It spurs to action.  The foot tastes it and henceforth rests not.  The joy of moving and surmounting, of attrition and progression, the thirst for space, for miles and leagues of distance, for sights and prospects, to cross mountains and thread rivers, and defy frost, heat, snow, danger, difficulties, seizes it; and from that day forth its possessor is enrolled in the noble army of walkers.

III.  THE SNOW-WALKERS

He who marvels at the beauty of the world in summer will find equal cause for wonder and admiration in winter.  It is true the pomp and the pageantry are swept away, but the essential elements remain,—­the day and the night, the mountain and the valley, the elemental play and succession and the perpetual presence of the infinite sky.  In winter the stars seem to have rekindled their fires, the moon achieves a fuller triumph, and the heavens wear a look of a more exalted simplicity.  Summer is more wooing and seductive, more versatile and human, appeals to the affections and the sentiments, and fosters inquiry and the art impulse.  Winter is of a more heroic cast, and addresses the intellect.  The severe studies and disciplines come easier in winter.  One imposes larger tasks upon himself, and is less tolerant of his own weaknesses.

The tendinous part of the mind, so to speak, is more developed in winter; the fleshy, in summer.  I should say winter had given the bone and sinew to Literature, summer the tissues and blood.

The simplicity of winter has a deep moral.  The return of nature, after such a career of splendor and prodigality, to habits so simple and austere, is not lost upon either the head or the heart.  It is the philosopher coming back from the banquet and the wine to a cup of water and a crust of bread.

And then this beautiful masquerade of the elements,—­the novel disguises our nearest friends put on!  Here is another rain and another dew, water that will not flow, nor spill, nor receive the taint of an unclean vessel.  And if we see truly, the same old beneficence and willingness to serve lurk beneath all.

Look up at the miracle of the falling snow,—­the air a dizzy maze of whirling, eddying flakes, noiselessly transforming the world, the exquisite crystals dropping in ditch and gutter, and disguising in the same suit of spotless livery all objects upon which they fall.  How novel and fine the first drifts!  The old, dilapidated fence is suddenly set off with the most fantastic ruffles, scalloped and fluted after an unheard-of fashion!  Looking down a long line of decrepit stone wall, in the trimming of which the wind had fairly run riot, I saw, as for the first time, what a severe yet master artist old Winter is.  Ah, a severe artist!  How stern the woods look, dark and cold and as rigid against the horizon as iron!