EFFECTS OF WINTER'S WORKINGS. 
272 
resist the influence of the sun of any summer to thaw 
it, and continue congealed throughout the year, chilling 
the earth in its neighborhood, and the winds that passed 
over it, preventing the growth of vegetation in the for- 
mer, or blighting and destroying it by the influence of 
the latter* 
Winter is called a dull season ; and to the sensations 
of some, the enjoyments of others, and, perhaps, to the 
vision of all, it is a most cheerless period. This is so 
universally felt, that we always associate the idea of 
pleasure with the return of spring : whatsoever our oc- 
cupations or employments may be, though its sleety 
storms and piercing winds may at times chill the very 
current in our veins, yet we consider it as a harbinger 
of pleasurable hours and grateful pursuits. We com- 
mence our undertakings, or defer them till spring. The 
hopes or prospects of the coming year are principally 
established in spring; and we trust that the delicate 
health of the blossoms round our hearths, which has 
faded in the chilling airs of winter, may be restored by 
the mild influence of that season. Yet winter must 
be considered as the time in which Nature is most 
busily employed ; silent in her secret mansions, she is 
now preparing and compounding the verdure, the flow- 
ers, the nutriment of spring ; and all the fruits and 
glorious profusion of our summer year are only the ad- 
vance of what has been ordained and fabricated in these 
dull months. All these advances require Omnipotent 
wisdom and power to perfect ; but perhaps a more ex- 
alted degree of wisdom and power has been requisite to 
call them into a state of being from nothing. The 
branch of that old pear-tree now extended before me, 
is denuded and bare, presenting no object of curiosity 
or of pleasure ; but, had we the faculty to detect, and 
power to observe, what was going forward in its secret 
vessels, beneath its rugged, unsightly covering, what 
wonder and admiration would it create ! — the materials 
manufacturing there for its leaf, and its bark; for the 
petals and parts of its flowers ; the tubes and machinery 
that concoct the juices, modify the fluids, and furnish 
the substance of the fruit, with multitudes of other un- 
