=_Joseph Dennie, 1768-1812._= (Manual, p. 497.)
From "The Lay Preacher."
=_150._= REFLECTION'S ON THE SEASONS.
"Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to
behold the sun."
The sensitive Gray, in a frank letter to his friend West, assures him
that, when the sun grows warm enough to tempt him from the fireside, he
will, like all other things, be the better for his influence; for the
sun is an old friend, and an excellent nurse, &c. This is an opinion
which will be easily entertained by every one who has been cramped by
the icy hand of Winter, and who feels the gay and renovating influence
of Spring. In those mournful months when vegetables and animals are
alike coerced by cold, man is tributary to the howling storm and the
sullen sky, and is, in the phrase of Johnson, a "slave to gloom;" but
when the earth is disencumbered of her load of snows, and warmth is
felt, and twittering swallows are heard, he is again jocund and free.
Nature renews her charter to her sons.... Hence is enjoyed, in the
highest luxury,--
"Day, and the sweet approach of even and morn,
And sight of vernal bloom and summer's rose,
And flocks, and herds, and human face divine."
It is nearly impossible for me to convey to my readers an idea of the
"vernal delight" felt at this period by the Lay Preacher, far declined
in the vale of years.
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