34 STUDIES IN THE FIELD AND FOREST. , 



portion of that bounty, which heaven has lent us only 

 for our using, and which can never prove our blessing, 

 unless we make a kind and benevolent disposal of it, 

 to those who are in suffering and want ? 



I must not omit to enumerate, among the various 

 attractions of winter, the frostwork on the windows, 

 the apt emblem of the romantic hopes of our early 

 youth. All vegetation in summer presents not the va- 

 riety of forms which we may behold in these beautiful 

 configurations upon the windowglass. The mornings 

 which are most remarkable for this curious pencil work 

 of nature, are such as follow a very cold and still night, 

 after mild and thawing weather on the preceding day. 

 When a boy, I used to delight in watching these frost- 

 pictures, ere I arose in the morning, and felt no less 

 pleasure in the sight than I have since found in the 

 more magnificent scenes of nature. Nothing in the 

 world seems so much like the work of enchantment ; 

 and it is not surprising that people of all ages have 

 imagined that the elements were inhabited by spirits, 

 whose supernatural skill would account for those num- 

 berless beauties which attract the sight, in the least, as 

 well as in the greatest operations of the invisible artist. 



Another remarkable appearance occasionally observed 

 in the woods in winter, is caused by showers of misty 

 rain, succeeding a very cold day, and followed by 

 another equally cold. These fantastic exhibitions, de- 

 pending on a peculiar train of circumstances for their 

 origin, do not occur every year. As the rain descends 

 in fine vaporous particles, the frost that is imbedded in 

 the twigs and branches of the trees, causes the rain to 

 congeal about them, until they are covered with an in- 

 crustation of ice. The weather during the descent of 

 this fine rLun, must be as cold as possible, without freez- 



