358 NOVEMBER. 



The spirit of desolation sits upon the hills; and in her 

 baleful presence the northern blasts assemble on the 

 plains, and the wintry frosts gather together in the once 

 smiling valleys. 



Such are the changes of the seasons, melancholy em- 

 blems of the vicissitudes of life. Transient is the period 

 of youth, like the flowery month of May, and rapidly, like 

 the flowers of summer, fade all the joys of early man- 

 hood. Our early hopes after they have finished their 

 songs of promise vanish like the singing-birds, and the 

 visions of our youth flit away like the insects that glitter 

 for a few brief days and then perish forever. Yet as the 

 pleasant things of one month are followed by those 

 equally delightful in the next, so are the joys of youth 

 that perish succeeded by the riper though less exhila- 

 rating pleasures of manhood. These in turn pass away to 

 be replaced by the tranquil and sober comforts of age, as 

 the autumnal harvest crowns the frailer products of sum- 

 mer. Joys are constantly alternating with sorrows, and 

 the regrets we pour over our bereavements are softened 

 and subdued by the new bounties and blessings of the 

 present time. While we are lamenting the departure of 

 one beautiful month, another no less delightful has al- 

 ready arrived ; and the winters of our sorrow are always 

 succeeded by vernal periods of happiness. 



But to him who contemplates the works of Nature with 

 a philosophic view, do these vicissitudes yield sources of 

 pleasure, derived from watching the growth of the fields 

 through all its gradations, from the bud to the flower and 

 the leaf, and from the seedling to the perfect plant. The 

 budding of trees, the gradual expansion of their leaves, 

 and all the changes through which they pass until their 

 final decay, present unfailing topics of curious and pleas- 

 ing meditation. In every change that happens, he dis- 

 covers a new train of reflections on the grandeur and 



