OCTOBER. 243 



selves upon the trees and vines, and the green herbage 

 with all its various shades of verdure, constitute, with 

 their successive changes, her spring and summer adorn- 

 ment ; but ere the fall of the leaf, she makes herself 

 garlands of the withering foliage, and crowns the brows 

 of her mountains and the bosoms of her forests in the 

 most beautiful array. 



Though the present is a melancholy time of the year, 

 we are preserved from cheerless reflections, by the bi'ight- 

 ness of the sunshine and the interminable beauty of the 

 landscape. The sky in clear weather, is of the deepest 

 blue ; and the ocean and the lakes, slightly ruffled by 

 the fluttering October winds, which are seldom tranquil, 

 acquire a peculiar depth of coloring, unwitnessed when 

 their surface is calm. Diverted by the unusual charms 

 of nature, while we look with a mournful heart upon the 

 graves of the flowers, we involuntarily turn our eyes 

 upward and around us, where the woods are gleaming 

 like a wilderness of roses, and forget in our ravishment, 

 the lovely things we have lost. As the flowers wither 

 and vanish from our sight, their colors seem to revive in 

 the foliage of the trees, as if each dying blossom had 

 bequeathed its beauty to the forest boughs, that had 

 kindly protected it from wind and blast. The trees are 

 one by one putting aside their vesture of green, and 

 slowly assuming their new robe of many hues. From 

 the beginning to the end of the month, the landscape 

 suffers a complete metamorphosis ; and October may 

 be said to represent in the successive changes of its 

 aspect, all the floral magnificence of summer. 



Notwithstanding the late frosts, the grass is still 

 green, from the valleys to the hill-tops, and many a 

 flower is still smiling upon us, as if there were no winter 

 in the year. Many fair ones still linger in their cheer- 



