I asked my uncle if frost pushes up any other kind of root in that way,—and he said that these columns have a quite different effect on fibrous roots, particularly the grasses. In consequence of the strong matting together of their roots, a whole piece of sward between two cracks is sometimes lifted up by these pillars, so as to separate it from the earth underneath. When the columns dissolve, the sward sinks into its former place, and the earth, which has been loosened and minutely divided by the frozen columns, affords a fine bed for the roots to strike into, so that it is rather an advantage than an injury to them to have been thus loosened. After the frost is melted, he says, he has seen patches of the sward lifted up with nearly as much ease as if they had been separated by a parting-spade.
Frederick asked what effect frost had upon soils which are not spongy.
My uncle told us that in clay soils the water forms small detached crystals, so thickly interspersed through the whole mass, that when a clod is broken, the fractured part looks as if covered by hoar frost; but they are too small for the naked eye to distinguish their shape. They help, however, to divide and loosen the clay in those stiff lumps; and after a frost the blow of a spade will almost reduce them into powder. Farmers sometimes, in expectation of this effect of frost, sow their wheat in very rough ground in autumn, in order that the clods, being pulverised by it, may close round the roots of the young plants; and these benefit by it as drilled corn does by landing—that is, having the earth laid up by the plough against the little seedlings when they have grown to some height. In mild winters farmers are disappointed in this; but my uncle says it is but a lazy mode of farming, and deserves to be disappointed.
Do you know, mamma, that I think it is colder and more uncomfortable than during the frost. The birds, however, seem to be rejoiced: I hear them chirping their satisfaction—and all the robins that we had in the house (we had seven at one time) have left their good shelter, and flown off to their companions, by whom I hear they are not likely to be welcomed: I suppose they are despised for not bearing the hardships of the season as well as the others.
22nd, Sunday.—My uncle read the Ten Commandments to us to-day, and afterwards addressed us on the subject; and though I know that I cannot do justice to all he said, I will try and note down a little of it.
“‘And God spake all these words.’ The Hebrews emphatically called these commandments the ‘Ten words;’ and the same term having been adopted in Greek, they have obtained the name of Decalogue in every modern language. Though all mankind were bound to obey the precepts contained in these important laws, yet, as they were more especially addressed to the Israelites, the tables on which they were engraven were preserved in the ark with great solemnity, and were distinguished from the rest of God’s ordinances by a peculiar veneration, as containing the covenant of the Lord. The Mosaic dispensation is at an end, but these commandments continue in full force; for we find that our Saviour and his apostles quoted them as matter of perpetual obligation to Christians; who are now, as the Jews were formerly, ‘the Israel of God.’
“In order to understand their full extent, it is necessary, my dear children, that you should study them attentively: for though they are contained in a few brief precepts, they really comprehend a complete code of morality. You must consider that there is much more implied than is expressly ordained; and that each commandment is to be understood as a concise text, reminding mankind of the whole sum of their duty on that particular head. For instance, when any one sin is forbidden, it is evident that every offence of the same nature, though of a lower degree, is also forbidden; and that as we well know how easily we are seduced step by step, so we are bound to abstain from every indulgence which may act as a temptation to violate the principle of that law. We are not to be contented with a cold and literal obedience to this divine code. Whatever virtues are enjoined to us, it is equally our duty to induce others to practise them; whatever is prohibited, becomes a double crime in us if we tempt others to commit it; and observe, that for this enlarged sense in which we are to view these commandments, we have the direct authority of our Saviour.
“The introduction to the commandments states the grounds on which God required the obedience and adoration of the Jews; 1st, that he was the Lord their God; and 2dly, that he had triumphantly delivered them from Egyptian bondage. And let it be ever impressed on your minds that these reasons apply to us Christians, no less than they did to the Jews; for He is the Lord our God by a more excellent covenant than he was theirs. He has relieved us from that slavery, of which the Egyptian bondage was but a type; and instead of the land of Canaan, he has prepared for us an inheritance in heaven.
“The first and second commandments, in which we are forbidden, under a dreadful penalty, to swerve from the worship of the one true God, or to kneel to any created being, seem to have been framed in allusion to the gross idolatry of Egypt, where all manner of living creatures were adored; and this allusion must have strongly reminded the Israelites of the want of power in those mock deities, who could neither prevent the plagues which they had just witnessed, nor could they enable Pharaoh, though backed by a mighty army, to detain them in that country.”
My uncle then went through all the other commandments, and said a great deal to us about the divine institution of the Sabbath; but when he came to the tenth, “This,” said he, “stamps the seal of divinity upon the whole Mosaic code, of which the Decalogue is the summary. No such restrictions are to be found in the laws of the most famous heathen legislators; neither Lycurgus, nor Solon, nor Justinian, interfere with the desires of the heart; they knew that human thoughts are not cognizable by human tribunals; but it was a command which naturally came from Him who both can and will ‘bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil.’ How finely,” continued my uncle, “has our Saviour commented on this commandment, in his Sermon on the Mount! It is not the mere outward observance of the law that he inculcates, but the inward principle of obedience; it is the word of the law written in our hearts.”