O , but the church is a symbol of religion ! May its site , which was consecrated on the day when the first tree was felled , be kept holy forever , a spot of solitude and peace , amid the trouble and vanity of our week-day world ! There is a moral , and a religion too , even in the silent walls . THE WAYSIDE . INTRODUCTORY . A short time ago , I was favored with a flying visit from my young friend Eustace Bright , whom I had not before met with since quitting the breezy mountains of Berkshire . It being the winter vacation at his college , Eustace was allowing himself a little relaxation , in the hope , he told me , of repairing the inroads which severe application to study had made upon his health ; and I was happy to conclude , from the excellent physical condition in which I saw him , that the remedy had already been attended with very desirable success . He had now run up from Boston by the noon train , partly impelled by the friendly regard with which he is pleased to honor me , and partly , as I soon found , on a matter of literary business . It delighted me to receive Mr. Bright , for the first time , under a roof , though a very humble one , which I could really call my own . Nor did I fail -LRB- as is the custom of landed proprietors all about the world -RRB- to parade the poor fellow up and down over my half a dozen acres ; secretly rejoicing , nevertheless , that the disarray of the inclement season , and particularly the six inches of snow then upon the ground , prevented him from observing the ragged neglect of soil and shrubbery into which the place had lapsed . It was idle , however , to imagine that an airy guest from Monument Mountain , Bald Summit , and old Graylock , shaggy with primeval forests , could see anything to admire in my poor little hillside , with its growth of frail and insect-eaten locust trees . Eustace very frankly called the view from my hill top tame ; and so , no doubt , it was , after rough , broken , rugged , headlong Berkshire , and especially the northern parts of the county , with which his college residence had made him familiar . But to me there is a peculiar , quiet charm in these broad meadows and gentle eminences . They are better than mountains , because they do not stamp and stereotype themselves into the brain , and thus grow wearisome with the same strong impression , repeated day after day . A few summer weeks among mountains , a lifetime among green meadows and placid slopes , with outlines forever new , because continually fading out of the memory -- such would be my sober choice . I doubt whether Eustace did not internally pronounce the whole thing a bore , until I led him to my predecessor 's little ruined , rustic summer house , midway on the hillside . It is a mere skeleton of slender , decaying tree trunks , with neither walls nor a roof ; nothing but a tracery of branches and twigs , which the next wintry blast will be very likely to scatter in fragments along the terrace . It looks , and is , as evanescent as a dream ; and yet , in its rustic network of boughs , it has somehow enclosed a hint of spiritual beauty , and has become a true emblem of the subtile and ethereal mind that planned it . I made Eustace Bright sit down on a snow bank , which had heaped itself over the mossy seat , and gazing through the arched windows opposite , he acknowledged that the scene at once grew picturesque . `` Simple as it looks , '' said he , `` this little edifice seems to be the work of magic .
It is full XXXXX suggestiveness , and , in its way , is as good as a cathedral .
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