lay like soft vapoury streaks along the horizon, lighted up with a
golden splendour that the eye can scarcely endure, and those still
softer clouds which floated above them wreathing and curling into a
thousand fantastic forms, as thin and changeful as summer smoke, now
defined and deepened into grandeur, and edged with ineffable,
insufferable light! Another minute and the brilliant orb totally
disappears, and the sky above grows every moment more varied and
more beautiful as the dazzling golden lines are mixed with glowing
red and gorgeous purple, dappled with small dark specks, and mingled
with such a blue as the egg of the hedge-sparrow. To look up at
that glorious sky, and then to see that magnificent picture
reflected in the clear and lovely Loddon water, is a pleasure never
to be described and never forgotten. My heart swells and my eyes
fill as I write of it, and think of the immeasurable majesty of
nature, and the unspeakable goodness of God, who has spread an
enjoyment so pure, so peaceful, and so intense before the meanest
and the lowliest of His creatures.



THE COWSLIP-BALL.

May 16th.--There are moments in life when, without any visible or
immediate cause, the spirits sink and fail, as it were, under the
mere pressure of existence: moments of unaccountable depression,
when one is weary of one's very thoughts, haunted by images that
will not depart--images many and various, but all painful; friends
lost, or changed, or dead; hopes disappointed even in their
accomplishment; fruitless regrets, powerless wishes, doubt and fear,
and self-distrust, and self-disapprobation. They who have known