AUTUMN. 
331 
picture of the season than many of their contemporaries, on an- 
other point, at Avhich we are looking just now, they do not differ 
from others — neither of them sees any beauty in the fohage of 
the season. It is true, Thomson speaks, in one hne, of 
" Autumn beaming o'er the yellow woods," 
but this seems an accidental epithet, for it does not occur in the 
descriptive part of the season. When he is expressly engaged in 
painting autumn for us, he tells us of the "tawny copse." An- 
other passage of his commences in a way which at first leads one 
to expect some praise of the autumn fohage, for he speaks of the 
" many-colored woods." To an American, this immediately sug- 
gests the idea of scarlet and golden tints ; but he proceeds in a 
very different tone — his " many-colored woods " are all sad. 
Shade deep'ning over shade, the country round 
Imbrown : a clouded umbrage, dusk and dun, 
Of ev'ry hue, from wan declining green 
To sooty dark." 
Sober enough, in good sooth. And then he strips the trees amid 
gloomy fogs and mists : 
" And o'er the sky the leafy deluge streams ; 
Till chok'd and matted with the dreary shower, 
The forest walks at ev'ry rising gale 
Roll wide the wither'd waste." 
It would require a general and accurate knowledge of Enghsh 
verse, and a very correct memory, to say positively that no allu- 
sion to the beauty of the autumnal woods may be found in the 
older poets of England ; but certainly, if such are to be met with, 
they do not lie within the range of every-day reading. Are there 
