silence, fearful, never so

 Herman Melville, Pierre, or The Ambiguities (1852):

"Pierre," said Isabel, "this silence is unnatural, is fearful. The forests are never so still."

 "Scenes Beyond the Western Border" in the Southern Literary Messenger Volume 19 (March 1853) page 157:

F.—"And what was there remarkable in my natural calmness?"

C.—"It was never so! There was a brooding desolation around that could penetrate a sleeping soul!—There is a re-action of extraordinary excitement,—such as ours of yesterday—that has a power over me which renders a profound silence awful—of all else, fearful! Silence! Then, every sentient of my soul has ears, in which air spirits supernaturally whisper distracting, sonorous thoughts :— in darkness, with long unrest, it verges madness..."

Note:  the line with "never so" disappears from this dialogue in Scenes and Adventures in the Army.  Also missing are the words awful and fearful ("fearful" in the revised version becomes "fearfully," thus:  "My watch is lonely and fearfully silent").