Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/22

38 sink. Has not a natural storm but lately passed over thy life; did not heaven seem dark, and every prospect on earth closed? And did not the tempest, all at once, as by a magic stroke, become dispersed, and all was again bright? See the cloudlets yonder, below the mountains, how they melt away before the sun, which absorbs them, changes them into blue ether—or into fertilizing springs and rivers! Thus human sufferings and errors.—Ah! that which makes life so dark, and the heart so heavy, thus sink they into the deep; thus are they dissolved by the sun of the Divine Goodness. Have confidence in the sun! Sing, sing, O heart, and praise its power, as do the Alpine heights, the clouds and the verdant, ever youthful earth!”

Joyously rushed on the Aar with swelling waters; the birds sang, the acacia diffused its fragrance around, and the earth and the Alps shone brightly. Oh, this morning,—I can express but little of that which I experienced during it, of that which the sun and the Alps spoke to me!

I wandered for yet an hour in the ascending sunlight around Berne, that I might become better acquainted with its situation and physiognomy, shook paws with its bears, which, although turned to stone, parade the market, and stand round the fountains as large as life, and like friendly countrymen stretched out their paws to me. Berne, standing on its peninsular rock, around which rushes the lively Aar, reminded me vividly of the plain-featured but powerful Rochester, and the fascinating Jane Eyre in the charming novel of that name. Thus plain-featured but picturesque and stately is Berne, thus lively, full of the