart Death who 

 intrudes. The curfew tolls, the fires of life burn low, the 

 lights of love die out, the petals of the last poppy are shed, 

 the butterflies disappear with the sunbeams which danced 

 with the glistening leaves, Proserpina has perforce to go 

 down to Hades, many a man and beast with her, and 

 lowering storm-clouds draw a shroud over the earth. The 

 music of L' Allegro has died away ; hushed are Pan's merry 

 pipes ; there is no lilt of any bird ; II Penseroso begins to 

 prose : " Dun sky above, brown wastes around you are ; 

 from yon horizon dim stalks spectral death." 



In Summer, in the abundance of life we saw death 

 harvesting ; in Autumn, in the midst of death, we are 

 impressed with the abundance of life. For Autumn is the 

 time of seed-scattering. The cotton-grass has unfurled 

 its white sails on the moor ; clouds of thistledown and 

 ragwort nutlets with equally dainty parachutes are swept 

 over the waste ; the hooked fruits of burdock, cleavers, 

 hound's tongue, and how many more, cling to our clothes 

 and to the sheep's fleece ; all sorts of pods and capsules 

 have opened, and gusts of wind how much more the 

 equinoctial gales have scattered and in many cases sown 

 the seeds. The prodigality is as unmeasurable as it is 

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