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CHAPTER VI.

MADELINE, HER HOPES.— A MILD AUTUMN CHARACTERISED.—A LANDSCAPE.—A RETURN.

 

"Tis late, and cold—stir up the fire.
Sit close, and draw the table nigher;
Be merry and drink wine that 's old,
A hearty medicine 'gainst a cold.
Welcome—welcome shall fly round!"
Beaumont and Fletcher.—Song in the Lover's Progress.

 

As when the Great Poet,

"Escaped the Stygian pool, though long detained
In that obscure sojourn; while, in his flight
Through utter and through middle darkness borne,
He sang of chaos, and eternal night:—

As when, revisiting the "Holy Light, offspring of heaven first-born," the sense of freshness and glory breaks upon him, and kindles into the solemn joyfulness of adjuring song: so rises the mind