DKVOTl&JD TO AaRICULTUKE, HOKTICULTTJBE, AHSTD KINDRED ARTS. 



NEW SERIES. Boston, December, 1870. VOL. IV.— NO. 12. 



R. P. EATON & CO., PcKLisnERS, 

 Office, 34 Merchants' li»w. 



MONTHLY. 



SIMON BROWN, ) Editors 

 S. FLETCIIEIl, t JiDITORS. 





DECEMBER BEFLaCTIONS. 



"Whil3 thus revolving Beasone roll, 

 Ob8equi(.u8 to God'a -wise coatrol, 



Obedient to his pi m ; 

 With silent eloquence they preach, 

 Ihi most importmt lessona teach. 



To every ihinking man," — Blake. 



ECEMBER, in the 

 grand round of 

 the Seasons, has 

 come at last to 

 close the Months 

 that mark the 

 rolling year. — 

 Though sunshine 

 and clouds seem 

 ^% striving for the 

 mastery, and 

 change is written 

 upon the face of 

 every thing, yet, 

 when Nature's operations 

 are understood, we can 

 welcome her as cheer- 

 fully as we lid May or June. 



In the shlrp wmds and keen 

 frosts, the gloomy skies and leaf- 

 less trees of December, we still find evidences 

 abundant of activity and benevolence in the 

 great controlling Power. Peep into the axils 

 of a branch, and behold the dormant life there ; 

 or into the seeds floating about in the garden, 

 on wings of down, seeking a place of rest, 

 only to burst into active life again when the 



genial suns and rains of Spring act upon them ! 



The flower-garden, perhaps, never gave a 

 picture of greater pleasantness than now, if 

 it has been managed with skill and care. 

 "Nature wills that we shall enjoy her beauties 

 during a certain period of the year, whether 

 we use any tffjrts towards obtaining them or 

 not ; yet she lays it down as a general princi- 

 ple, in regard to her gifts, that to seek them 

 is at once to deserve, to have, and to enjoy 

 them ; and that without such seeking, we 

 shall only have just enough to make us sigh 

 afcer more. Accordingly her sun shines with 

 equal warmth upon the gardens of the just 

 and the unjust, and her rains fertilize the 

 fields of all classes alike. In short, as it is 

 with all the loveliest of her works, Woman, 

 her favors are to be obtained by assiduous 

 seeking alone ; her love is the reward, not of 

 riches, nor beauty, nor power, nor even of 

 virtue, but of love alone. No man ever gave 

 a woman bis entire love, and sought hers in 

 return, that he did not, to a certain extent, 

 obtain it ; and no man ever paid similar court 

 to Nature, and came away empty handed." 



Many persons express feelings of gloom 

 and discontent in December. Washington 

 Irving, in one of his finely written papers, 

 says, — "when nature lies despoiled of every 

 charm, and wrapped in her shroud of sheeted 

 snow, we turn for our gratifications to moral 

 sources. The dreariness and desolation of 

 the landscape, the short and gloomy days and 



