162 WINTER THE SEASON OF INTELLECT. 



able to life, flowing from beneath the ice- 

 covered lake ; the tepid spring, so it seems 

 by comparison, gushing from the frozen ground. 

 How instructive are these ! and how can they, 

 with other specialties, fail to excite both interest 

 and admiration in the reflecting mind ? When 

 speaking of snow, I expressed myself un- 

 guardedly ; I called it nature's winding sheet ; 

 but, considering its use in the economy of 

 nature, it ought not to be so called, unless 

 indeed, we look to the revival under it; and 

 that what is so death and shroud-like, is not 

 an extinguisher but a preserver of vegetable 

 life, a nourisher of the fertile earth. 



AICMUS. What you say of your wintry aspect 

 I am sure will be attractive to my enquiring 

 friend. He has his own views about the sea- 

 son, independent of locality and scenery. He 

 holds it to be the intellectual season, that 

 which throws us further from the sensuous 

 south to the reflecting north ; that which 

 hardens and gives vigour to both our minds and 

 bodies, checking effeminacy and preventing 

 degeneracy. You would be amused to hear 

 him speak of the influences, the ennobling 

 and strengthening of this his favourite season ; 



