332 
RURAL HOURS. 
any such in Milton, skillful as he was in picturing the groves and 
bowers of Eden ? 
“ Thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks 
In Vallambrosa,” 
will occur to the memory ; but we have no coloring here. la 
there a single line of this nature in Shakspeare, among the innu- 
merable comparisons in which his fancy luxuriated ? Shall we find 
one in the glowing pages of Spenser ? In Dryden ? In Chaucer, 
so minute in description, and delighting so heartily in nature — 
from the humhle daisy to the great oaks, with “ their leaves 
newe ?” One is almost confident that in these, and every other 
instance, the answer will prove a negative. 
Much the boldest touch of the kind, remembered at present, in 
European verse, is found in a great French rural writer, Delille ; 
speaking of the Avoods in Autumn, he says ; 
“ Lc pourpre, I’orange, I’opale, I’incarnat, 
De leurs rickes couleurs etalont rabondance.” 
But these lines stand almost alone, differing entirely from other 
descriptions of the season by himself and many of his country- 
men, Avith Avhom it has A^ery generally been “ la pale automne." 
Probably in these lines Delille had some particular season in 
view. European autumn is not always dull ; she has her bright 
days, and at times a degree of beauty in her foliage. From the 
more northern countries, as far south of Italy, one may occasion- 
ally see something of this kind, reminding one of the season in 
America. More than a hundred years since, Addison alluded 
briefly, in his travels, to the beauty of the autumnal Avoods in 
Southern Gennany, Avhere, indeed, the foliage is said to be finer 
