Excerpt from Memories of the MonthsHow often one may hear people who enjoy command of their own time complain of the dulness of life in the country. Poets, children, lovers, and a few other abnormal individuals, derive constant solace from the seasons; but modern life in England has been arranged with studied indifference to them. Man - slowest among vertebrate animals to attain maturity, yet whose years are but a span compared with those of the oak or lowly lichen - man, leaden-footed among beasts, Wingless among fowls - a poor climber - a bad swimmer - has shown his discontent with Nature by devising a scheme of civilisation to make him independent of her infinite changefulness. Artificial illuminants have rendered him indifferent to the radiance of rising and setting suns; neither storm nor shine are allowed to interrupt the monotony of counting-house, factory, or mine; while, strangest of all, fashion has decreed that the fairest half of the year can only be spent in an overgrown, smoky town, built chiefly on swampy ground, lying along a muddy estuary.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.