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CHAPTER VII. 



JULY. 



" What more felicity can fall to creature 

 Than to enjoy delight with liberty?" 



Spenser. 



" The love of Nature and the scenes she draws 

 Is Nature's dictate. * * * * 

 The air salubrious of her lofty hills, 

 The cheering fragrance of her dewy vales 

 And music of her woods." 



Cowper. 



" We feel within ourselves 

 His energy divine ; he tells the heart 

 He meant, he made us to behold and love 

 What he beholds and loves, the general orb 

 Of life and being. * * * * 



Thus the men 

 Whom Nature's works can charm, with God himself 

 Hold converse, grow familiar, day by day, 

 With his conceptions." 



Akenside. 



And this is July ! Hot, baking, sultry July ! in which 

 the dog-days hold undisputed sway, in which the sun 

 darts his powerful rays in an almost vertical direction 

 upon us, causing the soil to crack with the heat, and 



