OF SELBORNE. 2G3 



said above, iliat though frosts advance to their utmost severity 

 by somewhat of a regular gradation, yet thaws do not usually 

 come on by as regular a 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 American juni- 

 pers, be it remembered that they remained untouched amidst 

 the general havock : 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 14th of January the snow was entirely 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 LXII. 



TO THE SAME. 



TII HUE were some circumstances attending the remarkable 

 frost in January 1776 so singular and striking, that a short 

 detail of them may not be unacceptable. 



The most certain way to be exact will be to copy the pas- 

 sages from my journal, which were taken from time to time 



