Snow, and the Quality of Whiteness. 1 2 1 



cumstances, and during certain aspects of nature 

 that recur only at long intervals. And of all such 

 aspects of nature and extraordinary phenomena, 

 snow is perhaps the most impressive, and is cer- 

 tainly one of the most widely known on the earth, 

 and most intimately associated in the mind with 

 the yearly suspension of nature's beneficent activity, 

 and all that this means to the human family the 

 failure of food and consequent want, and the suffer- 

 ing and danger from intense cold. This traditional 

 knowledge of an inclement period in nature only 

 serves to intensify the animism that finds a given 

 purpose in all natural phenomena, and sees in the 

 whiteness of earth the sign of a great unwelcome 

 change. Change not death, since nature's life is 

 eternal ; but its sweet friendly warmth and softness 

 have died out of it ; there is no longer any recogni- 

 tion, any bond ; and if we were to fall down and 

 perish by the wayside, there would be no com- 

 passion : it is sitting apart and solitary, cold and 

 repelling, its breath suspended, in a trance of grief 

 or passion ; and although it sees us it is as though 

 it saw us not, even as we see pebbles and withered 

 leaves on the ground, when some great sorrow has 

 dazed us, or when some deadly purpose is in our 

 heart. 



Just as with regard to snow the animistic feeling 

 is strongest in those who inhabit regions where 

 winter is severe, and who annually see this change 

 in nature, so the " muffled rollings of a milky sea " 

 will strike more of panic to the sailor's soul than to 



