JANUARY. 



Poets in all ages have sung of the delights of seed- 

 time and harvest, and of the voluptuous pleasures of 

 summer ; but when treating of winter, they have con- 

 fined their descriptions to the sports of the season rather 

 than to the beauties of Nature. Winter is supposed to 

 furnish but few enjoyments to be compared with those of 

 summer ; because the majority of men, being oppressed 

 by too many burdens, naturally yearn for a life of indo- 

 lence. I will not deny that the pleasures derived from 

 the direct influence of Nature are greatly diminished in 

 cold weather ; there are not so many interesting objects 

 to amuse the mind, as in the season when all animated 

 things are awake, and the earth is covered with vegeta- 

 tion ; but there are many pleasant rural excursions and 

 invigorating exercises which can be enjoyed only in the 

 winter season, and for which thousands of our undegen- 

 erate yeomanry would welcome its annual visit. 



The pleasures of a winter's walk are chiefly such as 

 are derived from prospect. A landscape-painter could be 

 but partially acquainted with the sublimity of terrestrial 

 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 spec- 

 tacle of dazzling and flowery 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, the earth 



