162 NEW ENGLAND WINTER. 



ferent from to-day's. I saw different birds, 

 and had different thoughts ; and after all, 

 the principal part of a walk is what goes 

 on in the mind. Still, the activities of the 

 intellect are greatly under the influence of 

 external surroundings, a fact which makes 

 largely in favor of a varied year like that 

 we have been praising. The experience of 

 it tends to widen and diversify the thinking 

 of men. In a smaller degree it answers the 

 same end as travel. For aught I know, it 

 may possibly have its little share in the 

 onerous task of liberalizing systems of the- 

 ology. Who shall say that our New Eng- 

 land climate, with its frequent and extreme 

 contrasts, what I have called its habit of 

 catholicity, may not have had more or less 

 to do with that diffusion of free thought 

 which has made the home of the Pilgrims 

 the birthplace of heresies without number ? 

 The suggestion is fanciful, perhaps. Let it 

 pass. Such profundities do not come within 

 my province. Only I must believe that, 

 even in the matter of weather, it is good 

 for us to be educated out of bigotry into 

 a large-minded toleration. Hence it is, in 

 part, that I give my suffrage for our Massa- 



