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flowery slope on the hill-side gilded by the morning sunbeams. Who, as he witnessed the gay laugh, the light step, the gesture redolent of joy, has not felt the melancholy wish' rise unbidden to his lip, that

For

'He were the little trifler once again,

Who could be pleased so lightly?'

time, as he carries us onward in his flight, bring us to deeper fountains of happiness, to pleasures of a more thrilling and absorbing interest, to enjoyments lifted higher up in the scale of moral and intellectual measurement,-if he open to us the means of usefulness to others and of honor to ourselves,—if he spread before us the hopes and aspirations of religion, the brilliant prospects of wealth, power, fame, and whatsoever else attracts and animates the grown, full-souled man,-if our being gain expansion by age, not only for the responsible duties of life, but also for corresponding sources of interest and felicity in concurrent acquisition of domestic peace and of the power of benefiting or enlightening our fellows,-grant, I say, that all this be so and yet, at every remove from the careless gaiety of youth, has not the sphere of our sorrows become enlarged with expansibility equal to that of our joys? And if so, who then would cling to life for life's own sake?

I was forcibly impressed with such feelings by two little incidents, which occurred to me in the

kingdom of Valencia. On a lovely morning of spring, I departed from Murcia for Alicante, proceeding for a while through the enchanting huerta, that is, garden, as the richly cultivated plain is deservedly called, in the midst of which the city of Murcia is constructed. Hamlets and detached houses abounded, consisting often of little wattled cottages, rising above bright green fields of clover, flax, and wheat, sometime under shelter of a clump of palmtrees, and generally accompanied by plantations of the mulberry. A tall rock, aptly denominated Monteagudo, with the remains of an old Moorish castle cresting its pinnacle, is conspicuous in front of you so soon as you issue from the city. It seems difficult to conceive what valuable purpose could be answered by these little castles, which the Moors have left behind them every where,unless, perhaps, they were serviceable as watch-towers; for they are too small to receive a considerable garrison and the supply of water and provisions requisite for a long siege; and perched, as they often are, upon the naked summit of some insulated rock, it seems as if they were designed to be the mountain eyrie of a solitary robber, rather than a military strong hold for the defence of the country. The little village of Monteagudo is gathered around the foot of the rock; and from thence to the sierra of Oribuela, the road winds along over a territory, which is broken and uneven, but still in general well-cultivated, and interspersed with groves of olive trees from time to time. At

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the hamlet of La Parecia you enter the kingdom of Valencia; and shortly afterwards arrive at Orihuela.

Nothing, in the limits of agricultural art and rich vegetation, can surpass the approach to Orihuela, or indeed its entire luxuriant huerta. The city itself is of considerable magnitude and population, the see of a bishop, containing numerous public edifices, and celebrated, in no small degree, for the part it has acted in the various epochs of the history of Spain. But its attractions consist less in its public monuments and historical associations than in the beauty of its situation, and the richness of cultivation, which the industry of its inhabitants has imparted to a fertile soil. Orihuela affords an example of the singular juxtaposition, which so frequently occurs in Spain, of the most luxuriant vegetation with natural scenery of the wildest aspect. Behind it rises the rough sierra, with its jagged rocks, and its antique castle half-way up the steep, while the river Segura flows below; and the buildings and turrets are seen to command an extensive huerta on the right, which forms a picture of verdure and fertility unequalled in other lands.

The huertas of Murcia and Valencia are plains of greater or less extent, embosomed in hills, which, enjoying a delicious climate, abundance of water by means of the immediate proximity of small rivers and the extensive use of artificial irrigation, and a deep soil, are brought, by assiduous cultivation, to a state of

wonderful embellishment and productiveness, which needs to be seen in order to be fully believed. If industry exists any where upon earth it is among the people of these luxuriant plains. Nature seems to be tasked by art to the furthest reach of her resources. Whilst irrigation supplies continual moisture, the vegetative energies of the soil are maintained by careful manuring; and every month almost has its appropriate seed-time and harvest; for the process of planting and gathering seems to be going on incessantly, in every day of the year. The boasted cultivation of England and the Netherlands is wasteful and slovenly compared with these admirable gardens of the Mediterranean coast of Spain.

And scarce any among them are superior to that of Orihuela; for it has passed into a proverb that, rain or no rain, there is wheat here;-Llueva 6 no Llueva, trigo en Orihuela. Every field in it is like the richest bed in a kitchen-garden; and the whole plain like one of those chosen spots in the neighborhood of our large cities, where hot-houses and incessant care combine to cover the earth with fruits, flowers, and herbage. Table vegetables of the greatest variety and most savory qualities; wheat, flax, and grass in profuse abundance ;countless numbers of mulberry-trees affording sustenance to vast quantities of silk-worms; the orange, lemon, almond, pomegranate, in gay profusion :such are the productions, which luxuriate in the rich plain of Orihuela.

From Orihuela to Albateri you coast along the foot of the sierra, through a succession of hamlets, just on the edge of the plain, which continues to stretch out on the right in verdant loveliness. Clumps of olives are frequently to be seen; but the most remarkable objects are still the lofty date palms, with their pendulous clusters of fruit, hanging from a crest of long foliage on the summit of their tall, naked, knotted trunks. Having passed Laiosa, you arrive at a white castle on the summit of a conical rock, where you leave the sierra of Orihuela, and enter upon another extended plain, which continues to Elche. Several of the same naked rocks are seen rising out of the plain, in singular contrast with its bright verdure; and you proceed through an uninterrupted succession of vineyards and olive trees; for industrious cultivation is around you still, although different from that of the huerta you have left.

Crowds of people are every where seen at work in the fields, grouped together in little companies, in the costume peculiar to the peasantry of this region, consisting of a small cap on the head, a shirt, loose white trowsers coming just down to the knee, and cloth sandals on the feet, leaving the legs bare, the whole dress being such as to bespeak an African origin and a climate of perpetual serenity and warmth. Indeed, the Numidian is indelibly stamped upon the physical exterior, as it is upon the moral constitution, of the peasants of Murcia and

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