JANUARY. 



THE solar year commences in the very depth 

 of winter ; and I open my record of its various 

 aspects under that of its unmitigated austerity. 

 I speak now as I intend to speak, generally. I 

 describe the season not as it may be in this, 

 or another year, but as it is in the average. 

 December may be, I think, very justly styled 

 the gloomiest, January the severest, and Febru- 

 ary the most cheerless month of the year. In 

 December the days become shorter and shorter ; 

 a dense mass of vapour floats above us, wrap- 

 ping the world in a constant and depressing 

 gloom; and 



Murky night soon follows hazy noon. 



BLOOMFIELD. 



In January this mantle of brumal sadness some- 

 what dissipates, as if a new year had infused 

 new hope and vigour into the earth; light is 

 not only more plentifully diffused, but we soon 



