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Falls of the Kaaterskill
The Clove, Catskills
The Course of Empire: The Savage State
The Course of Empire: The Arcadian or Pastoral State
The Course of Empire: The Consummation of Empire
The Course of Empire: Destruction
The Course of Empire: Desolation
View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, After A Thunderstorm (The Oxbow)
View on the Catskill, Early Autumn
The Voyage of Life: Childhood (First Set)
The Voyage of Life: Youth (First Set)
The Voyage of Life: Manhood (First Set)
The Voyage of Life: Old Age (First Set)
The Architect's Dream
Mount Etna From Taormina, Sicily
A View of the Two Lakes and Mountain House, Catskill Mountains, Morning
Kindred Spirits

The Course of Empire: The Arcadian or Pastoral State

Thomas Cole. Oil on canvas, 1834, 39 ½ x 63 ½ in. Collection of The New-York Historical Society, 1858.2.

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The Course of Empire

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The spring has come at last; we have had a few days the most celestial: the gentlest temperature, the purest air, sunshine without burning & breezes without chilliness, skies cloudless but soft. The mountains have taken their pearly hue & the streams leap & glitter as though some crystal mountain thawed beneath the sun; the bosomy hills heaving amid white & rosy blossoms blush in the light of day. The air is full of fragrance & music. O that this could endure & no poison of the mind fall into the cup!¹