378 TWENTY-SEVENTH EVENING.

descending the mountain are melting with heat; se
that they can scarcely bear any clothes upon them;
while they who are ascending, shiver with cold, and
wrap themselves up in the warmest garments they
have.”

“ How strange this is,’”’ cried William. “ What can
be the reason of it P”’ |

“Tt is,” replied his father, “a striking stance of
the power of habit over the body. The cold 1s so in-
tense on the tops of these mountains, that it 1s as
much as travellers can do to keep themselves from
being frozen to death. Their bodies, therefore, be-
come so habituated to the sensation of cold, that
every diminution of it as they descend seems to them
a degree of actual heat; and when they have got half
way down, they feel as though they were quite in a
sultry climate. On the other hand, the valleys at the
‘oot of the mountains are so excessively hot, that the
body becomes relaxed, and sensible to the slightest
degree of cold; so that when a traveller ascends from
them towards the hills, the middle regions seem quite
inclement from their coldness.” 7

“And is the same change,”’ rejoined William, “al-
ways perceptible in crossing high mountains ?”’

“It is,” returned his father, “in a degree propor-
tioned to their height, and the time taken in crossing
them. Indeed, a short time is sufficient to produce
similar effects. Let one boy have been playing at roll-
ing snowballs, and another have been roasting himself
before a great fire, and let them meet in the porch of
the house ;—if you ask them how they feel, I will
answer for it you will find them as different in their
accounts as the travellers on the Andes. But this is
only one example of the operation of a universal prin-
ciple belonging to human nature; for the power of
habit is the same thing, whatever be the circumstance
which calls it forth, whether relating to the mind or
the body.

“You may cousider the story you have been read-