XXXVlll. 



DECEMBER. 



It is one of the most cheerful employments for a 

 leisure hour, to go out into the fields, under a mild, open 

 sky, to study the various appearances of nature that 

 accompany the changes of the seasons, and to note 

 those phenomena which are peculiar to a climate of 

 frost and snow. The inhabitant of the tropics with his 

 perpetual summer, who sees no periodical changes 

 except the alternations of rain and drought, is deprived 

 of a happy advantage possessed by the inhabitant of 

 the north ; and with all the blessings of his voluptuous 

 climate, is visited by a smaller portion of the moral 

 enjoyments of life. In the minds of those who dwell 

 in a northern latitude, there are sentiments which are 

 probably never felt by the indolent dweller in the land 

 of the date and the palm ; and however poetical to us 

 may seem the imagery drawn from the pictures we have 

 read of those blissful regions, ours is most truly the 

 region of poetry, and of all those sentiments which 

 poetry aims to express. 



It will not be denied that in winter, nature has com- 

 paratively but few attractions ; that the woods and fields 

 offer but few temptations to ramble ; and that these are 



