with the sighs of the whispering gale."

MATIN AND EVENING SONGS.

To the inventive genius of man must, of course, be attributed the
present developments, and the beautiful, diversified forms, existing
in musical art. But, before man was, the great Author of harmony had
created what may be called the music of Nature.

Afterwards, the human ear, penetrated by sounds of melody issuing from
wind, wave, or bird, the rapt mind in strange and pleasing wonder
contemplating the new and charming harmonies,--then it was that man
received his first impressions, and took his first lessons in
delightful symphony.

Take from man all creative and performing power in music, leaving him
only the ear to catch and the mind to comprehend the sounds, and there
would still be left to him God's own music,--the music of Nature,
which, springing as it did from eternity, shall last throughout
eternity.

Passing what must appear to human comprehension as vague (an attempt
at the contemplation of which would be without profit in this
connection), and what has been called the "music of the spheres,"[3]
we may proceed to briefly touch upon those forms of natural music
which are ever within our hearing, and which constantly afford us
pleasure.

[Footnote 3: Reference is supposed to be made to this in the Book of
Job, in these words: "When the morning stars sang together, and all
the sons of God shouted for joy."]

First let us go forth into the summer woods. The eye takes in the
charming prospect,--the trees dressed in beautiful green; the "grassy
carpet," parted ever and anon by a gliding, gurgling brooklet; the
wild flower peeping up near the feet; a landscape of even surface, or
at times pleasingly undulated. The atmosphere is freighted with a
delightful fragrance; and from rustling bough, from warbling bird,
from rippling brook, and from the joyous hum of insects almost
innumerable,

"The air is full of noises, sounds, and sweet airs,
That give delight, and hurt not."

All these, the beauties of animate and inanimate Nature, pleasantly
affect the senses. But the chief influence there--the crowning glory
of the groves--is the songs, the charming music of the birds, as they
warble from tree to tree, untrammelled by the forms of art, their
sweetest melodies. How often do their lightsome, inspiriting
carollings ring out upon the morning air, persuasively calling us from
our couches to listen in delight to Nature's minstr