WINTER SUBSISTENCE 



yet we have strong presumptions that it exists. But 

 this is an effect on the animal machine, not an ope- 

 ration on the mind by vision. The immediate 

 satisfaction which the eye receives in resting upon 

 verdure is difficult to account for : many natural 

 colours please, but green seems to be a tint that 

 conveys a calm exhilaration, and, as an innate dis- 

 position in many, without reasoning or deliberation, 

 effects its influences by actions imperceptible to our 

 understanding. 



Jan. 20th. A keen frost, and the ground covered 

 with snow, presents a scene of apparent suffering 

 and want to many of our poor little birds ; but the 

 preservation of the fowls of the air, which sow not, 

 nor gather into barns, has been beautifully instanced 

 to us, as a manifest evidence of a superintending 

 Providence : the full force of this testimony is most 

 strongly impressed upon us in a season like this, 

 when winter rules with rigour, and we marvel how 

 the life of these beings can be supported when the 

 waters are bound up, and earth and all its products 

 hidden by a dense covering of snow. Many of 

 the small birds obtain subsistence by picking the 

 refuse of our corn-stacks, by seeds scattered about 

 our home-stalls and cattle-yards, but multitudes 

 of others are in no way dependent upon man 

 for shelter or support, do not even approach his 

 dwelling, but are maintained by the universal 

 bounty of Providence ; as the wood-lark, the mea- 

 dow-lark, the chats, and several others; but by 



