238 NATURAL APPEARANCES 



season exhibit ! After having been long bound up 

 with frost, or overspread with snow, the earth once 

 more displays all her variety of plants and flowers, 

 is arrayed with the most beautiful and enlivening 

 verdure, variegated with a numberless variety of 

 hues, and exhales odours so exquisitely pure and fra- 

 grant, that every sense of every creature is awake to 

 inexpressible delight. 



None of the other seasons can vie with spring in 

 loveliness and amenity It has the same order among 

 them that the morning has among the divisions of 

 the day, and youth among the stages of life. It may 

 be called the favourite season of harmony ; for the 

 warbling of the feathered tribes has been observed 

 to have now a peculiar wildness and sweetness of 

 melody. Nor is its sweet influence confined to the 

 songsters of the groves: it pervades the whole ani- 

 mal creation. 



Its Influence on Man. 



In the opening of spring, and subsequent reno- 

 vation of Nature, how very sensibly is the human 

 soul exhilarated by that sense of pleasure which in- 

 spires the birds with melody, and the whole creation 

 with joy. In this season, when we contemplate the 

 smiling scenes around, those secret overflowings of 

 gladness are diffused over the soul, which compose 

 what Milton expressively calls " vernal delight," and 

 which is often denominated, with no less beauty 

 and propriety, " the smile of nature." What an ex- 



