senses! He has chosen the softest and most beautiful colours to please and gratify the sight; experience teaches that those surfaces which reflect the blue and the green rays produce the least injury to the eyes, which can bear the sight of them longer than of any others. Hence we find the goodness of God has clothed the heavens with blue, and the earth with green; these colours are sufficiently vivid and gay to produce an agreeable impression upon the eye, whilst they are not bright enough to injure and fatigue. They have besides a sufficient variety of shades to distinguish objects, and prevent a too great uniformity.

Besides plants of every variety of green, the earth presents us with flowers of the most beautiful tints, which not only rejoice the eye by the pleasing diversity of their colours, but they perfume the air, and regale our smell with the most balmy and odoriferous scents. The ear also has its share of enjoyment; it is gratified with the melodious warbling of the birds, that fill the air with the music of their songs.

With a heart overflowing with joy and gratitude, I venture, O God! to exalt thy name and to celebrate thy goodness. How precious is thy bounty! how loving and merciful thy paternal care and tender regard! None of thy creatures are concealed from thy presence, none of them are despised or disregarded; but all without exception are the objects of thy Providence, and the subjects of thy mercy and love. May thy beneficence and goodness ever be the subject of my meditations, and may my soul never cease to bless thy holy name, nor to rejoice in the songs of thy praise!

APRIL XX.

Beneficial Influence of the Sun upon the Creation.

Ar the approach of spring we behold revolutions which should fill every attentive observer with admiration. Nature gradually resumes the life she seemed to have lost during the winter; the earth is overspread with verdure, and the trees open out in bloom. Every-where new generations of insects and young broods of animals spring forth, and, endowed with various degrees of instinct, rejoice in their existence. Every thing is animated, every thing revives; and the new life which is manifested in nature, in the vegetable and animal kingdoms, is produced by the return of warmth which awakens their productions, and puts in motion their recruited powers; the great cause of which is the sun, the source of life, sensation, and joy, whose vivifying rays are diffused through all nature. The grain and seeds feel his influence, and are unfolded in the bosom of the earth; by his power every plant and vegetable springs up and grows. His approach reanimates and strengthens every living creature, and all that live, breathe, feel, or vegetate, experience the influence of this powerful luminary.

What could we do if we were deprived of the light and heat of the sun? How dreary and sad would the earth appear, become an uninhabitable desert! And how miserable and comfortless would be the few creatures that could then exist! What a source of joy and pure pleasure should we be deprived of, if we were never more to feel the genial rays of the rising sun, nor witness the beauty of a serene sky! Nothing could compensate the want of the sun; the mildest night, the most temperate artificial heat, could not supply that vivifying influence which the light of the sun communicates to every being, and which is

entirely different from, and far superior to, any terrestrial fire.

The salutary influence of the sun is well known to men and animals; an invalid shut up in a warm chamber, with every assistance of art, will not gain in many weeks as much strength and vigour as he would in a few days from the mild influence of the sun in fine spring weather. Plants, which an artificial heat forces to spring up, never acquire that degree of strength which they do when they are acted upon by the rays of the sun; in this case every thing conspires to their perfection, whilst in those produced by artificial heat we only perceive the weak and languishing efforts of art to supersede nature.

But could the sun exist, and communicate to us his heat and light, unless he had been formed and received his power and the ability of diffusing it upon the earth by an infinite God, the Creator of all things? To him alone we must look up as the Author of all the benefits we receive from that glorious luminary the sun, which in the plenitude of his power he has created, and in the perfection of his wisdom directs in its course, and supports the brilliancy of its fire and the splendour of its glory. Every morning he causes it to gild the chambers of the east, and to diffuse its enlivening influence over the face of the earth. Without God we should have neither sun, light, heat, nor spring; to him therefore my soul wishes to raise itself, and in thought to enjoy the presence of the immortal Being who created the sun; the genial warmth and pure light of which dispose me to reflect upon this Parent of light and glory, this everlasting Fountain of all that is good, amiable, and delightful. The ignorant heathens, blinded by superstition and perverted by prejudice, saw this glorious luminary disperse the shades of night, and illumine the eastern horizon; they witnessed the regions of the west nightly irradiated by his departing beams, and they prostrated themselves in adoration, worship

VOL. I.

P

ping as a God what is only an effect of divine power. But those who are favoured to participate in the light of truth know, that without the command of God no sun could exist to illumine and cheer the earth; that without his will no vegetation, life, and fruit, nor no comforts could be administered to the sons of men; and that the sun is merely the instrument of his goodness, the minister of his will, and the herald of his glory.

As the earth, deprived of the light and heat of the sun, would be a lifeless desert; so the heart of man, deprived of the Son of truth and righteousness, would be destitute of joy and true felicity. To him we owe all the life, virtue, and happiness our souls possess ; and without his saving power we should be like lifeless trunks, without leaves or fruit. As all nature languishes for the presence of the sun, and longs for his appearance, so may my soul long to feel the sweet and refreshing influence of Christ, which purifieth and strengtheneth the heart unto salvation, and is productive of every good work.

APRIL XXI.

Relations that all Creatures have for each other.

THE prodigious number of creatures on the earth inerits our attention; and still more so the relative proportion between these and the relations which so link and connect this vast variety of beings, that they form one regular and perfect whole.

The extent of the animal kingdom is inconceivable, and yet every animal finds a sufficiency of nutriment. No species, however few in number, however perseented, become extinct; and though many of them are the prey of others, the number of rapacious animals is not considerable; most of them are solitary, and

they do not multiply rapidly. Those which are very numerous are satisfied with a moderate portion of food, and procure it without much art or labour. Many have enemies to contend with, which prevent them from increasing too much; and some weak and timid animals supply in number what they want in strength, or escape from their adversaries by the artifices of cunning and the dexterity of address. We may also remark, that for the better preservation and multiplication of the species, the proportion between the two sexes is so equal, that every animal finds a mate with which it may consort.

The mineral kingdom is subservient to the preservation of the vegetable, and both of them tend to the advantage of man. The most useful plants, as wheat, &c. are most easily multiplied, are less liable to spoil, and grow wherever there are men and animals. Those animals also which are the most useful are likewise the most abundant; and the productions of several climates are suited to the particular wants of men. Thus the hottest countries abound in cooling and grateful fruits; in countries liable to great drought there are plants and trees which are as springs of water, and relieve the intense thirst of men and animals. If in any place there is a deficiency of wood for fuel, there are coals and turf in abundance; and if there are countries destitute of rain and other sources of fertility, they are recompensed by beneficial inundations, such as of the Nile in Egypt.

Amongst the human species we also find the proportion between the sexes pretty even; the number of males to that of females being as twenty-six to twenty-five. In civil society wealth and talents are so admirably distributed, that as every individual may be happy according to the particular circumstances in which he is placed, so nothing essential is wanting to the good of society in general. If the inclinations and propensities of men were not so varied ;