VARIABLE WEATHER. 377 



there !" What can be more extraordinary, or in- 

 explicable by table or computation, than the sudden 

 visitation, in the midst of storms and frosts, of such 

 a day of brightness and warmth as we sometimes 

 witness, cheering the aspect of all things, a por- 

 trait of summer, brought from we know not what 

 region, in a frame- work of winter. All these 

 things assuredly have their effects upon the products 

 of the earth, and by their means upon the creatures 

 that are nourished by them, carrying on that im- 

 perceptible line of influences and intelligences that 

 is maintained throughout nature. We know that 

 vegetation and the atmosphere are in a constant 

 state of barter and exchange, receiving and modi- 

 fying ; and possibly, from the unseen effects of a 

 frosty morning, a fall of snow, or a few hours 

 temperature of the air, a fruitful or an unproduc- 

 tive season may arise. We notice the effects of 

 spring changes, because vegetation has so far ad- 

 vanced as to render influences manifest ; but we 

 cannot perceive the injuries or benefits accruing to 

 a hidden circulation from particular events. Every 

 person who has been conversant with cattle, must 

 have remarked how uncertain their progress in im- 

 provement has been ; that the abundant provision 

 of one year did not prove equally nutritive with 

 the scanty product of some other: this fact origi- 

 nates probably from the effects of atmospheric im- 

 pulse, either directly upon vegetation, or upon the 

 soil which produced the food collaterally, or upon 

 both collectively. We may observe frequently in 



