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is too generally neglected, either from a wrong bias being early given to the mind, 

 or from other defects of education. Scarcely has the infant mind begun to look 

 abroad and survey the face of nature, ere his seniors turn the attention of the 

 youthful inquirer to man's productions and his occupations, and bestow upon him 

 only such an education as will fit him to follow in the path themselves have trod. 

 Now, while we aim at rendering the mind of youth a rich store-house of whatever 

 is most excellent among the productions of human genius, we should likewise aim 

 at making it a mirror fitted to reflect whatever is most lovely in nature. For this 

 purpose a careful examination of the processes of nature throughout the different 

 seasons of the year should enter into our general systems of education. In 

 January the suitableness of the arrangements adopted both by the animal and ve- 

 getable kingdom to the existing conditions of the atmosphere might be pointed out. 



The earth itself undergoes a temporary but extensive change on its surface, 

 the colour of which, at other times, is either green or brownish-black — a colour 

 much more favourable to the escape of the heat which the earth had received 

 from the suns of the preceding summer than white. The great humidity of the 

 air, also, in December and January, contributes to abstract much of the heat from 

 the earth, which is hindered from receiving any from the now distant sun by the 

 foggy state of the atmosphere. The retention of the remaining heat is, therefore, 

 a most desirable object ; to effect which, so soon as the temperature falls below 

 a certain given point, the surface of the earth has its colour changed to white, by 

 which the radiating power is greatly altered and reduced. In the northern parts 

 of Britain, the colour of the fur of the Hare and the plumage of the Ptarmigan 

 become white, for a similar reason. The fur of those animals which cannot 

 change their colour becomes finer and thicker, which then serves better to guard 

 them against the cold. This renders the furs of animals of northern countries 

 more suitable as a protection for man when they have been killed in winter. 



A certain temperature is necessary for vegetables to retain their vital princi- 

 ple ; hence those which are of a large size, such as shrubs and trees, which do not 

 die down to the ground like herbaceous plants, become coated with hoar-frost ; so 

 that their surface is universally rendered white, and their internal warmth retained, 

 by the same means, and for the same reason, as that of the earth. The winter 

 landscape is, therefore, not without its attractions, either that of novelty, arising 

 from the suddenness with which the change above mentioned takes place, or of the 

 more enduring feeling of interest which will spring from an inquiry into the causes 

 and objects of these changes. A walk in dry, frosty weather, when suitable cloth- 

 ing is worn, is at once healthful and pleasant, and may be rendered productive of 

 lasting happiness and enjoyment, by having the attention directed to the numerous 

 proofs, with which every situation and season abounds, of the continued operation 

 of those nicely-balanced laws which had their origin and have their maintenance 

 in the mind and will of the Great Architect of the Universe. 



