Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/213

Rh love for Him of whose life of love she had partaken, and she longed to present Him with an offering, to pour out her feeling, her life, for Him who gave it. She was young and warm with the fulness of primeval life; but she felt nevertheless her weakness in comparison with His power. What could she give to Him from whom she received everything? Her heart swelled with love and pain, with infinite longing, with the fulness of infinite life, swelled and swelled till it overflowed in—Niagara. And the spirit of thanksgiving arose as the smoke of an eternal sacrifice from the depth of the water towards heaven. The Lord of heaven saw it, and His spirit embraced the spirit of Nature with rainbows of light, with kisses of brilliant fire in an eternal betrothal.

Thus was it in the morning of the earth's life. Thus we behold it to this day. Still we behold to-day the spirit of nature ascend from Niagara towards heaven with the offering of its life, as an unspoken yearning and song of praise; and still to-day it is embraced by the light and the flames of heaven, as by divine love.

September 10th. In the Morning.—To day we shall proceed on our journey. I am satisfied that it should be so, for I have a little headache, and the unceasing thunder of the fall, the continual restless rushing of the torrent past my window is fatiguing to the nerves. Besides, one gets accustomed to everything, even to the great; and when by the side of this great fall we begin to hear and to be occupied merely with our own little thoughts about everyday things, then we may go away.

I have not told you about the different scenes of life