FEBRUARY. 



93 



of the tropics with his perpetual summer, who sees no peri- 

 odical changes except the alternations of rain and drought, is 

 deprived of a happy advantage possessed by the inhabitant of 

 the north ; and with all the blessings of his voluptuous cli- 

 mate is visited by a smaller portion of the moral enjoyments 

 of life. In the minds of those who dwell in a northern lati- 

 tude there are sentiments which are probably never felt by 

 the indolent dweller in the land of the date and the palm : 

 and however poetical to us may seem the imagery drawn 

 from the pictures we have read of those blissful regions, ours 

 is most truly the region of poetry, and of all those sentiments 

 which poetry aims to express. 



It will not be denied that in winter, nature has compara- 

 tively but few attractions ; that the woods and fields ofler but 

 few temptations to ramble ; and that these are such as appeal 

 to the imagination rather than to the senses, by furnishing 

 matter for studious reflection, and calling up pleasing and 

 poetic images. The man of phlegmatic mind sees, in all 

 these phenomena, nothing but dreariness and desolation ; 

 while to the studious or the imaginative, every form of vege- 

 tation on the surface of the earth becomes an instructive les- 

 son, or awakens a train of imagery that inspires him, on a 

 winter's walk, with a buoyancy not often felt in the balmy 

 days of June. Then does he trace with unalloyed delight 

 every green leaf that seems budding out for spring ; and in 

 the general stillness, every sound from abroad has a gladness 

 in its tone, not surpassed by the melodies of a summer morn- 

 ing. 



On these pleasant days of winter, which are of frequent oc- 

 currence in our variable climate, I often^ indulge myself in a 

 solitary ramble, taking note of those forms of vegetation that 

 remain unchanged, and of the still greater number that lie 

 folded in hyemal sleep. For such excursions the only proper 

 time is when the earth is free from snow, which, though a 

 beautifier of the prospect, conceals all minute objects that are 

 strewed upon the ground, or that are still feebly vegetating 

 under the protection of the woods. The most prominent 

 appearances are the remains of autumnal vegetation. The 



