There was a lovely thread below regarding autumnal musings & poetic references to decline & decay and their relation to Ann's blighted hopes. but there is also an almost throw-away line in Chapter 10 that appears to me to begin to point in a different direction.

"Winthrop, however, or its environs--for young men are, sometimes to be met with, strolling about near home, was their destination; and after another half mile of gradual ascent through large enclosures, where the ploughs at work, and the fresh-made path spoke the farmer, counteracting the sweets of poetical despondence, and meaning to have spring again, they gained the summit of the most considerable hill, which parted Uppercross and Winthrop, and soon commanded a full view of the latter, at the foot of the hill on the other side."

I love the imagery of "the ploughs at work, and the fresh made path spoke the farmer, counteracting the sweets of poetical despondence, meaning to have spring again."

The impression I have is that nature on its own will spoil and decay, but that with toil & cultivation we prepare the ground, or ourselves, for a new season of fruitfulness.