The Continental Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 3, March, 1864. Various
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СКАЧАТЬ may see the Heaven-range.

      Thus the angels build the pictures

      In the vext or tranquil skies,

      Of our changeful human passions,

      Stormful fall and heaven-won rise.

      Thus they write in love and pity,

      Radiant with their heaven-dyes,

      Lessons for the lost, the erring,

      Hope for weary, dying eyes.

RAIN CLOUDS

      High float the Cirri,

      Passionless, pure;

      Wild pile the Cumuli,

      Never secure;

      Low sweep the Rain Clouds

      Over the sky,

      Glooming the sunshine,

      Slow trailing by.

      Mystical region

      Typifies Earth—

      Light in the bosom

      Of darkness has birth;

      Magical mingling

      Of beauty and gloom,

      Calm follows tempest

      As Heaven the tomb.

      Shrouding the distance,

      Legions of mist

      Glide down the river

      Joining the list

      Of the shadowy army

      Hurrying on

      Over wide waters

      To welcome the sun.

      Catching his gleaming,

      Faster they run,

      Roseate surging,

      Roll into one;

      Filling the valley,

      Luminous haze,

      Heavenward soaring,

      Rocks as we gaze;

      Lifting strange columns

      Of light in the air,

      Weaves golden sunshine

      Fitful and fair

      Through the cloud pillars

      Thrown to the sky,

      Like the Dream-ladder

      Jacob slept by.

      Trailing o'er treetops,

      Shadowing graves,

      Gloomily weeping

      While the wind raves,

      Blurring the landscape

      Rain clouds press on,

      Lowering on nature

      With leaden-hued frown.

      Sulphurous, lurid,

      Thunder is near;

      Sobbings and mutterings

      Fill us with fear.

      Palls with wild fringes

      Stream on behind—

      Death may be riding

      The wings of the wind.

      Jagged clouds hanging

      Formless and black,

      Hurtle the whirlwind

      Fast o'er their track;

      Fiery flashes

      Scathe the green plain;

      Cataracts falling

      In torrents of rain.

      Thunder and lightning

      Crash through the sky;

      Whirlwinds are carding

      The clouds as they fly!

      Nature is reeling,

      Sin at our heart,

      Heaven is angered—

      Well may we start!

      God throws His shadow

      Into the gloom;

      The raindrops have caught it,

      And break into bloom!

      His light on Earth's teardrops

      Gems Bliss on her clouds,

      His rainbow of color

      Paints Hope on her shrouds.

      Tender and lovely,

      Luminous, fair,

      Infinite Beauty

      Is bending through air,

      Breathing through color,

      Through Order, through Form,

      That infinite Love

      Rules the heart of the storm.

      Caught in soft meshes,

      Fractions the light,

      Gold, green, or ruby,

      Tremblingly bright.

      Through the torn chasms

      Smiles the lost blue—

      The wilder the drifting,

      The deeper the hue.

      Beauty above us,

      Beauty around,

      Clouds, stars gem the heavens,

      Trees, flowers paint the ground.

      Rapturous meaning

      Illumines the whole:

      God gives us Beauty,

      For Love is His Soul!

      High-floating Cirri,

      Passionless, pure;

      Wild-piling Cumuli,

      Never secure;

      Low-trailing Rain Clouds

      With rainbow-lit pall—

      Softly ye whisper

      That Love ruleth all!

      SKETCHES OF AMERICAN LIFE AND SCENERY

      II.—THE CATSKILL MOUNTAINS

      Who, in ascending the Hudson River, has not watched for the first glimpse of the Catskills, and followed with delight their gradual development of peak and clove, until, near Hudson, they stood fully revealed, flooded with sunshine, flecked with shadows, or crowned by storm-laden clouds?

      This region is noteworthy, not alone from its beauty and incalculable utility, but also from the associations clustering around it through the pen of poets and writers of romance, the brush of the artist, and the memories of thousands of tourists, who have found health and strength for both body and mind upon its craggy heights or beside its numberless wild and beautiful mountain torrents. It comprises the whole of Greene County, a portion of Delaware, and the neighboring borders of Ulster, Schoharie, and Albany. It truly deserves the appellation of 'many fountained,' giving rise to great rivers, such as the Delaware, and one of the main branches of the Susquehanna, and to manifold smaller watercourses, as the Schoharie, Catskill, and Esopus. Unlike the Highlands of Northern New Jersey and Southern New York, and the region of the Adirondacs, its lakes are few and very small. The best known are the twin lakes near the Mountain House, and Shue's Lake, not far from the summit of Overlook Mountain. These are all at a height, approximately, of two thousand feet above the river, and add greatly to the variety and interest of the landscape in their vicinity.

      Names among these hills are a commodity so scarce that their paucity presents a serious obstacle СКАЧАТЬ