The Rhode Island American, And General Advertiser

FROM CHATEAUBRIAND'S WORKS.
Spectacle of a beautiful Night in the Deserts of the New World.

An hour after sunset the moon appeared above the trees in the opposite horizon. A balmy breeze which she brought with her from the east, seemed to go before, as her refreshing breath, in the forest.—The queen of night ascends gradually in the heavens: now she follows silently her azure course, now reposes on piles of clouds, resembling the summits of lofty mountains crowned with snow. These gradually unfurling themselves were spread into zones of satin whiteness, and dispersed in thin foamy flocks, or formed in the Heaven's resplendent banks, so pleasant to the eye, as almost to induce a persuasion that one could feel their softness and elasticity.

On earth the scene was not less ravishing; the soft and silver light of the moon descended among the foliage, and projected streams of light into the profoundest shades.—The river which flowed at my feet, by turns lost itself in the woods, and by turns re-appeared; all brilliant with the constellations of night, which were multiplied upon its undulating bosom. A vastly extended prairie on the opposite of the river, the light of the moon slept motionless upon the green. Birch trees, scattered here and there through the marsh, and, agitated by the breeze, formed islands of shadows, floating on a motionless sea of light. Around me all was silence and repose, save the dropping of the leaves, the brisk transit of sudden flaws of wind, and the occasional hooting of the bird of night; but afar off was heard the rolling, solemn sound of the cataract of Niagara; which, in the stillness of the night, reverberated from desert to desert, until it ultimately expired in the distant solitary wild.

The grandeur and stupendous solemnity of this scene are altogether inexpressible. The most beautiful nights in Europe can convey no adequate idea of them. In vain, in our cultivated fields, does imagination seek to expand itself; it encounters on every side the habitations of man: but in the country of deserts, the mind delights to plunge into a ocean of forests, to wander on the borders of boundless lakes, to hover over the gulfs of cataracts, and, if it may be uttered, to stand alone in the presence of the Deity.