:; } THE YEAR. 



atmospherical change produced by some other cause 

 than the state of the local surface, the cold increases 

 during the night, and is greatest immediately before 

 sun-rise. The principle corresponds with this fact, 

 without being founded on it; and though, reasoning 

 from the analogy of the day, the vulgar belief be that 

 the cold is most intense at midnight, or a very little 

 after. But the heat of the day depends on two causes, 

 the continued and momentary action of the sun, 

 the former of which increases during the whole time 

 that the sun is above the horizon, while the latter 

 increases to the time of the greatest heat, and then 

 diminishes. The cold of the night, on the other hand, 

 has but one cause, the absence of the sun, and that 

 goes on increasing. 



This seasonal advantage is further increased by the 

 greater increase of the angular variation, and the 

 consequent greater lengthening of the day and shorten- 

 ing of the night at the vernal seasons, (we may say 

 the vernal seasons, for though the equinox in September 

 be a harvest time to us, it is spring to the inhabitants 

 of the southern hemisphere). The time approaches 

 when the plants and the animals are to be called into 

 action : the sun, as it were, hurries to the scene, 

 where his presence is wanted, and away from that 

 where, by his agency, the purposes of the year have 

 been accomplished. It is impossible to avoid admiring 

 the beauty of these contrivances, and admiring them 

 the more that they are the result of causes so wonder- 

 fully simple. There needs no new agents, no new 

 apparatus for effecting this care, with which the sun 



