70 THE SEASONS. 



skeletons. The lowly plants of the hedge-row,, and the 

 grasses of the field, show that their vital power is subdued 

 to that minimum degree of action which is but a few 

 slight removes from death. The life of the running 

 stream is suspended, it is cased in the "thick-ribbed 

 ice," and the waters beneath no longer send forth their 

 joyous music to the genial breeze. Even within the 

 temperate limits of our own land, the aspect of winter 

 convinces the ordinary observer, that the loss of heat 

 has been followed by diminished activity in the powers 

 of life ; and the philosopher discovers that the lessened 

 energies of solar light, and the weaker action of the 

 radiant heat, have aided in producing that repose which 

 is a little more than sleep a little less than death. 



It is night, and winter : the earth is parting with its 

 heat, with the absence of light, there is a still greater 

 loss of vigour, a yet further diminution of the powers of 

 life. Even the animal races, sustained by vital influ- 

 ences of a more exalted kind, sink under the temporary 

 deprivation of the solar rays to a monotonous, a melan- 

 choly repose. All animals undergo different degrees of 

 hybernation, and each in his winter retreat supports 

 vitality by preying upon himself. The world is hung in 

 mourning black ; there is no play of colours to harmonize 

 the human spirit by sending their ethereal pulsations to 

 the human eye, and it is only the consciousness that 

 when the night is at the darkest, the day is nearest, 

 that even man's soul is sustained against the depressing 

 influences of the absence of the sun. 



The conditions which we must observe at our own 

 doors cannot fail to convey as a conviction to the least 

 imaginative mind, that a slightly prolonged continuance 

 of darkness, with its consequent increase of coldness, 

 would be fatal to the existence of the organic world. 



The sun has entered Aries : it is spring. The length 

 of the day and night are equal, the powers of light and 

 darkness are now exactly balanced against each other, 



