the wind raves,
Blurring the landscape
Rain clouds press on,
Lowering on nature
With leaden-hued frown.

Sulphurous, lurid,
Thunder is near;
Sobbings and mutterings
Fill us with fear.
Palls with wild fringes
Stream on behind--
Death may be riding
The wings of the wind.

Jagged clouds hanging
Formless and black,
Hurtle the whirlwind
Fast o'er their track;
Fiery flashes
Scathe the green plain;
Cataracts falling
In torrents of rain.

Thunder and lightning
Crash through the sky;
Whirlwinds are carding
The clouds as they fly!
Nature is reeling,
Sin at our heart,
Heaven is angered--
Well may we start!

God throws His shadow
Into the gloom;
The raindrops have caught it,
And break into bloom!
His light on Earth's teardrops
Gems Bliss on her clouds,
His rainbow of color
Paints Hope on her shrouds.

Tender and lovely,
Luminous, fair,
Infinite Beauty
Is bending through air,
Breathing through color,
Through Order, through Form,
That infinite Love
Rules the heart of the storm.

Caught in soft meshes,
Fractions the light,
Gold, green, or ruby,
Tremblingly bright.
Through the torn chasms
Smiles the lost blue--
The wilder the drifting,
The deeper the hue.

Beauty above us,
Beauty around,
Clouds, stars gem the heavens,
Trees, flowers paint the ground.
Rapturous meaning
Illumines the whole:
God gives us Beauty,
For Love is His Soul!

High-floating Cirri,
Passionless, pure;
Wild-piling Cumuli,
Never secure;
Low-trailing Rain Clouds
With rainbow-lit pall--
Softly ye whisper
That Love ruleth all!

SKETCHES OF AMERICAN LIFE AND SCENERY.

II.--THE CATSKILL MOUNTAINS.

Who, in ascending the Hudson River, has not watched for the first
glimpse of the Catskills, and followed with delight their gradual
development of peak and clove, until, near Hudson, they stood fully
revealed, flooded with sunshine, flecked with shadows, or crowned by
storm-laden clouds?

This region is noteworthy, not alone from its beauty and incalculable
utility, but also from the associations clustering around it through the
pen of poets and writers of romance, the brush of the artist, and the
memories of thousands of tourists, who have found health and strength
for both body and mind upon its craggy heights or b