The Lambertville record., 1873-01-15
TEMPERATE ZONES.
BY HENRY WARD REEcHER-

The fullest and best life must be sought in
the Temperate Zones. Cold and heat, In ex-
cess. are alike, in shutting men up and reduc-
ing their power over nature. The action Of |
nature upon the hrnan organisation, and ef |
man upon nature. constitute IL business of |
life.
When the elements are In sueh extremss Of
power as to limit mems action, they diminiah
the force and prodnctiveness Of man. The
arctic region shuts one up more than half a
year in prison of Ice more relentless than
stone and iron, The size of the world to
Greenlander is the size of his underground
home.
The tropics are to be chosen rather. But
the fierce sun debilitates, and drives men out
of more than half the hours of the day.
The restriction of activity, however, is not
SO much to be deplored as the limitation of
enjoyment through the senses and the taste.
There is, to be sure, a prodigality in nature
under the Equator which, for q time, surprises.
But the eternal sun takes away from men these
alterations, opposites and transitions which
are the occasions of so much pleasure. The
ehHiSn WAiAch We bcSoHlc uScu W, CctSc W nave
the effect which their first presentation
wrought. A tropical forest when first seen
its richness in vegetation, its enormous
growths, its amazing yarieties--fills the soul
with wonder. But seen year after year, one
becomes used to- it. Great is great by con-
trast. Where there are no contrasts, one
ceases to feel the greatness of common things
When one first moves into large house from
small one, every room seems immense But
after some years the sense of largeness is gone.
We have accommodated ourselves to the new
measure, and are no longer impressed with
size. If one were to live twenty years among
the great trees of California, he would not be
likely to lose his enjoyment in them, but it
would be wholly different from that which one
feels at first. 1t is probable that other things
would be small by their side; but the giant
trees would cease to be great, in the sense in
which they first appeared so the size would
accommodate itself to their measure.
1t is change that keeps alive the sense of
magnitude. 1t is small things that make
things large, and large things that make others
small.
Summer would not be half so sweet If there
was nothing but summer. 1t is the winter
that makes the Summer wonderful Novem-
ber days extinguish all the brightness Of leaf
and flower The earth, like an anchorite, is
clothed in sackcloth. The snowy days that
follow robe the earth in white, as II shrouding
It for burial. The myriad forms of vegetation
are gone. The infinite gradations of cold are
| I~-tsS,x rx,.& u III.
earth, the air, the water. Nature turns, her
coat inside out. The mother of all beauty
lavish in her abundant wealth, sits grim and
bowed, as il stingy economy had come with
old age. For time we are sad. We look
out pitifully, after each frost, upon our favor
ite greens and blooms, as we would 90 out
after battle to see who of friends was safe,
and who lay slain or wounded. At length
comes the lock that win not be opened. The
soil is as hard as stone. We no longer look
for life. We grow used to death. Other
pleasures spring up. We are now comforted
with new things. We grow used to them.
But at last we are weary of winter A
strange blood seems beating in our veins. We
turn from the white snow and the grey earth
with longing discomfort The sign comes of
a change in the moods of nature. All these
agitations within US are but participation in
the changes going on in the air, in trees, in
SOIL and stone. There is universal travail
Then come the birds--soon after pioneering
grass, and the first flowers Things break
forth, and all nature is in haste The world
awakes as strong man from dreams. Every
day sees new wonders every hour has its
surprise. The senses are not dull nor clogged
with incessant luxury. They have been upon
a long fast. Every flower now is thrill
We go joyously into summer and every day
is a new leaf in an unopened book, and graft
fication follows expectation with every turn.
Let others have the Equator; give me the
Temperate Zones And If any of my readers
shall say this is true, not Of outward nature
alone, but of human conditions in life, and
that neither extremes of poverty nor excessive
wealth are to be chosen, but that temperate
zone Of affairs, midway between the golden
equator and the barren poles, shall not re-
sst the application. Only it was said long
ago, "Give me neither poverty nor riches"
SLANDER.-If you find n person circulating
malicious reports about his neighbor, it may