December 2.

Winter.

Winter may be now considered as having set in; and we have often violent winds about this time, which sweep off the few remaining leaves from the trees, and, with the exception of a few oaks and beeches, leave the woods and forests nothing but a naked assemblage of bare boughs. December, thus robbing the woods of their leafy honours, is alluded to by Horace, in his Epod. xi.:—

Hic tertius December, ex quo destiti
Inachiâ furere,
Sylvis honorem decutit.

Picture to yourself, gentle reader, one of these blustering nights, when a tremendous gale from south-west, with rattling rain, threatens almost the demolition of every thing in its way: but add to the scene the inside of a snug and secure cottage in the country,—the day closed, the fire made up and blazing, the curtains drawn over a barricadoing of window-shutters which defy the penetration of Æolus and all his excarcerated host; the table set for tea, and the hissing urn or the kettle scarce heard among the fierce whistling, howling, and roaring, produced alternately or together, by almost every species of sound that wind can produce, in the chimneys and door crannies of the house. There is a feeling of comfort, and a sensibility to the blessings of a good roof over one’s head, and a warm and comfortable hearth, while all is tempest without, that produces a peculiar but real source of pleasure. A cheerful but quiet party adds, in no small degree, to this pleasure. Two or three intelligent friends sitting up over a good fire to a late hour, and interchanging their thoughts on a thousand subjects of mystery,—the stories of ghosts—and the tales of olden times,—may perhaps beguile the hours of such a stormy night like this, with more satisfaction than they could a midsummer evening under the shade of trees in a garden of roses and lilies. And then, when we retire to bed in a room with thick, woollen curtains closely drawn, and a fire in the room, how sweet a lullaby is the piping of the gale down the flues, and the peppering of the rain on the tiles and windows; while we are now and then rocked in the house as if in a cradle![520]

For the Every-Day Book.
DECEMBER MUSINGS.
Sonnet Stanzas.

Ανεμων πνεοντων την ηχω προσκυνει.

Pythagoras

Quam juvat immites ventos audire cubantem—
Aut, gelidas hybernus aquas cum fuderit auster,
Securem somnos, imbre juvante, sequi!

Tibullus.

I love to hear the high winds pipe aloud,
When ’gainst the leafy nations up in arms;
Now screaming in their rage, now shouting, proud—
Then moaning, as in pain at war’s alarms:
Then softly sobbing to unquiet rest,
Then wildly, harshly, breaking forth again
As if in scorn at having been represt,
With marching sweep careering o’er the plain
And, oh! I love to hear the gusty shower
Against my humble casement, pattering fast,
While shakes the portal of my quiet bower;
For then I envy not the noble’s tower,
Nor, while my cot thus braves the storm and blast,
Wish I the tumult of the heavens past.
Yet wherefore joy I in the loud uproar
Does still life cloy? has peace no charms for me?
Pleases calm nook and ancient home no more,
But do I long for wild variety?
Ah! no;—the noise of elements at jar,
That bids the slumbers of the worldling close,
Lone nature’s child does not thy visions mar,
It does but soothe thee to more sure repose!
I sigh not for variety nor power,
My cot, like castled hall, can brave the storm;
Therefore I joy to list the sweepy shower,
And piping winds, at home, secure and warm:
While soft to heaven my orisons are sent,
In grateful thanks for its best boon, Content!

W. T. M.[521]

The Season.

The gloominess of the weather, and its frequently fatal influence on the mind, suggest the expediency of inserting the following:—

Dissuasions from Despondency.

These “Dissuasions” are ascribed to the pen of a popular and amiable poet.