POPULARITY OF NATURAL HISTORY* 
293 
evening, may gaze upon the Aurora Borealis delighted with the “ merry dancers," 
and retire without a single reflection arising in their minds as to the cause of the 
phenomenon, beyond the superstitious remembrance that some grandmother of the 
village had recollected to have seen a similar display before poor Tom Stiles was 
killed at the Battle of Bunker’s Hill. 
Having already pointed, out those descriptions of natural objects which, from 
their fidelity and beauty, and their smell of earth and air, are at once recognized 
by all, I must allude to those symbolical references to the works of Nature which 
have been used by all nations and in all countries, more especially where pastoral 
or venatorial habits have not, from the rapid advance of population, fallen into 
disuse. These are similes taken from natural objects which are supposed to 
accord with the narration of the writer or speaker, and to illustrate his meaning 
more fully, or at all events, by the introduction of pleasing imagery, to offer an 
episodic pause in or contrast with the subject treated upon. They are so com- 
monly applied, though perhaps not always properly, that any one who looks for 
illustrations in authors, may find them thick as fallen leaves in autumn. It 
may not be amiss, however, to classify them into— 
I. References to the aspect of Nature generally. 
II. Similes drawn from particular animals or objects. 
III. Sentimental or moral deductions. 
In illustration of these I must of course make a few quotations, as it is of 
importance to bear in mind, that such images would never have been referred to 
had not their familiarity and truth rendered them obvious to all who heard them. 
I shall take instances from both Homer and Virgil, though, for the sake of the 
general reader, the garb of translation will be sufficient here. 
A Snow Storm. 
“ Their ardour kindles all the Grecian pow’rs; 
And now the stones descend in heavier show’rs. 
As when high Jove his sharp artillery forms, 
And opes his cloudy magazine of storms; 
In winter’s bleak uncomfortable reign 
A snowy inundation hides the plain, 
He stills the winds, and bids the skies to sleep. 
Then pours the silent tempest thick and deep , 
And first the mountain tops are covered o’er, 
Then the green fields, and then the sandy shore ; 
Bent with the weight the nodding woods are seen, 
And one bright waste hides all the works of men.” Pope’s Homer „ 
A snow-storm of this description, unattended with wind, it would be impossible 
for the most ardent lover of Nature better to describe; though, critically speak- 
vol. hi.——no. xxi. 2 R 
