play over the dome-topped caryocars, bertholetias, and
symphonias. The branches and foliage are in motion, and all the lately
slumbering dreamers are now awake, and bathe in the refreshing air
of the morning. Beetles fly, gnats buzz, and the varied voice of the
feathered race resounds from every bush; the apes scream as they clamber
into the thickets; the night moths, surprised by the approach of light,
swarm back in giddy confusion to the dark recesses of the forest; there
is life and motion in every path; the rats and all the gnawing tribe are
hastily retiring to their holes, and the cunning marten, disappointed of
his prey, steals from the farm-yard, leaving untouched the poultry, to
whom the watchful cock has just proclaimed the return of day.

The growing light gradually completes the dawn, and at length the
effulgent day breaks forth. It is nature's jubilee. The earth awaits her
bridegroom, and, behold, he comes! Rays of red light illumine the sky,
and now the sun rises. In another moment he is above the horizon, and,
emerging from a sea of fire, he casts his glowing rays upon the earth.
The magical twilight is gone; bright gleams flit from point to point,
accompanied by deeper and deeper shadows. Suddenly the enraptured
observer beholds around him the joyous earth, arrayed in fresh dewy
splendour, the fairest of brides. The vault of heaven is cloudless;
on the earth all is instinct with life, and every animal and plant is
in the full enjoyment of existence. At seven o'clock the dew begins to
disappear, the land breeze falls off, and the increasing heat soon makes
itself sensibly felt. The sun ascends rapidly and vertically the
transparent blue sky, from which every vapour seems to disappear; but
presently, low in the western horizon, small, flaky, white clouds are
formed. These point towards the sun, and gradually extend far into the
firmament. By nine o'clock the meadow is quite dry, the forest appears
in all the splendour of its glowing foliage. Some buds are expanding;
others, which had effloresced more rapidly, have already disappeared.
Another hour, and the clouds are higher: they form broad, dense masses,
and, passing under the sun, whose fervid and brilliant rays now pervade
the whole landscape, occasionally darken and cool the atmosphere.
The plants shrink beneath the scorching rays, and resign themselves
to the powerful influence of the ruler of the day. The merry buzz of the
gold-winged beetle and hummin