224 REASONS. [Lesson xxxu:> 



whereas in Autumn, the earth being holier thaiu ' 

 the air, gives out regularly a large portion of 

 warmth, which, naturally tending to disperse the 

 clouds, affords a free passage to the solar rays. Thus 

 Autumn ought in general to be hotter than Spring, 

 far these two reasons : first, that the earth itself- 

 gives out a considerable quantity of heat ^and, se- 

 condly, that the rays of the sun meet with fewer 

 interruptions in passing thence to the earth. At 

 the equator there is no proper difference of Sea- 

 sons except as occasioned by rainy or windy pe- 

 riods, which proceed from other causes ; and the. 

 case is much the same on each side of it for some, 

 distance. 



Several of the British poets have presented us 

 with a variety of descriptions of the Seasons ; some 

 Serious, some humorous and comic. As an in- 

 stance of thff latter, we have a droll account of 

 Winter's effects, in a song in Shakespeare's play 

 of (< Love's labour lost" But the obvious simi- 

 larity between infancy, youth, manhood, and old 

 age of human life, and the Spring, Summer,. 

 Autumn,.and Winter of the year, suggests a subject 

 for the most sublime reflections. The excellence o 

 those which Mr. Thomson has made on this heady 

 will supersede the necessity of my apologizing for 

 giving them insertion here. 



-Behold, fond roan ! 



See here ihy pictur'd life: pass some few years, 

 Thy flowering Spring, thy Summer's ardent strength, 

 Tliy sober Autumn fading into age, 

 And pale concluding Winter conaf t sit last 



And- 



