Our Changing Sky and Climate.
by Washington Irving.
LET me, reader, say a word in favor of those vicissitudes, which are
too often made the subject of exclusive repining. If they annoy us
occasionally by changes from hot to cold, from wet to dry, they give us one
of the most beautiful climates in the world. They give us the brilliant
sunshine of the south of Europe with the fresh verdure o[sic] the north.
They float our summer sky with clouds of gorgeous tints or fleecy
whiteness, and send down cooling showers to refresh the panting earth and
keep it green. Our seasons are all poetical; the phenomena of our heavens
are full of sublimity and beauty. Winter with us has none of its proverbial
gloom. It may have its howling winds, and thrilling frosts, and whirling
snow-storms; but it has also its long intervals of cloudless sunshine, when
the snow-clad earth gives redoubled brightness to the day; when at night the
stars beam with intensest luster, or the moon floods the whole landscape
with her most limpid radiance; and then the
joyous outbreak of our spring, bursting at once into
leaf and blossom, redundant with vegetation, and vociferous with life!
—
and the splendors of our summer — its morning voluptuousness and
evening glory — its airy palaces of sun-gilt clouds piled up in a deep
azure sky; and its gusts of tempest of almost tropical grandeur, when the
forked lightning and the bellowing thunder volley from the battlements of
heaven and shake the sultry atmosphere — and the sublime
melancholy
of our autumn, magnificent in its decay, withering down the pomp and
pride of a woodland country, yet reflecting back from its yellow forests the
golden serenity of the sky — surely we may say that in our climate
"the
heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth forth his
handiwork; day unto day uttereth speech; and night unto night showeth
knowledge."
[2]
As far as I am able to determine, this is the only piece Irving ever
contributed to The Ladies' Repository; it may well be the
only
contribution he ever made to any lady's book. It is perhaps significant that
an appreciative essay of considerable length entitled "Washington Irving as
a Writer" appeared in the July, 1848 issue of The Ladies'
Repository and was, according to the index to that volume, the work
of the editor himself, the Rev. Mr. B. F. Tefft (VIII [July, 1848] 217-220).
The essay is characterized throughout by hyperbolic praise of Irving's
virtues as both a man and a writer. But what is of interest here are Tefft's
concluding remarks:
Having given much merited praise, I will state almost my only
objection to Mr. Irving. In nearly all that he has done, he has shown merely
what he could do, had his subjects been better chosen. His Sketch Book and
his Columbus are almost the only exceptions to this remark. In nearly all
his other works, beautiful, charming, captivating as they are, a serious man
feels all the while that he might have selected topics more worthy of his
genius. It is true, there is next to nothing in all his writings to find fault
with; his style is ever like its fountain, pure and splendid; he nowhere
descends to vulgarity, even for a moment; and his morality is such as would
become a minister at the altar. But, then, when we read such a man, the
soul longs to see him soaring higher. We want to see him ranging in
majesty through those fields, where such a spirit might meet with angels.
We become almost anxious to witness the power of such a style as his on
those sublime topics, which, in all ages,
have formed the themes of those gifted minds, who have ever stood nearest
to the bright purlieus of heaven (p. 220).
It does not seem improbable that such an "invitation" as this would
eventually draw forth from Irving just such a sketch as "Our Changing Sky
and Climate," a sketch which, notwithstanding its brevity, must have gone
far toward fulfilling the fondest wishes of the Rev. Mr. Tefft.