JANUARY. 9 



ures of a winter's walk are chiefly such as are derived 

 from prospect. A landscape painter could be but par- 

 tially acquainted with the sublimity of terrestial scenery, 

 if he had never looked upon the earth when it was 

 covered with snow. In summer the prospect unfolds 

 such an infinite array of beautiful things to our sight, 

 that the sublimity of the scene is hidden beneath a 

 spectacle of dazzling and gorgeous splendor. We are 

 then more powerfully attracted by objects of beauty 

 that charm the senses, than by those grander aspects of 

 nature that awaken the emotion of sublimity. In 

 winter, nature is divested of all those accompaniments 

 of her scenery which are not in unison with grandeur. 

 At this period, therefore, the mind is affected ^i^ith 

 nobler thoughts ; it is less bewildered by a multitude 

 of fascinating objects, and is more free to indulge itself 

 in a train of profound meditations. In sutmner the 

 lover of nature is intoxicated with beauty ; in winter 

 he feels a freedom of thought and an exhilaration of 

 soul, which can be fully enjoyed only when contemplat- 

 ing the grandeur and serenity of the elements in their 

 repose. 



The exhilaration of mind attending a winter walk in 

 the fields and woods, when the earth is covered with 

 snow, surpasses any emotion of the kind which is pro- 

 duced by the appearance of nature at any other season. 

 "We often hear in conversation of the invigorating 

 effects of cold weather; yet those few only who are 

 engaged in rural occupations, and who spend the 

 greater part of the day in the open air, can fully realize 

 the amount of physical enjoyment that springs from it. 

 I can appreciate the languid recreations of a warm 

 summer's day. When one is at leisure in the country 

 he cannot fail to enjoy it, if he can take shelter under 



