EFFECTS OF RETURN OF SOLAR HEAT. 71 



and light, like the Archangel, triumphs over the sombre 

 spirit. The organic world awakes. Chemical action, 

 commences in the seed, the vital spark is kindled in the 

 embryo, and under the impulsive force of some solar 

 radiations the plant struggles into light and life. The 

 same invigorating force impels the circulation of the sap 

 through the capillary tubes of the forest tree, until the 

 topmost branch trembles with the new flow of life. The 

 buds burst forth into leaf, and a fresh and lively covering 

 spreads over those branches which, in their nakedness, 

 could scarcely be distinguished from the dead. 



The animal races are no less sensible of the new 

 influence which is diffused around. The birds float 

 joyously upon the breeze, and give to heaven their 

 trilling songs of praise. The- beasts come forth from 

 the clefts of the rocks and the tangled shelters of the 

 forests, and gambol in the full luxury of their renewed 

 vigour. Man, even man, the inhabitant of cities, 

 trained and tempered to an artificial state, awakes of a 

 spring morning with a fuller consciousness of mind, and 

 a deeper and more pleased sense of his intelligence, 

 than when the fogs and gloom of winter hung like the 

 charmed robe upon the limbs of the giant. Now, the 

 dormant poetry of man seeks expression. As the 

 ^morning sun is said to have awakened the musical un- 

 dulations of the Memnonian statue, so the sun of the 

 vernal morning produces in the mind of the most 

 earthly, faint pulsations of that heaven-born music, which 

 neither sin nor sorrow can entirely destroy. The psy- 

 chologist, in studying the peculiar phenomena of the 

 human mind, must associate himself with the natural 

 philosopher, and learn to appreciate the influence of 

 physical causes in determining effects which our elder 

 philosophers and the poets of every age have attributed to 

 spiritual agencies. 



Summer, with its increased heat and light, reigns over 



