AUTUa^IN. 
338 
than in any otlier part of Em-ope ; but noAvliere, 1 believe, has he 
given the colored leaves a place in verse. Delille, it must be 
remembered, was a more modern poet, writing at the close of the 
last and the commencement of the present century ; and just 
about that time allusions of this kind were finding their way into 
the literature of Europe. 
A very decided change in this respect has indeed taken place 
within the last fifty or sixty years. English writers, particularly, 
seem suddenly to have discovered Autumn under a new charac- 
ter ; two very different pictures are now given of her ; one is still 
" Autumn, melancholy wight !" while the other bears a much 
gayer expression. Just now allusions to beautiful "autumnal 
tints" have become very much the fashion in English books of all 
sorts ; and one might think the leaves had been dyed, for the first 
time, to please the present generation. In reality, there can hardly 
have been any change in this respect since the days of Chaucer ; 
whence, then, comes this altered tone ? 
Some foundation for the change may doubtless be found in the 
fact, that all descriptive writing, on natural objects, is now much 
less vague and general than it was formerly ; it has become very 
much more definite and accurate within the last half century. 
Some persons have attributed this change, so far as it regards 
England, to the taste for landscape painting, which has been so 
generally cultivated in that country during the same period 
Probably this has had its eftect. The partiality for a more natural 
style in gardening may also have done something toward bringing 
the public mind round to a natural taste on all rural subjects. It 
is seldom, however, that a great change in pubUc taste or opinion is 
produced by a single direct cause only ; there are generally many 
