AUTUMN. 
325 
expressly to mark the good man’s tillage. Tall mullein-stalks, 
thistles, and -weeds fill the place where the old husbandman gath- 
ered his little crop of maize and potatoes ; every season the 
traces of tillage become more and more faint in the little field ; a 
portion of the log fence has fallen, and this summer the fern has 
gained rapidly upon the mulleins and thistles. The silent spirit 
of the woods seems creeping over the spot again. 
Wednesday, 1 1 th . — Autumn would appear to have received gen- 
erally a dull character from the poets of the Old World ; probably 
if one could gather all the passages relating to the season, scat- 
tered among the pages of these writers, a very large proportion 
would be found of a grave nature. English verse is full of sad 
images apphed to the season, and often more particularly to the 
foliage. 
“ The chilling autumn, angry winter,” 
are Imked together by Sh^speare. 
“ The sallow autumn fills thy laps with leaves,” 
writes Collins. 
“ O pensive autumn, how I grieve 
Thy sorrowing face to see. 
When languid suns are taking leave 
Of every drooping tree !” 
says Shenstone. 
“ Ye trees that fade when autumn heats remove,” 
says Pope. 
“ Autumn, melancholy wight !” 
exclaims Wordsworth. And hundreds of similar lines might be 
