SUMMER. 383 



the cleanest, the freshest, and the healthiest of the field 

 are highly interesting. Even the sight of a hay-field 

 when the grasses approach maturity, and the glumes 

 dance upon their elastic scapes to every piping of the 

 wind, or even to its gentlest motion, whether it pipe or 

 not, is one of the most pleasant in nature; and one in 

 which the wonderful versatility of the wind, and the 

 slight causes that produce momentary changes in its 

 direction and velocity, can be much more clearly under- 

 stood than by contemplating the ripple on the most 

 limpid water. But the summer has so many character- 

 istics, in the atmosphere, on the earth, and in the waters ; 

 and their changes are so many with change of place, and 

 their succession so rapid with the lapse of time, that 

 no words can convey any thing like an adequate idea 

 of them ; and therefore all that can be attempted is 

 to excite in those, who " have eyes but see not," 

 a desire to look around them at that which is pro- 

 duced without the art and labour of man, and they 

 will find a resource, which while, by the spring and 

 impulse it gives to the mind, it makes the business 

 and the duty of life go smoothly on, is a citadel amid 

 misfortune, an inheritance which none of the con- 

 tingencies of life can impair, an enjoyment which 

 is, as it were, intermediate between that of the world 

 of possession, and that brighter world of hope, to 

 which it is so delightful to look forward. 



END OF THE SECOND VOLUME. 



