280 
THE NATURAL HISTORY 
[LETT. 
above, that though frosts advance to their utmost severity by 
somewhat of a regular gradation, yet thaws do not usually come 
on by so regular a declension of cold ; but often take place 
immediately after intense freezing ; as men in sickness often 
mend at once from a paroxysm. 
To the great credit of Portugal laurels and American juni- 
pers, be it remembered that they remained untouched amidst 
the general havoc : hence men should learn to ornament chiefly 
with such trees as are able to withstand accidental severities, 
and not subject themselves to the vexation of a loss wdiich may 
befall them, once, perhaps, in ten years, yet may hardly be 
recovered through the whole course of their lives. 
As it afterwards appeared, the ilexes were much injured, 
the cypresses were half destroyed, the arbutuses lingered on, 
but never recovered; and the bays, laurustines, and laurels, 
w^ere killed to the ground, and the very wild hollies, in hot 
aspects, were so much affected that they cast all their leaves. 
By the 14th of January the snow w^as entirely gone ; the 
turnips emerged not damaged at all, save in sunny places ; 
the wheat looked delicate, and the garden-plants were well 
preserved ; for snow is the most kindly mantle that infant 
vegetation can be wrapped in ; were it not for that friendly 
meteor, no vegetable life could exist at all in northerly regions. 
Yet in Sweden, the earth in April is not divested of snow for 
more than a fortnight before the face of the country is covered 
with flowers. 
