JANUARY. 11 



the month of the greatest cold; and in severe weather 

 there is a general stillness that is favorable to musing. 

 The little streamlets are frozen and silent, and there is 

 hardly any motion except of the winds, and of the 

 trees that bend to their force. Bat the works of na- 

 ture are still carried on beneath the frost and snow. 

 Though the flowers are- buried in their hyemal sleep, 

 thousands of unseen elements are present, all waiting 

 to prepare their hues and fragrance, when the spring 

 returns and wakes the flowers, and calls the bees out 

 from their hives. Nature is always active in her opera- 

 tions ; and during winter are the embryos nursed of 

 myriad hosts, that will soon spread beauty over the 

 plains, and give animation to the field and forest. 



Since the beauties of summer and autumn have 

 faded, nature has bestowed on earth and man a lovely 

 recompense, and spread the prospect with new scenes 

 of beauty and sublimity. The frozen branches of the 

 treies are clattering in the wind, and the reed stands 

 nodding above.the ice and shivers in the rustling breeze. 

 But while these things remind us of the chills of win- 

 ter, the universal prospect of snow sends into the soul 

 the light of its own perfect purity and splendor, and 

 makes the landscape still beautiful in its desolation. 

 Though we look in vain for a green- herb, save where 

 the ferns and mosses conceal themselves in little dingles 

 among the rocks, yet the general face of the earth is 

 unsurpassed in brilliancy. Morning, noon, and night 

 exhibit glories unknown to any other season ; and the 

 'moon is more lovely when she looks down from her 

 starry throne, and over field, lake, mountain, and vaUey, 

 emblems the tranquillity of heaven. 



It is pleasing to watch the progress and movements 

 of a snow-storm, while the flakes are thickly falling 



