54. On Volcanos and Subterraneous Fires 55. Further Reflections on Volcanos; with a Re- futation of fome Objections, deduced from 118 THE CONTEMPLATIVE PHILOSOPHER. NUMBER XLI. SUMMER REFLECTIONS. From brightening fields of ether fair difclosed, IN the month of May the Spring glows with "all the mixtures of colorific radiance", and before the expiration of June that feafon commences when opening beauty and increasing variety are fucceeded by the more uniform fcenes of maturity and perfection. The Summer feason, which coinmences on the twenty-firft of June, is fo diftinguished by a uniformity of character, that, as I have obferved before, the great poet of the Seafons has comprised the whole of his defcription within the limits of a single day. To give importance, moreover, to a season, in other refpects fo unproductive of fubject, his muse has fpread her flight to the torrid zone, and enriched her landscapes with foreign beauties and exotic wonders. Nature, in our temperate regions, appears in this feafon to have nearly finished her annual work; and The begins to lofe fomething of her variety. Nothing, indeed, can be more beautiful than the verdure of the orchards and woods, but the fhades of hue which they exhibit are no longer fo agreeable. The meadows begin to whiten, and the flowers that adorn them are mowed down. The corn gradually affumes a yellow hue, and the colours that decorate the rural fcene are no longer so numerous. How lately did the glowing beauty and variety of thefe, with the notes, as various, of a multitude of birds, difplay at once all the charms of novelty, and infpire inexpreffible delight! It is in the novelty of objects, indeed, in their appearing at least to be new and uncommon, that the more exquifite enjoyment of them confifts. Novelty excites a pleasure in the imagination, because it ftrikes the foul with an agreeable furprife, gratifies its curiofity, and gives it an idea of which it was not poffeffed before. It contributes, therefore, to vary human life: it tends to divert and refresh the mind, and to take off that fatiety of which we are apt to complain in the entertainments to which we are conftantly accuftomed; it is that which gives its charm to variety, where the mind is every inftant called off to fomething new, and the attention not fuffered to dwell too long, and waste itself, on any particular object. Novelty, moreover, improves whatever is beautiful and pleafing, and makes it afford to the mind a double entertainment. Hence we may deduce the reason why the groves, and fields, and meadows, which, at any feafon of the year are delightful to the view, are never more fo than in the opening of Spring, when they are all |