JANUARY. 13 



feathery branches, and spread over the white and spot 

 less hills of snow a rosy tinge, like the hues that burnish 

 the clouds at sunset, and kindle amid the glittering 

 fleece, that is wreathed around the branches, all the 

 changeable colors of the rainbow ; we are compelled to 

 exclaim that the summer landscape with all its verdure 

 and flowery magnificence, was never more lovely than 

 this transitory scene of beauty. Yet the brilliancy of 

 this spectacle, like the rainbow in heaven, passes away 

 almost while we are gazing on its fantastic splendor. 

 A brisk current of wind scatters from the branches, like 

 the fading leaves of autumn, all the false honors that 

 have garlanded the forests, and in an hour they have 

 disappeared for ever. 



Though we are apt to look upon snow as the mere 

 rude and dreary accompaniment of winter, it not only 

 constitutes one of the principal charms of the land 

 scape at this season, but it is also one of those peculiar 

 provisions of nature, in which she has concealed her 

 benevolence. While it affords protection to plants and 

 animals, and to the embryos of insects now buried 

 under the surface of the soil, it supplies in a measure 

 by its whiteness, that deficiency of light which, during 

 the winter solstice, is so painfully felt. If it were black, 

 it would be melted by the first rays of the sun that 

 shine upon it, and frozen in his absence into solid 

 masses of ice, which would be greatly injurious to 

 herbs and shrubs. Hence, while the snow protects 

 animal and 1 vegetable life, that exists in a hybernating 

 state in the bosom of the soil, and prevents the super 

 ficial heat of the earth from being radiated into the 

 atmosphere, the whiteness of the snow preserves 

 the snow itself, until the warmth) of a, new season is 



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