The
entranced rapture which filled my soul when first I looked upon this
scene comes over me now with a freshness that brings back the delights
of that day with all its cherished memories, though fifty years have
gone and their sorrows have crushed out all but hope from the
heart--and all the pleasures of the present are these memories kindly
clustering about the soul. Perhaps their delights, and those who shared
them, will revive in eternity. Perhaps not; perhaps all alike--the
pleasant and the painful--are to be lost in an eternal, oblivious
sleep. It is all speculation; yet hope and doubt go on to the grave,
and thence none return to cheer the one or elucidate the other. But be
it eternal life or eternal death, it is wise; for it is of God.
The autumn grew old and was threatening a frost--the great enemy of
fever. The falling leaves and the fitful gusts of chill wind presaged
the coming of winter. The ear caught the ring of sounds more distant
and more distinct now that the languor of summer was gone, and all
animal nature seemed more invigorated and more elastic.
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