THE CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. 201 



agreeable is highly necessary, not only to make us 

 love the spring the better when it comes, and to operate 

 both upon the mind and body with a salutary effect, 

 disposing the former to reflection, and bracing up the 

 nerves of the latter which might otherwise be too 

 much relaxed, but more especially by fitting and pre- 

 paring the earth to bring forth fruit in due season. 

 The Agriculturist knows well the value of Win- 

 ter, in mellowing and softening the ground for his 

 future crops ; and the Naturalist sees also other advan- 

 tages in this season, as the rest of nature after the 

 severe exhaustion of summer. It may be justly con- 

 sidered, perhaps, as the Sabbath of the year, in the 

 benefits of which man and animals, and the soul itself, 

 all largely share. Even the snow acts the part of a 

 benefactor ; not by the salts it contains as was formerly 

 supposed ; but by enwrapping the earth, with a dense 

 garment, which being a non-conductor of heat reserves to 

 it a large portion of warmth that would otherwise pass 

 off from it and be lost. Hence we find that the warmest 

 Spring generally follows the most intense Winter ; and in 

 North America, Norway, Russia, and the Polar regions, 

 where the snow always lies on the ground for a regular 

 interval, this result is uniformly experienced, by a far 



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