oly thing to return to this spot so dear to us, as the
scene of a happiness rarely before enjoyed, here to mark the extinction of
our species, and trace the deep uneraseable footsteps of disease over the
fertile and cherished soil. The aspect of the country had so far changed,
that it had been impossible to enter on the task of sowing seed, and other
autumnal labours. That season was now gone; and winter had set in with
sudden and unusual severity. Alternate frosts and thaws succeeding to
floods, rendered the country impassable. Heavy falls of snow gave an arctic
appearance to the scenery; the roofs of the houses peeped from the white
mass; the lowly cot and stately mansion, alike deserted, were blocked up,
their thresholds uncleared; the windows were broken by the hail, while the
prevalence of a north-east wind rendered out-door exertions extremely
painful. The altered state of society made these accidents of nature,
sources of real misery. The luxury of command and the attentions of
servitude were lost. It is true that the necessaries of life were assembled
in such quantities, as to supply to superfluity the wants of the diminished
population; but still much labour was required to arrange these, as it
were, raw materials; and depressed by sickness, and fearful of the future,
we had not energy to enter boldly and decidedly on any system.

I can speak for myself--want of energy was not my failing. The intense
life that quickened my pulses, and animated my frame, had the effect, not
of drawing me into the mazes of active life, but of exalting my lowliness,
and of bestowing majestic proportions on insignificant objects--I could
have lived the life of a peasant in the same way--my trifling occupations
were swelled into important pursuits; my affections were impetuous and
engrossing passions, and nature with all her changes was invested in divine
attributes. The very spirit of the Greek mythology inhabited my heart; I
deified the uplands, glades, and streams, I

Had sight of Proteus coming from the sea;
And heard old Triton blow his wreathed horn.[1]

Strange, that while the earth preserved her monotonous course, I dwelt with
ever-renewing wonder on her antique laws, and now that with excentric wheel
she rushed into an untried path, I should feel this spirit fade; I
struggled with despondency and weariness, but like a fog, they choked me.
Perhaps, after the labours and stupendous excitement of the past summer,
the calm