Niagara Falls 



1850 the water; for the water here has the most delightful freshness, 

 that I can compare to nothing with which I am acquainted. But 

 it feels like the spirit of a delicious, immortal youth. Yes, here 

 it seems to me as if one might become young again in body and 

 in soul. 



Last evening, James and I . . . went across to the Cana- 

 dian side, and walked backward and forward as the sun 

 descended. At every new bend or movement of that misty 

 water-spirit it presented new fonns of light. Still were the 

 rainbows arched, like the airy bridge of Bifrost, in the old Scan- 

 dinavian mythology, the one over the other; still glowed the 

 light like kisses of fire, brilliant with prismatic colours, upon the 

 green waters in the abyss; it was an unceasing festival of light, 

 perpetually changing and astonishingly beautiful. What life, 

 what variations between earth and heaven! And as the sun 

 sank, those splendid bridges arched themselves higher and higher 

 aloft in the ascending mist. The pyramidal light red cloud 

 floated in the pale blue heaven above the green Niagara, and 

 around it; on the lofty shores stood the forest in its brilliant 

 autumnal pomp, such as is only seen in the forests of America, 

 and all was silent and still excepting the thunder of the water- 

 fall, to the voice of which all things seemed to be listening. 



September 9th. In the morning of time, before man was yet 

 created, Nature was alone with her Creator. The warmth of 

 His love, the light of His eye awoke her to the consciousness of 

 life ; her heart throbbed with love for Him of whose life of love she 

 had partaken, and she longed to present Him with an offering, to 

 pour out her feeling, her life, for Him who gave it. She was 

 young and warm with the fullness of primeval life; but she felt, 

 nevertheless, her weakness in comparison with His power. What 

 could she give to Him from whom she received everything? Her 

 heart swelled with love and pain, with infinite longing, with the 

 fulness of infinite life, swelled and swelled till it overflowed in — 

 Niagara. And the spirit of thanksgiving arose as the smoke of 



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