Like a cloud of the summer sunset Gleaming across the blue, Like a star of the golden twilight Through the misty evening dew, Like a strain of heavenly music Breathed mournfully and low, Charming the heart to sadness By its bewildering flow-- Thou camest to my presence In the far off long-ago. Thou camest for a moment, Then fleeted swift away, As the rosy cloud of sunset Fades at the close of day, As the beaming star of twilight Withdraws its golden ray. Thou hast past from out my presence As the songs low cadence dies, Which the heart seeketh ever, And evermore it flies. Oh, in my weary journeying Come to me yet once more, While still my footsteps wander On Time's uncertain shore. Come to me, oh, sweet vision Of what my soul has sought, And with mine once more mingle Thy far, sky-piercing thought. Call I in vain thy spirit? Do I seek thee all in vain? Shall I never hear thy accent In music fall again? Why didst thou cross my pathway, Oh soul so pure and true? To fade like the clouds of sunset. Like the star from the misty blue? AUTUMNAL SCENERY. WHAT IS NECESSARY TO THE ENJOYMENT OF NATURE'S BEAUTIES. BY JOSEPH R. CHANDLER. I am not of those who think that a true enjoyment of the beauties of nature, of natural scenery, and natural objects, generally, is a test of the purity of principle or the delicacy of sentiment, any more than I hold that a love of music is essential to domestic, social or political virtue. The cultivation of the eye and the ear--or the capabilities in those organs for cultivation--have more to do with all this than many seem to allow; and men and women of the purest principles, and the highest benevolence, may stand within the loveliest scenes that nature has ever spread out, or may listen to the most delicious music that art has ever prepared and performed, without comprehending the beauties or the excellence of either, or imagining that there is a moral test applied to them in these attractions. Nevertheless, there is an enjoyment in such scenes and such sounds, and those who are permitted to share therein have another life--or such an additional enjoyment added to _that_ of ordinary minds, that they seem to live more, if not longer, in such pleasures than the common allotment; and none, I suspect, will doubt that the indulgence of a taste for natural beauties tends to soften the mind, soothe the passions, and thus elevate the feelings and aspirations.