which had occupied me three complete days and nights in the detail of
rendering the allusions into well-balanced similitudes and at the same
time preserving the skilful evasion of all conventional rules which
raises the original to so sublime a height.

The voice of one singing at the dawn;
The seven harmonious colours in the sky;
The meeting by the fountain;
The exchange of gifts, and the sound of the processional drum;
The emotion of satisfaction in each created being;
This is the all-prominent indication of the Spring.

The general disinclination to engage in laborious tasks;
The general readiness to consume voluminous potions on any
pretext.
The deserted appearance of the city and the absence of the
come-in motion at every door;
The sportiveness of maidens, and even those of maturer age,
ethereally clad, upon the shore.
The avowed willingness of merchants to dispose of their wares
for half the original sum.
This undoubtedly is the Summer.

The yellow tea leaf circling as it falls;
The futile wheeling of the storm-tossed swan;
The note of the marble lute at evening by the pool;
The immobile cypress seen against the sun.
The unnecessarily difficult examination paper.
All these things are suggestive of the Autumn.