AXCIEXT BABYLON. 
65 
To the utmost has this fearful prophecy been fulfilled : Baby- 
lon has been destroyed ; the cruelties with which she visited Je- 
rusalem were repaid her in full by the awful justice of the Al- 
mighty, and the happy fame of her Persian conqueror has long 
been iinnly fixed in history. What sublime, prophetic power in 
tliose simple words — “ who art to be destroyed ” — when ad- 
dressed by the weeping captive to the mighty city, ■‘hen in the 
height of her power and her pride ! That destmetion has long 
since been complete ; Babylon is wasted indeed ; and we learn with 
interest from the traveller, that beside her shapeless ruins, stand 
the " gray ozicr willows, on which the captives of Israel hung up 
their harps mute and humble 'witnesses of the surrounding 
desolation. 
Wednesday/, 3d . — Pleasant walk on the open liill-side. Sweet, 
quiet day ; if the leaves were out, they would not stir, for the 
wmds are all asleep. Walldng over pasture-groimd, we did not 
find many flowers : only a few violets here and there, and some 
young strawberry flowers, the first fruit-bearing blossom of the 
year. The fem is coming up, its woolly heads just appearing 
above ground, the broad frond closely rolled within ; presently the 
down -will grow darker, and the leaves begin to uncurl. The 
humming-birds, and some of tbe many warblers, use the wool of 
the young fem-stalks to line their nests. 
The valley looked pleasantly from the hill-side this afternoon ; 
the wheat-fields are now very brilliant in their verdure, some of 
a golden green, others of a deeper shade. Nearly half the fields 
are ploughed this season, and the farms look like new-made gar- 
dens. As we stood on the quiet, open down, a sweet song, from 
a solitary bird, broke the stillness charmingly : it came from the 
