WINTER OF 1776. 319 



declension of cold ; but often take place immediately 

 from intense freezing : as men in sickness often mend 

 at once from a paroxysm. 



To the great credit of Portugal laurels and Ameri- 

 can junipers, be it remembered, that they remained 

 untouched amidst the general havoc : hence men 

 should learn to ornament chiefly with such trees as 

 are able to withstand accidental severities, and not 

 subject themselves to the vexation of a loss which 

 may befall them once, perhaps, in ten years, yet may 

 hardly be recovered through the whole course of their 

 lives. 



As it appeared afterwards, the ilexes were much 

 injured, the cypresses were half destroyed, the 

 arbutuses lingered on, but never recovered; and 

 the bays, laurustines, and laurels, were killed to the 

 ground ; and the very wild hollies, in hot aspects, 

 were so much affected, that they cast all their 

 leaves. 



By the fourteenth of January, the snow was en- 

 tirely gone; the turnips emerged, not damaged at all, 

 save in sunny places ; the wheat looked delicately ; 

 and the garden plants were well preserved ; for snow 

 is the most kindly mantle that infant vegetation 

 can be wrapped in : were it not for that friendly 

 meteor, no vegetable life could exist at all in northerly 

 regions. Yet in Sweden, the earth in April is not 

 divested of snow for more than a fortnight, before the 

 face of the country is covered with flowers. 



LETTER CVI. 



TO THE SAME. 



THERE were some circumstances attending the 

 remarkable frost in January, 4776, so singular and 



