164 



line icicles. Turn to the lake, and lo ! the wi- 

 zard frost hath enchanted the water, on whose 

 surface the young are loud at their pastime the 

 waves are chained in their flow, and the cataract 

 hangs over the rock in suspended beauty, re- 

 flecting back the red light of the eastern sun. 



Yes ! if spring in its budding leaf, and open- 

 ing flower, and favonian breeze, indicates the 

 Omnipresent kindness of the Creator, and sum- 

 mer and autumn attest the prodigality of His 

 bounteous love, nature seated on her throne of 

 storms preaches to us of His power amid the de- 

 solation of winter, and calls on us, in the march 

 of the whirlwind and the roar of the angry flood, 

 to abstract our thoughts from the passing things 

 of earth, and form an acquaintance with the dark 

 and lonesome grave ! 



In the preceding remarks on a few of the ex- 

 ternal aspects of the seasons, I have but skirted 

 the outlines of a voluminous and invitfrig subject, 

 the numerous subdivisions of which would each 

 require a much longer chapter for itself, arid af- 

 ford curious and abundant matter for the illus- 

 tration of that wisdom which regulates alike the 

 great and little things of the universe. 



Innumerable, indeed, and irresistible are the 

 arguments, which from a survey of the seasons 

 alone, must take hold of every thinking mind, in 

 attestation of the existence of an All-wise and 

 Omnipresent Creator. When we regard the in- 

 ternal functions of plants, we find a complete 

 cycle, which corresponds exactly to the duration 



