406 EFFECTS OF CALORIC ON BODIES. 



there is a constant decomposition of water going 

 forward by these alternations, and a constant for- 

 mation of matters beneficial and necessary for the 

 various inhabitants of the earth. When we perceive 

 that a shower of rain has revived or promoted the 

 increase of vegetation, we must understand that the 

 mere wetting it has not accomplished this ; but that 

 the vegetable has, by means of its foliage, aided by 

 light and heat, decomposed or separated the com- 

 bined matters of the water, and taken from it cer- 

 tain portions as essential to its vigour, or been re- 

 victualled, in a manner, by the nutriment contained 

 in the water. 



Jan. 10. The ground covered with snow, the 

 pools with ice, trees and hedges leafless, and patched 

 here and there with a mantle of white, present a 

 cheerless, dreary void ; no insects are animating the 

 air, and all our songsters are silent and away ; a 

 few miserable thrushes are hopping on the ditch 

 bank, swept bare by the wind ; and the robin puff- 

 ing out his feathers, and contracting his neck into 

 his body, is peeping, with his fine bright eyes, into 

 the windows from the cypress bough. A few ever- 

 greens are waving their sprays, and glittering in the 

 light, yet making but poor compensation for the 

 variety, the flutter, the verdure of our summer. 

 Though we have little natural beauty to note or to 

 record, we are not left without a testimony of an 

 over-ruling Power ; and, however sad and melan- 

 choly things may appear at the first view, yet a more 

 steady observation will manifest to us a presiding 



