LETTEES FEOM ALABAMA. 
69 
LETTER IV. 
Dallas, June 10, 18 — . 
A FEW nights agOj after ail in the house had long 
retired to rest, not feeling disposed for sleep, I was 
sitting at an open window. We usually sleep with 
every window wide open, there being latticed 
blinds or shutters to prevent the intrusion of bats, 
birds, &c. It was fast approaching to midnight ; 
the air, cleared by a recent thunder-storm, was 
most refreshingly cool and balmy ; and gushes of 
fragrance rose from the garden that smiled beneath. 
It was not dark, for there was a “ good piece of a 
moon” in the sky, whose rays fell on the tops of 
the almost boundless forest around, and nearer at 
hand were reflected by the diamond drops of rain 
that still glistened on the bushes. Everything Avas 
profoundly still, and Johns’s sweet lines bn Pal- 
myra seen at midnight were running in my 
mind 
All silent now I — The starry wings 
Of midnight wrap the lonely plain ; 
The murmurs of the sleepless springs 
Alone disturb her solemn reign. 
Oh ! full of gorgeous gloom that hour, 
Where’er it falls, the wide world round ! 
It gives to every scene a power 
To stir the soul with thoughts profound ; — 
With thoughts that, like sidereal strains, 
Are all unheard the bright day long ; 
But, when night breaks their fountain-chains. 
Gush forth at once in mystic song ! ” 
