lies also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing." Nay, the very manner in which this blessing is made to descend, claims at once our admiration and gratitude; for, in general, the rain descends in gentle showers, but, in the case of thunder, there is an exception, when it pours down with impetuosity and in torrents; but let it be remarked, that here it acts the part of a life-preserver; for, when once wet, our clothes become excellent conductors to carry off the electric fluid to the earth.

Even frost and snow have their uses. Hail is known to cool the air in summer; and experience has demonstrated, that "nature could not give a better covering than snow to secure the corn, the plants and trees, from the effects of cold in winter; and if a frost succeeds after a ploughed field has been well watered by the autumnal rains, the particles of the earth dilute and separate, and the spring then completes the making the earth light, moveable, and fit to receive the kindly influence of the sun and fine weather."

Water-spouts at sea seem to proceed from the same cause as whirlwinds upon land, and if these serve the purpose of carrying up the superabundance of the electric fluid from the earth to the atmosphere, as is with good reason supposed, their utility, in the economy of nature, must be apparent.

With regard to those illusory appearances that we behold in the heavens, do they not teach us in a language plain, evident, and forcible, how easily we may be deceived by our senses, and of the conse

quent importance of placing our actions under the guidance of that reason which distinguishes man from the brute creation, and was kindly given him as a lamp to his feet, and a light to his path?

'Tis Reason our Great Master holds so dear;
'Tis Reason's injured rights His wrath resents ;
'Tis Reasons's voice obey'd His glorious crown;
To give lost Reason life, He poured his own.

CHAP. XVI.

CHANGES OF THE SEASONS, AND VICISSITUDES OF DAY AND NIGHT.

"These, as they change, Almighty Father these
Are but the varied God. The rolling year

Is full of Thee!"

THE Earth, surrounded by the Atmosphere, rèmains not at rest; for, as we observed in a preceding chapter, the latter is made to revolve with the former in its diurnal motion, and to circle with it in its annual course.

Before proceeding farther in our researches, we will therefore, turn our attention for a few minutes to this two-fold motion of the earth, which although it would not, but for external objects, be perceptible to our senses, is rendered extremely important, on account of the beneficial effects it produces.

"Of all the effects resulting from this admirable scene of things," says Bonycastle, "nothing can be more pleasing and agreeable to a philosophic mind, than the alternate succession of day and night, and the regular return of the seasons. When the sun first appears in the horizon, all nature is animated by his presence; the magnificent theatre of the universe opens gradually to our view, and every object around us excites ideas of pleasure, admiration, and wonder. After riding in all his brightness through the vault of heaven, he is again hidden from our sight; and we are now presented with a new spectacle of equal grandeur and sublimity. The heavens are on a sudden covered with innumerable stars; the moon, rising in a clouded majesty, unveils her peerless light; whilst the silent solemnity of the scene, fills the mind with sentiments and ideas beyond the power of language to express.

(6 Variety is the source of every pleasure; and the bountiful Author of Nature, in the magnificent display of wisdom and power, has afforded us every possible means of entertainment and instruction.What a pleasing succession of scenes results from the gradual vicissitudes of the seasons! Summer, Winter, Spring, and Autumn, lead us insensibly through the varied circle of the year; and are no less pleasing to the mind, than necessary towards bringing to maturity the various productions of the earth. Whether the sun flames on the tropic, or pours his mild effulgence from the equator, we equally rejoice in his presence, and adore that Omniscient

Being, who gave him his appointed course, and prescribed the bounds which he can never pass.

دو

But how is this pleasing and useful variety produced?-How is this perpetual succession of Day and Night, of Spring and Summer of Autumn and Winter, kept up? It is by means simple, but evidently striking, to the man of science and discernment. By the revolution of the earth on its axis, once in twentyfour hours, we have the alternate succession of day and night;-by its annual circuit round the sun, together with the inclination of its poles (lying always in the same direction) to the plane of its orbit, we experience all that variety of season, which is so indispensibly necessary for the springing up, ripening, and in gathering of the fruits of the earth.

By this constitution of things, that part of the earth's surface which is turned towards the sun, must have the largest share of his visible presence at the time; hence, when the earth is south of that luminary, the inhabitants of the regions north of the equator, must have, their summer; and, on the contrary, those who dwell in the southern latitudes, must have their winter: but reverse the case, and suppose the earth in that part of her orbit which is north of the sun, and the inhabitants between the equator and south pole must have their longest days, while those who dwell on the opposite side, of course must have their shortest. At the equinoctial points, the axis of the earth being parallel to the sun, and neither turned in to, nor out from him, it necessarily follows, that at those precise times, and no other,

the days and nights must be equal throughout the globe; for the instant that the north pole gets beyond the vernal equinox in spring, it emerges into the sun's light, and the people who inhabit the arctic regions, have six months of perpetual day; while those at the south pole, or contrary extremity of the earth, have an equal duration of protracted night. At the opposite season of the autumnal equinox, the reverse takes place. In the intermediate spaces between the poles and the equator, the inhabitants experience all that vicissitude of light and shade, to which their situations expose them; and which, in the absence of a globe, may be tolerably well illustrated by suspending a large wooden bowl from the hand, and making it revolve round a lighted candle, with its axis inclined a little to one side, and pointing always in the same direction. If, at the same time, this bowl could be made to turn incessantly round on its axis in the progress of its revolution, it would afford a pretty accurate idea how the vicissitudes of day and night are produced.

Let us attend a little to some of the beneficial conséquences of this "ever varying, ever changing scene." Spring is characterized as the season of the renovation of nature; in which animals and vegetables, excited by the kindly influence of returning warmth, shake off the torpid inaction of winter, and prepare for the continuance and increase of their several species. "A soft and pleasing languor, interrupted only by the gradual progression of the vegetable and animal tribes towards their state of