is not indeed so much a new emotion, as a revival and concentration of
all his departed affections to others; and the deep and intense nature of
Falkland's passion for Emily was linked with the recollections of
whatever he had formerly cherished as tender or dear; it touched--
it awoke a long chain of young and enthusiastic feelings, which arose,
perhaps, the fresher from their slumber. Who, when he turns to recall
his first and fondest associations; when he throws off, one by one, the
layers of earth and stone which have grown and hardened over the records
of the past: who has not been surprised to discover how fresh and
unimpaired those buried treasures rise again upon his heart? They have
been laid up in the storehouse of Time; they have not perished; their
very concealment has preserved them! _We remove the lava, and the world
of a gone day is before us_!

The evening of the day on which Falkland had written the above letter was
rude and stormy. The various streams with which the country abounded
were swelled by late rains into an unwonted rapidity and breadth; and
their voices blended with the rushing sound of the winds, and the distant
roll of the thunder, which began at last sullenly to subside. The whole
of the scene around L------ was of that savage yet sublime character,
which suited well with the wrath of the aroused elements. Dark woods,
large tracts of unenclosed heath, abrupt variations of hill and vale, and
a dim and broken outline beyond of uninterrupted mountains, formed the
great features of that romantic country.

It was filled with the recollections of his youth, and of the wild
delight which he took then in the convulsions and varieties of nature,
that Falkland roamed abroad that evening. The dim shadows of years,
crowded with concealed events and corroding reflections, all gathered
around his mind, and the gloom and tempest of the night came over him