A WINTER'S WALK. 25 



of January, if it warms us less, cheers us more than the sun- 

 shine of June, through the force of contrast contrast with the 

 gloom which has gone before, and is sure to come after con- 

 trast with the dark wintry objects on which it shines ; and 

 perhaps, more than all, contrast with that peculiar stillness 

 which usually attends fair weather at this season, a stillness 

 perceptible both to eye and ear, and produced, partly by the 

 quiet of the tuneful groves, but quite as much by the absence 

 of those insect myriads which animate the summer beam. This 

 very stillness is exciting, because (our ideas of light and life 

 being always associate) it seems, on a bright day, strange and 

 almost unnatural. Through a silent sunshine of this descrip- 

 tion, we repaired yesterday morning to an oak wood, which is 

 one of our favourite places of resort and research. This wood, 

 till lately, was a sylvan assemblage of most ancient standing, 

 but is now composed almost wholly of comparative upstarts, 

 exulting in their vigorous life over the truncated stumps below 

 them. But even these, the monuments of fallen greatness, 

 substantial in decay, stood not a whit more motionless than the 

 slenderest sapling of the living generation, not a breath being 

 abroad to wave their tops or to stir the brown leaves which had 

 held on, laughing at autumn gales and wintry blasts. A sprinkle 

 of snow, crisp and glittering, slightly veiled the wood tracks, 

 and as we trod them " we heard not a sound," but the brittle 

 gems breaking on the spangled pathway. This was exactly the 

 stillness we have just been noting as an addition (usually) to 

 the effect or mute expression of old Winter's face, when he treats 

 us to its brightest side ; but somehow or another we felt it, on 

 the present occasion, more as a feature wanting. Our spirits 

 were so light, our blood danced so briskly, our heart glowed, 

 like our feet, so warmly, and rose so thankfully to the Great 

 Source of all things calm and bright and beautiful, that we 

 longed for something animate to join us in our homage of en- 

 joyment. The wish was hardly conceived ere it was accom- 

 plished, for on passing beneath a canopy of low interlacing 



