On the worship and love of God

1. WALKING once alone in a pleasant grove, for the sake of composing my thoughts, and observing that the trees were shedding their foliage, and that the falling leaves were flying in all directions, (for autumn at that time took its turn in the revolution of the year, and dispersed the decorations of summer,) from being sad I became serious, because I recollected the gratifications which that grove, from the beginning of spring even to this season, had communicated, and so often diffused throughout my whole mind: but on seeing this change of scene, I began to revolve on the vicissitudes of times; and it occurred to me whether all things relating to time do not also pass through similar vicissitudes, viz. whether this is not the case, not only with forests, but also with our lives and ages; for it is evident that they, in like manner, commencing from a kind of spring and blossom, and passing through their summer, sink rapidly into their old age, the image of autumn.