EFFECT OP THE SEASONS ON SOENEEI. 345 



nature; but it is not my business to inquire into 

 causes. 



In the beechen grove you seek in vain for tliis 

 variety. In the early Autumn, indeed, you see it, 

 when the extremities only of the tree are just 

 tinged with ochre : but, as the year advances, the 

 eye is generally fatigued with one deep monotony 

 of orange ; though among all the hues of Autumn, 

 it is, in itself, perhaps the most beautiful. The 

 painter imitates it the most happily by a touch of 

 terra de Sienna. But the eye is palled even with 

 beauty in profusion, and calls for contrast. 



The same uniformity reigns, though of a diffe- 

 rent hue, when Ash, or Elm prevails. No fading 

 foliage, indeed, of any one kind that I know, pro- 

 duces harmony, except that of the Oak. [S^y^.v^ 



The hues, however, of the distant forest, when 

 most discordant, are often harmonized by the 

 intervening trees on the foreground. We can 

 bear the glow of the distant Beech wood, when it 

 is contrasted, at hand, by a spreading Oak, whose 

 foliage has yet scarce lost its summer tint, — or by 

 an Elm or an Ash, whose fading leaves have 

 assumed a yellowish hue. 



