green; by the seventeenth, the plants were at their full growth; and in blossom and flower on the twentyfifth. The fruits of various kinds were ripe on the second of August; and on the tenth the people were gathering in their seeds. About the middle of August their winter began with frost and snow, and continued till near the end of the following June.

How long and how dreary the winter must be, Papa. But where else, did you say, they have but two seasons?

In India; the one is dry and hot, and lasts about seven or eight months: the other, a period of gloom and rain; through the remainder of the year, this is their winter. But in Europe, in the temperate zones, in which we find our beloved country happily placed, there are, as you know, four different seasons; these are more or less distinctly marked as we advance towards the north or south. The prominent features of the different parts of the year, are finely described by a writer whose volume will be read whilst the seasons revolve. Can you repeat the lines I refer to, Edward?

I think I can; they are in this Hymn,

"Forth in the pleasing SPRING

Thy beauty walks, thy tenderness and love.
Wide flush the fields; the softening air is balm;
Echo the mountains round; the forest smiles;
And every sense, and every heart is joy.
Then comes thy glory in the SUMMER months,
With light and heat refulgent. Then thy sun
Shoots full perfection through the swelling year;
And oft thy voice in dreadful thunder speaks;
And oft, at dawn, deep noon, or falling eve,
By brooks and groves, in hollow whispering gales.
Thy bounty shines in AUTUMN unconfin'd,
And spreads a common feast for all that lives!
In WINTER, awful THOU! with clouds and storms
Around Thee thrown, tempest o'er tempest roll'd,
Majestic darkness! on the whirlwind's wing,
Riding sublime, thou bidst the world adore,
And humblest nature with thy northern blast."

But, Papa, which season do you like the best?

You remind me, Edward, of the little boy, who when asked, whether he liked his father or his mother most; replied, "I love them both best." So, to me, each season has its charms, though they are of

a different nature.

Yet, I think, I rather prefer the spring. Its warm gales, the lustre of the newborn leaves, the songs of the birds, the whole creation awakening from its wintry slumbers, especially delights me. Spring too perhaps is more pleasing, because it comes after the cold and barren season; and because it promises a sweet and long succession of flowers, fruits, and fine weather. You now realize your wish, Edward, which you often expressed a month or two since, when the cold and the storms deprived us, and not unfrequently, of our usual walks, that this lovely period would arrive.

And next to the Spring, which of the other seasons do you like best, Papa ?

I scarcely know how to answer you, Edward; I tell you, I enjoy them all; yet, perhaps, I prefer the autumn. The depth of winter and the height of summer, by their great heat and cold, inconvenience us many ways. Spring, I think, from its promising so much, imparts a more animated joy than autumn. But though the latter suggests the idea of decay, yet

it inspires a pensive pleasure, and is favourable to study and meditation.

It would be better, I think, Papa, if we were not to have any winter.

So.

I think not; otherwise, God would have ordered it Whatever God has done, we may be sure, is on the whole, for the best; though we may not always see the reason for his conduct; nor can there be any doubt, but that the variety of the seasons adds very much to our enjoyment; just as the dark and rainy days cause us to enjoy in a more lively manner those that are fine, and sunshiny. You would not so much enjoy a holiday as you do, if you had no labour, or times devoted to study.

But why are our seasons so different?

I think I have repeatedly shown you, when we have been talking on the globe. They naturally arise from the different positions which the earth occupies relative to the sun at these varied periods. You know, that the earth, besides its daily revolution on its own axis, from which arises day and night, has also

an annual course, in its orbit, or path, round the

sun.

But how do you know this, Papa?

Why, readily; by the observation of the fixed stars. There are telescopes by which we can see them in the day; and if, at the beginning of the year, we notice the sun to be in a line with one of them, we shall soon discover if we continue to look, that it will change its position, and be much to the east of him; and this distance will be constantly increasing, till it has journeyed round the heavens, and arrives again in a line with the same star, where we first began to mark his progress. Thus it is evident that the

earth has an annual course round the sun.

But the earth does not travel in an upright position around the sun; his axis is inclined about twenty-three degrees and a half. Thus our great poet, Milton, says, the Creator bade

"his angels turn askance

The poles of earth, twice ten degrees and more
From the sun's axle."