FEBRUARY. 



He giveth snow like wool ; he scattereth the hoar-frost like ashes. 

 He casteth forth his ice like morsels ; who can stand before his cold ? 

 He sendeth out his word and melteth them ; he causeth his winds to 

 blow, and the waters flow. 



PSALM cxlvii. 16-18. 



As I have already observed, I regard this as the 

 most cheerless month in the year. There may be 

 pleasant varieties of it ; the latter end may, and fre- 

 quently is, much more agreeable than the commence- 

 ment ; but, as a whole, it is as I have characterized 

 it. It is at once damp and foggy. Besides the earth 

 being saturated with a whole winter's moisture, there 

 is generally abundance of rain during this month, so 

 much so as to have acquired for it the cognomen of 

 " February fill-dike." The frosts and snows which 

 have been locking up and burying the earth for weeks 

 and months, are now giving way, and what is so 

 cheerless and chilly as 



A GREAT THAW ? There is a lack of comfort 

 felt every where. In real winter weather the clear 

 frosty air sharply saluted the face by day, and 

 revealed to the eye at night a scene of pure and 

 sublime splendour of the lofty and intensely blue sky 



