, as the light breeze stirs
from an apparent sleep; a golden tint spreads over the sea of mist
below; the rays dart lightning-like upon the eastern sky; the mighty
orb rises in all the fullness of his majesty, recalling the words of
Omnipotence: "Let there be light!"

The sun is risen! the misty sea below mounts like a snowy wreath around
the hill-tops, and then, like a passing thought, it vanishes. A glassy
clearness of the atmosphere reveals the magnificent view of Nature,
fresh from her sleep; every dewy leaf gilded by the morning sun, every
rock glistening with moisture in his bright rays, mountain and valley,
wood and plain, alike rejoicing in his beams.

And now, the sun being risen, we gaze from our lofty post upon Newera
Ellia, lying at our feet. We trace the river winding its silvery
course through the plain, and for many miles the alternate plains and
forests joining in succession.

How changed are some features of the landscape within the few past
years, and how wonderful the alteration made by man on the face of
Nature! Comparatively but a few years ago, Newera Ellia was
undiscovered--a secluded plain among the mountaintops, tenanted by the
elk and boar. The wind swept over it, and the mists hung around the
mountains, and the bright summer with its spotless sky succeeded, but
still it was unknown and unseen except by the native bee-hunter in his
rambles for wild honey. How changed! The road encircles the plain, and
carts are busy in removing the produce of the land. Here, where wild
forests stood, are gardens teeming with English flowers; rosy-faced
children and ruddy countrymen are about the cottage doors; equestrians
of both sexes are galloping round the plain, and the cry of the hounds
is ringing on the mountain-side.

How changed! There is an old tree standing upon a hill, whose gnarled
trunk has been twisted by the winter's wind for many an age, and so
screwed is its old stem that the axe has spared it, out of pity, when
its companions were all swept away and the forest felled. And many a
tale that old tree could tell of winter's blasts and broken boughs, and
storms which howled above its head, when all was wilderness around.
The eagle has roosted in its top, the monkeys have gamboled in its
branches, and the elephants have rubbed their tough flanks against its
stem in times gone by; but it now throws a shadow upon a Christian's
grave, and the churchyard lies beneath its shade. The church-be