is given up to its labors, and it is only the very last sheaves which are gathered in September. Yet hear what Spenser says:
| “ | Then came the Automne, all in yellow clad, |
| As though she joyed in her plenteous store. | |
| Laden with fruit that made her laugh full glad ; | |
| Upon her head a wreath, which was enrolde | |
| With eares of corne of every sort, she bore. | |
| And in her hand a sickle she did holde, | |
| To reap the ripened fruits the earth did yolde.” |
The ears of corn, and the sickle, were certainly the rightful property of Summer, who had already been spending weeks in the harvest-field. Thomson first introduces the season in very much the same livery as Spenser, as we may all remember:
| “ | Grown'd with the sickle, and the wheaten sheaf, |
| While Autumn, nodding o'er the yellow plain, | |
| Comes jovial on;..... | |
| ....broad and brown, below. | |
| Extensive harvests hang the heavy head:—” |
In classic days Spring was seen crowned with flowers; Summer with grain; Autumn with fruits; and Winter with reeds. All the four seasons, the Anni of Roman mythology, took a masculine form. Traces of this may be found in the gender given to the different seasons, grammatically speaking, in the principal modern tongues of Europe, for they are chiefly masculine. In Italian, spring, la primavera, is feminine; l'estate, l'autumno, l'inverno, are masculine; in verse, il verno is occasionally used for winter; and the gender of summer is sometimes changed to a feminine substantive, la state. In German, der Frühling, der Sommer, der Winter, der Herbst, are all masculine, and so is the
