36 THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE chap. 



" But indeed there are days," says Emer- 

 son, " which occur in this climate, at almost 

 any season of the year, wherein the world 

 reaches its perfection, when the air, the 

 heavenly bodies, and the earth make a har- 

 mony, as if nature would indulge her off- 

 spring. . . . These halcyon days may be 

 looked for with a little more assurance in 

 that pure October weather, which we distin- 

 guish by the name of the Indian summer. 

 The day, immeasurably long, sleeps over- the 

 broad hills and warm wide fields. To have 

 lived through all its sunny hours, seems 

 longevity enough." Yet does not the very 

 name of Indian summer imply the superi- 

 ority of the summer itself, — the real, the 

 true summer, " when the young corn is burst- 

 ing into ear ; the awned heads of rye, wheat, 

 and barley, and the nodding panicles of oats, 

 shoot from their green and glaucous stems, in 

 broad, level, and waving expanses of present 

 beauty and future promise. The very waters 

 are strewn with flowers : the buck-bean, the 

 water-violet, the elegant flowering rush, and 

 the queen of the waters, the pure and splendid 



