weet water, as it flows,--
The winds, that kiss me as they pass,--
The starry shadow of the rose,
Sitting beside her on the grass,--

The daffodilly, trying to bless
With better light the beauteous air,--
The lily, wearing the white dress
Of sanctuary, to be more fair,--

The lithe-armed, dainty-fingered brier,
That in the woods, so dim and drear,
Lights up betimes her tender fire
To soothe the homesick pioneer,--

The moth, his brown sails balancing
Along the stubble crisp and dry,--
The ground-flower, with a blood-red ring
On either hand,--the pewet's cry,--

The friendly robin's gracious note,--
The hills, with curious weeds o'errun,--
The althea, with her crimson coat
Tricked out to please the wearied sun,--

The dandelion, whose golden share
Is set before the rustic's plough,--
The hum of insects in the air,--
The blooming bush,--the withered bough,--

The coming on of eve,--the springs
Of daybreak, soft and silver-bright,--
The frost, that with rough, rugged wings
Blows down the cankered buds,--the white,

Long drifts of winter snow,--the heat
Of August, falling still and wide,--
Broad cornfields,--one chance stalk of wheat,
Standing with bright head hung aside,--

All things, my darling, all things seem
In some strange way to speak of thee;
Nothing is half so much a dream,
Nothing so much reality.

My soul to thine is dutiful,
In all its pleasure, all its care;
O most beloved! most beautiful!
I miss, and find thee everywhere!

* * * * *

GLACIAL PERIOD.

In the early part of the summer of 1840, I started from Switzerland for
England with the express object of finding traces of glaciers in Great
Britain. This glacier-hunt was at that time a somewhat perilous
undertaking for the reputation of a young naturalist like myself, since
some of the greatest names in science were arrayed against the novel
glacial theory. And it was not strange that it should be at first
discredited by the scientific world, for hitherto all the investigations
of geologists had gone to show that a degree of heat far greater than
any now prevailing characterized the earlier periods of the world's
history. Even Charpentier, my precursor and master in glacial research,
who first showed the greater extent of Swiss glaciers in former times,
had not thought of any more ge