with images of horror; and, indeed, the terrors which it hides will, when that veil is lifted, prove to be more fearful and tremendous than even the pictures which his affrighted imagination had framed. 66 "O miserable man! When he is happiest. O miserable man, Who hath all the world to friend, Remember his latter end! His earthly lot may be, with delight, ye will, indeed, shine from his view, appears covered with softly on the grassy hillock under representations of fear, and crowded which this frail frame will one day lie; but my spirit will not be there; and all beauteous as ye are, all enduring as ye are, I shall then be more beauteous, more enduring than ye, and I shall rise to a standing loftier than your own, for your costly jewelry will be but the pavement on which I shall tread. My body will, indeed, soon be mouldering in the grave: but my spirit will then be expatiating over the bright scenery of heaven. And oh! what rapture will it be to cast away care and disappointment, to be encumbered no more with the fetters of sin, to hear the gates of "the palace of consolation "* close behind me, If, then, the soul be to live for assuring me that I am to go out ever, how important is it that thence no more for ever, to behold we should properly cultivate its the ranks of cherubim and seraphim powers; but, above all, that we dividing to permit me, a mortal, to should seek the purifying influence approach still more closely to the of the Holy Spirit, by whom alone. Throne than they, and above all, to it can be purged from its natural gaze on Him, the ineffable, the defilement, and made fit for an imsupreme-on Him who suffered mortality of love. Let the reader here for me, and who still wears then ask himself whether the purthe form and the features in which suits in which he is now most earhe paid the penalty of my trans-nestly engaged, are those which are gressions! If such be the scenes likely to be serviceable to him to which I am to be introduced by in another world. Is he devoting death, how can I fear, nay rather, himself, body and soul, to the art of how can I forbear to long for his acquiring money? Alas for him! approach? His countenance may the art of money-making is not be dark and frowning to the un-needed in heaven. Is he following godly, but it wears a smile of wel- sensual pleasure through all her come to me; to them his voice winding labyrinths; is he feeding may be eloquent of misery, but it is on the wine-cup and the smiles full of the sweetest music to me. of beauty? Alas for him! there Such are the anticipations of the are no haunts of impurity in heaChristian; but in such the votary ven. Is he hurrying after fame, of sense cannot indulge. To him that emptiest bubble that ever the contemplation of the future is floated on the surface of life; and at all times a terrific and hideous is he straining every nerve in occupation; and to him, the cur- the chase? Alas for him! at tain, which conceals the future every step he is leaving heaven THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE MONTHS. With Astronomical Notices. By Pro(President fessor DEWHURST, F. E. S. L. London, Lecturer on Astronomy, and other of the Verulam Philosophical Society of Branches of Natural Philosophy.) still further behind him. But is he he knows less perhaps of spiritual a devout and humble follower of ecstacy than those who have seen Jesus, treading in his steps, and greater depths, and have been panting for a fuller revelation of snatched from steps more alarming; his beauty? Let him persevere, but he also escapes nameless terrors, he will soon behold his Redeemer misgivings, and compunctions. The in heaven. Is he ever contending Augean stable might be cleansed against the inroads of iniquity and by a Hercules and the Alphean the attacks of the world, the flesh, tide; but how much better the hall and the devil? Let him fight on of Parian marble, upon which the manfully, for he is sure of conquest; breath of heaven never came but he may, indeed, gain it only in as enriched with sacrificial odours, the death-struggle, but he will be and whose walls never echoed to crowned as a conquerer in heaven. any but sacerdotal and sacred Is he urging on, "faint, yet pursuing," voices. M. N. anxiously sighing for greater purity and more uninterrupted communion with God? Let him not despair, a robe of righteousness and a seat in his celestial Father's immediate presence are awaiting him in heaven. We entreat you, reader, by all your disappointments during the past, by all your hopes of the (For the Young Men's Magazine.) future, to think of these things. As every month brings new pheYou may be young, and may imagine that there will be time contemplation by the pious philosonomena, and different subjects for enough hereafter for repentance; pher, I shall introduce in this, and but this is so palpable an absurdity in following numbers of this Magathat it needs no refutation. Who zine, some of the most striking has assured you that you shall not peculiarities attendant on each redie to-day? And even if time be given you for future contrition, how volving month, in this country, commencing, of course, with will you then regret that your early days were not given to God! The Holy Spirit may, indeed, be pleased to bring you to the cross at the close of your days; but how much Bright shines the azure sky, serenely fair, better to have made it your home Or driving snows obscure the turbid air." and your resting-place throughout The year in most Christian counthe whole of your pilgrimage. The tries commences in the month of sins of a long life of iniquity may, January. At this period, the whole indeed, be forgiven, but how much face of nature appears listless and inbetter to have been restrained from active; vegetation appears destroyed, their commission by the effectual or at least suspended. The various operations of grace. "Enviable," tribes of animals which diversify says an eloquent nonconformist, "is the old man whose youth was pious: * Dr. Andrews. JANUARY. "Stern Winter's icy breath, intensely keen, Now chills the blood, and withers every green; the season, many of whom flutter in the breeze, are now destroyed, or are torpid through the inclemency of the weather. On this account many philosophers have considered that it would be more appropriate to commence the year with the Spring, when the whole surface of the earth and face of nature, appears resuscitated and renewed: but as this period takes place at different times in various climates, it has at length been determined, on account of commercial and political affairs, to commence the year as at the present, viz. on the 1st of January, twelve days inclusive of the Winter solstice, which most of my young readers know takes place on the 21st of the preceding December.* Loud rings the frozen earth, and hard reflects A double noise; while at his evening The village dog deters the nightly thief; Of travellers, the hollow sounding plain It freezes on, Till morn, late rising o'er the drooping Lifts her pale eye unjoyous. Then appears Whose idle torrents only seem to roar, rise; Wide spouted o'er the hill, the frozen brook, A livid tract, cold-gleaming on the morn." January is, generally speaking, the coldest month in this part of the Northern hemisphere, and we but seldom experience any continuance of frost or snow previous to its arrival. The weather is usually either foggy with snow, and occasionally and takes up a greater quantity of Water, when frozen, expands, with an intermixture of rain, or else it is a clear dry frost. The effects of room than before, and produces a frost to the reflective mind are wonvery beneficial effect to the husbandderful. To see the lucid lake con man; for the hard clods of the broken into pieces by the swelling ploughed fields are loosened and verted into a firm solid plain, the running stream arrested in of the water within them when froits course, the waters now no zen. Hence, the earth becomes longer capable of being ruffled by the passing breeze the moist crumbled, and prepared for receivground becomes as hard as the ada-ing the seed on the arrival of spring. mantine rock—and all this done by ed frequently with snow, which is At this period, the ground is coveran invisible power in a few short hours, which form a single night; nothing but frozen water from the these, therefore, become infinitely the plants below it, inasmuch as it clouds. It is extremely useful to surprising to the natives of oriental climes, where nature holds a species of almost eternal summer, and who are unaccustomed to such a sight as a northern winter affords. Thomson has, in his usual felicitous, lively manner, thus pourtrayed this period of the year: "An icy gale, oft shifting, o'er the pool Breathes a blue film, and in its mid career Arrests the bickering stream. *The Astronomical Phenomena of the Seasons will be considered in a future Essay. protects them from the severity of the frost; at a certain depth under the snow, the cold always continues the same. It is also thought to enrich the ground, and serve as a sort at all different from rain in this reof manure; but some suppose it not spect. The beauty of a country all clothed in a new fallen snow is very striking. "The cherish'd fields Put on the Winter-robe of purest white. When the phenomenon here deScribed occurs, prodigious mischief takes place, by the breaking down of vast arms of trees, which were overloaded with the weight of the ice encrusting them. The hail-stones make their frequent appearance, and the hoar frost, or frozen mist, as some call it, adheres to every object on The inclemency of the season is which it falls, producing figures of shown by its effects on animals, incomparable beauty and elegance. particularly on the numerous tribes Every twig and blade of grass is of birds. As the cold advances, beset by it with innumerable glit- they collect in flocks, quit their retering pearly drops, or pieces of treats, and, rendered bold by want,. silvery plumage, as it were, be- approach the habitations of man. yond the skill of any artist to imi- Larks, and various other small birds, tate. Occasionally it happens that shelter themselves in the warm a sudden shower of rain falls during stubble. Sparrows and yellowa frost, and immediately becomes hammers, with chaffinches, crowd frozen. A remarkable scene is then into the farm-yards, and attend the produced, which the poet describes barn-doors, to pick up their scanty in the following lines: fare from the chaff and straw. The beautiful red-breast now ventures: into the house, “Ere yet the clouds let fall the treasur'd snow, Or winds begun thro' hazy skies to blow, In pearls and rubies rich the hawthorns While thro' the ice, the crimson berries glow. The thick-sprung reeds the watʼry marshes Seem polish'd loams in a hostile field. Glaz'd over, in the freezing ether shine. That wave and glitter in the distant sun. Fieldfares and thrushes in large flocks descend from the tops of trees, and frequent the warm manured field in the neighbourhood ducks, and other water-fowl, are of towns. Snipes, woodcocks, wild' forced from the frozen marshes, and are compelled to seek their food about the rapid currents of streams which are yet unfrozen. As the cold grows more intense, various kinds of sea-fowl quit the bleak open shores, and come up the rivers, where they offer an unusual prey to the fowler. The wild quadrupeds, too, are driven from their accustomed haunts. Hares enter the gardens to browse on the cultivated vegetables, and, vided by Nature with a kind of leaving their tracks in the snow, Winter-quarters, which secure them are frequently hunted down, or from the effects of cold. Those caught in snares. The hen-roosts called herbaceous, which lie down are pillaged by foxes, polecats, and to the root every Autumn, are now small beasts of prey which our safely concealed under ground, precountry breeds; but we are now paring their new shoots to burst happily unacquainted with the ra- forth when the earth is softened by venous troops of wolves, bears, and Spring. Shrubs and trees, which other fierce creatures, which, urged are exposed to the open air, have by famine at this season, often ter- all their soft and tender parts rify the villagers in the mountainous closely wrapped up in buds, which and woody regions on the continent. by their firmness resist all the force The domestic cattle now require of frost. If one of these buds be all the care and protection of the now carefully opened, it is found to farmer. Sheep are often lost in the consist of young leaves rolled tosudden storms by which the snow gether, which are afterwards to is drifted in the hollows, so as to adorn the Spring. Some of these bury them a great depth beneath it. are much forwarder than others. Yet they have been known to sur- The leaves of the woodbine appear vive many days in this situation. just ready to expand by the end of Cows, with much ado, scratch up a the month; the flowers of the mefew mouthfuls of grass; but for zereon and snowdrop appear on the their chief subsistence they must point of blowing; and the catkin or depend upon the hay and other male flower branch of the hazel beprovisions of the farm-yard. Early gins to unfold. lambs and calves are kept within doors, and tended with as much little work can de done out of doors care as the farmer's own children. by the husbandman. As soon as it Thomson beautifully alludes to sets in, he takes the opportunity of this period of the year in the fol- the hardness of the ground to draw lowing lines:manure to his fields. He lops and cuts timber, and mends thorn hedges. When the roads become smooth from the frozen snow, he takes his team, and carries hay and corn to the market, or brings fuel for himself and neighbours. barn resounds with the flail, by the use of which the labourer is enabled to defy the cold weather. "Now, shepherds, to your helpless charge Baffle the raging year, and fill their pens storm And watch them strict; for from the bellowing East, In this dire season, oft the whirlwind's wing Sweeps up the burthen of whole wintry plains At one wide waft, and o'er the hapless flocks, Hid in the hollow of two neighbouring hills, During the severity of the frost, The for fuel and food, and charity is In towns, the poor are pinched peculiarly called for at this comfortless time of the year. Many branches of art are at a stand during the severity of the frost. Rivers and canals being frozen up, watermen and bargemen are frequently destiThe plants of this season are pro-tute of employment. The harbours The billowy tempest whelms; till upward The valley to a shining mountain swells, |