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in the clear sky, threw a glistening path of light over 

 the waters, and tinged the ocean haze with purple. 

 Suddenly there arose over the Atlantic a mass of light, 

 thin vapor, which approached with a gentle breeze, 

 rolling and spreading around, and exhibiting the most 

 beautiful change of tint. When I had gazed until the 

 fading light reminded me that my home for the night 

 was four miles distant, I approached the edge of the 

 precipice and bent over it, when from the distance of a 

 few yards beneath a golden eagle launched forth into 

 the air. The scene, already sublime, was by the flight 

 of the eagle rendered still more so, and as I gazed upon 

 the huge bird sailing steadily away beneath my feet, 

 while the now dense masses of cloud rolled majestically 

 overhead, I exclaimed aloud, " Beautiful ! " The great 

 God of heaven and earth, myself, His perverse but 

 adoring subject, and the eagle, His beautiful but unen- 

 during creature, were all in the universe of my imagi- 

 nation. Scenes like these might soften the obdurate, 

 elevate the grovelling, convince the self- willed and 

 unbelieving, and blend with universal nature the spirits 

 that had breathed the chilling air of selfishnes. Verily, 

 it is good for one to ascend a lofty mountain, but he 

 must go alone, and if he be there, in the solemn still- 

 ness of midnight, as I have been, he will descend a 

 better and wiser man. Beautiful truly, it is to see the 

 eagle sweeping aloft the hillside, sailing from one 

 mountain to another, or soaring aloft in its circling 

 flight until it seems to float in the thin white cirri, like 

 the inhabitant of another world looking down upon 

 our rebel earth as if desirous to visit it, but afraid to 

 come within its contaminating influence." 



There is more than one trait in this graphic por- 

 traiture to remind one of the prince of American natu- 

 ralists, John James Audubon. Not to me was vouch- 

 safed, like to the gifted MacGilvray, the felicity of 

 viewing in his favorite haunts, the king of birds — the 

 royal eagle, soaring o'er the " cloud-capped peaks " of 



