272 EFFECTS OF WINTER'S WORKINGS. 



resist the influence of the sun of any summer to thaw 

 it, and continue congealed throughout the year, chilling 

 the earth in its neighborhood, and the winds that passed 

 over it, preventing the growth of vegetation in the for- 

 mer, or blighting and destroying it by the influence of 

 the latter. 



Winter is called a dull season ; and to the sensations 

 of some, the enjoyments of others, and, perhaps, to the 

 vision of all, it is a most cheerless period. This is so 

 universally felt, that we always associate the idea of 

 pleasure with the return of spring : whatsoever our oc- 

 cupations or employments may be, though its sleety 

 storms and piercing winds may at times chill the very 

 current in our veins, yet we consider it as a harbinger 

 of pleasurable hours and grateful pursuits. We com- 

 mence our undertakings, or defer them till spring. The 

 hopes or prospects of the coming year are principally 

 established in spring; and we trust that the delicate 

 health of the blossoms round our hearths, which has 

 faded in the chilling airs of winter, may be restored by 

 the mild influence of that season. Yet winter must 

 be considered as the time in which Nature is most 

 busily employed ; silent in her secret mansions, she is 

 now preparing and compounding the verdure, the flow- 

 ers, the nutriment of spring; and all the fruits and 

 glorious profusion of our summer year are only the ad- 

 vance of what has been ordained and fabricated in these 

 dull months. All these advances require Omnipotent 

 wisdom and power to perfect ; but perhaps a more ex- 

 alted degree of wisdom and power has been requisite to 

 call them into a state of being from nothing. The 

 branch of that old pear-tree now extended before me, 

 is denuded and bare, presenting no object of curiosity 

 or of pleasure ; but, had we the faculty to detect, and 

 power to observe, what was going forward in its secret 

 vessels, beneath its rugged, unsightly covering, what 

 wonder and admiration would it create ! the materials 

 manufacturing there for its leaf, and its bark ; for the 

 petals and parts of its flowers ; the tubes and machinery 

 that concoct the juices, modify the fluids, and furnish 

 the substance of the fruit, with multitudes of other un- 



