-NRLF 
 
 
LIBRARY 
 
 OF THK 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 OF 
 
 Mrs. SARAH P. WALSWORTH. 
 
 Received October, 1894. 
 Accessions No . ff*.ZL Clazs No. 
 

 
 
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THE 
 
 SCHOOL LIBRARY. 
 
 PUBLISHED UNDER THE SANCTION OF THE BOARD OF EDUCA- 
 TION OF THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 VOL. VII. 
 
 SACRED PHILOSOPHY OF THE SEASONS; 
 
 BY THE REV. HENRY DUNCAN, D.D., 
 
 ADAPTED TO AMERICAN READERS, 
 BY REV. F. W. P. GREENWOOD, D.D. 
 
 IN FOUR VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. WINTER. 
 
 BOSTON : 
 MARSH, CAPEN, LYON, AND WEBB. 
 
 1839. 
 
THIS VOLUME IS SANCTIONED, BY THE BOARD OF EDU- 
 CATION OF THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS, AS ONE OF THE 
 SERIES, ENTITLED, ' THE SCHOOL LIBRARY,' PUBLISHEE 
 BY MARSH, CAPEN, LYON, AND WEBB. 
 
 EDWARD EVERETT, 
 GEORGE HULL, 
 EMERSON DAVIS, 
 EDMUND DWIGHT, 
 GEORGE PUTNAM, 
 ROBERT RANTOUL, JR., 
 THOMAS ROBBINS, 
 JARED SPARKS, 
 CHARLES HUDSON, 
 GEORGE N. BRIGGS. 
 
SACRED 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF THE SEASONS; 
 
 ILLUSTRATING THE PERFECTIONS OF GOD 
 
 IN THE PHENOMENA OF THE YEAR. 
 
 BY THE REV. HENRY DUNCAN, D.D., 
 
 RCTHWELL, SCOTLAND. 
 WITH IMPORTANT ADDITIONS AND SOME MODIFICATIONS TO ADAPT IT TO 
 
 AMERICAN READERS, 
 
 BY F. W. P. GREENWOOD. 
 
 IN FOUR VOLUMES. 
 
 VOL. I. WINTER. 
 
 BOSTON : 
 MARSH, CAPEN, LYON, AND WEBB. 
 
 1839. 
 
I 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1839, by 
 
 MARSH, CAPEN, LYON, AND WEBB, 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 
 
 EDUCATION PRESS. 
 
I . 
 
 WINTER. 
 
 "HE OIVETH SNOW LIKE WOOL: HE SCATTERETH THE HOAR-FROST LIKE 
 ASHES. HE CASTETH FORTH HIS ICE LIKE MORSELS : WHO CAN STAND BEFORE 
 
 HIS COLD ?" Psalms. 
 
" THERE is A PHILOSOPHY WHICH NOBLY EXERCISES OUR REASONABLE FAC- 
 ULTIES, AND IS HIGHLY SERVICEABLE TO RELIGION : SUCH A STUDY OF THE 
 WORKS OF GOD, AS LEADS US TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD, AND CONFIRMS OUR 
 FAITH IN HIM. BUT THERE IS A PHILOSOPHY WHICH IS VAIN AND DECEITFUL, 
 WHICH SETS UP THE WISDOM OF MAN AGAINST THE WISDOM OF GOD, AND, WHILE 
 IT PLEASES MEN'S FANCIES, HINDERS THEIR FAITH." DffVenailt. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR. 
 
 IT was after a due consideration of the merits and de- 
 fects of the ' SACRED PHILOSOPHY OF THE SEASONS,' and in 
 the expectation that the latter would be reduced in number 
 and importance by a thorough revision, that the work 
 was adopted by the Massachusetts Board of Education into 
 'THE SCHOOL LIBRARY.' 
 
 Several of the defects of this work, seem to be inciden- 
 tal to its plan. Cursoriness, incompleteness, and inequality 
 of execution might be looked for, from the great number 
 and variety of topics introduced, and subjects discussed, in 
 the course of the four volumes, and from the impossibility 
 that an equal measure of attention and justice should be 
 rendered to them all, by one individual writer. A glance 
 at the Table of Contents, is sufficient to convince any 
 reasonable person, that a thorough treatment of the various 
 questions of art and science there comprehended, in so 
 small a work as the present, is wholly out of the question. 
 Thoroughness is not, and could not have been a charac- 
 teristic of these volumes. The Author makes no preten- 
 sion to it. The reader should not demand it. 
 
 Nor is it to be expected that all the questions touched 
 
VI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 upon in these volumes, should be handled with an equal 
 degree of ability and satisfactoriness. A compiler, even 
 as a compiler, will naturally speak best concerning the 
 matter with which he is best acquainted. Knowledge and 
 skill are required to compile well ; and it may easily be 
 ascertained, from the extracts which are made, and the 
 character of the authors who are quoted from, whether he 
 who employs the labors of others, is well or ill versed in the 
 subject before him. The ' SACRED PHILOSOPHY OF THE 
 SEASONS' holds a higher rank than that of a mere compila- 
 tion, because it contains much that is properly original ; 
 but on many of the topics embraced in its wide range, its 
 Author relies wholly, and professedly, on the authority of 
 other writers, and adduces their very words ; and it is not 
 difficult to discover to which of these topics he is himself 
 most partial, and concerning which he knows how to col- 
 lect the best information. Some of the subjects must ne- 
 cessarily suffer, and as the Editor can but partially remedy 
 this want of exact justice, on account of his own prefer- 
 ences on the one hand and ignorances on the other, the 
 defect of inequality of execution may be regarded as in- 
 herent in the nature of the work. 
 
 But some other defects were perceived, which, though 
 not to be wondered at, were more remediable. In the 
 Edinburgh edition, there were occasional repetitions and 
 redundancies, which, in the present, have been curtailed. 
 There were errors, some of them to be attributed, no 
 doubt, to the printer, which in the present have been cor- 
 rected. Not a few of these errors were of vital impor- 
 tance to the meaning of the passage in which they occur- 
 
INTRODUCTION. Vll 
 
 red. Such, for instance, was the reading Plantaria, which, 
 in the nomenclature of some naturalists, stands for a section 
 of quadrupeds, instead of Planaria, which is a tribe of 
 flat-shaped aquatic worms. Names of individuals and of 
 places were sometimes misspelt, and quotations from Scrip- 
 ture were incorrectly given. It is believed that not many 
 errors, of the nature specified, have been suffered to es- 
 cape the eyes of the Editor, and those who have assisted 
 him. 
 
 Whatever were found to be the deficiencies of this work, 
 its merits were deemed, very greatly to outweigh them ; 
 merits which peculiarly adapt it for the service which 
 the Board of Education has in view. The variety of 
 knowledge which it embraces, is well calculated to awaken 
 and gratify the curiosity of the young, while it is also in- 
 teresting to maturer years. Though this variety is incom- 
 patible with thoroughness, it cannot justly be denominated 
 superficial, because it is observant of correctness, and 
 relies on the best authorities, which, in natural history and 
 science especially, are the latest. This variety, also, it is 
 to be noticed, offers to the mind of the reader a wide 
 choice of subjects, suggesting thoughts and inquiries on 
 all of them, which may be pursued at will ; and though 
 he may be feebly interested by some of these subjects, he 
 may be induced to follow up and investigate others, and 
 consult the authors who are referred to and quoted, to his 
 exceeding gratification and benefit. It is a work which 
 instructs and informs by its multitude of observations and 
 facts, and incites to reflection and further study, by its still 
 greater multitude of suggestions. 
 
Vlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Another merit of this work, is its religious character 
 and tendency. It developes, and often very happily, the 
 sacred philosophy of the Seasons. Its main object, never 
 lost sight of, is to show that the operations of Nature are the 
 work of God's hand, the intimations of his presence and 
 agency, the proofs of his wisdom, the manifestations of 
 his love. It aims at constructing no cunning argument, at 
 weaving no newly-devised web of too ingenious thought, 
 but steadily it points to some nice adaptation, some beau- 
 tiful arrangement in this lower world, and then seriously 
 up to the Great Designer. It produces the impression, ac- 
 cumulatively, page after page, that we live amid surround- 
 ing demonstrations of Supreme Intelligence, where every 
 thing is ordered, and cared for, and adjusted, and nothing 
 is left to chance. Its influence is to lead the mind to the 
 religious contemplation and study of the exquisite and mar- 
 vellous fabric on which we stand, and with which we are 
 placed in mysterious contact. A happy and needed influ- 
 ence. We have, in this country, enterprise enough, and 
 men of enterprise ; politics and politicians enough ; new 
 ideas and theories in plenty ; sufficient agitation and sec- 
 tarism. What we especially want, is more calmness, and 
 contentment, and refinement, and more of that knowledge 
 which tends to inspire them. We want more quiet stu- 
 dents of God's works, earnest though quiet, who may 
 diffuse abroad a portion of that peace with which their 
 own hearts are imbued, and of that information which will 
 insensibly but surely operate to correct the crudities, and 
 soften down the rudeness, and put to silence the quackeries 
 of the times. Such a work as the present, is well adapted 
 
INTRODUCTION. IX 
 
 to infuse the necessary tastes ; to give an impulse and 
 direction to the dormant love of Nature which exists in 
 almost every bosom ; to show the reader, by glimpses 
 here and there, how full of interest, even in what had 
 seemed before the most uninteresting quarters, is the world 
 in which he lives ; and to cause his soul to harmonize 
 with the order and music, which have been breathed into 
 that wondrous world by its invisible Creator. 
 
 And further, these volumes are recommended by the 
 peculiar method of their arrangement, which renders the 
 perusal of their contents a matter of most easy accom- 
 plishment, whether in the school, or the family circle. 
 Each one of the volumes is devoted to a separate season, 
 and is divided into as many chapters, or short portions, 
 as there are days in that season. Thus, in the course 
 of the four volumes, every day in the year has its allotted 
 subject and chapter, while on every Sunday there is, as 
 it were, a pause of rest, in which is introduced a brief re- 
 ligious discourse, suited to the subjects of discussion which 
 have occupied the preceding week. The length of these 
 daily portions is from three to six pages. It would be 
 easy, in a school, for the last half hour of the day to be 
 given to a daily portion of this book, which would afford 
 time not only for the requisite reading, but for such re- 
 marks and explanations as might be offered by the instruct- 
 er ; the portion for Sunday might be read together with 
 that which precedes or follows it ; and then how surely 
 would the four volumes be mastered in a year, and not as 
 a task, but a pleasure and refreshment. And it would not 
 be too much to say, that there is not a family in the country, 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 however diligently their hours may be employed, who, if 
 they had the disposition, could not find ample time for the 
 same course of reading. Innocently and profitably would 
 the half hour be engaged by the group gathered round 
 the table, as page after page was turned, and the weeks 
 and the seasons passed by. And when the last leaf of 
 Autumn was finished, it would be strange indeed if some 
 of the knowledge, and some of the piety contained and 
 inculcated in these volumes, did not remain permanently 
 behind, in the minds and hearts of the readers. 
 
 The Author of this work begins the series with Winter, 
 and offers satisfactory reasons for so doing ; but he gives 
 no reason for beginning Winter with the month of Novem- 
 ber, Spring with February, Summer with May, and Au- 
 tumn with August, though this arrangement is not in accord- 
 ance with the usual division of the Seasons. It appears to 
 the Editor, that in temperate climates, generally, the old 
 distribution of the months corresponds the most nearly with 
 the appearances of Nature. He has not seen fit, however, 
 to alter the original disposition of the volumes in this par- 
 ticular. 
 
 The changes which have been made by the Editor, have 
 already been alluded to, and in part specified. Carefully 
 preserving all the facts and trains of remark, as in the 
 original work, and interfering as little as possible with the 
 character given to it by the Author, he has, however, by 
 the addition of notes, and the occasional introduction of 
 passages into the text, adapted it to the place which it is 
 intended to occupy, as a book of instruction and entertain- 
 ment for American schools and families. These additions 
 
INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 and insertions are marked in such a manner, that they will 
 be immediately distinguished from the original by the eye 
 of the reader. Words and phrases of a technical charac- 
 ter, and such as would not be found in a common dictionary, 
 have been explained, either in the body of the work, or in 
 a glossary at its close. Still, the chief part of the Editor's 
 labor will not be apparent on perusal. It consisted in fre- 
 quent elisions, of greater or less consequence, the silent 
 correction of errors, and numerous small adaptations, the 
 whole sum of which could only be ascertained by a con- 
 stant comparison of the two editions. 
 
 In one respect, the office of the Editor has been of some 
 delicacy. A few of the Sunday papers were necessarily 
 to be altered, in order to conform the volumes to the 
 pledge which is given by the Board of Education, that the 
 Library shall contain nothing offensive to the sentiments 
 of different religious denominations. The required altera- 
 tions have been made principally by the simple omission 
 of sentences and paragraphs, and in two or three instances 
 only by substituting entire papers in the place of those 
 which it was thought proper to leave out ; the substituted 
 papers being specified in their place. The Author would of 
 course have preferred that no change of this kind should 
 have been made ; but when he comes to see how little the 
 integrity of his own and his friends' religious essays has 
 suffered, it is believed that he will not fail to be satisfied 
 that a due discretion has been used, and that all that is es- 
 sential to a warm and vital Christianity has been preserved. 
 A few scattered sentences may even now be found, which 
 may not exactly coincide with the opinions of some sects 
 
Xll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 But this they will readily pass over and pardon. Of one 
 thing, the Editor is certain, that he has carefully and con- 
 scientiously abstained from introducing any of the peculiar 
 opinions of the denomination to which he himself belongs. 
 
 F. W. P. GREENWOOD. 
 Boston, Aug. 1, 1839. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 INTRODUCTION, by the American Editor, v 
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE, . . . . . 1 
 
 i. SUNDAY. Goodness of God to his Rational Crea- 
 tures, ........ 5 
 
 The Character impressed on Nature Compensation, 7 
 
 The Character impressed on Nature Contrivance, ' 12 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 Globular Figure of the Earth, . . . .16 
 
 Circulation in the Atmosphere and Ocean, . . 19 
 
 The Atmosphere, 22 
 
 Ignis Fatuus, or Wildfire, 
 
 ii. SUNDAY. General Jlspect of Winter, . . .30 
 Phosphorescence, ...... 33 
 
 Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, . . .36 
 Meteoric Showers, ...... 40 
 
 Variety of Climates, . . . . . .44 
 
 Practical Effect of the Commercial Spirit produced 
 
 by a Variety of Climates, .... 48 
 
 Adaptation of Organized Existences to Seasons and 
 
 Climates, 52 
 
 in. SUNDAY. The Omnipresence of God, . . 55 
 Adaptation of Organized Existences to the Tropical 
 
 Regions, ....... 59 
 
 Adaptation of Organized Existences to Temperate and 
 
 Polar Climates, ....... 63 
 
 The Balance Preserved in the Animal and Vegetable 
 
 Creation, 66 
 
 Alternation of Day and Night, . . . .72 
 
 Night. Sleep, 76 
 
 Night. Dreaming, ...... 79 
 
 iv. SUNDAY. This World a State of Discipline, . 85 
 
 I- B VII. 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 THE STARRY HEAVENS. 
 
 General Remarks, . . . . . .89 
 
 Gravitation and Inertia, ..... 93 
 
 The Planetary System, 96 
 
 The Sun as the Source of Light and Heat, . 99 
 
 Motions of the Planets, 102 
 
 Resisting Medium, ...... 105 
 
 v. SUNDAY. Divine and Human Knowledge com- 
 pared, 110 
 
 The Satellites, 114 
 
 Relative Proportions of the Planetary System, . 117 
 
 Distances of the Fixed Stars, . . . . 120 
 
 Immensity of the Universe, ..... 123 
 
 Nebulse, 127 
 
 Binary Stars, 131 
 
 THE MICROSCOPE. 
 
 vi. SUNDAY. Discoveries of the Telescope and Mi- 
 croscope compared, . . , . . . 135 
 
 Wonders of the Microscope. Infusory Animal- 
 cules, 139 
 
 HYBERNATION OF PLANTS. 
 
 Plants and Animals compared, . . . . 143 
 Adjustment of the Constitution of Plants to the An- 
 nual Cycle, 146 
 
 Physiological Condition of Plants during Winter, 150 
 
 Physiological Condition of Plants, continued, . 154 
 
 HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 
 
 Instinct, ........ 158 
 
 vn. SUNDAY. >-On Seeing God in his Works> . 162 
 Reason in the Lower Animals, . . . .165 
 
 Eggs, 170 
 
 Various States, 176 
 
 Bees, .,.,.... 181 
 
 The Snail, 188 
 
 The Beetle, ..... 191 
 
 Animalcules in Paste, . . . . . .195 
 
 vni. SUNDAY. Greatness of God even in the Small- 
 est Things, . , * 196 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 MIGRATIONS OP BIRDS AND QUADRUPEDS DURING 
 WINTER. 
 
 Birds, .200 
 
 Birds, continued, ...... 204 
 
 Birds which partially migrate, .... 209 
 
 Quadrupeds, 213 
 
 CHRISTMAS-DAY, 219 
 
 JYb Season Unpleasant to the Cheerful Mind, . 223 
 ix. SUNDAY. Proofs of Divine Benevolence in the 
 
 Works of Creation, ...... 227 
 
 MIGRATION OF FISHES. 
 
 The Sturgeon, the Herring, the Cod, &c. . . 232 
 
 Cetaceous Animals, ...... 235 
 
 Migration of Fishes from the Sea into Rivers, . 240 
 
 Migration of Eels, 244 
 
 NEW-YEAR'S-DAY, 248 
 
 Migration of the Land-Crab, .... 253 
 
 x. SUNDAY. Winter an Emblem of Death, . . 258 
 
 HYBERNATION OF QUADRUPEDS. 
 
 Clothing, 262 
 
 Storing Instincts, 266 
 
 Torpidity, 272 
 
 HYBERNATION OF MAN. 
 
 Privation stimulates his Faculties, .... 277 
 Provisions for his Comfort, .... 
 Adaptation of his Constitution to the Season, . . 286 
 xi. SUNDAY. The Unceasing and Universal Provi- 
 dence of God, 289 
 
 INHABITANTS OF THE POLAR REGIONS. 
 
 The Esquimaux, 293 
 
 Food and Clothing, 297 
 
 Dwellings and Fire, 300 
 
 FROST. 
 
 Provision for causing Ice to Float on the Surface, 304 
 
 The Expansive and Non-conducting Power of Ice, 307 
 
XVI CONTENTS. 
 
 Amusements connected with it, . . . .310 
 
 xu. SUNDAY. Winter not Monotonous. Boundless 
 
 Variety of Nature, . . . . . .313 
 
 Effects of Frost in the Northern Regions, . . 319 
 
 Agency of Frost in Mountainous Regions, . . 322 
 
 Hoar Frost. Foliations on Window-Glass, SLC., . 325 
 
 Beneficent Contrivances relative to Snow, . . 329 
 
 Sagacity and Fidelity of the Dog in Snow, . . 334 
 
 GEOLOGY. 
 
 Its Phenomena consistent with the Mosaic Account 
 of the Creation, . . . . . .341 
 
 xni. SUNDAY. The Difficulty of Comprehending the 
 
 Operations of Providence, ..... 345 
 
 Successive Periods of Deposit, .... 349 
 
 Fossil Bird Tracks, 351 
 
 Successive Periods of Organized Existences, . 358 
 State of the Antediluvian World, .... 362 
 Indications of the Action of the Deluge at the Pe- 
 riod assigned to it in Scripture, .... 366 
 Cuvier's Calculation respecting the Deluge, . 369 
 Effects of the Deluge on the Present Surface of the 
 
 Earth, 374 
 
 xiv. SUNDAY. The Deluge a Divine Judgement, 379 
 
 

 IT I T 
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 OF all the works on Natural Theology, which, in former 
 or recent times, have enlightened and delighted the pious 
 mind, none of any great extent, or of much importance, 
 have been devoted to the illustration of the Divine perfec- 
 tions, in connexion with the Seasons of the Year. Yet this 
 is a view at once interesting and popular. The changes 
 of the seasons display, in themselves, a remarkable and 
 beneficent arrangement ; and the adaptations by which 
 vegetable and animal life are fitted to exist, and to fulfil the 
 end of their creation, during these changes, afford ample 
 materials for a beautiful and striking exhibition of the 
 power, wisdom, and goodness of the Creator. 
 
 In investigating this subject, we meet every where also, 
 with the most remarkable analogies in the character of 
 the material world, with that which is so distinctly impressed 
 on Revealed Truth ; and, while we hence derive a very 
 satisfactory argument in proof of their origin from the same 
 Almighty and Intelligent Author, we find, that these kindred 
 sources of information continually throw a light, clear, 
 consistent, and useful on each other. 
 
 The attention of scientific men, while it has of late been 
 very successfully, has, perhaps, been too exclusively, di- 
 rected to the book of Nature, in illustration of the Divine 
 perfections ; and those, who peruse their writings, may be 
 induced to overlook the highly important truth, that, after 
 all, natural religion affords but an imperfect glimpse into 
 the moral attributes of the Eternal. 
 
 i. 1 vn. 
 
2 AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 One great object of the Author, in the following pages, 
 is to show that the God of Nature can only be known, in 
 the perfection of His character, when regarded as the God 
 of Grace ; and that it is not till the light of Revelation 
 shines on the Divine operations, that the clouds and dark- 
 ness, which surround the throne of the Most High, are 
 dispersed. Under the illumination of this celestial light, 
 the study of creation is, in the highest degree, calculated 
 to expand the understanding, enlighten the judgement, and 
 improve the heart. If it be true, that the human mind 
 takes its character from the nature of the subjects with 
 which it is conversant, we may assuredly expect that it 
 will be ennobled and refined, when it is humbly, judi- 
 ciously, and piously occupied in investigating the attributes 
 and works of Him, who is the First and the Last, the 
 Greatest and the Best. 
 
 The most important and animating views of the Creator 
 and His operations, in reference to the Seasons, are found 
 scattered through many publications, which it has been the 
 agreeable task of the Writer to combine in a new series, 
 and render generally accessible. In doing this, he has 
 frequently quoted the precise words of the various authors 
 from whom he has borrowed his facts. He has no ambi- 
 tion to acquire fame as an original writer ; his more hum- 
 ble, but perhaps not less useful aim, being to instruct and 
 edify those who may not be in possession of many works 
 on Natural Theology, by rendering them acquainted with 
 the discoveries, which have been made by others, in the 
 most interesting of all sciences. 
 
 The plan adopted by the wellknown, but somewhat an- 
 tiquated, German author, STURM, in his 'Reflections,' 
 has been so far imitated, that the Work contains a paper 
 for every day of the year, and is thus well suited for stated 
 family reading. The chief reasons which induced STURM 
 to give his Work this form, as he himself observed in the 
 
AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 3 
 
 advertisement to the first German edition, were, "First, 
 to provide a sufficient variety ; and, secondly, that the 
 reader might be led to sanctify each day, by contemplating 
 the works of God." These are also the motives of the 
 present writer ; but the desultory manner and declamatory 
 style of this author he has endeavored to avoid ; and a more 
 systematic method has been attempted, replete with facts 
 and illustrations, so as to form a whole, containing, what 
 the title expresses, the SACRED PHILOSOPHY OF THE SEA- 
 SONS.' 
 
 It is customary, in enumerating the Seasons, to com- 
 mence with Spring ; arid it may be proper, in a few words, 
 to state one or two reasons which induced the Author to 
 depart from that order, and begin with Winter. 
 
 Winter is not the death of Nature, neither is it merely 
 the season of Nature's sleep after the labors of the vege- 
 table world are finished. A thousand secret operations 
 are in progress, by which the seeds, buds, and roots, of 
 future plants and flowers, are not only preserved but elab- 
 orated, that, when the prolific months of Spring arrive, 
 they may burst into life in all the freshness and vigor of a 
 new birth. This, which is both a more important and a 
 more interesting view than that which is commonly enter- 
 tained, represents Winter as the first stage in the processes 
 and developements of the revolving year, and fixes it as the 
 natural commencement of a Work, which has for its object 
 an exhibition of the SACRED PHILOSOPHY OF THE SEASONS. 
 
 There is another circumstance, too, which involves no 
 principle, indeed, like the former, but which renders the 
 plan adopted a matter at least of convenient arrangement. 
 Winter is the season in which, although the hand of a 
 beneficent and wonder-working Creator is every where to 
 be distinctly traced, there are fewer objects of interest, in 
 comparison with the other seasons, to arrest the attention, 
 and to engage the rnind in devout contemplation of the 
 
Divine perfections. An Author, studying to gain the pub- 
 lic favor, must, doubtless, regard this as a disadvantage 
 in making his first appearance ; but then, it has this coun- 
 terbalancing use, that space is thus gained for some neces- 
 sary introductory papers on the broader and more gen- 
 eral cosmical arrangements, which are peculiar to none of 
 the seasons, but common to them all. As the plan of daily 
 reflections, of a certain moderate length, obliges the Au- 
 thor to stretch his literary offspring, as it were, on Pro- 
 crustes' bed, the convenience of including such papers in 
 the volume devoted to Winter will be readily acknowl- 
 edged. 
 
 The expressions, "contrivance," "ingenuity," "com- 
 pensation for defects," &c., as applied to the operations 
 of the Eternal, seem, in some sense, to detract from the 
 infinite perfection of His character, and to bring the exer- 
 cise of His attributes too much on a level with the opera- 
 tions of the human mind. But this arises from a defect, 
 not merely in the language, but the conceptions of men ; 
 and while we are sensible of the inadequacy of these 
 expressions, we know not how to apply a remedy. In this, 
 the Writer only follows in the track of others. 
 
 The Sunday papers contain religious and moral reflec- 
 tions, generally suggested by the subject of discussion on 
 the preceding week. 
 
 A few papers have been kindly furnished by ingenious 
 friends, which are distinguished from those of the Author, 
 by being subscribed with their initials. 
 
 RUTHWELL MANSE, 
 October 20, 1836. 
 
^jjj$0^ 
 
 SACRED PHILOSOPHY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SEASONS. 
 
 WINTER. 
 FIRST WEEK SUNDAY. 
 
 GOODNESS OF GOD TO HIS RATIONAL CREATURES. 
 
 WE are about to commence a course of study, which 
 will lay before us, in detail, abundant proofs of benefi- 
 cent design, exhibited in the various departments of 
 creation ; and we surely cannot better employ this first 
 day of the first week of our delightful and edifying task, 
 than in considering some of the more obvious and gener- 
 al evidences of the paternal regard, which the Creator 
 bestows on our race the chief of his sublunary works. 
 
 But the difficulty lies in knowing where to begin, and 
 what to select ; for we cannot turn in any direction where 
 His love does not smile around us. In Him we live, and 
 move, and have our being ; and all that we possess flows 
 entirely from the exhaustless source of His bounty. 
 From the first moment of our existence, His guardian 
 arm surrounded us, and at this instant we are the objects 
 of His providential care. He listened to our helpless 
 cries, and supplied all our infant wants, before our hearts 
 had learned to acknowledge their Benefactor, or our 
 tongues to pronounce His name. It was He who opened 
 the bosoms of our parents to impressions of tenderness, 
 and taught them to experience a nameless delight in those 
 1* 
 
GOODNESS OF GOD 
 
 little attentions which our tender years required. To 
 secure the good offices of the generous, He clothed our 
 countenances in the smiles of innocence ; and, to soften 
 the hearts of the cruel, He caused our eyes to overflow 
 with tears. He strengthened our bodies, and enlarged 
 our minds. Through all the slippery paths of youth, 
 His hand unseen conducted us, guarding us from temp- 
 tation, delivering us from danger, and crowning our days 
 with His goodness. And whatever period of life we 
 have now reached, we owe our continued lives to His 
 preserving care, and our blessings, both past and present, 
 to His paternal bounty. 
 
 Let us look at particulars. If we turn to our connex- 
 ion with surrounding nature, it is God's air which we 
 breathe, and God's sun that enlightens us. The grateful 
 vicissitudes of day and night, the revolutions of the sea- 
 sons, marked by the regular return of summer and win- 
 ter, seedtime and harvest, are all appointed by His uner- 
 ring wisdom. It is His pencil, which paints the flower, 
 and His fragrance, which it exhales. By His hand, the 
 fields are clothed in beauty, and caused to teem with 
 plenty. At His command, the mountains rose, the val- 
 leys sank, and the plains were stretched out. His seas 
 surround our coasts, and His winds blow, to waft to us 
 the treasures of distant lands, and to extend the inter- 
 course of man with man. 
 
 But we are made capable of more exalted enjoyments 
 than can be derived from external nature ; and He, who 
 formed us with these capacities, has not left us without 
 the means of exercising them. Originally created in the 
 image of God, the human soul, as if conscious of its ce- 
 lestial origin, finds permanent enjoyment only in the 
 cultivation of those faculties which prove its resemblance 
 to its Creator. Nor has the Father of mercies left us 
 without the means of such enjoyment. In society, the 
 pleasures of beneficence, and the movements of compas- 
 sion ; in friendship, the interchange of good offices, and 
 the balm of sympathy ; in domestic life, the tenderness 
 of conjugal affection, and the endearments of filial and 
 parental duty ; and, to crown all, in religion, the sublime 
 
TO HIS RATIONAL CREATURES. 7 
 
 enjoyments of devotion, and the blessed hopes of immor- 
 tality, give an unspeakable charm to existence, and prove 
 the Divine Being who bestowed these gifts, to be full of 
 condescending kindness to his rational offspring. 
 
 "How gracious indeed the care which has provided a 
 remedy for our spiritual wants, and an answer for those 
 longings and fears which look beyond our present dwel- 
 ling, and make earnest inquiries of eternity ! How pre- 
 cious that Divine word, which bears assurance of pardon 
 to the sincerely repentant, and promises of peace and joy 
 to the sorrowful and broken-hearted ; which tells of a 
 merciful Saviour, who was wounded for our transgres- 
 sions, who was acquainted with our griefs, and who died 
 that we might live ! These blessings change not with the 
 changing seasons, nor pass away with the rolling years." 
 When the believer thinks of them, his heart overflows 
 with gratitude ; and the deep emotion which they excite, 
 finds no language more suitable for its expression, than 
 the short, but emphatic exclamation of an apostle, 
 " Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift !" 
 
 FIRST WEEK MONDAY. 
 
 THE CHARACTER IMPRESSED ON NATURE. COMPENSATION. 
 
 BEFORE proceeding to the examination of particulars, 
 with the view of exhibiting the attributes of the great 
 Creator, as manifested in the seasons of the year, it is of 
 importance to discover the nature of the principles which 
 are to form the subject of our investigation ; more espe- 
 cially, as there is certainly something very remarka- 
 ble in the character impressed on the created objects 
 within the sphere of our observation. Were we to com- 
 mence the inquiry without the aid of experience, found- 
 ing our expectations on the abstract theories of perfec- 
 tion which we might form in the closet, we should assur- 
 
8 CHARACTER IMPRESSED ON NATURE. 
 
 edly meet with difficulties and disappointments at every 
 step of our progress. We shall in vain seek for proofs 
 of absolute perfection, either in the physical or moral 
 condition of this lower world. It is a scene of perpetual 
 change ; of beauty, ending in deformity ; of pleasure, 
 succeeded by pain ; of success, giving way to disap- 
 pointment ; of life, vigor, and brightness, alternating with 
 gloom, decay, and death ; and, if the actions of rational 
 agents be regarded, it is a union of wisdom and folly, 
 nobility and meanness, virtue and vice. Instead of per- 
 fection, we have here the very reverse. Where, then, 
 are we to seek for the wisdom and goodness of an All- 
 powerful and Intelligent First Cause ? Our answer is, 
 In the general character and tendencies of the system ; 
 in the arrangements by which evils are averted or miti- 
 gated, and excellence is drawn from the very bosom of 
 apparent defect and worthlessness. We are not to ex- 
 pect absolute, but only relative good ; not the absence 
 of evil, but compensations for it ; not perfection, but a 
 bias towards it. In regarding the whole system, we 
 seem to behold a piece of vast and amazing mechanism, 
 of which the materials are defective or positively unsound, 
 but the workmanship perfect. The wisdom lies in the 
 admirable execution of a work apparently full of difficul- 
 ties and obstructions ; and the goodness, in the conver- 
 sion of what would seem to be naturally evils, into agents 
 of virtue and instruments of enjoyment. 
 
 This, however, is certainly not the real, but only the 
 apparent, state of things. That the power of the Eter- 
 nal, as well as his intellectual and moral perfections, is 
 infinite, it is on other grounds impossible to doubt : that 
 we cannot perceive these perfections in all their extent 
 manifested in his works, must therefore proceed from a 
 deficiency in the grasp of our minds : but we must treat 
 of them according to our own perceptions ; and the evi- 
 dence of Divine wisdom and goodness which, under the 
 modification we have endeavored to explain, breaks in 
 upon us from every side, is probably, in some respects, 
 better suited to call forth the wonder, admiration, and 
 gratitude of such limited creatures as we are, than even 
 
COMPENSATION. 9 
 
 if we were to see the hand of the Creator less darkly. 
 The view might be too vast, and the glory too effulgent 
 for our mortal vision. 
 
 An apt illustration of the kind of defect and compen- 
 sation, which seem to be inherent in the system of our 
 world, may be found by attending to the state of external 
 nature in the present season of the year. That there 
 are disadvantages and privations in Winter, under which 
 all animated nature seems to shrink and groan, is undeni- 
 able ; yet how many abatements, and how much positive 
 enjoyment have we to place in the opposite scale ! 
 
 It will be my duty to examine these abatements of 
 evil, and these actual blessings, separately, in the course 
 of our inquiry ; but let us take one example by way of 
 illustration. In our climate, and in all the regions 
 which verge toward the poles, within certain limits, one 
 of the discomforts of winter, which must occur to every 
 person who thinks on the subject, is the shortness and 
 gloom of the day. The sun rises late, looks down for a 
 few hours with diminished glory on a blasted world, and 
 then goes rapidly away, leaving all nature to the dark- 
 ness of a tedious night. This is dreadful ; yet see how 
 it is rendered a source of pleasure and improvement ! 
 If, during the absence of the sun, we look at the starry 
 heavens, what an inexhaustible fund of wonders does 
 astronomy unfold, at once to exalt and to humble the 
 human mind, to fill us with admiration of the Divine 
 perfections, and to teach us the salutary lesson of our 
 own insignificance. It does not require that we should 
 dive into the mysteries of this science, by means of the 
 telescope, before these sentiments arise. They belong 
 to every age of the world, to every stage of advancement 
 in science, and to every station in life. There is no ex- 
 pression of devotional feeling to which even "babes and 
 sucklings," as it is emphatically said, more readily re- 
 spond, than that of the psalmist, "When I consider thy 
 heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars 
 which thou hast ordained; what is man, O Lord, that 
 thou art mindful of him ? and the son of man that thou 
 visitest him ?" How blank and dismal would be the 
 
10 CHARACTER IMPRESSED ON NATURE. 
 
 darkness of a long winter night, were it not cheered and 
 rendered sublime by the splendor of the starry firma- 
 ment ! 
 
 Look, again, at the comforts and domestic endear- 
 ments of a winter-evening fireside. Who, that has ex- 
 perienced these, will allege that winter is inferior to sum- 
 mer, either in its enjoyments or in its means of improve- 
 ment ? When early night has spread its shade over 
 external nature, and labor has ceased in the fields, and 
 the sound of busy feet is more rarely heard along the 
 streets ; when the shutters are closed, and the curtains 
 drawn, and the fire blazes in the grate, and the candle 
 stands on the table, shedding artificial day, and a united 
 family, shutting out the world, retire within their own 
 beloved circle, to enjoy the social hours ; when the father 
 and mother occupy their wonted chimney corners, and 
 the children, while their hands, perchance, are engaged 
 in some light employment, listen with interest to the in- 
 struction of some well-chosen book, or bear their parts 
 in edifying and endearing conversation, who will not 
 confess that there are advantages in this intercourse, 
 which longer days, and a more genial atmosphere, with 
 all the attractions of vocal woods and flowery meads, can 
 scarcely equal ? 
 
 Here, then, we have compensation for an acknow- 
 ledged evil : we have even more. This evil is con- 
 verted into means of pleasure and improvement ; and 
 such is precisely the character of Creative Wisdom and 
 Goodness, into which we have to inquire. He, who 
 expects to find a higher grade of perfection in those mani- 
 festations of nature with which he is surrounded, will as- 
 suredly be disappointed. 
 
 [ u The Great Author of our being," says Dr. Roget, in 
 his Bridge water Treatise, u who, while he has been pleas- 
 ed to confer on us the gift of reason, has prescribed certain 
 limits to its powers, permits us to acquire, by its exercise, 
 aknowledge of some of the wondrous works of his creation, 
 to interpret the characters of wisdom and goodness with 
 which they are impressed, and to join our voice to the gen- 
 eral chorus which proclaims c his Might, Majesty, and Do- 
 
COMPENSATION. 11 
 
 minion. ' From the same gracious hand we also derive that 
 unquenchable thirst foreknowledge which this fleeting life 
 must ever leave unsatisfied ; those endowments of the 
 moral sense, with which the present constitution of the 
 world so ill accords ; and that innate desire of perfec- 
 tion which our present frail condition is so inadequate to 
 fulfil. But it is not given to man to penetrate into the 
 counsels, or fathom the designs of Omnipotence ; for in 
 directing his views into futurity, the feeble light of his 
 reason is scattered and lost in the vast abyss. Although 
 we plainly discern intention in every part of the creation, 
 the grand object of the whole is placed far above the 
 scope of our comprehension. It is impossible, however, 
 to conceive that this enormous expenditure of power, 
 this vast accumulation of contrivances and of machinery, 
 and this profusion of existence resulting from them, can 
 thus, from age to age, be prodigally lavished, without 
 some ulterior end. Is Man, the favored creature of Na- 
 ture's bounty, ' the paragon of animals,' whose spirit 
 holds communion with celestial powers, formed but to 
 perish with the wreck of his bodily frame ? Are gen- 
 erations after generations of his race doomed to follow 
 in endless succession, rolling darkly down the stream of 
 time, and leaving no track in its pathless ocean ? Are 
 the operations of Almighty power to end with the pres- 
 ent scene ?- May we not discern in the spiritual consti- 
 tution of man the traces of higher powers, to which those 
 he now possesses are but preparatory ; some embryo 
 faculties which raise us above this earthly habitation ? 
 Have we not in the imagination, a power, but little in har- 
 mony with the fetters of our bodily organs ; and bringing 
 within our view purer conditions of being, exempt from 
 the illusion of our senses, and the infirmities of our nature, 
 our elevation to which, will eventually prove that all 
 these unsated desires of knowledge, and all these ardent 
 aspirations after moral good, were not implanted in us in 
 vain ? 
 
 " Happily there has been vouchsafed to us, from a 
 higher source, a pure and heavenly light to guide our 
 faltering steps, and animate our fainting spirit, in this 
 
12 CHARACTER IMPRESSED ON NATURE. 
 
 dark and dreary search ; revealing those truths which it 
 imports us most of all to know, giving to morality higher 
 sanctions, elevating our hopes and our affections to no- 
 bler objects than belong to earth, and inspiring more 
 exalted themes of thanksgiving and of praise." AM. ED.] 
 
 FIRST WEEK TUESDAY. 
 
 THE CHARACTER IMPRESSED ON NATURE. CONTRIVANCE. 
 
 FROM the example stated yesterday, some idea may be 
 formed of the kind of compensation for permitted evils 
 which is every where to be discovered in the works of 
 creation ; but another, and equally marked feature in the 
 face of nature, is that of the most ingenious contrivances, 
 to avoid evils which would otherwise occur, or to insure 
 advantages which could not otherwise be obtained. An 
 example or two of this unequivocal proof of a wise and 
 beneficent Designer will illustrate this subject. 
 
 For these I shall take advantage of the ingenious Trea- 
 tise of Sir Charles Bell on the Human Hand, which is, 
 throughout, a most masterly exposition of the argument, 
 arising from this very view. The first which I select is 
 taken from his chapter on the " Sensibility of the Sur- 
 face, compared with the deeper parts." That the skin 
 is extremely sensible to pain, no one need be informed ; 
 but few, perhaps, have sufficiently attended to the fact, 
 which is yet within the reach of any person's observation, 
 that the pain does not increase in proportion to the depth 
 of the wound, the sensibility being almost exclusively 
 confined to the outward covering of the body. This 
 has been very convincingly proved to be a contrivance 
 of much wisdom and benevolence. After stating the fact, 
 and showing it to be a matter of daily surgical experience, 
 the author justly observes, that the obvious intention is, 
 that the skin should be a safeguard to the delicate tex- 
 
CONTRIVANCE. 13 
 
 tures which are contained within, by forcing us to avoid 
 injuries ; and that it does afford us a more effectual de- 
 fence than if our bodies were covered with the hide of a 
 rhinoceros. 
 
 u In pursuing the inquiry," says he, u we learn, with 
 much interest, that when the bones, joints, and all the 
 membranes and ligaments which cover them, are exposed, 
 they may be cut, pricked, or even burned, without the 
 patient or the animal suffering the slightest pain. These 
 facts must appear to be conclusive ; for who, witnessing 
 these instances of insensibility, would not conclude that 
 the parts were devoid of sensation ; but when we take 
 the true philosophical, and, I may say, religious view of 
 the subject, and consider that pain is not an evil, but 
 given for benevolent purposes, and for some important 
 object, we should be unwilling to terminate the investi- 
 gation here. 
 
 " In the first place, we must perceive, that, if a sen- 
 sibility, similar to that of the skin, had been given to these 
 internal parts, it must have remained unexercised. Had 
 they been made sensible to pricking and burning, they 
 would have possessed a quality which would never have 
 been useful, since no such injuries can reach them, or 
 never without warning being received through the sen- 
 sibility of the skin. 
 
 "But, further, if we find that sensibility to pain is a 
 benevolent provision, and is bestowed for the purpose of 
 warning us to avoid such violence as would affect the 
 functions or uses of the parts, we may yet inquire, wheth- 
 er any injury can reach these internal parts, without the 
 sensibility of the skin being excited. Now, of this there 
 can be no doubt, for they are subject to sprain, and rup- 
 ture, and shocks, without the skin being implicated in 
 the accident. If we have been correct in our inference, 
 there should be a provision to guide us in the safe exer- 
 cise of the limbs ; and, notwithstanding what has been 
 apparently demonstrated of the insensibility of these in- 
 ternal parts, they must possess an appropriate sensibility, 
 or it would imply an imperfection. With these reflec- 
 tions we recur to experiment, and we find that the parts 
 i. 2 vii. 
 
14 CHARACTER IMPRESSED ON NATURE. 
 
 which are insensible to pricking, cutting, and burning, 
 are actually sensible to concussion, to stretching, or lac- 
 eration. 
 
 u How consistent, then, and beautiful is the distribu- 
 tion of this quality of life ! The sensibility of pain va- 
 ries with the function of the part. The skin is endowed 
 with sensibility to every possible injurious impression 
 which may be made upon it ; but had this kind and de- 
 gree of sensibility been made universal, we should have 
 been racked with pain in the common motions of the 
 body ; the mere weight of one part on another, or the 
 motion of the joint, would have been attended with that 
 degree of suffering which we experience in using or 
 walking upon an inflamed limb. 
 
 " But, on the other hand, had the deeper parts pos- 
 sessed no sensibility, we should have had no guide in our 
 exertions. They have a sensibility limited to the kind 
 of injury which it is possible may reach them, and which 
 teaches us what we can do with impunity. If we leap 
 from too great a height, or carry too great a burden, or 
 attempt to interrupt a body whose impetus is too great 
 for us, we are warned of the danger as effectually by this 
 internal sensibility, as we are of the approach of a sharp 
 point, or a hot iron to the skin."* 
 
 To this striking pathological argument for benevolent 
 contrivance, might be added proofs without end, from the 
 principles of mechanics. The whole animal frame, in- 
 deed, is a piece of the most exquisite mechanism, and 
 the studies of the anatomist abound with demonstrations 
 of the most satisfactory kind. Not only do we find every 
 joint, bone, and sinew, of every species of animal, so 
 adapted to all the rest, and to the nature of its food and 
 habits, as to constitute a perfect system, considered in 
 itself, but when one species of living creatures is com- 
 pared with others, new kinds of relations and adaptations 
 are discovered, which greatly extend our views of crea- 
 tive contrivance, and increase our admiration. Sir 
 Charles Bell, in the work from which we have quoted, 
 
 * Bell's Bridgewater Treatise, pp. 155157. 
 
CONTRIVANCE. 15 
 
 has followed out this inquiry, as respects the human hand, 
 in a very interesting manner ; and we cannot better close 
 this paper, than by extracting a few sentences from a 
 passage where he follows out the principle on which he 
 so successfully expatiates. 
 
 "Were I to indulge in the admiration naturally aris- 
 ing out of this subject, and point out the strength and 
 freedom of motion in the upper extremity at the ball and 
 socket joint of the shoulder, the firmness of the artic- 
 ulation of the elbow, and yet how admirably it is suited 
 to the cooperation of the hands, the fineness of the mo- 
 tion of the hand itself, divided among the joints of twenty- 
 nine bones, it might be objected to with some show of 
 reason, and it might be said, The bones and the forms 
 of the joints which you are admiring, are so far from be- 
 ing peculiarly suited to the hand of man, that they may 
 be found in any vertebrated animal. But this would not 
 abate our admiration ; it would only induce us to take a 
 more comprehensive view of nature, and remind us that 
 our error was in looking at a part only, instead of em- 
 bracing the whole system ; where, by slight changes, and 
 gradations hardly perceptible, the same bones are adjust- 
 ed to every condition of animal existence. 
 
 " We recognise the bones which form the upper ex- 
 tremity of man, in the fin of a whale, in the paddle of 
 the turtle, in the wing of the bird. We see the same 
 bones, perfectly suited to their purpose, in the paw of 
 the lion or the bear, and equally fitted for motion in the 
 hoof of the horse, or in the foot of the camel, or adjusted 
 for climbing or digging, in the long-clawed feet of the 
 sloth or bear [beaver?]. ***** 
 
 "The wonder still is, that, whether we examine this 
 system in man, or in any of the inferior species of ani- 
 mals, nothing can be more curiously adjusted or appro- 
 priated ; and we should be inclined to say, whatever 
 instance occupied our thoughts for the time, that to this 
 particular object the system had been framed."* 
 
 * Bell's Bridgewater Treatise, pp. 2022. 
 
16 GLOBULAR FIGURE OF THE EARTH. 
 
 FIRST WEEK WEDNESDAY. 
 
 GLOBULAR FIGURE OF THE EARTH. 
 
 THE character which, in the two preceding papers, 
 we stated as belonging to the works of God, consisting, 
 as it does, not in absolute perfection, but rather in con- 
 trivances and compensations to abate imperfection, runs 
 through every thing in nature, and may be equally traced 
 in the moral and physical worlds. It may be useful and 
 interesting to examine this character in some of the great 
 arrangements of external nature. 
 
 That the universe should be governed by general laws 
 impressed on matter, is a providential arrangement, the 
 consummate wisdom of which it requires no effort of 
 reasoning to demonstrate ; and that these laws should 
 be fixed and undeviating, is a necessary consequence of 
 their existence ; for, were they to any great extent to 
 yield to circumstances, they would cease to possess the 
 character of principles, on the results of which it would 
 be possible either to reason or to act, that is, they would 
 cease to be general laws. Now, one of these general 
 laws, as simple in its nature, as it is universal in its opera- 
 tions, and amazing in its effects, is the principle of gravita- 
 tion, of which it has been beautifully said, 
 
 " The very law which moulds a tear, 
 
 And makes it trickle from its source, 
 That law preserves the earth a sphere, 
 And guides the planets in their course."* 
 
 The globular figure of the earth, which is the result 
 of this law, and which may easily be shown to possess 
 many important advantages, presents this formidable dif- 
 ficulty, that the rays of the sun, issuing in parallel lines 
 from that luminary, must fall directly upon that part of 
 the terrestrial ball which is immediately opposed to them, 
 
 Rogers. 
 
GLOBULAR FIGURE OF THE EARTH. 17 
 
 and obliquely, and therefore less powerfully, upon all 
 other parts of its convex surface, till, at the extremes of 
 the hemisphere, they would entirely cease to reach the 
 earth. Were the earth stationary, therefore, the con- 
 sequence of its globular form would be, that the sun 
 would shine intensely and constantly on a single spot, 
 while one-half of its surface would be left in total dark- 
 ness, and the other would be illuminated with greater or 
 less force, according to its distance from the sun's direct 
 rays. The disadvantages of such an arrangement need 
 no comment. Now, one way in which this evil is abated, 
 is, by what is called the diurnal rotation of the earth. 
 Our globe is made to whirl round as on two pivots, which 
 are called the poles* of the earth, once in twenty-four 
 hours. This, while it causes the grateful alternation of 
 day and night, conveys light and heat round the world, 
 so as to diffuse them with nearly equal force on every 
 spot within the same parallel of latitude. Were the 
 earth in the form of a cylinder or roller, this rotatory 
 motion would cause the sun, in the course of the annual 
 revolution, to shine equally on every part of its round 
 surface, while his rays would never reach the wide flat 
 regions at either end ; the days and nights would then be 
 invariably of the same length ; there would be no change 
 of climate, and all the habitable parts of the earth would 
 be one burning tropical region, without abatement and 
 without variety. If, on the other hand, the earth, in its 
 present form of a ball, were to have no yearly as well as 
 daily motion, or, having a yearly motion, were to move 
 round its own axis in what may be considered the most 
 simple manner, that is, in an erect position with reference 
 to the sun, the effect would be, that he would constantly 
 shine with his direct rays only on that single line of the 
 earth's surface which is called the equator. There would 
 still be no change of seasons, and the accumulated heat 
 in the equatorial regions would be so excessive, as to 
 destroy, in all probability, both animal and vegetable 
 
 * The extended line through the centre of the globe, on which it 
 turns, is called the axis of the earth, taking the metaphor from the axis 
 of a carriage wheel. 
 
 2* 
 
18 GLOBULAR FIGURE OF THE EARTH. 
 
 life ; while, in the neighborhood of the polar circle, and 
 even in a vast extent of those countries to which we 
 now give the name of temperate, the globe would be 
 uninhabitable, from the contrary cause of extreme and 
 uniform cold. 
 
 The contrivance, by which this inconvenience is, to 
 a desirable extent, removed, is well known. The earth, 
 which, in common with the other planets, performs an 
 annual revolution round the sun, is made to take this 
 course, not in an erect, but in an inclined position ; by 
 which means the pole, which leant toward the sun in one 
 part of the course, leans away from it in another. The 
 consequence of this is, that the sun, instead of shining 
 constantly with his direct rays upon the equator, appears 
 to be continually traversing a considerable space in the 
 heavens, shifting from tropic to tropic, and presenting 
 himself for one half of the year to the north, and for the 
 other half to the south of the equator. The various parts 
 of the earth's surface, within the tropics, are thus exposed 
 alternately to the direct and indirect rays of the sun at 
 different periods, and the position and influence of this 
 source of light and heat, is also varied over the whole 
 globe, or, in common language, the diversified appear- 
 ances of the seasons are produced. 
 
 This is a most beneficial arrangement ; but it is evident 
 that it could only be salutary within a certain range, for 
 this simple reason, that, were the sun to traverse from 
 pole to pole, it would necessarily happen, that, while he 
 was shining vertically on the south pole, the north would 
 be left to total darkness, and the tenfold rigors of a polar 
 winter ; and, vice versa, while he was pouring the un- 
 mitigated radiance of his burning rays on the regions of 
 the north, the south would be doomed to undergo the 
 extreme, which, a few months before, had carried desola- 
 tion to the north. The fatal consequences of this, need 
 not be described ; the whole balance of nature, at present 
 so nicely adjusted, would be upset, the elements would 
 be in constant and furious commotion, and no organized 
 existence, such, at least, as is at present to be found on 
 the earth, could survive the conflict ; or, if it did, could 
 
CIRCULATION IN THE ATMOSPHERE. 19 
 
 endure the violent changes of the seasons, for a single 
 year. 
 
 It would be by no means difficult to prove, that the 
 extent, to which the range of the sun is actually confined, 
 is precisely that, which manifests the most consummate 
 intelligence in the great Artificer. Had it been either 
 more or less than we actually find it, the same advantages 
 would not have been secured, other things remaining as 
 they are, nor would inconveniences have been so effect- 
 ually avoided. Evils, indeed, still remain ; it is part of 
 the system of a world of discipline that it should be so, 
 but the proof of Divine contrivance lies in this, that these 
 evils are at the minimum, [or lowest point,] while the 
 advantages, on the contrary, are at the maximum, [or 
 highest point ;] that is to say, that any alteration either 
 way would be for the worse. Here, then, we have, 
 what we are taught to look for by the general analogy of 
 nature, a proof of supreme wisdom in the adjustment 
 of materials, the adaptation of means with admirable 
 skill to a beneficent end. 
 
 FIRST WEEK THURSDAY. 
 
 CIRCULATION IN THE ATMOSPHERE AND OCEAN. 
 
 WE have mentioned the inclination of the earth's axis 
 to the plane of its annual orbit, as the cause of the variety 
 of seasons on its surface ; but there are other beneficial 
 arrangements which concur with, and are influenced by 
 this, and without which it would but imperfectly secure 
 what is obviously the main design of the Creator, namely, 
 the furnishing of an extensive and varied surface, fit for 
 the habitation of living creatures, and especially of man, 
 the only creature endowed with the higher attributes 
 of reason, and therefore a subject of moral discipline. 
 Among these arrangements we shall, in the present paper, 
 
20 CIRCULATION IN THE 
 
 only allude to the circulation established in the fluid ele- 
 ments which surround our globe. 
 
 The expansion of fluid substances by heat, and their 
 contraction, within certain bounds, by cold, is a univer- 
 sal law of Nature. Now, this law, has an obvious ten- 
 dency to create circulation. The fluid becoming lighter 
 by being expanded, and heavier when contracted, rises 
 towards the surface, or falls towards the bottom, in pro- 
 portion to the partial application of heat or cold, and thus 
 tends to diffuse an equable temperature through the 
 whole mass. But this principle has also another effect, 
 which we have more immediately in view. When the 
 fluid expands, it occupies a greater space, and must 
 therefore displace some of the mass with which it is sur- 
 rounded ; when it is contracted, the contrary effect fol- 
 lows, its diminished bulk is supplied by the rushing in 
 of the contiguous fluid. In either case, a current is cre- 
 ated. 
 
 In regarding the effects thus produced on the atmos- 
 phere, it is scarcely possible not to recognise the impress 
 of wisdom and goodness. It is to this cause, operating 
 on the combined air and vapor, that we owe alternate 
 clouds and sunshine, winds and calms, drought, moisture, 
 and rain, every thing, in short, that we call weather, 
 the changes of which are so essential to the fertility of 
 the earth and salubrity of the climate. But, in the midst 
 of these alternations, there is another and more exten- 
 sive operation constantly going on. The atmosphere, 
 heated and expanded at the equator, is continually flow- 
 ing in the upper regions towards the poles, where, being 
 cooled and contracted, it acquires a retrograde motion, 
 and flows back in a perpetual under-current towards the 
 equator. This, at least, is its general bias, happily modi- 
 fied, however, by various circumstances and disturbing 
 forces, which retard, divert, and mingle the opposing 
 currents ; and while they reduce the temperature of the 
 one, increase that of the other. This, then, is one of 
 those providential contrivances by which the fervid heat 
 of the torrid zone is alleviated, and the excessive rigor 
 of the polar regions is subdued, while the intervening 
 
ATMOSPHERE AND OCEAN. 21 
 
 temperate climates are rendered more salubrious, and the 
 wide extent of earth is prepared for the comfortable sus- 
 tenance of animal life. 
 
 A similar effect is produced by the movements of the 
 ocean. The expanded waters of the equatorial circle 
 rush towards the poles, carrying with them some of the 
 warmth of those burning regions, which they perpetually 
 pour into the atmosphere of the temperate and frigid di- 
 visions of the earth ; while the chilled and contracted 
 waters of the extreme north and south, throw back their 
 currents upon the tropics, and thus, in their turn, modify 
 the temperature in these latter climates. In our own 
 quarter of the globe, we observe this effect exemplified 
 in what is called the Gulf-stream of the Atlantic, which 
 is a perpetual current, occasioned partly by the law al- 
 ready alluded to, and partly by the form of the African 
 and American coasts, running from the northern shore 
 of South America, where the heat is at its maximum, 
 along the coast of the United States, sweeping across 
 from Newfoundland to the Icy Sea, enveloping the Brit- 
 ish islands, and thence returning along the shores of 
 France, Spain, and Africa, till it completes its circuit by 
 again reaching the southern continent of America and the 
 Western Indies. 
 
 "Great as the difference of temperature is,in different 
 climates," says Whewell, "it would be still greater if 
 there were not this equalizing and moderating power 
 exerted constantly over the whole surface. ' Without 
 this influence, it is probable that the two polar portions 
 of the earth, which are locked in perpetual snow and 
 ice, and almost destitute of life, would be much in- 
 creased." 
 
 It thus appears, that there is a constant circulation go- 
 ing on in the two great fluids of air and water, analogous 
 in some degree, to that of blood through the living body, 
 and productive of the most beneficial effects. The man- 
 ner in which these are attempered and combined is truly 
 wonderful, and has been the subject of philosophical in- 
 vestigation. In regard to the air, Mr. Whewell has 
 shown in what manner its composition and laws are ad- 
 
22 THE ATMOSPHERE. 
 
 justed, so as to correspond with, or to counteract and 
 regulate, the different and sometimes antagonist laws of 
 the vapor, which constantly circulates through it, and to 
 produce the most salutary effects. This is a question 
 on which I cannot fully enter ; but a few observations 
 on the subject of weather, with which it is connected, 
 will occupy our attention to-morrow. 
 
 FIRST WEEK FRIDAY. 
 
 THE ATMOSPHERE. 
 
 FROM the expansive power of the atmosphere, and the 
 irregular distribution of heat and cold, combined with 
 the inequalities on the earth's surface, arise those storms 
 and tempests which form one of the most forbidding fea- 
 tures in the aspect of Winter. This maybe regarded as 
 an evil; and it is not to be denied, that such elemental 
 commotions are sometimes attended with very disastrous 
 consequences. When the tremendous powers of nature 
 are in motion, indeed, we might well tremble and despair, 
 did we not know that they are under the guidance of In- 
 finite Perfection. In rare instances, at long .intervals, 
 and in limited spots, we are permitted to witness proofs 
 of the desolation which the uncontrolled elements might 
 produce, that by the contrast we may be more deeply 
 affected with a sense of the paternal care under which 
 we daily live. We have heard, of hurricanes and torna- 
 does sweeping whole districts with the besom of destruc- 
 tion, of the sirocco and simoom carrying instant death 
 on their poisoned wings, of mountain torrents and swel- 
 ling seas bursting their ancient boundaries, and bearing 
 wide desolation in their raging waters, of thunder rend- 
 ing the heavens, and bolts of fire scathing the earth, of 
 earthquakes swallowing up whole cities, or volcanoes 
 overwhelming them with floods of lava. But these are 
 
THE ATMOSPHERE. 23 
 
 only the infrequent exceptions to a general rule, which 
 has order and happiness for its object, teaching us at 
 once a lesson of humility and gratitude. 
 
 If we turn from this view of what might be the uni- 
 versal state of nature, to real events as they occur under 
 our own eye, and are the subject of daily experience, we 
 shall have abundant cause to acknowledge the presence 
 of an overruling hand. How seldom do we actually ob- 
 serve any extensive desolation produced by a winter 
 storm. " All the changes of the weather," Mr. Whewell 
 well observes, "even the most violent tempests and tor- 
 rents of rain, may be considered as oscillations about the 
 mean or average condition belonging to each place. All 
 these oscillations are limited and transient; the storm 
 spends its fury, the inundation passes off, the sky clears, 
 the calmer course of nature succeeds. In the forces 
 which produce this derangement, there is a provision for 
 making it short and moderate. The oscillation stops of 
 itself, like the rolling of a ship when no longer impelled 
 by the wind. Now, why should this be so ? Why 
 should the oscillations, produced by the conflict of so 
 many laws, seemingly quite unconnected with each other, 
 be of this converging and subsiding character ? Is it a 
 matter of mechanical necessity, that disturbance must 
 end in the restoration of the medium condition ? By no 
 means. There may be an utter subversion of the equi- 
 librium, the ship may roll too far, and may capsize. 
 The oscillations may go on, becoming larger and larger, 
 till all trace of the original condition is lost ; till new 
 forces of inequality and disturbance are brought into 
 play ; and disorder and irregularity may succeed, without 
 apparent limit or check in its own nature, like the spread 
 of a conflagration in a city. This is a possibility in any 
 combination of mechanical forces. Why does it not 
 happen in the one before us ? By what good fortune 
 are the powers of heat, of water, of steam, of air, the 
 effects of the earth's annual and diurnal motions, and 
 probably other causes, so adjusted, that, through all their 
 struggles, the elemental world goes on, upon the whole, 
 so quietly and steadily ? Why is the whole fabric of 
 
24 THE ATMOSPHERE. 
 
 the weather never utterly deranged, its balance lost irre- 
 coverably ?" 
 
 The complicated nature of the elements, which enter 
 into the constitution of the atmosphere, renders it diffi- 
 cult, perhaps impossible, to give a distinct answer to 
 these interesting questions, by pointing to the precise 
 law which regulates and controls these elements. Mr. 
 Whewell refers to the very peculiar adjustments which 
 were requisite, and are actually discoverable, in the com- 
 paratively simple problem of the solar system, by which 
 its motions have their cycles, and its perturbations their 
 limits and period ; and, from this analogy, he conjectures, 
 with much probability, that could the investigation be 
 followed out, it would land us in a similar result. How- 
 ever this may be, it cannot but be regarded as a mark 
 of the interference of an intelligent and beneficent mind, 
 that the intensity of those tremendous forces which are 
 employed in our atmosphere should be so adjusted, as 
 not only to preserve the permanence of the system, but 
 also to be adapted to the existence and comfort of the 
 animal creation. 
 
 In adverting to the general properties of that wonder- 
 ful fluid which envelopes our globe as with a mantle, the 
 distinguished philosopher from whom we have already 
 quoted, makes the beautiful observations, with which we 
 close this paper. 
 
 "If the atmosphere be considered as a vast machine, 
 it is difficult to form any just conception of the profound 
 skill and comprehensiveness of design which it displays. 
 It diffuses and tempers the heat of different climates ; 
 for this purpose it performs a circulation occupying the 
 whole range from the pole to the equator ; and, while it 
 is doing this, it executes many smaller circuits between 
 the sea and the land. At the same time, it is the means 
 of forming clouds and rain ; and, for this purpose, a per- 
 petual circulation of the watery part of the atmosphere 
 goes on between its lower and upper regions. Besides 
 this complication of circuits, it exercises a more irregular 
 agency in the occasional winds which blow from all 
 quarters, tending perpetually to restore the equilibrium 
 
IGNIS FATUUS. 25 
 
 of heat and moisture. But this incessant and multiplied 
 activity discharges only a part of the functions of the 
 air. It is, moreover, the most important and universal 
 material of the growth and sustenance of plants and ani- 
 mals ; and is, for this purpose, every where present, and 
 almost uniform in its quantity. With all its local motion, 
 it has also the office of a medium of communication 
 between intelligent creatures, which office it performs by 
 another set of motions, entirely different both from the 
 circulation and occasional movements already mentioned ; 
 these different kinds of motions not interfering materially 
 with each other ; and this last purpose, so remote from 
 the others in its nature, it answers in a manner so per- 
 fect and so easy, that we cannot imagine that the object 
 could have been more completely attained, if this had 
 been the sole purpose for which the atmosphere had 
 been created. With all these qualities, this extraordinary 
 part of our terrestrial system is scarcely ever in the way ; 
 and when we have occasion to do so, we put forth our 
 hand and push it aside, without being aware of its being 
 near us." 
 
 FIRST WEEK SATURDAY. 
 
 IGNIS FATUUS, OR WILDFIRE. 
 
 ONE of the curious atmospheric phenomena of winter, 
 the nature of which is not well understood, and still less 
 its use in the economy of Providence, is that shining 
 vapor which generally makes its appearance in moist 
 weather, in marshy ground, known to the Romans by 
 the name of ignis fatuus, and called, at this day, * Will-o 7 - 
 the-Wisp,' ' Jack- with- the-lantern,' and a variety of 
 other names, all of them indicating the superstitious feel- 
 ing with which it is associated in the minds of the vulgar. 
 This paper shall be chiefly occupied with some accounts 
 i. 3 vn. 
 
26 IGNIS FATUUS, 
 
 that have been published of the various appearances 
 which the phenomenon assumes. The first I shall quote, 
 is that of a writer in a public journal, who subscribes 
 himself 4 A Farmer,' and expresses himself with such 
 amusing simplicity, in describing some of the ordinary 
 vagaries of this reputed sprite, that the homeliness of 
 the style requires no apology. 
 
 " I was riding through a wet boggy part of the road, 
 that lies between my house and the mill, when a little 
 sleety shower, with a strong blast of wind, came sud- 
 denly upon rne, and made it so very dark, that I could 
 scarcely see my old mare's white head. I began to con- 
 sider with myself, whether it would be better to turn 
 my back to the storm, and wait till it was past, or take 
 my chance of letting my horse find its own way, when I 
 saw something bright, dancing in the air before me. You 
 may be sure I was startled a little at this ; for the rain 
 was pouring so fast, and the wind was blowing so strong, 
 that no ordinary fire could stand it ; so I whipt up my 
 horse to get out of the way as fast as I could ; but to go 
 fast was out of the question, with such an old mare, such 
 a bad road, and so heavy a burden ; and, besides, I soon 
 found that it served me in no stead, for the light still 
 kept waving before my eyes ; so I thought it would be 
 best to go slowly, and try if I could find out what it was. 
 
 "You may think how surprised I was, when I dis- 
 covered, that the top of my whiplash was all in a flame. 
 I had at first almost thrown it out of my hand in my 
 fright ; but, on second thoughts, I did not like to do that, 
 for fear of losing it, as it was nearly new, and a present 
 from my uncle John. I therefore whisked it about in 
 rny hand, and whipped my horse with it, thinking to make 
 the flame go out ; but, though it turned dim for a few 
 minutes, it soon became brighter than ever. Just at this 
 time, I heard the sound of a foot before me ; and, when 
 I looked, I saw very distinctly the marks of footsteps 
 all on fire, close beside me ; but it was so dark, I could 
 not see whether any person was there or not. Soon 
 afterward, I got upon better road, and my poor mare, 
 who was herself frightened, jogged faster on ; so I saw 
 
OR WILDFIRE. 27 
 
 no more of it. I am happy to tell you, that I got home 
 without a broken neck, and found all well there, which 
 was more than I expected ; for I verily believed it was 
 a dead light, or an elf candle, or some other bad omen."* 
 
 M. Boccari mentions, that a light of this kind ap- 
 peared to a gentleman of his acquaintance, as he was 
 travelling in the neighborhood of Bologna, in Italy, where 
 it is very common. It moved constantly before him for 
 about a mile, and gave a better light than a torch that 
 was carried by his servant. Sometimes it rose,and some- 
 times sunk, but hovered commonly about six feet from 
 the ground. Sometimes it appeared like waves, and, at 
 other times, seemed to drop sparks of fire. It was little 
 affected by the wind ; but, during a shower of rain, it 
 became brighter. 
 
 A very remarkable account of a will-o'-the-wisp, is given 
 by Dr. Shaw, in his Travels in the Holy Land. It ap- 
 peared in one of the valleys of Mount Ephraim, and at- 
 tended him and his company for more than an hour. 
 Sometimes it would seem globular, or in the shape of 
 the flame of a candle. At other times, it would spread 
 to such a degree as to involve the whole company in a 
 pale inoffensive light, then contract itself, and suddenly 
 disappear ; but, in less than a minute, would appear 
 again. Sometimes, running swiftly along, it would ex- 
 pand itself, at certain intervals, over more than two or 
 three acres of the adjacent mountains. The atmosphere, 
 from the beginning of the evening, had been remarkably 
 thick and hazy ; and the dew, as they felt it on the 
 bridles of their horses, was clammy and unctuous. 
 
 In the Appendix to Dr. Priestley's third volume of Ex- 
 periments and Observations on Air, M. Waltire gives an 
 account of some very remarkable ignes fatui which he 
 observed, about five miles from Birmingham, on the 12th 
 December, 1776, before daylight in the morning. A 
 great many of these lights were playing in a neighboring 
 field, in different directions ; from some of which, there 
 suddenly sprang up bright branches of light, something 
 
 * Dumfries Courier, 20th December, 1809. 
 
23 IGNIS FATUUS, 
 
 resembling the explosion of a rocket, that contained 
 many brilliant stars ; and the hedge, with the trees on 
 each side of the hedge, was illuminated. This appear- 
 ance continued but a few seconds, and then the will- 
 o'-the-wisps played as before. M. Waltire was not near 
 enough to observe if the apparent explosions were attend- 
 ed by any report. 
 
 From these and other facts which have been recorded, 
 and indeed from the familiar occurrences of the winter 
 months, it appears, that the ignis fatuus belongs to a class 
 of phenomena which prove that light and heat, though so 
 intimately connected, may exist separately ; or, to speak 
 more correctly, that the peculiar substance, whatever it 
 may be, in which these qualities inhere, contains some- 
 times the one in a latent state, and sometimes the other. 
 This, is only another remarkable property of that most 
 wonderful substance which seems to pervade universal 
 nature, and to combine the various phenomena of elec- 
 tricity, of galvanism, and probably also of magnetism, along 
 with those of light and heat, sometimes in a quiescent, 
 and sometimes in a highly active state. 
 
 The phenomena of light without heat, are not so fre- 
 quently the subject of observation as those of heat with- 
 out light ; but various wellknown, and indeed familiar, 
 instances of the latter do occur. Of this kind is the 
 light of the glowworm ; of fire-flies ; of the Medusa tribe, 
 which are diffused so plentifully over the surface of the 
 sea, in tropical regions ; of other marine productions ; of 
 the scales of fish ; and of animal and vegetable substances 
 in the process of putrefaction. Nor must we forget the 
 beams of the moon, which, so far from exhibiting the 
 presence of heat, are even said by some to be slightly 
 chilling. 
 
 An attempt, more ingenious, I think, than successful, 
 has been made to connect the light of the ignis fatuus 
 with the phenomena of falling stars, which may be shortly 
 stated. It is supposed, that some phosphoric fluid, aris- 
 ing from the decomposition of animal or vegetable sub- 
 stances, passes into the atmosphere, and continues to 
 float there, without mixing with the atmosphere itself; 
 
OR WILDFIRE. 29 
 
 that this fluid, when it appears in the form of a will-o'-the- 
 wisp, becomes ignited, by some means, near the surface 
 of the earth, at a certain point ; and that this ignition 
 communicates itself successively to other portions of the 
 same fluid, with which it comes in contact, occasioning 
 that apparently capricious flitting from place to place, 
 for which this meteor is remarkable; and, it is further 
 supposed, that other portions of a similar fluid pass, un- 
 illuminated, to the higher regions of the air, in a con- 
 tinued column, till they ascend above the region of the 
 clouds, where, from some chemical cause, the upper part 
 of the column takes fire, and the ignition is carried back- 
 ward to the portions with which it is in connexion. 
 Such is the hypothesis ; and it might certainly account 
 for some of the appearances ; but it is quite inadequate 
 to the explanation of others ; and, as to the phenomena 
 of falling stars, recent discoveries have suggested views 
 on that subject, of a nature far more extensive and sub- 
 lime. 
 
 In the next paper for Monday, I shall advert more 
 particularly to some phosphorescent appearances which 
 seem to resemble those of the ignis fatum, and which 
 may perhaps ultimately assist in discovering the natural 
 cause of the phenomenon ; and in the mean time, with- 
 out attempting to explain it, I shall merely say, that, what- 
 ever may be its own sphere of utility, there can be no doubt 
 it is connected with a principle which abundantly exhibits 
 the perfections of the great Creator. 
 
 We conclude this account with a beautiful description 
 of these appearances, extracted from the c British Geor- 
 gics,' a work of the amiable author of ' The Sabbath.' 
 
 ** Sometimes November nights are thick hedimmed 
 With hazy vapors floating o'er the ground, 
 Or veiling from the view the starry host ; 
 At such a time, on plashy mead or fen 
 A faintish light is seen, by southern swains 
 Called Will-o'-Wisp ; sometimes from rushy bush 
 To bush it leaps, or, cross a little rill, 
 Dances from side to side in winding race. 
 Sometimes with stationary blaze it gilds 
 The heifer's horns ; or plays upon the mane 
 
 3* 
 
30 GENERAL ASPECT OF WINTER. 
 
 Of farmer's horse returning from the fair, 
 And lights him on his way, yet often proves 
 A treacherous guide, misleading from the path 
 To faithless bogs, and solid seeming ways. 
 Sometimes it haunts the churchyard, up and down 
 The tombstones' spiky rail streaming, it shows 
 Faint glimpses of the rustic sculptor's art, 
 Time's scythe and hour-glass, and the grinning skull 
 And bones transverse, which, at an hour like this, 
 To him, who passing, casts athwart the wall 
 A fearful glance, speak with a warning knell." 
 
 SECOND WEEK SUNDAY. 
 
 GENERAL ASPECT OP WINTER. 
 
 THE general aspect of winter is forbidding. It is the 
 night of the year ; the period when, under a mitigated 
 light, nature reposes, after the active exertions of spring 
 and summer have been crowned with the rich stores of 
 autumn. We now no longer survey with admiration 
 and delight those wonders of creative power, which ar- 
 rested our attention, in that youthful season when herbs, 
 plants, and trees awoke from their long sleep and started 
 into new life, under the kindly influences of warmer suns 
 and gentler breezes ; and when the feathered tribes made 
 the fresh-clothed woods and lawns, and the blue sky it- 
 self, vocal with the music of love and joy. Nor do we 
 now expatiate in the maturer beauties of summer, when 
 light and heat flushed the glowing heavens and smiling 
 earth, and when the clouds distilled their grateful show- 
 ers, or tempered the intense radiance by their flitting 
 shade. And mellow autumn, too, has passed away, along 
 with the merry song of the reapers, and the hum of busy 
 men, gathering their stores from the teeming fields. 
 
 Instead of these genial influences of heaven, our length- 
 ening nights, and our days, becoming perpetually darker 
 and shorter, shed their gloom over the face of nature ; 
 
GENERAL ASPECT OF WINTER. 31 
 
 the earth grows niggardly of her supplies of nourishment 
 and shelter, and no longer spreads beneath the tenants 
 of the field the soft green carpet on which they were ac- 
 customed to repose ; man seeks .his artificial comforts 
 and his hoarded food ; the wind whistles ominously 
 through the naked trees ; the dark clouds lower ; the 
 chilling rain descends in torrents ; and, as the season 
 advances, the earth becomes rigid, as if struck by the 
 wand of an enchanter ; the waters, spell-bound, lie mo- 
 tionless in crystal chains ; the north pours forth its blast, 
 and nature is entombed in a vast cemetery, whiter and 
 colder than Parian marble. 
 
 Yet, even in this apparently frightful and inhospitable 
 season, there are means of pleasure and improvement, 
 which render it scarcely inferior to any other period of 
 the revolving year ; while proofs of the power, wisdom, 
 and goodness of the great Creator are not less abundantly 
 displayed to the mind of the pious inquirer. With re- 
 ference to the angry passions of the human race, it is said 
 that God causes " the wrath of man to praise him," and 
 restrains " the remainder of wrath ;" and a similar remark 
 applies, with a truth equally striking, to the troubled ele- 
 ments. The Almighty sets bounds to the raging ocean, 
 saying, " Hitherto shalt thou come, and no further, and 
 here shall thy proud waves be stayed." He regulates 
 by his wisdom the intensity of the tempest, "staying his 
 rough wind in the day of the east wind." All the active 
 powers of nature are his messengers : u Fire and hail, 
 snow and vapor," as well as "stormy winds, fulfil his 
 word. " Nothing, indeed, can be more worthy of admira- 
 tion than the manner in which the rigors of winter are 
 tempered, so as to contribute to the subsistence and com- 
 fort of living beings. 
 
 It is true that, even in the ordinary occurrences of 
 life, there are, in winter, probably more distressing and 
 fatal incidents than during the other quarters of the year. 
 A snow-storm may sometimes overwhelm a shepherd 
 and his flock ; a tempest may cause a gallant vessel and 
 its crew to perish ; a fire may lay a village in ashes ; 
 disease, attendant on exposure to a rigorous climate, may 
 
32 GENERAL ASPECT OF WINTER. 
 
 invade the unwholesome and comfortless huts of the poor ; 
 or, in a season when the wages of agricultural labor cease 
 along with the power of working in the open air, famine 
 may emaciate and destroy whole families ; but such events 
 as these, melancholy as they are, must be ranked among 
 the common evils of life, and belong to a class, marking 
 a peculiar feature in the government of this world, to 
 which I have previously adverted, and which can never 
 be far from the mind of the accurate observer of nature. 
 At present, let us take a rapid glance at the other side of 
 the picture, and we shall see enough to prove, that, even 
 in these gloomy months, the paternal care of an all-wise 
 and beneficent Governor is not less conspicuous than in 
 other periods of the year. 
 
 If we look at the lower animals, how wonderful are 
 the kind provisions of Providence. Among the numer- 
 ous tribes of insects, reptiles, birds, and quadrupeds, 
 there appears to be a general presentiment of the coming 
 desolation. Some, impelled by a wonderful instinct, 
 provide for themselves comfortable retreats, each tribe 
 adapting its accommodation to its peculiar circumstances, 
 burrowing in the earth, or boring beneath the bark of 
 trees and shrubs, or penetrating into their natural hol- 
 lows, or lodging in crevices of walls and rocks, or diving 
 beneath the surface of the water, and lying immovable 
 at the bottom of pools, lakes, or marshy streams. Here 
 they are preserved during this barren period, either by 
 feeding on the stores, which, with a foresight not their 
 own, they had collected in the bountiful weeks of harvest, 
 or by falling into a deep sleep, during which, they become 
 unassailable either by the attacks of cold or of hunger, 
 or by issuing daily or nightly from their resting places, 
 and gathering the food which a providential care has re- 
 served for them, and taught them how to seek. Others, 
 chiefly belonging to the winged tribes, are taught to mi- 
 grate, as the rigors of winter approach, to more genial 
 climates, where abundant food and enjoyment are pro- 
 vided for them, and where they are thus permitted to 
 expatiate in all the advantages of a perpetual, yet varied 
 summer ; while these again have their places supplied 
 
PHOSPHORESCENCE. 33 
 
 by hardier species of the feathered family, which the 
 gathering storms of more northern regions had warned 
 to leave their summer haunts. 
 
 If from the inferior animal creation, we turn to man, 
 the same traces of a paternal hand are seen in providing 
 against, or compensating for, the privations of winter. 
 If our natural instincts and defences are not so numerous 
 as those of the brutes, reason and foresight amply supply 
 their place. Influenced by these, we build comfortable 
 houses, of materials which are every where to be found, 
 and collect supplies of fuel from bogs and forests, or dig 
 them out of the bowels of the earth, where they are laid 
 up as in storehouses ; and we rear flocks and herds to 
 furnish us with the means of food and clothing. Mean- 
 while, necessary industry occupies and cheers the dreary 
 season ; and books or social intercourse improve and 
 exhilarate the mind. 
 
 All these proofs of paternal care deserve and will ob- 
 tain a separate consideration ; but the simple mention of 
 them, is calculated to call forth sentiments of pious ad- 
 miration and gratitude. " Who knoweth not in all these, 
 that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this." 
 
 SECOND WEEK MONDAY. 
 
 PHOSPHORESCENCE. 
 
 THE meteor known by the name of ignis fatuus, is 
 connected, as I observed in the paper of Saturday, with 
 some other luminous appearances, by this common pro- 
 perty, that it gives out no sensible heat. Among other 
 animals which possess the property of shining with a cold 
 light, I mentioned the Medusa class, which sometimes 
 illuminate the whole surface of the sea, and, in a dark 
 night, show like a stream of liquid fire in the wake of a 
 ship. But, besides these, there is a great variety of the 
 
34 PHOSPHORESCENCE. 
 
 inhabitants of the ocean, which have it in their power to 
 emit a kind of phosphoric light from their bodies at 
 pleasure ; and this remarkable property is probably given 
 them by the Creator, to enable them to pursue their prey 
 in the dark abysses of the sea, where the beams of the 
 sun cannot penetrate. Among shoals of herrings and 
 pilchards, flashes of light have been frequently observed 
 to dart, so as to cast a sudden brilliancy across the whole ; 
 and oyster-shells, as well as a variety of minerals, have 
 become phosphorescent at certain temperatures. These 
 appearances have been attributed to electricity, which is 
 rendered probable by various circumstances, and seems 
 to be confirmed by the fact, that the electric shock causes 
 substances of the kind last mentioned, to exhibit the 
 same luminous appearance. However this may be, there 
 can be no doubt, that the presence of the electric fluid 
 is not unfrequently shown by the production of a harm- 
 less light, similar to that of the ignis fatuus. Sailors 
 are not unacquainted with this phenomenon, which they 
 regard with awe, and which is seen at night in the form 
 of a star, illuminating the topmasts and yard-arms, or 
 gliding along the ropes of ships. This light, the ancients 
 superstitiously distinguished by the name of Castor and 
 Pollux^ considering it a lucky omen. Mrs. Somerville 
 mentions, that, in 1831, the French officers at Algiers 
 were surprised to see brushes of light on the heads of 
 their comrades, and at the points of their fingers, when 
 they held up their hands. 
 
 One of the most striking appearances of this kind, which 
 occurred at sea, is thus graphically described by the 
 talented authoress above alluded to : 
 
 " Captain Bonnycastle, coming up the Gulf of St. 
 Lawrence, on the 7th September, 1826, was roused by 
 the mate of the vessel, in great alarm from an unusual 
 appearance. It was a starlight night, when suddenly 
 the sky became overcast, in the direction of the high land 
 of Cornwallis county, and an instantaneous and intensely 
 vivid light, resembling the Aurora, shot out of the hitherto 
 gloomy and dark sea, on the lee-bow, which w r as so bril- 
 liant, that it lighted every thing distinctly, even to the 
 
PHOSPHORESCENCE. 35 
 
 mast-head. The light spread over the whole sea, be- 
 tween the two shores ; and the waves, which before had 
 been tranquil, now began to be agitated. Captain Bonny- 
 castle describes the scene as that of a blazing sheet of 
 awful and most brilliant light. A long and vivid line of 
 light, superior in brightness to the parts of the sea not 
 immediately near the vessel, showed the base of the high, 
 frowning, and dark land, abreast. The sky became 
 lowering, and more intensely obscure. Long tortuous 
 lines of light showed immense numbers of very large fish, 
 darting about, as if in consternation. The spritsail-yard 
 and mizzen-boom were lighted by the reflection, as if gas- 
 lights had been burning directly below them ; and, until 
 just before daybreak, at four o'clock, the most minute 
 objects were distinctly visible. Day broke very slowly, 
 and the sun rose of a fiery and threatening aspect. Rain 
 followed. Captain Bonnycastle caused a bucket of this 
 fiery water to be drawn up : it was one mass of light, 
 when stirred by the hand, and not in sparks, as usual, but 
 in actual coruscations. A portion of the water preserved 
 its luminosity for seven nights. On the third night, the 
 scintillations of the sea reappeared ; this evening, the 
 sun went down very singularly, exhibiting in its descent 
 a double sun ; and, when only a few degrees high, its 
 spherical figure changed into that of a long cylinder, which 
 reached the horizon. In the night, the sea became 
 nearly as luminous as before ; but, on the fifth night, 
 the appearance entirely ceased. Captain Bonnycastle 
 does not think it proceeded from animalcula, but imagines 
 it might be some compound of phosphorus, suddenly 
 evolved, and dispersed over the surface of the sea ; per- 
 haps from the exuvi* or secretions of fish connected 
 with the oceanic salts muriate of soda, and sulphate 
 of magnesia."* 
 
 Such, are some of the facts connected with what has 
 been called phosphorescence. I shall make no attempt 
 to theorize on the subject. When science is further ad- 
 vanced, it may probably be found, that phosphorescence, 
 
 * ' Connexion of the Physical Sciences,' 303, 304. 
 
36 AURORA BOREALIS, 
 
 the ignis fatuus, and other innoxious illuminating sub- 
 stances, depend on some common property, which may 
 serve to illustrate the mysterious subject of light and 
 heat, and thus afford a further view of the laws by which 
 the Creator regulates the material world. 
 
 SECOND WEEK TUESDAY. 
 
 AURORA BOREAHS, OR NORTHERN LIGHTS. 
 
 THE Aurora Borealis is a phenomenon probably elec- 
 trical, connected in some way with the magnetic poles, 
 which sometimes beautifully illuminates our northern 
 sky during the autumnal and winter months. Its use in 
 the system of Nature has not been distinctly ascertained, 
 though various conjectures have been formed. Dr. Hal- 
 ley supposed, that the earth was hollow, having within it a 
 magnetical sphere, which corresponded in virtue with all 
 the magnets on the surface ; and that the aurora was the 
 magnetic effluvia rendered by some means visible, and 
 passing through or beyond the atmosphere from the north 
 pole of the central magnet to that of the south. Boccaria 
 adopts a similar idea, but attributes the phenomenon to 
 the electric instead of the magnetic fluid, which, indeed, 
 is now proved to be the same thing. The fallacy of this 
 opinion has, however, been since shown by the fact, that 
 the fluid, whatever it is, darts upward toward the zenith 
 in the southern as well as in the northern hemisphere, 
 whereas, were there a circulation such as has been con- 
 jectured, the course of the fluid would in the south have 
 been reversed, descending from the zenith to the horizon. 
 The supposition of Dr. Faraday, therefore, is, that the 
 electric equilibrium of the earth is restored by the aurora 
 conveying the electricity from the poles to the equator. 
 
 Without attempting to settle a point with regard to 
 which sufficient data have not been collected, I shall 
 
OR NORTHERN LIGHTS. 37 
 
 content myself with describing some of the remarkable 
 appearances of this very curious and interesting phe- 
 nomenon. 
 
 One circumstance worthy of notice has already been 
 stated, namely, that the aurora bears some reference, not 
 to the poles of the earth's rotation, but to what have been 
 called the magnetic poles. It often forms a kind of 
 stationary luminous arch, of which the magnetic pole is 
 the centre, and across this arch the coruscations are 
 rapid, sudden, and frequently of various colors. Its his- 
 tory is curious, no very distinct account having been 
 recorded of its appearance in the classic ages of the 
 world, though we do hear of strange signs in the sky 
 which seem to refer to some celestial phenomena of a 
 similar nature. [M. de Mairan, in a work on this sub- 
 ject, published in the year 1754, gives a table of all the 
 recorded Aurora from A. D. 583 to 1751 ; in which 
 are numbered 1441 instances, 972 of which were ob- 
 served in the winter half of the year, and 469 in the sum- 
 mer half.] Since the beginning of the eighteenth century, 
 these appearances have been frequent but capricious, 
 there being intervals of several years, during which they 
 have been either intermitted altogether, or have been of 
 such a nature as to attract little observation. 
 
 In the northern regions, the aurora appears with the 
 greatest brilliancy ; but it does not seem that the in- 
 tenseness increases, as might be expected, in proportion 
 to the nearness of approach to the magnetic pole. In 
 the Shetland Islands, it cheers the winter nights almost 
 constantly during clear weather. Its phenomena are 
 there called the merry dancers, and are thus described ; 
 " They commonly appear at twilight, near the horizon, 
 of a dun color, approaching to yellow ; sometimes con- 
 tinuing in that state for several hours, without any sen- 
 sible motion ; after which, they break out into streams 
 of stronger light, spreading into columns, and altering 
 slowly into ten thousand different shapes, varying their 
 colors from all the tints of yellow to the obscurest rus- 
 set. They often cover the' whole hemisphere, and then 
 make the most brilliant appearance. Their motions, at 
 I. 4 vn. 
 
38 AURORA BOREALIS, 
 
 these times, are amazingly quick, and they astonish the 
 spectator with the rapid change of their form. They 
 often put on the color of blood, and make a most dread- 
 ful appearance."* 
 
 The Aurora is said, in the colder latitudes, to be at- 
 tended with a peculiar hissing noise. Gmelin mentions 
 this very distinctly and positively in the interesting ac- 
 count which he gives of it, as it appears in Siberia. 
 "These northern lights," says he, "begin with single 
 bright pillars, rising in the north, and almost at the same 
 time in the northeast, which, gradually increasing, com- 
 prehend a large space of the heavens, rush about from 
 place to place, with incredible velocity, and finally al- 
 most, cover the whole sky, up to the zenith. The streams 
 are then seen meeting together in the zenith, and produce 
 an appearance as if a vast tent was expanded in the heav- 
 ens, glittering with gold, rubies, and sapphires. A more 
 beautiful spectacle cannot be painted ; but, whoever 
 should see such a northern light, for the first time, could 
 not behold it without terror ; for, however fine the illu- 
 mination may be, it is attended, as I have learned from 
 the relation of many persons, with such a hissing, crack- 
 ling, and rushing noise throughout the air, as if the largest 
 fireworks were playing off. To describe what they then 
 hear, they make use of the expression spolochi chodjat ; 
 that is, the raging host is passing. The hunters who 
 pursue the white and blue foxes, in the confines of the 
 Icy Sea, are often overtaken in their course by these 
 northern lights. Their dogs are then so much frightened, 
 that they will not move, but lie obstinately on the ground 
 till the noise has passed. Commonly clear and calm 
 weather follows this kind of northern lights. I have 
 heard this account, riot from one person only, but con- 
 firmed by the uniform testimony of many, who have 
 spent part of several years in these very northern regions, 
 and inhabited different countries, from the Yenesei to 
 the Lena ; so that no doubt of its truth can remain." 
 
 In Captain Franklin's narrative of his journey to the 
 
 * Encyclopedia Britannica, Article Aurora Borealis. 
 
OR NORTHERN LIGHTS. 39 
 
 Polar Sea, there are some scientific observations on the 
 phenomena of the Aurora, which throw considerable 
 light on this curious and interesting subject. The me- 
 teor is usually conceived to have its place very high 
 above the earth ; but exceedingly different elevations 
 have been assigned to it by different philosophers. Euler 
 supposed it to be some thousands of miles distant, others 
 have fixed its place at a few hundred miles, and others 
 again much lower. The diffused nature of the appear- 
 ance in this country, renders it difficult to make any ac- 
 curate observation on the subject ; but if the Aurora 
 should continue occasionally to assume the form of a 
 movable luminous arch, gliding slowly in a well-defined 
 continuous body towards the zenith, as it has lately done 
 in several instances and in different seasons, observa- 
 tions taken from various stations might settle the point. 
 Be this as it may, and however high the northern lights 
 may actually rise in this comparatively southern latitude, 
 it seems to be ascertained by Captain Franklin and his 
 companions, that, in the higher latitudes of North Amer- 
 ica, and still nearer the Pole, the region of the Aurora 
 is not many miles above the earth. They discovered, 
 by actual observation, that, in several instances, it did 
 not rise higher than six or seven miles ; and both there 
 and in Siberia, it would seem to be often much lower 
 even than this. The same kind of appearances, as are de- 
 scribed by Gmelin, above quoted, appear sometimes to 
 occur on the other side of the Atlantic. These, howev- 
 er, are not frequent ; and the more usual phenomena 
 partake much of the nature of the following, which I 
 quote from Mr. Richardson's interesting observations on 
 this meteor : 
 
 " When the Aurora had exhibited itself in this form 
 for a considerable space of time, the whole mass of light 
 suddenly appeared in motion, and, sweeping round on 
 each side, was gathered together to the southward of the ze- 
 nith. Immediately thereafter, a large portion of it was seen 
 in the southeast, assuming an exact resemblance to a cur- 
 tain suspended in a circular form in the air, and hanging 
 perpendicularly to the earth's surface. The lower edge 
 
40 METEORIC SHOWERS. 
 
 of this curtain was very luminous, and had a waving mo- 
 tion; and the illusion was farther heightened by the momen- 
 tary appearance of perpendicular dark lines or breaks in the 
 light, in rapid succession round the circle, exactly as the 
 waving of a curtain would cause the dark shades of its 
 folds to move along it. This beautiful curtain of light was 
 about forty degrees high, and of a pale yellowish color, 
 and sent forth on the one side a process which approached 
 the southeast-by-east point of the horizon, and the other 
 was connected with a long regular arch, terminating in the 
 northwest horizon, similarly constructed, and having the 
 same waving motion with the curtain itself. All this time 
 the sky was perfectly clear, except in the southern quar- 
 ter, which, to the height of four or five degrees, was 
 occupied by dark clouds, apparently intermediate between 
 stratus and cirro-stratus. 
 
 u Half an hour after its first appearance, this curtain- 
 formed Aurora was resolved into a number of detached 
 irregular portions, which sometimes increased rapidly in 
 every direction, until they met with other masses, either 
 before existing, or appearing at the instant, and formed 
 a uniform sheet of light, which covered the whole sky. 
 The formation of this great sheet of light was so rapid, 
 that the eye could only trace its progress partially, and 
 its dissolution and reappearance were equally sudden."* 
 
 SECOND WEEK WEDNESDAY. 
 
 METEORIC SHOWERS. 
 
 I HAVE now to mention another celestial phenomenon 
 of a very singular nature, connected with two days in 
 the present week, which has lately attracted the atten- 
 tion of the scientific world. The following account of 
 
 * Franklin's Narrative, p.621. 
 
METEORIC SHOWERS. 41 
 
 it I extract from Mrs. Somerville's ' Connexion of the 
 Physical Sciences.' 
 
 " On the morning of the 12th of November, 1799, 
 thousands of shooting stars, mixed with large meteors, 
 illuminated the heavens for many hours, over the whole 
 continent of America, from Brazil to Labrador ; they 
 extended to Greenland, and even Germany. Meteoric 
 showers were seen off the coast of Spain, and in the Ohio 
 country, on the morning of 13th November, 1831 ; and 
 during many hours on the morning of 13th November, 
 1832, prodigious multitudes of shooting stars and meteors 
 fell at Mocha, on the Red Sea, in the Atlantic, in Swit- 
 zerland, and at many places in England. But by much 
 the most splendid meteoric shower on record, began at 
 9 o'clock in the evening of 12th November, 1833, and 
 lasted till sunrise next morning.* It extended from 
 Niagara and the northern lakes of America, to the south 
 of Jamaica, and from sixty-one degrees of longitude in 
 the Atlantic, to one hundred degrees of longitude in Cen- 
 tral Mexico. Shooting stars and meteors, of the appa- 
 rent size of Jupiter, Venus, and even the full moon, 
 darted in myriads toward the horizon, as if all the stars 
 in the heavens had started from their spheres. They 
 are described as having been as frequent as flakes of 
 snow in a snow-storm, and to have been seen with equal 
 brilliancy over the greater part of the continent of North 
 America. 
 
 u Those who witnessed this grand spectacle, were sur- 
 prised to see that every one of the luminous bodies, with- 
 out exception, moved in lines, which converged in one 
 point in the heavens ; none of them started from that 
 point ; but their paths, when traced backwards, met in it, 
 like rays in a focus, and the measure of their fall showed 
 that they descended from it in nearly parallel straight 
 lines towards the earth. 
 
 * The French Academy of Sciences have taken an interest in the 
 discussion to which this phenomenon has given rise, and it appears, 
 from the recent communication of M. L. Ekberte, that the meteoric 
 shower of 13th November, 1832, extended even to the Mauritius, where 
 it is said to have been seen at the same period, and with the same ap- 
 pearances, as in other parts of the world. 
 4* 
 
42 METEORIC SHOWERS. 
 
 4 'By far the most extraordinary part of the whole 
 phenomenon is, that this radiant point was observed to 
 remain stationary near the star y Leonis,* for more than 
 two hours and a half, which proved the source of the 
 meteoric shower to be altogether independent of the 
 earth's rotation, and its parallax showed it to be far 
 above the atmosphere. 
 
 u As a body could not be actually at rest in that posi- 
 tion, the group must either have been moving round the 
 earth or the sun. Had it been moving round the earth, 
 the course of the meteors would have been tangential to 
 its surface, whereas they fell almost perpendicularly, so 
 that the earth, in its annual revolution, must have met 
 with the group. The bodies that were nearest, must 
 have been attracted towards the earth by its gravity ; and 
 as they were estimated to move at the rate of fourteen 
 miles in a second, they must have taken fire on entering 
 our atmosphere, and have been consumed in their pas- 
 sage through it. 
 
 " As all the circumstances of the phenomenon were 
 similar, on the same day, and during the same hours, in 
 1832, and as extraordinary flights of shooting stars were 
 seen at many places, both in Europe and America, on 
 13th November, 1834, tending also from a fixed point in 
 the constellation Leo, it has been conjectured, with much 
 apparent probability, that this group of bodies performs 
 its revolution round the sun in a period of about 182 
 days, in an elliptical orbit, whose major axis is 119,000, 
 000 of miles ; and that its aphelion distance, where it 
 comes in contact with the earth's atmosphere, is about 
 95,000,000 of miles, or nearly the same with the mean 
 distance of the earth from the sun." 
 
 These views correspond with those of the most cele- 
 brated living astronomers. M. Arago, from the facts 
 mentioned, concludes that u a new planetary world is about 
 to be revealed to us ;" and, at all events, there does seem 
 
 *[ That is, the star designated by the letter Gamma in the constella- 
 tion Leo. Gamma is the third letter of the Greek alphabet, and is 
 used by astronomers to denote those stars which are third in magni- 
 tude in their respective constellations. AM. ED.] 
 
METEORIC SHOWERS. 43 
 
 to be a stream of innumerable bodies, comparatively 
 small, but of various dimensions, moving constantly round 
 the sun, whose orbit cuts that of our earth, at the point 
 which it occupies on the 12th or 13th of November, 
 every year.* For any thing that we can tell, indeed, there 
 may be vast numbers of bodies circling round the sun, and 
 even round the earth itself, which, on account of their 
 minuteness and opacity,escape human observation. Such 
 a supposition serves to explain the meteoric appearances 
 which are constantly occurring in the clear nights of 
 winter, and which might, perhaps, be not less common 
 in summer, were the operations in the upper regions 
 equally visible at that season. 
 
 Falling stars would seem to be nothing else than bodies 
 of this description, rendered visible from being ignited 
 by the rapidity of their passage through our atmosphere, 
 or by some chemical cause ; and meteoric stones, the fall 
 of which is much more frequent than is commonly sup- 
 posed, may be accounted for in the same way. Some 
 of the latter are of great magnitude, exceeding, in certain 
 instances, seventy miles in diameter. Mrs. Somerville 
 mentions one which passed within twenty-five miles of 
 us, and was estimated to weigh about 600,000 tons, and 
 to move with a velocity of about twenty miles in a sec- 
 ond. This huge mass was providentially prevented from 
 striking the earth, a detached fragment of it alone having 
 yielded to the force of our planet's gravitation. It is re- 
 markable, that the chemical composition of these mete- 
 oric stones, while it materially differs from that of the 
 
 *[ This conclusion must be regarded as much too hasty, considering 
 the great deficiency of successive accurate observations, and our yet 
 imperfect knowledge of meteoric phenomena. It seems to be now 
 conceded, that since the famous meteoric shower of November 13, 
 1833, there has been no larger number of meteors noted at that sea- 
 son, than on many other nights of the year. But the whole subject is an 
 exceedingly interesting one, and we may hope will receive farther elu- 
 cidation. It is proper to add, that the best account of the great "show- 
 er" of November, 1833, was given by Professor Olmsted of New Haven, 
 and published in Silliman's ' American Journal of Science and the Arts ;' 
 in which work there have since appeared several other papers on the 
 same subject. AM. ED.] 
 
44 VARIETY OF CLIMATES. 
 
 ordinary strata of our globe, is uniform and almost iden- 
 tical as regards themselves. 
 
 What part these mysterious bodies act in the system 
 of the universe, we cannot tell, perhaps we may never 
 be able even to conjecture ; but we may well learn from 
 the analogy of objects with which we are acquainted, 
 that even they are not useless appendages of our solar 
 system ; and, at all events, we are bound confidently to 
 believe that such bodies are as much under the control of 
 the Creator, as every other part of the creation, and can 
 never, independent of the Divine fiat, disturb the equi- 
 librium of our planet, or interfere with the happiness of 
 its inhabitants. It is the delightful result of religious 
 belief to be assured, that, however threatening may be 
 the aspect assumed by scientific discoveries, there is not 
 an object in nature left to the reckless sway of chance ; 
 that all things are adjusted with unerring wisdom, man- 
 aged by infinite power, and overruled for good with 
 paternal care. 
 
 SECOND WEEK THURSDAY. 
 
 VARIETY OP CLIMATES. 
 
 THE difference of climates arises, as I have already 
 observed, from the spherical figure and inclined position 
 of the earth, which turns a single ring on its surface to 
 the direct rays of the sun, oscillating between two defin- 
 ed limits, and subjects all the rest, more or less, to his 
 oblique, and therefore less powerful, influence. The ef- 
 fect of this is, the production of all the varieties of heat 
 and cold, from the fervid glow of the tropics, to the per- 
 petual ice and snow in the regions of the poles. The 
 adaptation of plants and animals to these diversities, forms 
 a most curious subject of consideration, which will be 
 afterwards examined with reference to the respective 
 
VARIETY OF CLIMATES. 45 
 
 seasons ; but as allusion has, in a preceding paper, been 
 made to the advantages derived from a variety of climates, 
 it may be useful here to pursue this subject a little fur- 
 ther. 
 
 It has been with truth observed, that the developement 
 of the human powers depends mainly upon our wants, 
 either natural or artificial, and these again are increased 
 or restrained in proportion to the means of indulgence, 
 so that the influence is reciprocal. We are naturally 
 indolent, but stand in need of activity, for giving vigor 
 both to our mental and physical powers. We, therefore, 
 require a strong stimulus to exertion ; and that stimulus 
 is to be found in our wants, a circumstance which has 
 given rise to the wellknown proverb, Necessity is the 
 mother of invention. 
 
 Were all the productions of the earth to be spontane- 
 ous and abundant, it may well be questioned if man would 
 ever rise above the level of the most degraded savage. 
 This observation is strikingly sustained and illustrated by 
 history, which informs us, that a prostration of all the 
 energies of body and rnind has been uniformly found 
 among the native inhabitants of tropical regions, where 
 nature is lavish of her stores, and that it is to the dwellers 
 in countries where the necessaries of life are more scan- 
 tily produced, that we are to look for a race, hardy, 
 vigorous, and intelligent. To what extent the direct 
 influence of an intense heat cooperates with the more 
 indirect cause we are now considering, in producing this 
 enervated state, it may be difficult to determine ; but that 
 it is not the only, or indeed the chief agent, cannot be 
 doubted. While the natives of regions where plenty 
 reigns, indulging their natural appetites without exertion 
 and without restraint, sink deeper and deeper in indolence 
 and effeminacy, those of less bountiful countries, finding 
 an increased population pressing hard on the means of 
 subsistence, are stimulated by their wants to vigorous 
 exertion, and from sheer necessity are rendered active, 
 ingenious, and enterprising. Among the first effects, 
 which history describes as produced by this difference 
 in character and circumstances, are the warlike irruptions 
 
46 VARIETY OF CLIMATES. 
 
 of the hardy tribes of the north on the luxuriant inhab- 
 itants of the south, accompanied by extensive conquests, 
 and ending in the permanent settlement of these nations 
 in the fertile regions, of which they took forcible posses- 
 sion. The stimulus which was thus given to the human 
 faculties, has frequently been permanent, and has produced 
 extensive, and eventually important, consequences on the 
 improvement of the species. 
 
 This, however, is mentioned only incidentally ; my ob- 
 ject, at present, being merely to show the salutary effect 
 of a limited and comparatively scanty supply of the ne- 
 cessaries of life, arising from what may, as regards pro- 
 duction, be considered an unfavorable climate. But this 
 remark has its limitations ; and I must not neglect to state, 
 that cold and consequent privation, when carried to an 
 extreme, have a depressing effect of a different kind. 
 The natives of Greenland, and the other countries bor- 
 dering on the Arctic circle, are not less degraded in the 
 scale of intellect than the Negro race in the torrid wilds 
 of Africa. It is in the regions within theTemperate zones, 
 that the mind of man, along with his bodily powers, 
 seems most freely and vigorously to expand. He is here 
 situated in regions not only peculiarly suited to his bodily 
 constitution, but to the developement of his moral and 
 intellectual faculties. The variety of climate, alternating 
 between moderate heat and mitigated cold, while it re- 
 quires attention to the comforts of clothing and habitation 
 in their adaption to the changes of the seasons, and thus 
 exercises his ingenuity, presses still more powerfully on 
 the resources of his mind, by the cessation, during a 
 considerable part of the year, of that supply of the ne- 
 cessaries of existence, which, at another season, is afforded 
 in comparative abundance. Under the influence of these 
 circumstances, man becomes, by a kind of moral and 
 physical necessity, a storing animal, and habits of fore- 
 thought, thus engendered, are strengthened and increased 
 by exercise, till the mercantile spirit is produced. 
 
 The same tendency is encouraged by the diversified 
 productions of different soils, of changing seasons, of 
 various elevations from the mountain to the valley, of 
 
VARIETY OF CLIMATES. 47 
 
 adjoining islands and continents, and even of more distant 
 regions. Placed in the middle, between the two extremes 
 of climate, the productions of the north and of the south 
 are equally within reach of the inhabitant of the temperate 
 zones ; and experience soon teaches him the enjoyment 
 and comfort of accumulating from both quarters. The 
 neighborhood of seas, lakes, and rivers, contributes much 
 to the fostering of this spirit, by affording facilities of 
 intercourse which could not otherwise be obtained ; and, 
 accordingly, we find that the early efforts of commercial 
 enterprise have been chiefly confined to such localities, 
 or at least, have derived their origin or their stimulus 
 from them. It is true, that the first traders of whom we 
 read, were among the descendants of Ishmael, a wander- 
 ing and active inland tribe ; but it was to the maritime 
 land of Egypt that they were directing their course for 
 conducting their petty traffic . The rise of the mercan- 
 tile spirit in Egypt is easily accounted for, on the prin- 
 ciples to which we have adverted. Situated on the 
 banks of the Nile, a navigable river, with the Red Sea 
 towards the south, and the broad Mediterranean towards 
 the north, it is no wonder that the Egyptians should have 
 been among the earliest and most successful merchants 
 of ancient times. A similar remark may apply to Tyre, 
 Sidon, and Carthage, where the mercantile spirit also 
 prevailed. And, indeed, it is impossible not to regard 
 the subsequent civilization of European nations, surround- 
 ed as they are by facilities for navigation, and situated 
 in a climate possessing all the properties we have de- 
 scribed, as the natural, or rather providential, result of 
 the same principles. 
 
 
48 EFFECT OF THE COMMERCIAL SPIRIT 
 
 SECOND WEEK FRIDAY. 
 
 PRACTICAL EFFECT OF THE COMMERCIAL SPIRIT PRODUCED 
 BY A VARIETY OF CLIMATES. 
 
 IT would be very interesting to trace the progress of a 
 mercantile spirit, arising from the wants of one climate, 
 and the superabundance of another ; but this is a specu- 
 lation which I cannot at present stop to pursue in its va- 
 rious bearings ; and I must confine myself to a rapid 
 view of the practical effects actually produced by it in 
 European countries. 
 
 The desire to possess, when once thoroughly awakened, 
 becomes insatiable ; and this, again, gives a proportionate 
 stimulus to the spirit of enterprise, which induces the 
 traveller to urge his discoveries, and the trader to com- 
 pass sea and land in the transport of produce from coun- 
 try to country ; while the artificer, the manufacturer, and 
 the agriculturist, each in his own department, exert their 
 industry, skill, and ingenuity, in turning to account the 
 knowledge and the materials which thus flow in upon 
 them. It is because neither the climate nor the soil of 
 any one country is naturally suited to the production of 
 all the luxuries and conveniences which man covets, 
 and because, even where these objects of desire might be 
 produced by human industry, they are not naturally to 
 be found, that the intercourse between distant countries 
 takes place, on which so much of the civilization of the 
 world depends. The ingenuity of man being thus stim- 
 ulated, produces the most surprising changes, and pro- 
 motes, in an astonishing degree, the means of human 
 subsistence and enjoyment. It is not merely that the 
 varied riches of other lands are imported, but that an 
 essential alteration is effected in the actual produce of 
 the soil. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact, noticed by Mr. Whewell, that 
 
PRODUCED BY A VARIETY OF CLIMATES. 49 
 
 where man is an active cultivator, he scarcely ever be- 
 stows much of his care on those vegetables which the 
 land would produce in a state of nature. He improves 
 the soil, he even improves the climate, by his skilful la- 
 bors, and he thus renders both fit for sustaining and 
 nourishing more useful plants. He, therefore, does not 
 generally select some of the natural productions, and 
 improve them by careful culture, but, for the most part, 
 he expels the native possessors of the land, and intro- 
 duces colonies of strangers. This remark he proceeds to 
 exemplify in the condition of his own country, England. 
 
 " Scarcely one of the plants," he says, " which oc- 
 cupy our fields and gardens, is indigenous to the coun- 
 try. The walnut and the peach come to us from Persia ; 
 the apricot from Armenia. From Asia Minor and Syria, 
 we have the cherry-tree, the fig, the pear, the pome- 
 granate, the olive, the plum, and the mulberry. The 
 vine which is now cultivated, is not a native of Europe ; 
 it is found wild on the shores of the Caspian, in Armenia, 
 and Caramania. The most useful species of plants, the 
 cereal vegetables, are certainly strangers, though their 
 birthplace seems to be an impenetrable secret. Some 
 have fancied that barley is found wild on the banks of the 
 Semara, in Tartary ; rye in Crete ; wheat at Baschkiros, 
 in Asia ; but this is held by the best botanists to be very 
 doubtful. The potato, which has been so widely dif- 
 fused over the world, in modern times, and has added so 
 much to the resources of life in many countries, has 
 been found equally difficult to trace back to its wild con- 
 dition."* 
 
 u ln our own country," Mr. Whewell goes on to 
 observe, " a higher state of the arts of life is marked by 
 a more ready and extensive adoption of foreign produc- 
 tions. Our fields are covered with herbs from Holland, 
 
 * Whewell's Bridgewater Treatise, p. 71. He observes in a note, 
 that it appears now to be ascertained that the edible potato is found wild 
 in the neighborhood of Valparaiso. [See a paper in the fifth volume 
 of the Transactions of the London Horticultural Society, on the Native 
 Country of the Wild Potato, by Joseph Sabine, Esq. This gentleman 
 cultivated with success some specimens sent to him from the locality 
 mentioned above. AM. ED.] 
 
 i. 5 vn. 
 
50 EFFECT OF THE COMMERCIAL SPIRIT 
 
 and roots from Germany ; with Flemish farming, and 
 Swedish turnips ; our hills with forests of the firs of Nor- 
 way. The chestnut and the poplar of the south of Eu- 
 rope adorn our lawns, and below them flourish shrubs 
 and flowers, from every clime, in profusion. In the 
 meantime, Arabia improves our horses, China our pigs, 
 North America our poultry, Spain our sheep, and almost 
 every country sends its dog. The products which are 
 ingredients in our luxuries, and which we cannot natu- 
 ralize at home, we raise in our colonies ; the cotton, coffee, 
 and sugar of the East, are thus transplanted to the fur- 
 thest West ; and man lives in the middle of a rich and 
 varied abundance, which depends on the facility with 
 which plants, and animals, and modes of culture can be 
 transferred into lands far removed from those in which 
 nature had placed them. And this plenty and variety 
 of material comforts, is the companion and the mark of 
 advantages and improvements in social life, of progress 
 in art and science, of activity of thought, of energy of 
 purpose, and of ascendency of character. 
 
 [Governor Everett, of Massachusetts, in one of his 
 eloquent Addresses, thus applies a similar train of remark 
 to the people of our United States who, it may be ob- 
 served, are supplied with the productions of various cli- 
 mates in a very considerable measure by their own coast- 
 ing trade, and internal communications. "As individuals," 
 he says, u differ in their capacities, countries differ in soil 
 and climate ; and this difference leads to infinite variety 
 of fabrics and productions, artificial and natural. Com- 
 merce perceives this diversity, and organizes a bound- 
 less system of exchanges, the object of which is to 
 supply the greatest possible amount of want and desire, 
 and to effect the widest possible diffusion of useful and 
 convenient products. The extent to which this exchange 
 of products is carried in highly-civilized countries, is 
 truly wonderful. There are probably few individuals in 
 this assembly who took their morning's meal this day, 
 without the use of articles brought from almost every 
 part of the world. The table on which it was served 
 was made from a tree which grew on the Spanish main 
 
PRODUCED BY A VARIETY OF CLIMATES. 51 
 
 or one of the West-India islands, and it was covered 
 with a table-cloth from St. Petersburg or Archangel. 
 The tea was from China ; the coffee from Java ; the 
 sugar from Cuba or Louisiana ; the silver spoons from 
 Mexico or Peru ; the cups and saucers from England 
 or France. Each of these articles was purchased by an 
 exchange of other products the growth of our own or 
 foreign countries collected and distributed by a succes- 
 sion of voyages, often to the furthest corners of the 
 globe. Without cultivating a rood of 'ground, we taste 
 the richest fruits of every soil. Without stirring from 
 our fireside, we collect on our tables the growth of every 
 region. In the midst of winter, we are served with 
 fruits that ripened in a tropical sun ; and struggling 
 monsters are dragged from the depths of the Pacific 
 ocean to lighten our dwellings." AM. ED.] 
 
 This display of the effects of commercial and agri- 
 cultural intercourse, which might easily be enlarged, de- 
 pending, as that intercourse mainly does, on the influ- 
 ence, direct and indirect, of varieties of climate on the 
 surface of the earth, serves to show a w r ise and beneficent 
 intention in so unequal a distribution of temperature, and 
 brings us back to the conclusion, that, whatever partial 
 inconveniences may accompany such arrangement, these 
 are vastly counterbalanced by the advantages of which it 
 is productive. If it be true, as it undoubtedly is, that 
 much of the activity, ingenuity, and intelligence, which 
 exist in the world, had their first developement in the 
 circumstances attending the differences in question ; and 
 if the very wants and privations of a less genial climate 
 have eventually, not merely improved the intellectual 
 character of men, but bound them together by new and 
 intimate ties, from the equator to the vicinity of the poles, 
 how can we avoid the inference, that such extensive and 
 inportant results were contemplated and provided for by 
 the Divine Mind, in establishing the relations between 
 the natural and moral worlds ? 
 
 [" No man, "again observes Governor Everett, "can 
 promote his own interest without promoting that of 
 others. As, in the system of the universe, every particle 
 
52 ADAPTATION OF ORGANIZED EXISTENCES 
 
 of matter is attracted by every other particle, and it is 
 not possible that a mote in a sunbeam should be displaced 
 without producing an effect on the orbit of Saturn, so 
 the minutest excess or defect in the supply of any one 
 article of human want, produces an effect though of 
 course an insensible one on the exchanges of all other 
 articles. In this way, that Providence which educes the 
 harmonious system of the heavens out of the adjusted 
 motions and balanced masses of its shining orbs, with equal 
 benevolence and care, furnishes to the countless millions 
 of the human family, through an interminable succession 
 of exchanges, the supply of their diversified and innu- 
 merable wants." AM. ED.] 
 
 SECOND WEEK SATURDAY. 
 
 ADAPTATION OF ORGANIZED EXISTENCES TO SEASONS AND 
 CLIMATES. 
 
 THE adaptation of plants and animals to the changes 
 of the seasons, which, taken even in the broad and gen- 
 eral view, is so clear an indication of an intelligent De- 
 signing Cause, is no where more conspicuous than in the 
 season of winter. Were but a strong and continuous 
 blast of the breath of winter to pass over our forests, 
 fields, and gardens, in any of those months when vegeta- 
 tion is in its glory, and when animated nature luxuriates 
 in universal plenty, the effect would be most disastrous. 
 All organized existences would feel the fatal shock. 
 Leaves, and fruits, and flowers, would shrink, wither, 
 and decay ; insects on the wing would fall lifeless to the 
 earth ; the various species of caterpillars would drop 
 stiff and dying from the frozen vegetables on which they 
 fed ; even the larger animals would be stricken with the 
 general blight ; birds and beasts, if they did not instantly 
 perish, would droop and shiver ; and man himself, adapted 
 
TO SEASONS AND CLIMATES. 53 
 
 as his constitution is, to sustain the rigors of all climates, 
 would find himself invaded by deadly diseases. Nor 
 would the evil end here. Not only would individuals 
 die, but whole species would become extinct. The 
 seeds, and eggs, and larvae, which propagate the various 
 races of plants and insects, would be unproduced. The 
 progress of reproduction would be arrested at its source ; 
 and, were the untimely blast to be universal, various 
 links would be broken for ever in the chain of existence. 
 
 This consideration brings us, at once, to a clear per- 
 ception of the kind of adaptation to which I allude. It 
 is evident, that some peculiar provision has been made, 
 in temperate climates, for the preservation of organized 
 existences during winter. In that season, they are not 
 in the same condition as in other seasons of the year. It 
 is not merely that the change from heat to cold has been 
 gradual. It is true, that the hurtful effects of a violent 
 alteration of temperature are thus avoided ; and this is 
 something which ought not to be overlooked in the wise 
 provisions of the Author of Nature. But much more 
 than this was necessary ; and, as we shall afterwards have 
 ample means of observing, has actually been effected. It 
 was requisite, for the preservation both of plants and 
 animals, that, during winter, their habits and functions 
 should be altered, or even suspended, and that peculiar 
 contrivances should be resorted to for protecting them 
 from the rigors of the season. 
 
 But there is another consideration which must not be 
 overlooked. Not only are there peculiar provisions for 
 preserving animal and vegetable life, in our temperate 
 climates, during the cold of winter, but the whole classes 
 of organized beings which exist in any climate, are 
 adapted to all the ordinary changes of their peculiar 
 locality ; so that the fact I have mentioned, is only a 
 single instance of a principle of adaptation which runs 
 through the whole system. The tropical plants, for ex- 
 ample, are peculiarly formed, for the express purpose of 
 living and flourishing under vertical suns, long droughts, 
 and periodical rains ; the vegetable productions of the 
 polar regions, on the other hand, have been remarkably 
 5* 
 
54 ADAPTATION OF ORGANIZED EXISTENCES. 
 
 contrived for resisting the chilly influences occasioned 
 by the long absence of the sun, and for starting suddenly 
 into life, and running their short but rapid race, during 
 the few weeks which comprise their spring, summer, and 
 autumn. And so it is, also, with our temperate climates. 
 It is not in winter, alone, that an adaptation to the season 
 is conspicuous, but throughout every month of the year. 
 Every parallel of latitude has its peculiarities of weather, 
 its longer or shorter duration of mildness and of rigor, 
 of rain and of drought, of light and of darkness ; and 
 to all these varieties, the plants indigenous to the soil are 
 adapted. 
 
 But, what is more, under the very same parallel, there 
 are localities which differ materially from the general 
 average of the climate, on account of the elevation of 
 mountain ranges, or other accidental circumstances. 
 Here, again, we find very striking indications of the provi- 
 dent care we have noticed. By whatever mysterious 
 means the distribution has been made, there we find 
 productions suited to the situation. Some extraordinary 
 instances of this, have been noticed on the Himmaleh 
 mountains, on the Andes, on the Peak of Teneriffe, and, 
 indeed, in all the quarters of the globe where lofty moun- 
 tain ranges are to be found. Humboldt has shown, that 
 there is upon the earth a geographical distribution of 
 plants, according to its various climates, which he dis- 
 tinguishes into so many zones of vegetation, from the pole 
 to the equator. In the Island of Teneriffe, he observed 
 that its various heights, which, as in all mountains, are 
 colder as the elevation increases, exhibited differences of 
 plants, corresponding with the temperature ; and he di- 
 vided the various heights into five zones, each clearly 
 marked by their respective vegetations. It has been a 
 matter of curious investigation among philosophers, by 
 what means the earth was at first supplied with produc- 
 tions suited to its respective climates and peculiarities ; 
 and it has been ingeniously attempted to be shown, that 
 a single mountain, of sufficient elevation, placed in a fa- 
 vorable situation, and furnished, by the Creative Power, 
 with the various vegetable productions which its different 
 
OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD. 55 
 
 altitudes and consequent varieties of temperature required, 
 might suffice, in the course of ages, for the dissemination 
 of these productions over the whole face of the globe, 
 according as its various localities might be adapted to 
 receive them. Such an inquiry, however, is more curi- 
 ous than useful. It is enough, for us to perceive the de- 
 signing hand of a wise Creator in the adaptation of the 
 vegetable creation to the very diversified circumstances 
 of soil and climate, as it is found actually to exist in the 
 different countries and regions of the world. 
 
 I shall only add, at present, that what has just been 
 said of the vegetable, is equally applicable to the animal 
 kingdom, as will be seen when we enter into the particu- 
 lars to which these preliminary remarks refer. 
 
 THIRD WEEK SUNDAY. 
 
 THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD. 
 
 THE doctrine of an Eternal Self-existent Being, in- 
 volves, in its very idea, that He is everywhere present 
 throughout His immeasurable creation, and that, if there 
 be any region of infinite space where He has not exerted 
 His creative power, He is there also ; and this doctrine 
 receives a more distinct and definite character, from the 
 discoveries of astronomy. The idea of infinity, indeed, 
 is too vast to be fully comprehended, as any one will be 
 forced to confess who makes the attempt. We can con- 
 ceive an immense extent, but it is an extent circum- 
 scribed by some boundary, however distant ; and, if we 
 only attend to what passes in our own minds, when we 
 endeavor to extend our conceptions so as to arrive at 
 the idea of infinite space, we shall find, that we do this 
 by figuring to ourselves, first, one immense extent, and 
 then, beyond that, another, and another still, in a con- 
 stant and indefinite series. This shows the limited na- 
 
56 OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD. 
 
 ture of our mental powers, which cannot form concep- 
 tions, but by the aid of things that are the object of the 
 senses ; and it serves, at the same time, to exhibit the 
 importance of astronomical studies, in assisting the mind 
 to form a more exalted view of the Divine attributes. 
 Even though deprived of the discoveries of astronomy, 
 indeed, we could still speak of infinity ; but our concep- 
 tions of that Divine attribute would necessarily be far 
 'less vivid and definite. It is by the help of this most 
 interesting and astonishing science, that we raise our 
 comprehension from the contracted bounds of our own 
 planet, to the vast extent of the planetary system with 
 which we are connected, and thence to the amazing dis- 
 tances of the fixed stars, and thence, again, to those little 
 spaces in the heavens called nebulae, full of thousands 
 and tens of thousands of worlds, in new systems, at dis- 
 tances beyond the power of numbers to compute. Thus, 
 step by step, we extend our views ; and, although long 
 before we have reached the nearest star, we find our 
 mental powers begin to flag, and in tracing these discov- 
 eries to their furthest limit, are forced to confess, that 
 even imagination is bewildered and lost, yet in such an 
 exercise we certainly do gain much to aid our concep- 
 tions of unbounded space. 
 
 The practical conclusion to which we come is, that, 
 if nature be so unspeakably and inconceivably immense, 
 the God of Nature must be absolutely infinite ; and al- 
 though, after all, we can form no distinct idea of this 
 attribute, we comprehend enough to affect the mind with 
 highly exalted and salutary impressions. 
 
 ' Infinity implies omnipresence. The Almighty, is an 
 infinitely extended Mind. Wherever He exists, He is 
 conscious. His knowledge is, therefore, as infinite as His 
 existence. The universe lies open to His inspection. 
 The earth, with all its productions, animate and inani- 
 mate, the rocks and minerals in its bowels, the plants, 
 so varied in their form and qualities, from the micro- 
 scopic parasite to the mighty oak of the forest, which 
 are spread profusely over its surface, the insects, the 
 reptiles, the birds and beasts with which it teems and 
 
OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD. 57 
 
 man, the lord of them all, every one of them, individu- 
 ally, is continually in His view. He pervades every 
 atom of matter, and surveys every movement of tlte liv- 
 ing principle, and of the mental powers with which He 
 has respectively endowed the various orders of organic 
 beings. Let this view be extended to other worlds. 
 Whatever exists, either of matter, of vegetable and ani- 
 mal life, or of rational powers, in the sun, and in the 
 planets, and, beyond their wide orbit, in the suns, and 
 systems, and interminable groups of suns and systems of 
 which the universe is composed, is penetrated, beheld, 
 recognised, and individually distinguished, by the All- 
 pervading Mind. 
 
 How beautifully, and feelingly, does the Psalmist ex- 
 press the sentiment to which this view of the Divine 
 Being gives rise in the devout heart : u Whither shall 
 I go from thy Spirit ? or whither shall I flee from thy 
 presence ? If I ascend up into heaven thou art there ! 
 if I make my bed in hell behold, thou art there ! If I 
 take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the utter- 
 most parts of the sea ; even there, shall thy hand lead me, 
 and thy right hand shall hold me ! If I say, surely the 
 darkness shall cover me ; even the night shall be light 
 about me." This sense of the Divine presence, if 
 deeply and habitually cherished, must produce a salutary 
 effect on the character. When we know and feel that 
 the eye of the holy God is upon us, our mind is struck 
 with solemn awe ; and should unhallowed thoughts in- 
 trude, we are sensible that they are unworthy of the 
 presence in which we stand, and inconsistent with those 
 aspirations after the Divine favor, which our relation to 
 Him inspires. Should the temptation become, notwith- 
 standing, so strong as to incline us to some action of 
 moral turpitude, the half-formed design is checked, by 
 the conviction, that the All-seeing Eye is upon us, and 
 with just indignation we cast the thought away from us, 
 inwardly exclaiming, u How can I do this great wicked- 
 ness, and sin against God !" 
 
 This salutary effect of a belief in the Divine omni- 
 presence, is but too seldom realized in actual practice. 
 
58 OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD. 
 
 It is -held, almost universally, as a speculative doctrine; 
 but how few really adopt it as a rule of life. Melan- 
 choly experience assures us, that the heart does not 
 often receive very deep impressions from abstract views, 
 and is not easily awakened and animated by the specu- 
 lations of the closet. It will be our wisdom to make use 
 of the various means, which Providence has bestowed on 
 us, for counteracting this unhappy propensity to separate 
 speculation from practice ; and among these, there is 
 none so effectual as frequent and fervent prayer. An 
 apostle exhorts us to "pray without ceasing;" by which 
 he doubtless means, not that we should be constantly on 
 our knees, but that we should cultivate a continual sense 
 of the presence of our heavenly Father in the ordinary 
 affairs of life, and begin, carry on, and end every thing, 
 by casting ourselves on His protection and blessing. By 
 this prayerful spirit we shall learn to see God in every 
 thing. If we walk abroad, whether in the full blaze of 
 day, or when, through the curtain of night, we behold the 
 hosts of heaven shining in their brightness, we shall turn 
 our thoughts to that Eternal Being who clothed the earth 
 in beauty, and "ever busy, wheels the rolling spheres." 
 If we retire to the bosom of our families, and in the kind 
 attentions and soothing endearments of domestic life, 
 feel our hearts overflowing with a tender delight, we 
 shall not fail to remember from whose hand we derived 
 the blessing, and to whose paternal care we are indebted 
 for its continuance. If, in the duties of active life, we 
 find our labors of love crowned with success, and our 
 bosom expand with the glow of gratified benevolence, 
 we shall not forget that it is the hand of our unseen Fa- 
 ther which has directed and blessed our efforts ; and a 
 Father's smile which cheers and elevates our soul. And 
 when the rod of affliction is upon us, when the loss of 
 worldly possessions oppresses our spirits, or a more cruel 
 calamity has visited us, in the death of some beloved rel- ' 
 ative or friend ; or when we ourselves are stretched upon 
 our death-bed, with our weeping family around us, even 
 then, the consolations of religion will lend their balm ; and 
 casting our care on Him who careth for us, and finding 
 
ADAPTATION OF ORGANIZED EXISTENCES. 59 
 
 refuge in the Rock of Ages, we shall learn to bless the 
 hand which inflicts the wound. 
 
 THIRD WEEK MONDAY. 
 
 ADAPTATION OF ORGANIZED EXISTENCES TO THE TROPICAL 
 REGIONS. 
 
 ALMOST every country has its winter, as well as the 
 other seasons of the year, differing materially, however, 
 in different parts, and influenced not merely by its posi- 
 tion in respect of latitude, but by various other circum- 
 stances which affect the climate generally, such as ele- 
 vation above the level of the sea, the neighborhood of 
 mountains, of forests, or of the ocean, the prevalence of 
 periodical or constant winds, and other tropical causes. 
 Now, the observation which applies to climate, taken on 
 the average, applies with equal truth to this uninviting 
 season, namely, that there is, even during its rigors, a 
 remarkable adaptation of the weather to the condition 
 of animal and vegetable life ; and, on the other hand, of 
 animal and vegetable life to the weather. The tempera- 
 ture is admirably modified, and the various meteorologi- 
 cal changes are wisely regulated, so as to correspond 
 with the other seasons, and to be suited to the kind of 
 organized existences which are to be found within the 
 range of these natural operations ; or, what comes to the 
 same thing, these organized existences have been so 
 framed, as to correspond in their nature and habits with 
 the qualities of the weather. 
 
 In tropical climates, there can scarcely be said to be 
 any winter, in the sense in which that word is understood, 
 with reference to the other divisions of the earth ; yet, 
 even here, there is a period which possesses some of its 
 distinctive characteristics. Under the equator, indeed, 
 and in the adjoining regions, there may be said to be, in 
 
60 ADAPTATION OF ORGANIZED EXISTENCES 
 
 respect of temperature, two winters in the year, the 
 one, when the sun visits the tropic of Capricorn ; and 
 the other, when he looks down on our temperate climes 
 with the smiles of summer, from the tropic of Cancer. 
 Within the vast zone, bounded by the tropics, the climate 
 is peculiar, not only on account of the extreme heat, but 
 on account of the trade-winds, the monsoons, and peri- 
 odical droughts by which it is distinguished. These 
 phenomena, which are very various in their periods and 
 extent, being much affected by the particular circum- 
 stances of their geographical position, wonderfully har- 
 monize during the various seasons of the year, so as to 
 render them, in each region, speaking generally, con- 
 ducive to the salubrity of the climate ; and the plants 
 and animals which exist in these regions, are, at the same 
 time, with surprising nicety, adapted to their respective 
 peculiarities. This, would our space admit, might be 
 interestingly exemplified by a detail of particulars ; but, 
 at present, I must be content to state, in general, that 
 there are contrivances and adaptations which secure both 
 plants and animals from the hurtful effects of the changes 
 of temperature, of moisture, of violent and incessant rain, 
 and of the direct rays of the sun, so striking and ob- 
 vious, as to challenge attention from the most careless 
 observer. In this fervid climate, the soil requires no 
 lengthened rest to recruit its powers ; nor do its vegeta- 
 ble products need to sleep for months in the bud or in 
 the root. Under a long drought, indeed, they languish 
 and decay ; and this may, in fact, be considered as their 
 period of winter, although it does not correspond with 
 ours as regards the season of the year, or various other 
 particulars ; but no sooner does the equinoctial monsoon 
 or the solstitial rain pour its refreshing streams on the 
 surface of the parched earth, than all nature revives. 
 Mr. Elphinstone, in his account of Cabul, after graphi- 
 cally describing the appearances at the commencement 
 of the monsoon in India, consisting of an incessant pour- 
 ing of rain, amidst constant peals of thunder, and the most 
 vivid flashes of lightning, attended with violent blasts of 
 wind, proceeds to say, " This lasts for some days, after 
 
TO THE TROPICAL REGIONS. 61 
 
 which the sky clears, and discovers the face of nature 
 changed as by enchantment. Before the storm, the fields 
 were parched up ; and, except in the beds of the rivers, 
 scarce a blade of vegetation was to be seen ; the clear- 
 ness of the sky was not interrupted by a single cloud, 
 but the atmosphere was loaded with dust, which was 
 sufficient to render distant objects dim as in a mist, and 
 to make the sun appear dull and discolored till he at- 
 tained a considerable elevation ; a parching wind blew 
 like a blast from a furnace, and heated wood, iron, and 
 every solid material, even in the shade ; and immediately 
 before the monsoon, this wind had been succeeded by 
 still more sultry calms. But when the first violence of 
 the storm is over, the whole earth is covered with a sud- 
 den but luxuriant verdure ; the rivers are full and tran- 
 quil ; the air is pure and delicious ; the sky is varied, 
 and embellished with clouds." 
 
 This change, from what may be termed a tropical 
 winter, though arising from an excess of heat instead of 
 cold, to all the beauty and luxuriance of spring, proves, 
 without any detail, that a constitution has been given to 
 tropical plants, adapted to their situation and circum- 
 stances, and sufficiently marks the peculiar wisdom of 
 the arrangement as regards the vegetable kingdom. Let 
 it be remarked, too, that the monsoon takes place pre- 
 cisely at the very time when, but for this change, the 
 heat would have become excessive and intolerable. It 
 occurs at the period when the sun is approaching his 
 zenith in that parallel, and would have darted his vertical 
 rays on the earth with unmitigated fierceness, were not 
 a providential hand to interpose a veil of clouds, and 
 cause them to pour forth their refreshing stores. This 
 change is not the less admirable, that it is produced by 
 the operation of known and uniform laws ; and, assuredly, 
 the wise adjustment,and balancing of the great mechanical 
 powers of Nature, is no unequivocal proof of Divine 
 agency. 
 
 On turning to the animal productions within the tropics, 
 we discover similar marks of beneficent design in the 
 adaptation of their natures to the circumstances of the 
 i. 6 vn. 
 
62 ADAPTATION OF ORGANIZED EXISTENCES 
 
 climate. M. Lacordaire,* as quoted by Mr. Kirby, 
 [in his Bridgewater Treatise,] gives a striking account 
 of the state of animated nature in Brazil. The great 
 rains begin to fall in that country about the middle of 
 September, when all nature seems to awake from its 
 periodical repose ; vegetation resumes a more lively tint ; 
 the greater part of plants renew their leaves ; and the 
 insects begin to appear. In October, the rains are rather 
 more frequent, and with them the insects ; but it is not 
 till towards the middle of November, when the rainy 
 season is definitely set in, that all the families seem sud- 
 denly to develope themselves ; and this general impulse, 
 which all nature seems to receive, continues augmenting 
 till the middle of January, when it attains its acme. The 
 forests present, then, an aspect of movement and life, 
 of which our woods in Europe can give no idea. During 
 part of the day, we hear a vast and uninterrupted hum, in 
 which the deafening cry of the treehopper prevails, and 
 you cannot take a step, or touch a leaf, without putting 
 insects to flight. At eleven in the forenoon, the heat 
 has become almost insupportable, and all animated nature 
 becomes torpid ; the noise diminishes ; the insects and 
 other animals disappear, and are seen no more till the 
 evening. Then, when the atmosphere is again cool, to 
 the morning species succeed others, whose office it is to 
 embellish the nights of the torrid zone. I am speaking 
 of the glowworms and fire -flies ; whilst the former, is- 
 suing by myriads from their retreats, overspread the plants 
 and shrubs, the latter, crossing each other in all direc- 
 tions, weave in the air, as it were, a luminous web, the 
 light of which they diminish or augment at pleasure. This 
 brilliant illumination only ceases when the night gives 
 place to the day. 
 
 These observations as to the effects of climate within 
 the tropics, harmonizing as they do with what occurs in 
 other regions of the earth, tend to show what surprising 
 attention has been paid by the great Creator, in the adap- 
 tation of organized existences, both vegetable and animal, 
 
 * Annales des Sciences Naturelles, 20 Juin, 1830, p. 193. 
 
TO TEMPERATE AND POLAR CLIMATES. 63 
 
 and more especially the latter, with its instincts and habits, 
 to their geographical position, and what skill has been 
 employed in diffusing life and enjoyment throughout the 
 world. Facts of a similar kind, will meet us every where 
 in the course of our inquiry. 
 
 THIRD WEEK TUESDAY. 
 
 ADAPTATION OF ORGANIZED EXISTENCES TO TEMPERATE AND 
 POLAR CLIMATES. 
 
 OUR attention was yesterday directed to those benefi- 
 cent arrangements, by which organized existences, within 
 the tropics, are adapted to their geographical position. 
 The same observation may be extended to all the other 
 regions of the earth, and the further the subject is inves- 
 tigated, the more shall we find reason to admire and adore 
 the Divine wisdom, so variously, and every where so be- 
 neficently, displayed. 
 
 Among a vast profusion of instances which might be 
 selected, I will take the history of the camel, which re- 
 commends itself to our notice at present, as being pecu- 
 liarly appropriate, in our descent to climates of a lower 
 temperature, because the range of this animal is extend- 
 ed from the tropical into the temperate regions ; and, 
 because, within that range, its conformation and habits 
 are curiously and exclusively suited to a peculiar locali- 
 ty. The camel, including, of course, the dromedary, 
 which is only a variety of the species, is an animal dis- 
 tinctly formed by the Author of Nature, to subsist, and 
 to contribute to the comfort of man, in the parched and 
 sandy wildernesses, which, in the vast regions of the East, 
 stretch from the tropics far into the temperate zone. A 
 description, abridged from Goldsmith, may suffice for our 
 purpose. 
 
 The camel is the most temperate of all animals, and 
 
64 ADAPTATION OF ORGANIZED EXISTENCES 
 
 it can continue to travel, for several days, without drink- 
 ing. In those vast deserts, where the earth is very dry 
 and sandy ; where there are neither birds nor beasts, nei- 
 ther insects nor vegetables ; where nothing is to be seen 
 but hills of sand, and heaps of stones ; there the camel trav- 
 els, posting forward, without requiring either drink or 
 pasture, and is often found six or seven days without any 
 sustenance whatever. Its feet are formed for travelling 
 on sand, and are utterly unfit for moist or marshy places. 
 
 In Arabia, and those countries where the camel is 
 turned to useful purposes, it is considered as a sacred 
 animal, without whose help the natives could neither 
 subsist, traffic, nor travel. Its milk makes a part of their 
 nourishment ; they feed upon its flesh, particularly when 
 young ; they clothe themselves with its hair ; and, if 
 they fear an invading enemy, their camels serve them in 
 flight ; and, in a single day, they are known to travel a 
 hundred miles. Thus, by means of the camel, an Ara- 
 bian finds safety in his deserts. All the armies on earth 
 might be lost in pursuit of a flying squadron of this coun- 
 try, mounted on their camels, and taking refuge in soli- 
 tudes, where nothing interposes to stop their flight, or to 
 force them to await the invader. There are, here and 
 there, in the dreary wastes inhabited by the Arabian, found 
 spots of verdure which, though remote from each other, 
 are, in a manner, approximated by the labor and industry 
 of the camel. Thus the Arab lives independent and 
 tranquil amidst his solitudes ; and, instead of considering 
 the vast wilds spread around him as a restraint upon his 
 happiness, he is, by experience, taught to regard them 
 as the ramparts of his freedom. Who does not admire 
 in this remarkable instance, the beneficent intentions of 
 Providence, in the structure and habits of an animal so 
 exclusively adapted to regions of heat, sterility, and 
 drought ? 
 
 In the temperate regions, similar adaptations to the sea- 
 son of scarcity are familiar to the student of nature ; but, 
 as it is in this zone of moderate climate that we dwell, 
 and from it, therefore, that our illustrations will, in the 
 following pages, be chiefly taken, I shall pass to its ex- 
 
TO TEMPERATE AND POLAR CLIMATES. 65 
 
 treme verge, towards the polar circles, where the coun- 
 tries, although they still bear the geographical title of 
 temperate, have ceased, in reality, to deserve it, and are 
 rapidly tending to an extreme, in which organized beings 
 are no longer to be found. The Laplander, the Green- 
 lander, the inhabitants of Nova Zembla and Labrador, 
 although, in winter, they suffer many privations, greater, 
 than are experienced in our more favored climate, are 
 yet furnished with many alleviations, which prove, that 
 their comfort and enjoyments have not been forgotten 
 by Him, who appointed the bounds of their habitation. 
 
 Some inhabitants of these severe regions, have receiv- 
 ed from a bountiful Providence the gift of the rein-deer; 
 which is not less adapted to their wants than the camel 
 is to those of the Arab. It furnishes them with the means 
 of rapid and easy conveyance from place to place ; while 
 its skin supplies them with clothing for their bodies, and 
 covering for their tents, its flesh is their necessary food, 
 and its milk their delicious drink. Their long winter 
 night, for it is one uninterrupted night during several 
 months, is cheered by a bright twilight, and the brilliant 
 and busy coruscations of that wonderful meteor, the au- 
 rora borealis ; and, when they retire to their humble 
 dwellings, they find at once, light and heat in the blaze of 
 the oil abundantly extracted from the fish, which their 
 industry has drawn from the neighboring seas. 
 
 In Greenland, and the countries bordering on Baffin's 
 Bay, where the rein-deer is but seldom, if at all, domes- 
 ticated, the inhabitants have other means of supplying, 
 though less comfortably, the necessaries of life which this 
 useful animal provides to the northern inhabitants of 
 Europe. They build their winter huts of snow, within 
 which they light their fires, without danger of its melt- 
 ing, so long as the intensity of the cold prevails ; and, 
 within these apparently miserable habitations, they ex- 
 perience more enjoyment than the natives of genial climes 
 can easily conceive possible. The frost preserves from 
 corruption the animal food they have stored ; and, so 
 long as their provisions remain, they seem to have no 
 great care for the future. Having few wants, and little 
 6* 
 
66 BALANCE PRESERVED IN THE 
 
 forethought, they spend, from day to day, a contented, 
 though a degraded life ; and the goodness of the great 
 Creator towards them, appears in this, that if their cir- 
 cumstances preclude them from the enjoyment of many 
 luxuries, or even conveniences, they are happily insen- 
 sible of the privation ; and, if they are destitute of high 
 intellectual pleasures, they are at least not subjected to 
 the miseries arising from that acute sensibility, with 
 which the cultivation of the mental powers is frequently 
 attended. 
 
 Were we to inquire into the condition and habits of 
 the lower animals which inhabit these frozen regions, we 
 should be struck with similar wise adaptations. Of the 
 thick and shaggy fur which covers their bodies, so ad- 
 mirably adapted both to preserve the animal heat, and 
 exclude the external cold, increasing in warmth with the 
 increasing rigor of the season ; of the instinct which in- 
 duces some to migrate to more genial regions, and others 
 to retire to caves and burrows, where they spend the long 
 and dreary winter months in a state of insensibility, or 
 of partial lethargy ; and of other matters connected with 
 the season of winter in that inhospitable climate, which 
 afford, even in apparently neglected corners of the world, 
 unequivocal proofs of beneficent design, we shall after- 
 wards have occasion to speak. Meanwhile, this slight 
 sketch seems sufficient to show, that, in every climate, 
 even the dreariest season of the year has its uses, its 
 adaptations, and its enjoyments. 
 
 THIRD WEEK WEDNESDAY. 
 
 THE BALANCE PRESERVED IN THE ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE 
 CREATION. 
 
 EVERY naturalist must have observed, that there is a 
 tendency in the reproductive powers bestowed by the 
 
ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE CREATION. 67 
 
 Creator, to overstock the world, so that, if any one spe- 
 cies of animals were permitted to produce its kind with- 
 out check, the whole earth would, in process of time, be 
 entirely overrun by that species alone, to such an ex- 
 tent, that, by and by, there would not be room for the 
 vegetable to spread, or the animal to move. Among liv- 
 ing creatures, a remarkable example of this power may 
 be taken from the rabbit. It has been calculated that, 
 from a pair of these animals, may proceed, in four years, 
 a progeny of nearly a million and a half. The common 
 grass is an example of a similar kind among vegetables, 
 a single plant of which would, in a very few years, under 
 favorable circumstances, clothe a whole island like Bri- 
 tain. These are extreme cases ; but, if any person would 
 take the trouble of estimating the productive powers of 
 any one kind of plant or animal, even the least remarka- 
 ble for fecundity, he would soon satisfy himself, that the 
 fact is not overstated. 
 
 This excessive power of reproduction, as in one sense 
 it may be called, seems to be a necessary part of the wise 
 economy of Nature ; because it always enables organized 
 existences to multiply their species, up to the extent 
 in which provision is made for their subsistence ; but 
 then, it would have occasioned the most injurious conse- 
 quences, were not checks provided, by which each kind 
 might be kept within its proper bounds. These checks 
 are numerous and effectual. The most remarkable of 
 them, among the living tribes, is the existence of pre- 
 daceous animals. One creature preys upon another, and 
 thus, provision is made, by a remarkable contrivance, 
 which, at first sight, appears cruel, for the existence of 
 more numerous species, and for the more easy death of 
 individuals, which w r ould otherwise so press upon the 
 means of subsistence, as to drag out a lingering and mis- 
 erable life, till they perish by famine ; while another 
 instance of providential care in this provision is, that 
 dead bodies are consumed and removed, which would 
 otherwise infest the air with noisome and pestilential 
 effluvia, in the process of decomposition. 
 
 But what has led me, at present, to advert to this sub- 
 
68 BALANCE PRESERVED IN THE 
 
 ject, is the effect which winter also produces in checking 
 an over production of organized beings. To what extent 
 its severity, and the scanty subsistence it affords, are 
 destructive of animal and vegetable life, I shall not at- 
 tempt to estimate ; but that it is considerable, cannot be 
 denied. Notwithstanding the various and astonishing 
 means made use of by a wise Creator, for the preserva- 
 tion of organized beings during the inclemency of win- 
 ter, it is certainly true, that this season does not pass 
 without a great expense of life. Violent storms, severe 
 frosts, sudden inundations, deep snows, scarcity of food, 
 the tracks of animals in the new-fallen snow, which 
 guide the hunter to their lair, all these are so many 
 means of destruction to numerous individuals of various 
 tribes of animals, and some of them, means of destruction 
 to different kinds of vegetables also. 
 
 Now, that the checks we have mentioned, combined 
 with others, are most wisely adapted for promoting the 
 benevolent intentions of Providence, in preserving a due 
 balance in Nature, may be inferred from various consid- 
 erations. Of these, I shall mention one, which is suf- 
 ficiently striking. Man has frequently attempted, for 
 his own purposes, to interfere with the balance which 
 Providence has thus established, often wisely and suc- 
 cessfully, the higher species being destined to supplant 
 the lower ; but when injudiciously, not with impunity. 
 The following examples of the latter, which I extract 
 from a note in Mr. Sharon Turner's ' History of the Crea- 
 tion, 'may suffice as an illustration. <c Farmers destroy 
 moles, because the hillocks they make break the level 
 surface ; but they have found worms increase so much, 
 when the moles were gone, as to wish they had not mo- 
 lested them. Moles live on worms, insects, snails, frogs, 
 and larvae. The farmers on a nobleman's estate in France, 
 found the moles' disturbances of the earth such a good 
 husbandry to it, as to solicit their landlords not to have 
 them killed. (Bull, t/ri., 1829, p. 334.) So toads are 
 found to keep down the ants. Mice have increased in 
 barns where owls have been shot. The blue jay was 
 destroyed in America for eating the pease ; but the pea- 
 
ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE CREATION. 69 
 
 grub, which it fed on, became more destructive after- 
 ward. A gentleman shot a magpie, to save his cherries, 
 but found its craw as full as it could be crammed with 
 the large bluebottle flies, that lay their eggs in meat. 
 The fox renders considerable service to man, by the 
 quantity of rats, field-mice, frogs, toads, lizards, and 
 snakes, which he destroys."* 
 
 These are instances of the kind of balance which is 
 preserved in the animal world, by means of predaceous 
 animals, and prove that, by removing one cause of an- 
 noyance, we may sometimes only give room to another 
 of a more grievous nature ; and that we ought, therefore, 
 to be cautious how we do violence to Nature. There 
 can be no doubt, however, that the judicious interference 
 of man was taken into account in the establishment of 
 the order of Nature ; and that his employing his rational 
 powers for this purpose, is one of the exercises by which 
 Providence intended to call forth his ingenuity, and re- 
 ward his industry. It is not merely as a curse, that, in 
 the field of the sluggard, "thistles grow instead of wheat, 
 and cockle instead of barley ;" it is also as a warning 
 against sloth, and as a stimulus to exertion. So it is 
 with regard to industrious, intelligent, and virtuous habits 
 of every kind ; and, with reference to the agriculturist, 
 while the neglect of such habits is punished by an accu- 
 mulation of noxious weeds and vermin, and a deficiency 
 of useful produce, the very reverse is the case when these 
 habits are cultivated ; and so, changing the terms, with 
 every other profession. 
 
 Of the salutary effect of a judicious use of the power 
 which Providence has intrusted us with, of extirpating 
 noxious animals, we have a remarkable instance, in the 
 total extinction of the wolf from Great Britain, chiefly 
 through the energetic measures adopted by two of our 
 kings, Edgar I. and Edward I. The importance which 
 we ought to attach to the removal of this nuisance, will 
 be better estimated on reading the official account which 
 was given in the public papers, of the devastations com- 
 
 * Turner, note, p. 350, quoting from Howit's Brit. Preserv. 
 
70 BALANCE PRESERVED IN THE 
 
 mitted by wolves, in the year 1823, in the province of 
 Livonia alone. They are stated to have devoured 1841 
 horses, 1243 foals, 1807 horned cattle, 733 calves, 
 15,182 sheep, 726 lambs, 2545 goats, 183 kids, 4190 
 swine, 312 sucking pigs, 703 dogs, 673 geese. 
 
 This destruction is remarkable, and it is only a single 
 example of the immense extent of the power by which 
 the excess of the reproductive principle is restrained, in 
 all the various races of living beings, from the microscopic 
 insect to the huge elephant. The proof thus afforded 
 of the wisdom of the great Creator, is conspicuous and 
 preeminent ; the balance of Nature is preserved ; one 
 species, taken on the average, does not unduly encroach 
 upon another ; a greater quantity of living beings have 
 the means of being nourished, and are therefore produced ; 
 and the good of the whole is most strikingly consulted. 
 
 One condition, which the due balance of the repro- 
 ductive powers involves, is, that the most useful species 
 shall be able not only to maintain their ground, but to 
 preponderate over all the rest. This is instanced in the 
 case of vegetables, in the prolific power already noticed, 
 as bestowed upon the common grasses on which so many 
 animals, and especially those destined for the use of man, 
 are formed to feed. It is in virtue of this quality, with 
 which man, for his own purposes, finds it necessary fre- 
 quently to war, that the soft green carpet is so univer- 
 sally spread over hill and valley, on which our herds and 
 flocks graze so luxuriously by day, and repose so com- 
 fortably by night. But then, it was the wise intention 
 of Providence, that this mastery, gained by the prolific 
 power, should not be of such extent as to annihilate any 
 of the species of plants formed by His creative wisdom. 
 There are, therefore, most surprising and ingenious con- 
 trivances, by which this power is so far counteracted as 
 to serve the end in view. These will fall more properly 
 to be considered in another season, and it is enough, at 
 present, merely to advert to them. 
 
 In saying, however, that the most useful vegetable pro- 
 ductions are usually the most prolific, I must not forget 
 to make an exception, which embraces a great variety of 
 
ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE CREATION. 71 
 
 those plants that are cultivated by the farmer and the gar- 
 dener, for the use of man. All the cereal, leguminous, 
 potato, and cabbage tribes are of this kind, and seem to 
 be intended, along with many other means in the econo- 
 my of Providence, to verify the sentence so early pro- 
 nounced on our sinning race, that in the sweat of their 
 face they must eat bread. It is, indeed, in this view, a 
 most remarkable provision, that, while the means of subsis- 
 tence are so amply provided for the lower animals, man 
 is left to procure his food by the exercise of his own 
 mental and bodily powers, in the labors of cultivation ; 
 and, for this purpose, finds it necessary to counteract the 
 natural tendencies of vegetation, as well as to control the 
 habits, and subdue the propensities of the brute creation. 
 Among animals, the balance which we have been con- 
 sidering, is kept up in a way different from that which 
 takes place in the vegetable kingdom, though in some re- 
 spects analogous to it. Here, too, the powers of repro- 
 duction are with obvious design unequally distributed, 
 being most copiously bestowed on those species which 
 are either most useful to man, or most harmless in their 
 own nature, or least capable of defending themselves. 
 Were not this the case, animals of prey, whose species 
 are numerous, and are to be found in all the classes of 
 animated nature, from the lowest to the highest, would 
 soon destroy the more helpless kinds, and reduce the va- 
 rious orders of beings to a few of nearly equal strength 
 and prowess in the various genera. Among beasts, the 
 lion and tiger, for example, would desolate the tropical 
 regions ; the wolf would reign paramount in the temperate 
 zone ; and the arctic bear would overrun the regions 
 bordering on the poles, till nothing would be left for them 
 to devour but creatures of their own species. Among 
 birds, the eagle, the vulture, and the condor, would each 
 assert the terrible powers of its nature, till the other feath- 
 ered tribes, in their respective localities, had been exter- 
 minated ; and as to fishes, the enormous whale,* and the 
 
 * The Greenland whale is supposed to live only on medusae or shrimps; 
 but the cachalot, [or spermaceti whale,] and its varieties, are exceedingly 
 
72 ALTERNATION OF DAY AND NIGHT. 
 
 rapacious shark, each of which devours the inferior tribes 
 by hundreds at a mouthful, would quickly divide the deso- 
 lated ocean between them. 
 
 The very fact, therefore, that, notwithstanding the exist- 
 ence of such formidable enemies, the other tribes of animat- 
 ed beings not only survive, but abound, is a proof that the 
 Author of Nature has provided sufficient checks to their 
 power and rapacity. Of quadrupeds alone, from 800 to 
 1000 species are known to exist ; and, as we descend in 
 the scale to the lower genera, their species proportionally 
 increase, till among the insect and microscopic tribes, they 
 become almost innumerable. If this be the case with re- 
 gard to species, how would the mind be overwhelmed with 
 the immensity of the subject, were it to attempt to esti- 
 mate the number of individual existences in the animal and 
 vegetable kingdoms. Let us recognise and admire the 
 Designing Mind which has with such wonderful skill ad- 
 justed the balance of nature, and fitted it to the condition 
 of man in his present state. It is impossible not to be 
 struck with the analogy which runs through all the depart- 
 ments of organized existence, from the highest to the low- 
 est, in this as well as in other instances. We see every 
 where a superabundant power of reproduction counteract- 
 ed and balanced, by what may be justly called antagonist 
 powers. Among these opposing forces, we find voracity 
 and famine every where, excessive heat, and periodical 
 storms, in tropical countries, excessive cold during the 
 winter of the temperate and frigid regions, each in its own 
 manner and its own place, doing the necessary work of 
 destruction. 
 
 THIRD WEEK THURSDAY. 
 
 ALTERNATION OF DAY AND NIGHT. 
 
 THE sun now remains but a short period above the hori- 
 zon ; and, even during that short period, the comparative 
 
ALTERNATION OF DAY AND NIGHT. 73 
 
 intensity of his light and heat is much decreased. He is 
 daily taking a less extensive circuit in our heavens ; and 
 in another month the length of the day will be diminished 
 by more than another hour. Were the influence of the 
 sun, and the length of the day, to continue in this state, 
 the whole organized world, in the climate which we in- 
 habit, would quickly be destroyed. But the year will 
 soon recommence its annual round ; and nature is even 
 now preparing for its coming labors. 
 
 The repose of plants, and even of many animals, in 
 this dreary season, reminds us of the salutary provision, 
 of a similar description, which is made for the diurnal re- 
 cruiting of exhausted strength by the alternation of night 
 with day. That this arrangement is adapted to the con- 
 stitution of animal and vegetable existences, will be readi- 
 ly admitted ; and, on examining particulars, we shall be 
 confirmed in our general conclusion. It is not merely 
 true, that nature requires a frequently recurring period of 
 rest, but that the actual period of twenty-four hours, di- 
 vided between activity and repose, is the best suited for 
 this end. If this be so, it implies a Designing Cause ; for 
 such a period is arbitrary that is to say, no reason can 
 be assigned, in the nature of things, either why the earth 
 should complete her daily revolution in twenty-four hours, 
 or why animals and vegetables should require a season of 
 rest in that precise interval. As to the former, no me- 
 chanical or physical necessity requires, that our earth 
 should complete three hundred and sixty-five revolutions 
 in a year. It might, apparently, move either faster or 
 slower, without the slightest inconvenience to the system 
 with which it is connected. Jupiter and Saturn revolve 
 on their axes each in ten hours, which, considering their 
 bulk, must carry their equators round with a velocity 
 immensely greater than that of the earth, while Mercury, 
 which is so much nearer the sun, and so much smaller, 
 has its day and night nearly of the same length as our 
 own. 
 
 Now, if we look at the vegetable world, we shall find, 
 as already observed, a remarkable adaptation of this arbi- 
 trary period of twenty-four hours to the constitution of 
 i. 7 vn. 
 
74 ALTERNATION OF DAY AND NIGHT. 
 
 its various productions. In some plants, indeed, this is 
 not so obvious ; but there are others, which clearly show 
 that they are endowed with a periodical character, cor- 
 responding with the average length of our day. Linnaeus 
 classified a number of plants according to their time of 
 opening and shutting, with reference to the hour of the 
 day, and found, that there are some which change their 
 hour of opening and shutting as the day becomes longer 
 and shorter, while there are others which do not seem to 
 be affected by the actual state of the light and heat, but 
 have a daily period of their own, independent of these 
 influences, expanding their leaves, and closing them, at a 
 particular hour, whatever be the state of the weather, or 
 the length of the day. Both of these instances prove an 
 adaptation to the diurnal revolution of the earth, which 
 could not be the effect of chance, and must, therefore, 
 have been the work of an Intelligent Cause. 
 
 This adjustment, is still more remarkable in the animal 
 world. A period of sleep is necessary for the health and 
 vigor of living beings ; and the alternation of day and night, 
 which actually takes place, seems, from various consid- 
 erations, to be that which is best fitted for them ; or, at 
 all events, any very great deviation from the arrangement 
 actually established, would be prejudicial. When a work- 
 man retires from his twelve hours' labor, he is sufficiently 
 inclined to take rest ; and, although it is possible for him 
 to encroach on the night, without much inconvenience, 
 and to extend his exertions, if not immoderate, to fifteen 
 or sixteen hours, a longer period, without an interval of 
 repose, would incur the risk of undermining the constitu- 
 tion. It is certain, at least, that a considerable propor- 
 tion of time, spent in sleep, during the four and twenty 
 hours, is of importance to the health, both of body and 
 mind ; and that, if our day were extended, for example, 
 to the length of two, the human powers would droop un- 
 der the prolonged period which would thus occur between 
 the intervals of rest. 
 
 To the lower animals, also, the alternation of day and 
 night, as it actually exists, is wisely adapted. To some 
 of these, the day is the season of collecting their food ; 
 
ALTERNATION OF DAY AND NIGHT. 75 
 
 to others, the night : but, whatever be the instincts 
 which guide them in this respect, we cannot but perceive 
 that the adjustment between their constitution and habits, 
 on the one hand, and the period of light and darkness on 
 the other, is such, as to show that the one bears reference 
 to the other, and to indicate benevolent contrivance. 
 
 It is no valid objection to this view, that the relative 
 length of the days and nights vary, very considerably in 
 our climate, and still more in higher latitudes ; because, 
 where this is the case, we find adaptations and adjust- 
 ments of a different kind, which, in some degree, com- 
 pensate for these variations ; and because, except in re- 
 gions approaching very near the poles, the revolution of 
 day and night is uniformly comprised in twenty-four hours ; 
 and the only difference consists in a longer or shorter 
 time, during which the curtains of night are drawn, an 
 inconvenience which the ingenuity of man removes by 
 artificial means, and to which,the habits and wants of the 
 lower animals, and of plants, are wonderfully accommo- 
 dated. 
 
 On the whole, we have here another proof of an Intel- 
 ligent Creator, who has suited the organized beings he 
 has called into existence, to the circumstances of the ma- 
 terial world, in which he has been pleased to place them. 
 The observations of Mr. Whewell on this subject, to 
 whose judicious statements we have so frequently had 
 occasion to refer, are entirely to the purpose. " The 
 hours of food and repose, "says he, u are capable of such 
 wide modifications, in animals, and, above all, in man, by 
 the influence of external stimulants and internal emotions, 
 that it is not easy to distinguish what portion of the ten- 
 dency to such alternations depends on original constitu- 
 tion. Yet, no one can doubt that the inclination of food 
 and sleep is periodical, or can maintain, with any plausi- 
 bility, that the period may be lengthened or shortened 
 without limit. We may be tolerably certain, that a con- 
 stantly recurring period of forty-eight hours, would be too 
 long for one day of employment, and one period of sleep, 
 with our present faculties ; and all, whose bodies and 
 minds are tolerably active, will probably agree, that, in- 
 
76 SLEEP. 
 
 dependently of habit, a perpetual alternation of eight hours 
 up, and four in bed, would employ the human powers less 
 advantageously and agreeably, than an alternation of six- 
 teen and eight. A creature, which could employ the full 
 energies of his body and mind uninterruptedly for nine 
 months, and then take a single sleep of three months, 
 would not be a man." 
 
 "This view," he afterwards adds, "agrees with the 
 opinion of some of the most eminent physiologists. Thus 
 Cabanis notices the periodical and isochronous character 
 of the desire to sleep, as well as of other appetites. He 
 states, also, that sleep is more easy and more salutary, in 
 proportion as we go to rest, and rise every day at the same 
 hour ; and observes, that this periodicity seems to have 
 a reference to the motions of the solar system." 
 
 All this, leads to the conclusion, that the correspond- 
 ence thus obvious between the laws of the material world, 
 and the constitution of man, and other animals, is not 
 fortuitous, but is the appointment of a Wise Contriver, 
 and manifests a designing First Cause. 
 
 THIRD WEEK FRIDAY. 
 
 SLEEP. 
 
 THE remarkable manner in which the constitution of 
 plants and animals is adapted to the length of the day, 
 was yesterday commented on ; and one of the most strik- 
 ing of these adaptations, is, the provision by which man, 
 and many of the lower animals, drop into a state of inac- 
 tivity and sweet oblivion during the night. 
 
 The presence of light,is necessary to enable creatures, 
 constituted as we are, to prosecute useful labors ; but 
 constant toil wears out the frame, and a period of rest is 
 necessary. There is, therefore, an arrangement of our 
 ever-provident Creator, by which light shall be, for a 
 
SLEEP. 77 
 
 time, withdrawn from us, that we may be compelled, by 
 a natural necessity, to refrain, at regulated and short in- 
 tervals, from the prosecution of labors in which we might 
 otherwise be too eagerly engaged. This is the point of 
 view in which the subject has been already considered. 
 Let us now attend to the subject in another light. Look- 
 ing at the fact, that the earth is made to revolve on its 
 axis once every twenty-four hours, and that thus its in- 
 habitants are deprived of its light, and other genial influ- 
 ences, for nearly the half of that time, on an average, 
 each day, What is the contrivance by which this natural 
 occurrence is rendered agreeable and salutary ? The 
 reply is, that a provision is made, by which the active 
 powers, both of body and mind, are suspended, and sleep 
 is induced. 
 
 And what is sleep ? There is something very myste- 
 rious in this state, considered as a physiological pheno- 
 menon ; but this inquiry does not fall under our present 
 plan ; and, if it did, we should probably find it difficult 
 to come to any satisfactory conclusion as to its efficient 
 cause, or the nature of the physical change in the ner- 
 vous system, by which it is produced. We know it is a 
 fact, in the constitution of living beings ; and this is all 
 that it seems necessary, at present, to say on the subject. 
 To define sleep, according to its actual appearances, is 
 sufficiently easy. In attending to our own experience, 
 in regard to its approach and actual occurrence, we dis- 
 cover that the will seems gradually to become enfeebled 
 in its power, over both the bodily and mental operations ; 
 that the body becomes as it were benumbed, and ceases 
 to receive impressions of external objects ; and that the 
 faculty of thought seems to wander without control. In 
 the functions which serve for the support of life, on the 
 contrary, there is no material interruption. All of them 
 remain unsuspended, and some of them are maintained 
 in full vigor and activity. The natural actions of respira- 
 tion, circulation, and digestion, are little affected. The 
 powers, which are merely mechanical or chemical, seem 
 to proceed in the usual manner ; and, whatever internal 
 stimuli are necessary for keeping them in action, retain 
 
78 SLEEP. 
 
 their sensibility.* It is otherwise with the different 
 senses. These fall into a state of obtuseness and relaxa- 
 tion, from which they are not easily roused, though the 
 possibility of affecting them, even without putting an end 
 to the state of sleep, is a matter of daily experience ; 
 and, indeed, the fact that a sleeper can be awaked at all, 
 through the medium of his sense of hearing, or of touch, 
 or of sight, or even of taste, or smell, is a sufficient proof 
 that these faculties are not completely suspended. Neither 
 is there a suspension of the mental powers. Our thoughts 
 succeed each other with inconceivable rapidity, and the 
 imagination appears often to be peculiarly awake and 
 brilliant. It is the power of volition alone, so far as the 
 mind is concerned, which has ceased to be exerted. This 
 is usually attended with a relaxation of the voluntary 
 muscles, which occasions a total want of power in all the 
 parts of the body over which these muscles have control. 
 I mention this, however, only as the usual condition of 
 persons in a state of somnolency ; for it is one of the 
 remarkable phenomena of dreaming, to which we shall 
 have occasion afterwards to advert, that the mind does 
 then frequently exert an influence, of a very extraordinary 
 nature, over the bodily functions. 
 
 There is something, at once interesting and strange, in 
 this state, which its familiar occurrence causes us often 
 to lose sight of ; but I must at present confine myself to 
 a single observation. It is an essential characteristic of 
 sleep, that, so far from being able to induce it when we 
 please, the anxiety to obtain this refreshment only drives 
 it away from us ; and it is not till we cease to think about 
 
 * It seems,that this should be taken with some limitation. " Sleep," 
 says Mr. Macnish, " produces rather important changes in the system. 
 The rapidity of the circulation is diminished, and, as a natural conse- 
 quence, that of respiration : the force of neither function, however, is 
 impaired ; but, on the contrary, rather increased. Vascular action is 
 diminished in the brain and organs of volition ; while digestion and ab- 
 sorption all proceed with increased energy." " Sleep lessens all the 
 secretions, with one exception, that of the skin." "Sleep produces 
 peculiar effects on the organs of vision. On opening the eyelids cau- 
 tiously, the pupil is seen to be contracted ; it then quivers with an irreg- 
 ular motion, as if disposed to dilate ; but at length ceases to move, and 
 remains in a contracted state till the person awakes." 
 
DREAMING. 79 
 
 it, that it steals on us. This is doubtless a wise provis- 
 ion ; but then, were it to invade our body and mind not 
 only unsolicited, but unexpected, and were we unable, 
 to any extent, to counteract its approaches, very distress- 
 ing effects might be produced. 
 
 It is, therefore, no slight proof of the wisdom of the 
 Divine Contriver, that, while he has rendered sleep a 
 necessary function, superior to the human will, he has, 
 at the same time, afforded such indications of its approach, 
 as to allow man time and opportunity decently to compose 
 his limbs, and has even bestowed upon him such power 
 of temporary counteraction, especially in seasons of ac- 
 tive exertion, as to enable him to carry on his operations 
 for a considerable period, without serious inconvenience, 
 or fear of interruption, by the unwelcome and death-like 
 intruder. 
 
 THIRD WEEK SATURDAY. 
 
 DREAMING. 
 
 THE phenomena of dreaming, which are so remarkable, 
 and in some respects so inexplicable, seem to have been 
 afforded by Providence, as a kind of agreeable relaxation 
 to the ever-active powers of the mind, while the bodily 
 functions are in a state of necessary repose. 
 
 The subject has attracted deep attention from the ear- 
 liest times, and has given rise to views and theories of 
 very different kinds, corresponding either with the pre- 
 possessions of a particular age, or with the speculative 
 views of the individuals by whom it has been treated. 
 In early times, when a miraculous intercourse was kept 
 up between heaven and earth, in preparing the world for 
 the reception of the Saviour, dreams were frequently em- 
 ployed as the medium of that intercourse ; .and it was 
 perhaps owing to these real events, that a superstitious 
 
80 DREAMING. 
 
 veneration for dreams was cherished, even in the most 
 polished ages of the ancient world. The Greeks and 
 Romans divided the action of the mind, in sleep, into 
 five sorts, the dream, the vision, the oracle, the insom- 
 nium, and the phantasm, of which the three first were 
 supposed to be divinely inspired. To such height had 
 the superstitious feeling with regard to dreams arisen in 
 Rome, in the age of Augustus Caesar, that this monarch 
 procured the passing of a law, obliging all who had 
 dreamed any thing respecting the state, to make it publicly 
 known ; and he himself, in consequence of a nocturnal 
 vision, submitted to the degrading act of begging in the 
 streets. 
 
 More rational views have of late been entertained on 
 this curious subject, though the philosophical theories 
 which have been entertained regarding it, are still far 
 from being either very satisfactory in themselves, or con- 
 sistent with each other. On. these, I shall not enter ;* 
 but some facts present themselves to our notice, which 
 seem worthy of remark. 
 
 What I have chiefly to observe is, that, whatever may 
 have been the design of Providence in appointing the 
 existence of this mysterious state of mind, its functions 
 are so guarded and qualified, as, speaking generally, to 
 prevent injurious consequences, and often to afford an 
 exhilarating play to the imagination. The dreamer, is 
 introduced into a kind of fairy land, where, as Addison, 
 
 * Should the reader wish to prosecute this subject, he may be referred 
 to the interesting observations of Dr. Abercrombie, in his ' Inquiries 
 concerning the Intellectual Powers,' and to the elaborate work of the 
 late Mr. Robert Macnish, of Glasgow, on ' The Philosophy of Sleep,' 
 where the phenomena of sleep and dreaming are investigated with much 
 ingenuity, and in a manner which has deservedly gained the author 
 considerable celebrity. Dr. Abercrombie states, that there is a strange 
 analogy between dreaming and insanity ; and he defines the difference 
 between the two states to be, that, in the latter, the erroneous impres- 
 sion being permanent, affects the conduct ; whereas, in dreaming, no 
 influence on the conduct is produced, because the vision is dissipated on 
 awaking. " This definition," says Mr. Macnish, " is nearly, but not 
 wholly, correct ; for, in somnambulism and sleep-talking, the conduct 
 is influenced by the prevailing dream. Dr. Rush has, with great 
 shrewdness, remarked, that a dream may be considered as a transient 
 paroxysm of delirium, and delirium as a permanent dream." 
 
DREAMING. 81 
 
 with his usual elegance and felicity, expresses it, u the 
 soul converses with numberless beings of her own crea- 
 tion, and is transported into ten thousand scenes of her 
 own raising ; she is herself the theatre, the actor, and 
 the beholder." In this state, when reason appears, for a 
 time, to have given up the reins to fancy, it seems as if 
 a very slight variation in the intensity of the feeling, or 
 in the duration of the delusion, might be attended with 
 fatal effects. Sometimes, a deed of horror is supposed 
 to be done, or the most overwhelming calamity is believed 
 to have happened. The event is depicted in the strong- 
 est colors ; it is actually seen, as it were, to take place 
 before our eyes ; the impression made on the mind is 
 that of assured conviction of its truth, accompanied with 
 the most intense agony ; a moment longer, and the brain 
 would be set on fire. That boundary, however, is never 
 passed. A provision is made by which the very violence 
 of the agitation effects the remedy, and the dreamer 
 awakes with a heart ready to burst indeed, or with nerves 
 strung and shaken to the very verge of their utmost 
 endurance ; but the phantoms disappear, the anguish 
 subsides ; and, in a few minutes, the mind is as calm and 
 serene as before. 
 
 The same observations will apply, with still greater 
 force, to the phenomena of somnambulism, the most 
 frightful and dangerous condition of persons in sleep. 
 This is evidently not a natural and healthy, but a diseased 
 state of the bodily and mental powers, and therefore forms 
 such an exception to the general rule as we would make 
 in any other case of morbid action. It is worthy of re- 
 mark, however, that while this irregular affection shows 
 the distressing consequences which might ensue, were it 
 to be the usual accompaniment of the dormant state, and 
 thus very strikingly proves the wisdom of the natural 
 provision, the law of which is, that the body shall not 
 obey the dictates of the soul in sleep, it is at the same 
 time kept within such bounds, that fatal, or even distress- 
 ing accidents, seldom take place from the vagaries of the 
 somnambulist. We hear of such persons climbing to 
 the tops of houses, or walking along precipices, and per- 
 
82 DREAMING. 
 
 forming other perilous feats, which in their waking hours 
 they would have shuddered even to think of, yet, when 
 left undisturbed, with astonishing dexterity surmounting 
 every danger, and returning in safety to their beds. But 
 we must further remark, that even these are extreme and 
 very rare instances, and that, in by far the greatest vari- 
 ety of cases, in which there is a tendency to this disease, 
 the body only very partially and very harmlessly yields 
 to the suggestions of the mind. A few muttered senten- 
 ces, or a restless turning in bed, or at most, perhaps, a 
 habit of occasionally rising and walking about the floor, 
 are in general the only indications that the body has a 
 tendency, under the excitement of dreaming, to obey the 
 suggestions of the imagination. 
 
 Having mentioned the subject of somnambulism, I am 
 reminded of a remarkable instance of it, recorded in the 
 Edinburgh Encyclopedia, in its memoir of Dr. Blacklock, 
 whose accomplishments as a poet and a clergyman, though 
 struggling from his early infancy with all the privations 
 of blindness, are well known to the literary world. This 
 excellent man had received a presentation to the living of 
 Kirkcudbright, and his settlement was violently opposed. 
 He was deeply agitated with the hostility which was man- 
 ifested against him, and, after dining with some friends on 
 the day of his ordination, finding rest necessary to recruit 
 his harassed and exhausted spirits, he left the table and 
 retired to bed, when the following extraordinary circum- 
 stance occurred : " One of his companions, uneasy at 
 his absence from the company, went into his bedroom 
 a few hours afterwards, and finding him, as he supposed, 
 awake, prevailed on him to return again into the dining- 
 room. When he entered the room, two of his acquaint- 
 ances were engaged in singing, and he joined in the con- 
 cert, modulating his voice as usual with taste and elegance, 
 without missing a note or a syllable ; and, after the 
 words of the song were ended, he continued to sing, ad- 
 ding an extempore verse, which appeared to the company 
 full of beauty, and quite in the spirit of the original. He 
 then went to supper, and drank a glass or two of wine. 
 His friends, however, observed him to be occasionally 
 
DREAMING. 83 
 
 absent and inattentive. By and by,he was heard speak- 
 ing to himself, but in so low and confused a manner as 
 to be unintelligible. At last, being pretty forcibly roused 
 by Mrs. Blacklock, who began to be alarmed form's intel- 
 lects, he awoke, with a sudden start, unconscious of all that 
 had happened, having been the whole time fast asleep."* 
 
 Lord Brougham, in his lately-published Discourse 
 on Natural Theology, makes use of the phenomena of 
 dreaming, as an argument for the mind's independence 
 of matter, and capacity of existence without it. His 
 argument, in a few words, is this : In the state of dream- 
 ing, all the bodily functions which depend upon volition 
 are suspended ; and the bodily senses, though not entirely 
 in a state of abeyance, become very obtuse. But this 
 does not interrupt the activity of the mind ; on the con- 
 trary, the power of imagination, and the celerity with 
 which ideas pass through the mind, are increased by this 
 cessation of communication through the senses. The 
 mind, therefore, acts vigorously, when the powers of the 
 body are unstrung ; and it is only advancing another step 
 to suppose, that it can act altogether independently of 
 its material instrument, and survive it. To prove the 
 extreme agility of the mental powers, and their total di- 
 versity from any material substances and actions, his 
 lordship enters into some curious details of the phenom- 
 ena of dreaming, which incontestably prove that it some- 
 times requires but an exceedingly short period to suggest 
 and complete a long train of incidents. " A puncture 
 made," says he, in one of his illustrations, u will immedi- 
 ately produce a long dream, which seems to terminate 
 in some such accident, as that the sleeper has been wan- 
 dering through a wood, and received a severe wound from 
 a spear, or the tooth of a wild animal, which at the same 
 instant awakens him. A gun fired in one instance, dur- 
 ing the alarm of invasion, made a military man at once 
 dream the enemy had landed, so that he ran to his post, 
 and repairing to the scene of action, was present when 
 the first discharge took place, which also at the same 
 moment awakened him." 
 
 * Edinburgh Encyclopedia, Article, Blacklock. 
 
84 DREAMING. 
 
 From these facts, Lord Brougham infers, " the infinite 
 rapidity of thought." ' ' Mark," he says, u what was done 
 in an instant, in a mere point of time. The sensation 
 of the pain or noise beginning, is conveyed to the mind, 
 and sets it a thinking of many things connected with such 
 sensations. But that sensation is lost or forgotten, for a 
 portion of the short instant during which the impression 
 lasts ; for the conclusion of the same impression gives rise 
 to a new set of ideas. The walk in the wood, and the hur- 
 rying to the post, are suggested by the sensation begin- 
 ning. Then follow many things unconnected with that 
 sensation, except that they grew out of it ; and lastly 
 comes the wound, and the broadside, suggested by the 
 continuance of the sensation ; while, all the time, this 
 continuance has been producing an effect on the mind 
 wholly different from the train of ideas the dream consists 
 of, nay, destructive of that train, namely, the effect of 
 rousing it from the state of sleep, and restoring its do- 
 minion over the body. Nay, there may be said to be a 
 third operation of the mind going on at the same time 
 with these two, a looking forward to the denouement 
 of the plot, for the fancy is all along so contriving as 
 to fit,, by terminating in some event, some result con- 
 sistent with the impression made on the senses, and which 
 has given rise to the whole train of ideas."* 
 
 * I cannot, without diffidence, differ from such an authority ; but I 
 am by no means sure that the view the noble author has taken of these 
 phenomena is perfectly correct. I should rather be inclined to think 
 that the whole series of incidents in dreams were suggested after the 
 shock, which at last put an end to sleep, had been received ; and, dur- 
 ing the period, somewhat more than an instant, though exceedingly short, 
 which elapsed before the process of awaking had been accomplished ; 
 and that the wound and discharge of musketry, imagined in the dream, 
 were not the same as the puncture and the shot which actually took place, 
 but were afterwards conceived, like the other parts of the dream. This 
 view disembarrasses the matter of some of its difficulties ; but, on any 
 supposition, the dream must have been nearly instantaneous, and the 
 rapidity of the succession of ideas is wonderful. I am compelled also 
 to doubt the validity of the conclusion to which his lordship comes, 
 that " we only dream during the instant of transition into and out of 
 sleep." Several facts contradict this view ; and, in particular, the phe- 
 nomena of somnambulism, and of speaking during sleep, are conclusive 
 against it. The case of Dr. Blacklock, for example, cannot possibly be 
 explained on his lordship's hypothesis. 
 
THE WORLD A STATE OF DISCIPLINE. 85 
 
 Whether we entirely agree with this reasoning or not, 
 there can be no doubt that the rapidity of thought, 
 evinced in dreaming, is amazing ; nor is it easy to elude 
 the ingenious argument for the immateriality of the soul, 
 which the author has founded on it ; though, if we were 
 to rely on this argument, it might land us in the belief, 
 that the souls of the lower animals, many of which are 
 known also to dream, must be immaterial too. 
 
 FOURTH WEEK SUNDAY. 
 
 THIS WORLD A STATE OF DISCIPLINE. 
 
 THE peculiar condition of sublunary things, as imper- 
 fect and transitory, is forced on our notice by the cir- 
 cumstances of the external world during the period of 
 winter. The beauty of the year is gone, the cheerful 
 notes of the lark, of the blackbird, of the thrush, and of 
 the whole choir which poured the voice of love and en- 
 joyment from earth and sky, have ceased in our land, and 
 a brooding, ominous melancholy reigns around. This 
 is but one instance of a character impressed, as we have 
 seen, on every thing under the sun. All are full of 
 change and decay ; and the state of the natural world is 
 only an emblem of that which subsists in the moral world, 
 where temptation, and sin, and sorrow, have shed their 
 fatal blight over the glorious prospects of rational and 
 immortal beings. 
 
 This condition would be totally inexplicable, we're it 
 not for the light thrown on the subject by Revelation. 
 When we are told that we are at present only in the in- 
 fancy of our existence, placed here in a state of discipline, 
 to prepare us for a higher and more perfect residence, 
 the mystery is unravelled, and we are made to under- 
 stand, in some degree at least, why it has pleased the 
 All-wise Disposer of events to place us in a world where 
 i. 8 vii. 
 
86 THE WORLD A STATE OF DISCIPLINE. 
 
 He only displays the brightness of His perfections as it 
 were by glimpses, and casts clouds and darkness over the 
 rest of the scene. 
 
 It is true that evil exists ; but the Christian knows that 
 it is overruled for good. Our Creator does not, indeed, 
 remove calamity, but He changes its nature, and gives 
 us power cheerfully to endure it. As our religion shows 
 us the hand of a God of love in every thing, it causes us 
 to regard distress, from whatever earthly source it arises, 
 as u the chastisement of a Father, who chastens us for 
 our profit, that we may become partakers of his holiness." 
 Hence the Christian is in a condition to feel a constant 
 and delightful dependence on Providence. Thus in- 
 structed, he may grieve, but he cannot repine ; he may 
 be humbled and afflicted, but he cannot despair. Shall 
 a child, who knows that a Father corrects him in love, 
 murmur under the rod ? Shall he not rather bend with 
 humble resignation, and look up with affectionate joy, 
 to the hand which wounds that it may heal ? 
 
 This would be the effect of faith in the promises of the 
 Gospel, even although the operations of Providence were 
 surrounded with such mysterious darkness, that our limit- 
 ed faculties could perceive in them no traces of Divine 
 wisdom and goodness. But it is no trifling addition to 
 the satisfaction with which we rest in these promises, 
 that God frequently condescends to make bare His holy 
 arm in our sight, that we may follow His hand, as it over- 
 rules earthly events, and controls human passions and 
 affections, so as to render both moral and physical evil 
 an instrument of good. 
 
 In reference to our condition as moral agents, and with 
 a view to the powers and faculties, which, as sinful but 
 rational creatures, we possess, it is not difficult to per- 
 ceive in what manner the afflictive vicissitudes of life 
 operate in elevating and ameliorating our character. If 
 life were free from evil, there would be little to employ 
 the judgement, or call into action the latent faculties, 
 little to rouse, to affect, and to invigorate the human 
 soul. The heroic virtues of fortitude and courage, for 
 example, would be without an object, were there no 
 
THE WORLD A STATE OF DISCIPLINE. 87 
 
 perils to encounter, and no enemies to subdue. What 
 self-abasement could there be where there was no in- 
 firmity ? What meekness, what patience, what forbear- 
 ance, if there were no injustice to sustain, no calamities 
 to suffer, and no injuries to forgive ? Where were the 
 exercise of resignation in a paradise of bliss ? Where the 
 trial of faith in a land of righteousness ? 
 
 The social virtues, too, as well as the personal, could, 
 under such circumstances, only be called into partial 
 action. How could there be any pity, where there was 
 no distress ? any sympathetic joy, where there was no 
 escape from danger ? any compassionate charity, where 
 there were no sins to cover, and no wants to relieve ? 
 
 Were there no evils, then, either in the circumstances 
 of the external world, or in the moral and physical con- 
 dition of thp snr.ip.t.v in which we dwell, some of our 
 
 noblest faculties would remain unexercised and unim- 
 proved. But it is not so. Under the discipline of 
 Providence, the Christian is tutored in the school of ad- 
 versity ; and is rendered prudent by disappointment, hum- 
 ble by error, and magnanimous by endurance. Baffled, 
 afflicted, persecuted, but rising superior to calamity, he 
 unfolds his patience, his meekness, his resignation. Ex- 
 periencing the hatred and contempt of those whom his 
 heart desires to benefit, he learns the divine duty of for- 
 giveness, and is taught to persevere in offices of kind- 
 ness to the ungrateful. While engaged in these severe 
 but exalted exercises, he becomes sensible of his own 
 inability, and is forced to exclaim, "Who is sufficient 
 for these things ?" Thus, he is led to apply to Him 
 who has said^ cc My grace is sufficient for thee, my 
 strength is made perfect in weakness." Weeping for 
 his sins at the foot of the cross, he feels the virtue of 
 humility taking deep root and growing in his soul ; and 
 the graces of faith, of hope, and of joy in the Saviour of 
 sinners, rising to maturity. 
 
 In a word, the disciple of the Man of Sorrows is ex- 
 posed to temptation, that he may guard against it ; to 
 difficulties, that he may overcome them ; to dangers, 
 that he may rise above them. He is taught, by expe- 
 
88 THE WORLD A STATE OF DISCIPLINE. 
 
 rience, the unprofitableness of sin, and he hates it, the 
 emptiness of human honors, and he despises them, the 
 worthlessness of earthly pleasures, and he looks beyond 
 them. 
 
 Contemplate the servant of Jesus, as, under the guid- 
 ance of Heaven, he advances through this vale of tears, 
 gradually throwing off the load of his sins, mixing with 
 the world, that he may learn to despise its follies, gain- 
 ing strength by moral discipline, and improving in virtues 
 and graces at every step. In this character, you witness 
 the highest glory of human nature in its state of sin and 
 suffering on earth, a being, worthy of the approbation 
 of angels. You see, a soldier taught to fight the good 
 fight of faith, and trained to victory amidst hardships, 
 dangers, and death, a pilgrim travelling through the 
 wilderness, with steady eye fixed on the Holy Land, 
 a pupil of God, instructed in the school of His provi- 
 dence, an heir of immortality, rendered meet for the 
 inheritance of the saints in light. 
 
 Clothed now in the armor of God, he goes forth 
 " conquering and to conquer ;" surrounded with danger, 
 but trusting in an unseen arm ; struggling with sorrow, 
 yet kissing the hand which inflicts the wound ; "troubled 
 on every side, but not distressed ; perplexed, but not in 
 despair: persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down but not 
 destroyed :" eluding the snares of the world, and even 
 successfully contending with u principalities and powers, 
 the rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual 
 wickedness in high places." 
 
 What striking instances of the efficacy of Christian 
 principles, exercised amidst vicissitudes and suffering, 
 do we discover in the Apostles of our Lord, who rejoiced 
 when they were counted worthy of stripes for the sake 
 of their beloved Master, in whom " tribulation wrought 
 patience, and patience experience, and experience hope;" 
 and whom u hope made not ashamed, because, the love 
 of God was shed abroad in their hearts." And, above 
 all, what a dignified and lovely example of the same 
 principle do we behold in Christ, himself, whose whole 
 life was an illustration of the power of Divine grace, in 
 
THE STARRY HEAVENS. 89 
 
 calling the noblest faculties into exercise, and thus ren- 
 dering the character of man " perfect through suffering ;" 
 and who could, at the close of His earthly career, when 
 He saw the time immediately at hand, so full of unutter- 
 able horrors, in which the whole world was to be com- 
 bined against Him, in which His very disciples were to 
 forsake their Master, and allow Him to tread the wine- 
 press alone, who could, I say, even in this most ap- 
 palling hour of the power of darkness, preserve unshaken 
 His confidence in an unseen God, and feeling that He 
 was not alone, for the Father was with Him, could in 
 pious resignation exclaim, " Father ! not as I will, but as 
 Thou wilt!" 
 
 But there is a far higher consideration, which gives a 
 peculiar character to the troubles of life, and stamps on 
 them an inestimable value. They prepare mortal man 
 for immortality. Here is the true source of Christian 
 consolation. What are a few fleeting years of imperfect 
 enjoyment, or even of positive calamity, when, through 
 that very condition, we shall be rendered meet to enter 
 the kingdom of God, and dwell with Him for ever ? 
 Who would not go on a pilgrimage through this dark and 
 howling wilderness, when he sees rising before him, in 
 all their grandeur and beauty, the everlasting mansions of 
 the promised land ? Who would not cheerfully bear the 
 light affliction of the present moment, when he knows 
 that it is " working out for him a far more exceeding, 
 even an eternal weight of glory ?" 
 
 FOURTH WEEK MONDAY. 
 
 I . THE STARRY HEAVENS . GENERAL REMARKS . 
 
 NOTHING is better calculated to raise the contempla- 
 tive mind to the great Author of all things, than a view 
 of the starry heavens, when night has cast its deep shade 
 
 8* 
 
90 THE STARRY HEAVENS. 
 
 over the face of Nature, and the frost of winter has not 
 only converted the earth into stone, and the waters into 
 crystal, but has charmed the exhalations from the air, and 
 endowed it with such a beautiful transparency, that each 
 little star shoots its radiance on the eye, and the whole 
 sublime hemisphere seems like an immense and gorgeous 
 dome, studded with diamonds ; a fit temple for the wor- 
 ship of the Creator. The untutored savage, though he 
 regards the stars only as so many lamps suspended from 
 the azure vault, to enlighten and cheer his abode, is struck 
 with admiration of the gift ; and, with a heart overflow- 
 ing with gratitude, falls down to bless the Great Spirit 
 who bestowed it. Ignorance and astonishment have gone 
 still further ; and, in almost all nations, traces are to be 
 found of the worship of the heavenly bodies, a rude, but 
 not altogether unnatural form of religion to the uninstruct- 
 ed mind. The u Hosts of Heaven," are assuredly the 
 most striking and appropriate visible emblems of the glory 
 of the Almighty Unseen ; and, where the mind has been 
 unaccustomed to reflect on any objects but those which 
 strike the senses, the mistake may, without difficulty, be 
 accounted for. Certainly such a belief, is neither so 
 strange nor so revolting, as the worship of cows and ser- 
 pents, or even of men and devils, with examples of which 
 the history of heathen mythology abounds. 
 
 Science, however, even in its earliest efforts, easily 
 shook off this superstition ; and, as it advanced, exhibited 
 new wonders in the sky, which extended the views, while 
 they intensely excited the curiosity, of man, and gave 
 deep exercise to his intellectual faculties. Hence have 
 resulted discoveries which have overwhelmed the mind 
 with astonishment. It does appear little less than miracu- 
 lous, that a worm of earth, like man, who is bound to a 
 little spot of this remote planet ; whose abode upon it is 
 but threescore and ten years ; whose bodily strength is 
 inferior to that of many other animals ; whose powers of 
 vision are more limited ; whose intellect, in ordinary cir- 
 cumstances, rises but little beyond a mere provision for 
 daily subsistence ; that this being, with faculties and 
 means apparently so inadequate, should have been enabled, 
 
THE STARRY HEAVENS. 91 
 
 by dint of an insatiable desire of knowledge, and an un- 
 wearied perseverance, to overcome so many difficulties, 
 and to forge a key, by which the mysteries of the uni- 
 verse have been unlocked, and a near view has been ob- 
 tained of the secret springs, which, under the fiat of the 
 Creator, move the amazing machinery of the material 
 world. Little did the rude inhabitants of the earth think, 
 when they gazed, in stupid surprise, on the tiny sparks 
 which bespangled the heavens, that each of these was a 
 globe of fire, compared with which the earth they inhab- 
 ited, was but as a ball, which a child tosses in his hand ; 
 or, that the distance at which they were situated, was so 
 amazing, that a hundred millions of miles was but as the 
 length of an infant's step. Yet these are truths now fa- 
 miliar to every mind, and established by demonstrations, 
 on which skepticism itself dare not breathe a doubt. 
 
 The world of wonders into which astronomy introduces 
 us, is calculated at once to enlarge and to depress the 
 mind ; to depress it with a sense of its own insignificance ; 
 to enlarge it with views and exercises so immense, that, 
 as it expands, it perceives more and more clearly the im- 
 measurable vastness of the grasp it is required to take ; 
 and, though constantly enlarging, in proportion to its ef- 
 forts, feels itself, at every step, left hopelessly behind, 
 till at last it is lost in infinitude. 
 
 When a man confines himself to his own little locality, 
 and looks around him on the subject earth, which his 
 plastic hand converts from a wilderness into a garden ; or 
 on the lower animals, whom he subdues to his will, and 
 causes, by the superiority of his mental powers, to supply 
 his wants, and administer to his comforts ; or, even on 
 the waters of the far-spread ocean, whose proud waves he 
 conquers, and over whose trackless wastes he makes his 
 way ; or on the free and capricious air, whose fury he 
 controls, and whose blandness he renders subservient to 
 his pleasures or his profit, in such contemplations, he 
 may find much to foster self-complacency, and to per- 
 suade him that he is, in reality, that lordly being which 
 pride and vanity delight to portray. But the scenes which 
 astronomy unfolds, arer altogether of a different tendency, 
 
92 THE STARRY HEAVENS. 
 
 and ought to repress those swellings of self-love, which a 
 more partial and contracted view of his situation may ex- 
 cite. The voyager who has compassed the earth, when 
 he returns to his native village is surprised to find that 
 every thing has, to his view, contracted in its dimensions, 
 and become comparatively mean and sordid in its appear- 
 ance. The houses have shrunk into hovels ; the village- 
 green, from a broad-spread lawn, has dwindled into a 
 miserable court-yard ; miles have diminished into fur- 
 longs ; and magnificent estates into sorry farms. This 
 effect has been produced by a contrast with the expan- 
 sion of his own views ; and a similar result arises from the 
 contemplations of the astronomer. Expatiating in the 
 infinity of the universe, the things of earth seem to lessen 
 while he regards them. As he pursues his inquiries, the 
 contrast becomes daily more apparent and more hum- 
 bling. He begins to perceive an emptiness in those 
 things that formerly engaged his attention, and interested 
 his affections, which he did not previously suspect. He 
 finds himself placed on a little planet, whose comparative 
 insignificance is such, that, were it struck from the face 
 of creation, its fate would be but like that of a falling star, 
 which loses itself in the heavens, and is remembered no 
 more. And, as to himself, what an atom is he ! How 
 humiliating is the thought ! 
 
 But the mind cannot rest here. If the creation be so 
 inconceivably extensive, what is the Creator ? This is 
 the most interesting and elevating of all inquiries. When 
 the mind has dwelt upon it, till its importance is appre- 
 ciated, and its various bearings perceived, and then turns 
 back upon itself, the reflection naturally occurs, u Am 
 not I a child of this Almighty Parent ? Is it not in His 
 universe that I exist ? Has He not constituted me a part 
 of the system which His Infinite Wisdom has established? 
 And what, then, is that system with reference to me, and 
 the race with which I am connected ?" 
 
 Such views, open to the inquiring mind, the whole 
 field of Natural and Revealed Religion, and lead irresist- 
 ibly to the conclusion, that there is no satisfactory ac- 
 count of man's nature and destiny, but in the inspired 
 
THE STARRY HEAVENS. 93 
 
 word, and no resting-place for his hopes, but in the life 
 and immortality which have been brought to light in the 
 Gospel of Jesus. 
 
 FOURTH WEEK TUESDAY. 
 
 II. THE STARRY HEAVENS. GRAVITATION AND INERTIA. 
 
 IF it be true, as there is every reason to believe, that 
 the fixed stars which sparkle in the heavens, are suns 
 like our own, shining, as they certainly do, by their own 
 light, and shedding their radiance on other worlds, a view 
 of creation is opened to us, which it is both delight- 
 ful and overwhelming to contemplate ; and to this view 
 we shall afterwards turn. At present, let us take a 
 rapid survey of the system of which we ourselves form 
 a part. 
 
 Our star (for the sun, considered with reference to the 
 universe, deserves no higher name) appears larger than 
 other stars to us, only on account of its nearness ; but 
 when we call it near, we speak relatively ; for it is 
 known to be separated from us by the amazing distance 
 of 95,000,000 of miles. It is the centre of our planetary 
 system ; that is to say, there are certain bodies similar 
 to our own globe, which bear to the sun the same rela- 
 tion, being, like the earth, attracted to it by the all-per- 
 vading law of gravitation, and only kept from falling into 
 it, as a stone when thrown falls to the ground, by the 
 velocity with which they move in a different direction. 
 The two wellknown laws, so simple in their nature, and 
 yet so vast in their effects, by which the whole creation 
 is moulded and regulated, have, ever since their discov- 
 ery as universal agents, been most justly regarded with 
 the highest admiration ; and it is not easy to conceive 
 any thing capable of impressing on the mind a more ex- 
 alted view of the power and wisdom of the Creator. It 
 
94 THE STARRY HEAVENS. 
 
 would be inconsistent with our plan to enter deeply into 
 this subject ; but some cursory observations on a matter 
 of such intense interest, and so directly illustrative of the 
 perfections of God, cannot be considered out of place. 
 Every one is familiar with the law of gravity or weight, 
 that mysterious power, which, acting uniformly, draws 
 all things downwards, toward the centre of the earth. 
 It is in virtue of this law, that, were I to open my fin- 
 gers, the pen with which I write would fall flat upon the 
 paper. It is the same law, which causes the ink to flow 
 upon the paper from my pen, the paper to lie steadily 
 on my desk, and the desk itself to stand firmly on the 
 floor. Nay, it is this very law which gives solidity to 
 the ground on which I tread, which has formed it into a 
 globe, and which prevents it from breaking up into shape- 
 less and unconnected masses. The properties of this 
 unseen aormt * + palpable, in relation to our own 
 sphere, to have escaped the attention of the earliest in- 
 quirers into Nature. But it was reserved to a far later 
 period to demonstrate, or even to conjecture, that the 
 very same power, which produces such salutary effects 
 in the earth, is not only an essential property of all mat- 
 ter, but acts at the greatest distances, and preserves the 
 balance of the universe. 
 
 The other property, which, combined with gravitation, 
 is employed in regulating the machinery of creation on 
 the great scale, is also familiar to the most ignorant, in 
 regard to some of its qualities. Every child knows, that 
 a stone thrown forcibly from the hand, or an arrow shot 
 from a bow, will continue for some time to move forward 
 in the direction in which it has been projected ; but, 
 then, this power of continued motion, as it comes under 
 ordinary observation, is only very limited in its opera- 
 tion, because it is counteracted both by the attraction of 
 the earth and the resistance of the air, and no force which 
 human skill can apply, is sufficiently powerful to give 
 an impetus to any body, capable of overcoming, for a 
 length of time, these opposing forces. In the principle 
 itself, however, there is no limit ; and the law is simply 
 this, that while a body at rest will, if not disturbed, re- 
 
GRAVITATION AND INERTIA. 95 
 
 main for ever in that state, a body once set in motion, 
 will, when not acted on by some modifying or counter- 
 acting force, move on continually without deviation or in- 
 termission, in a straight line. This is the law of inertia, 
 [or inertness,] a law which is not less universal than 
 that of gravitation. 
 
 Now, to understand the operation of these two laws 
 in relation to each other, first, suppose a small body, 
 placed at rest, in the neighborhood of a large one, also 
 at rest, both of them in empty space. The mutual at- 
 traction would immediately begin to operate, and they 
 would move toward each other till they met, and that 
 with a rapidity proportioned to the quantity of matter 
 contained in each, the larger most powerfully attracting 
 the smaller. Suppose, again, that the smaller body, in- 
 stead of being placed at rest, was projected with a cer- 
 tain velocity in a direction different from that in which 
 the other was situated. That velocity might be very 
 great ; and then, after a mutual disturbance, arising from 
 the reciprocal attraction, the moving body would disen- 
 gage itself from the other, and fly off into boundless 
 space ; or it might be very small, and then the vis iner- 
 tice would be overcome, and the two bodies would fall 
 toward each other, and unite ; but, if the projecting force 
 were, within certain limits, proportioned to the gravitat- 
 ing force, the consequence would be, that there would be 
 a certain point in the progress of the moving body, in 
 which the two powers would balance each other, and 
 then, that body would continue to move, indeed, but in 
 a constant circuit round the attracting force, which would 
 thus become its centre of motion, and its course would 
 be in an oval or in a circle, according to the force and 
 direction of the motion originally impressed. 
 
 This is, in fact, the principle by which the whole 
 planetary system is governed. The sun, a body of vast 
 dimensions, is the centre of attraction to which all the 
 planets gravitate, and into which they are prevented from 
 falling only by the opposite power of inertia. The two 
 forces, with the nicest exactness, balance each other ; 
 the former, in reference to this principle, being called 
 
96 THE STARRY HEAVENS. 
 
 the centripetal, and the latter the centrifugal motion ; 
 and thus, the great machine is kept in action, and the 
 planets wheel steadily in their respective orbits, and per- 
 form their various beneficent functions. I may add, that 
 this is the principle, not of the solar system only, but of 
 the system of the universe. 
 
 "O, unprofuse magnificence divine ! 
 O, wisdom truly perfect ! thus to call 
 From a few causes such a scheme of things. 
 Effects so various, beautiful, and great, 
 A universe complete !" 
 
 THOMSON. 
 
 FOURTH WEEK WEDNESDAY. 
 
 III. THE STARRY HEAVENS. THE PLANETARY SYSTEM. 
 
 IN the account of the creation given by Moses, the 
 heavenly bodies are spoken of merely with reference to 
 the earth, and the living beings which were created to 
 inhabit its surface. Any other view would seem to 
 have been inconsistent with the design of Revelation. 
 The words of the inspired writer, therefore, are, u God 
 said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, 
 to divide the day from the night ; and let them be for 
 signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years : and 
 let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven, to 
 give light upon the earth : and it was so. And God 
 made two great lights ; the greater light to rule the day, 
 and the lesser light to rule the night : He made the stars 
 also." 
 
 This account very accurately and distinctly enumer- 
 ates the uses of the sun, moon, and stars, so far as the 
 inhabitants of our planet are concerned ; but there is 
 another, which may be called the philosophical view of 
 the subject, on which man was wisely left to exercise his 
 own powers. This treats of the heavenly bodies, with 
 
THE PLANETARY SYSTEM. 97 
 
 reference to each other, and to the universe. Here, a 
 new and most wonderful scene opens to our view, bright 
 with the glory of the Divine perfections ; and this, is the 
 scene which now presents itself for our consideration. 
 
 Keeping in mind that our object is not to write a trea- 
 tise on astronomy, but merely to point out some remark- 
 able facts in the construction of Nature, which can only 
 be referred to an intelligent and benevolent First Cause, 
 let us look more minutely at the appearances of the 
 starry heavens. Besides the moon, which shall be after- 
 ward considered, one of the first things which strike an 
 observer, is, that the great mass of the stars, though ap- 
 parently in constant motion round a point from east to 
 west, occasioned by the diurnal movement of the earth, 
 are yet stationary, or, in other words, preserve, gener- 
 ally speaking, the same relative position, with reference 
 to each other ; but that there are a very few of those lamps 
 of night which follow a different law, continually chang- 
 ing their place, and making progress among the rest, 
 from west to east, with different degrees of velocity. It 
 was discovered, too, as soon as the telescope was applied 
 to the heavens, that, while no known magnifying power 
 could increase the apparent dimensions of the fixed stars, 
 these moving bodies were readily affected by that instru- 
 ment. Such circumstances indicated an essential differ- 
 ence in the nature of the two classes of stars ; and, in 
 the progress of science, it was found that the latter were 
 no other than bodies partaking of the conditions of our 
 own globe, and moving, like the earth, in a constant or- 
 bit round the sun. These are called planets. 
 
 To the ancients only five planets were known, Mer- 
 cury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. To this list, 
 modern science has added the Earth, which takes its 
 place, with relation to its distance from the sun, between 
 Venus and Mars, and Uranus, or Georgium Sidus, [or 
 Herschel,] which is the most distant of them all. Besides 
 these, a still later discovery has been made, of four other 
 planetary bodies, which move in orbits considerably more 
 eccentric than the rest, and are of much smaller dimen- 
 sions, whose situation has been found to be between Mars 
 i. 9 vii. 
 
98 THE STARRY HEAVENS. 
 
 and Jupiter. All these planets are nearly globular, and 
 each moves round its own axis, as well as round the sun. 
 Some of them have attendant bodies, called satellites, of 
 which our moon is an example, moving round their pri- 
 mary planets, nearly in the same plane in which the latter 
 revolve round the sun, and nearly also in a similar orbit. 
 Now, of the orbit of these bodies, the sun, as has been 
 observed, is the centre ; and the first observation which 
 may be made in reference to this arrangement, as indi- 
 cating wise design, is, that this central body is the source 
 of light and heat. Had the world been, as the atheist 
 contends, a mere fortuitous concourse of atoms, grant- 
 ing, for the present, that other arrangements might be 
 accounted for, on causes entirely mechanical, inherent in 
 the constitution of matter, there seems to be no reason 
 deducible from such causes, why the great body, whose 
 enormously superior size constituted it the centre of 
 motion to the smaller globes, should, at the same time, be 
 endowed with those peculiar properties so essential to 
 the very existence of vegetable and animal life. How 
 comes it, that any of the bodies belonging to our system 
 should shed light and warmth over the rest, and that, of 
 these, only one should be endowed with such properties? 
 If this can be accounted for, then why does that body 
 occupy the position at the centre, the only position, be 
 it observed, which could render these life-sustaining prop- 
 perties available for the purpose ? There seems to be 
 no possible reason, except that of Creative Intelligence, 
 why the illuminating body should not be one of the plan- 
 ets ; and, if that had been the case, how irregular, and 
 how totally inefficient would have been the operation. 
 
 This proof of contrivance, which is strikingly and con- 
 vincingly illustrated by Whewell, attracted the attention 
 of Sir Isaac Newton, himself. In his correspondence 
 with Bentley, he concedes that the sun and fixed stars 
 might be formed by the mere force of attraction, and 
 might exhibit their present appearances, provided the mat- 
 ter were of a lucid nature; "But," adds he, " how 
 the matter should divide itself into two sorts, and that part 
 of it which is fit to compose a shining body, should fall 
 
THE SUN THE SOURCE OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 99 
 
 down into one mass, and make a sun ; and the rest, which 
 is fit to compose an opaque body, should coalesce, not 
 into one great body, like the shining matter, but into 
 many little ones ; or, if the sun were at first an opaque 
 body, like the planets, or the planets lucid bodies, like 
 the sun, how he alone should be changed into a shining 
 body, whilst all they continued opaque ; or all they be 
 changed into opaque ones, whilst he continued unchanged, 
 I do not think explicable by mere natural causes, but am 
 forced to ascribe it to the counsel and contrivance of 
 a Voluntary Agent." 
 
 It seems impossible that any unbiassed mind should 
 hesitate to acquiesce in the conclusion of this great man ; 
 and thus, from the very existence of a sun in the centre 
 of our system, a satisfactory proof is drawn of the being 
 of a God. 
 
 FOURTH WEEK THURSDAY. 
 
 IV. THE STARRY HEAVENS. THE SUN AS THE SOURCE OF 
 
 LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 IN considering the advantages derived from that ob- 
 viously intentional and most wise arrangement, by which 
 the sun has been made the centre of our system, refer- 
 ence was necessarily made to that body, as the source of 
 light and heat. A cursory view of some circumstances 
 connected with these properties, seems, therefore, to 
 suggest itself as an appropriate subject for this day's con- 
 sideration. 
 
 The sun is a body of such immense magnitude, that 
 it fills a space nearly twice as large as is comprehended 
 within the orbit of the moon in its motion round the 
 earth, being in diameter no less than 882,000 miles, 
 and in bulk considerably more than a million of times 
 larger than the earth. From this amazing orb, light and 
 
100 THE STARRY HEAVENS. 
 
 heat are in some manner communicated to our planet, 
 and to all the other planetary bodies, with a velocity 
 which surpasses conception, the influence, whatever it 
 is, travelling at the rate of 12,000,000 of miles in a min- 
 ute, and reaching our globe in something less than eight 
 minutes. It was supposed by Sir Isaac Newton, and has, 
 till lately, been assumed as a fact, that the properties in 
 question were transmitted from the sun by emanation ; 
 that is, that he was continually throwing off from his 
 surface, a material substance, of extreme tenuity, pos- 
 sessing these properties. Late discoveries, however, of 
 certain peculiarities in the nature of light, have given 
 currency and probability to another opinion, namely, 
 that the sun is no more than the spring which communi- 
 cates activity to qualities or substances residing in our 
 own atmosphere, from which the phenomena of light and 
 heat are derived. This,is called the theory of vibrations : 
 and it has been aptly illustrated by the manner in which 
 sound is caused and propagated. It supposes an ethereal 
 fluid diffused through the universe, of inconceivable rar- 
 ity and elasticity, to which the luminiferous vibrations 
 are communicated, and through which they are transmit- 
 ted. 
 
 It is not the province of this work to enter into any 
 discussion on this curious subject ; and it is enough for 
 our present purpose to know, that the Creator has caused 
 the most salutary effects to depend on the presence and 
 influence of this central body. Whether by vibration 
 or by emanation, the properties of heat and light, indis- 
 pensable to the existence of organized beings, in all their 
 different grades, are, by means of the sun, adequately 
 conveyed to the earth, otherwise dark and dead. We 
 shall by and by have occasion to notice some of the quali- 
 ties of heat, the partial absence of which, in our cli- 
 mate, at this season of the year, indicates how necessary 
 this subtile agent is to life and enjoyment. Let us, at 
 present, look at the kindred element of light, and we shall 
 see that its operation is scarcely less indispensable in a 
 world constituted as ours. 
 
 It is necessary to vegetable life. Without light, in- 
 
THE SUN THE SOURCE OF LIGHT AND HEAT. 101 
 
 deed, vegetables might grow. Some of the most impor- 
 tant powers of vegetation are carried on under ground 
 and in darkness, and the energies residing in the roots 
 are sufficient to cause the plant to shoot forth its stem, 
 and even to expand its leaves ; but then, light is essential 
 to the health, and, as it would seem, to the productive 
 powers of plants, so that, without this genial influence, 
 they could not survive beyond one generation. Color, 
 and, to a considerable extent, strength of fibre, also, are 
 bestowed on vegetables by the influence of light, a cir- 
 cumstance which is familiar to gardeners, who blanche 
 their celery, and other productions, by causing them to 
 grow in the dark ; and which is known to every one 
 who has observed the colorless and feeble shoots of po- 
 tatoes, for example, which happen to grow in a cellar or 
 a pit, and the wonderful instinct which leads these shoots 
 eagerly to extend in the direction of the slightest chink 
 through which light is introduced. The manner in which 
 light operates in bestowing a wholesome state on plants, 
 appears to be by a chemical action, by which they are 
 enabled to imbibe carbon, and disengage oxygen. In 
 the absence of light, this action is reversed ; and it is 
 worthy of remark, that the operation of this agent, in the 
 process of vegetation, is not only healthful to the plant, 
 but also useful to animal life, in freeing the atmosphere 
 from some noxious qualities, and restoring it to a salubri- 
 ous condition. It seems unnecessary to remark, that 
 there is here the unequivocal impress of Designing Intel- 
 ligence. 
 
 It is further obvious, that the influence of light on vege- 
 tables, is extended likewise to animal life, which derives 
 its support from these productions. But this is not all : 
 for, on living creatures, its more direct effects are not 
 less necessary. This agent is essential to sight, a facul- 
 ty of such paramount importance ; and the eye, an organ 
 of most curious and peculiar construction, is, beyond all 
 doubt, framed for the express purpose of receiving its 
 impressions. Nothing can be more worthy of observa- 
 tion, than the manner in which the instrument of vision 
 is adapted to the properties of the agent. Light is re- 
 9* 
 
102 THE STARRY HEAVENS. 
 
 fleeted, in all directions, from every object on which it 
 falls ; and, by the construction of a camera obscura most 
 skilfully contrived, these reflected rays convey form, 
 color, light, and shade, a perfect representation, in 
 short, of external objects, into the interior of the head ; 
 thus, by a mysterious connexion between mind and mat- 
 ter, giving rise, in living beings, to the faculty of sight, 
 with all its wellknown properties and advantages. Who 
 can doubt that there is here a proof of skill and adaptation, 
 that light was made for the eye, and the eye for 
 light ? 
 
 FOURTH WEEK FRIDAY. 
 
 V. THE STARRY HEAVENS. MOTIONS OF THE PLANETS. 
 
 As the fountain of light and heat is placed, by the 
 great Creator, for obviously wise reasons, in the centre 
 of our planetary system, it is natural to expect, that all 
 the arrangements connected with this appointment, should 
 be found so contrived, as to correspond with the benefi- 
 cent intention ; and the more deeply we inquire into the 
 subject, the more distinctly do we observe such an ex- 
 pectation realized. The object of the present paper will 
 be to illustrate this position, with reference to the mo- 
 tions of the planetary bodies. 
 
 And first, with regard to their orbits. We have al- 
 ready stated, that a planet, in its path round the sun, 
 may, according to the laws of motion, describe either an 
 oval or a perfect circle. I have now to observe, that the 
 oval might either be very long or very short, there being, 
 so far as appears, nothing in the mechanical law tending 
 to restrict the elliptical form. But it is obvious, that, if 
 the circuit should prove very eccentric, the greatest in- 
 conveniences would take place, in a world constituted 
 like ours ; and, indeed, a total destruction of animal life 
 would be the necessary consequence ; because, at the 
 
MOTIONS OF THE PLANETS. 103 
 
 point of the orbit nearest the sun, the fervor of his rays 
 would be destructive ; and, at its greatest distance, his 
 apparent size, and his illuminating and warming power, 
 would diminish together, till the land and the sea would 
 yield equally to the ungenial influence, and be converted 
 into one frozen and lifeless mass. Among the almost 
 numberless forms, therefore, which the orbits of the plan- 
 ets might assume, the production and maintenance of 
 organized existences, such, at least, as those with which 
 we are familiar, required that a selection should be made 
 within narrow limits ; and that selection has been made. 
 Every one of the planets, with the exception only of 
 three of the smallest of these bodies, viz. Mercury, Juno, 
 and Pallas, which their peculiar circumstances may ac- 
 count for, move in an orbit nearly approaching to a circle. 
 The earth's orbit, for example, only deviates from an 
 exact circle, by the thirteenth part of its distance from 
 the centre ; and, though the deviation of all the other 
 planets, except Venus, is somewhat more than this, that 
 deviation is so small, unless in the instances already al- 
 luded to, that it need scarcely be mentioned as a source 
 of inconvenience. " Taking the solar system altogeth- 
 er, " says Whewell, "the regularity of its structure is 
 very remarkable. The diagram, which represents the 
 orbits of the planets, might have consisted of a number 
 of ovals, narrow and wide in all degrees, intersecting and 
 interfering with each other, in all directions. The dia- 
 gram does consist, as all who have opened a book of 
 astronomy know, of a set of figures, which appear, at 
 first sight, concentric circles, and which are very nearly 
 so ; no where approaching to any crossing or interfering, 
 except in the case of the small planets, already noticed 
 as irregular. No one, looking at this common diagram, 
 can believe that the orbits were made to be so nearly 
 circles by chance, any more than he can believe that a 
 target, such as archers are accustomed to shoot at, was 
 painted in concentric circles by the accidental dashes of 
 a brush in the hands of a blind man." 
 
 Another peculiarity in the motions of the planets, is, 
 that they are all in the same direction, and nearly in the 
 
104 THE STARRY HEAVENS. 
 
 same plane. It is quite evident, that, had chance origi- 
 nated these motions, they might, and probably would, 
 have moved round the sun, both as to direction, and as 
 to the plane of their orbit, in very different ways. Now, 
 to those who are acquainted with the properties of the 
 law of attraction, it will appear evident, that a most im- 
 portant object is served by the arrangement which actu- 
 ally subsists. Let it be observed, that such is the extraor- 
 dinary nature of this law, that every particle of matter 
 attracts, and is attracted by, every other particle, the 
 power, of course, being greater, in proportion to the 
 quantity of each mass, and its nearness. The consequence 
 of this is, that not only does the great central mass attract 
 the smaller bodies, so as to cause them to revolve round 
 it, but each of these smaller bodies also attracts the others ; 
 and this mutual attraction, which, it is easy to perceive, 
 must be of a very complicated nature, and may produce 
 the most extensive effects, requires to be nicely adjusted, 
 in order to preserve the stability of the system. If the 
 numerous globes, of which our system is composed, were 
 to move in their respective orbits, without any such ad- 
 justment, our system would be far indeed from being 
 stable. The disturbing forces, which might only be 
 trifling, when a year, or even an age, was considered, 
 might, in a long series of ages, accumulate to such an 
 amount, as totally to disorganize and subvert the whole 
 frame. 
 
 Nor is this a mere gratuitous hypothesis. Astrono- 
 mers have actually discovered, in our solar system, an 
 apparent tendency to derangement. Changes have been 
 taking place, owing to the cause just mentioned, which, 
 at first sight, appear to be of an alarming nature. The 
 eccentricity of the earth's orbit has been gradually di- 
 minishing ; the moon has been approaching nearer the 
 earth, and accelerating her motion ; and the obliquity 
 of the ecliptic has been diminishing. These changes 
 have been going on, from the period of the first scientific 
 observations, to the present day, and are still in progress. 
 Are they to continue without end ? If so, the present 
 system of things is tending to destruction. 
 
RESISTING MEDIUM. 105 
 
 This question has, by an amazing effort of calculation, 
 been satisfactorily answered. Aided by the mathemati- 
 cal investigations of ages, two celebrated French philo- 
 sophers, Lagrange and Laplace, have solved the problem, 
 and have demonstrated, that " the planetary system will 
 only oscillate about a mean state, and will never deviate 
 from it, except by a very small quantity."* This re- 
 markable result depends on these three conditions, 
 that the orbits of the planets are nearly circular ; that 
 these orbits are nearly in the same plane ; and that they 
 all move in the same direction. 
 
 Had any one of these conditions been different, the 
 equilibrium of the system would not have been main- 
 tained ; the tendencies to derangement would not have 
 been counteracted, but, on the contrary, year after year, 
 would have been accelerated by accumulation ; and, 
 sooner or later, the whole fabric would have broken up, 
 and been dissolved by its own inherent defect. 
 
 It is unnecessary to enter into any argument, to show 
 that the combination of the various arrangements alluded 
 to, could not have occurred without design ; that the 
 adjustment is that of an Intelligent Cause ; and that it 
 affords the clearest proof of consummate and adorable 
 wisdom. 
 
 FOURTH WEEK SATURDAY. 
 
 VI. THE STARRY HEAVENS. RESISTING MEDIUM. 
 
 WE have seen, in the case of the planets, including 
 also their satellites, that Supreme Wisdom has so bal- 
 anced our system, that the disturbing forces, to which 
 it is subjected by the mutual attraction of the heavenly 
 bodies, will, in consequence of simple but selected ar- 
 rangements, in the course of ages, correct themselves, 
 
 * Laplace, Expos, du Syst. du Monde, p. 441. 
 
106 THE STARRY HEAVENS. 
 
 so as never to threaten any violent change from such 
 mechanical causes, so far, at least, as the power of attrac- 
 tion is concerned. This is highly satisfactory, as a de- 
 monstration against the atheistical doctrine, which would 
 exclude from the universe the operation of a Designing 
 Cause. It does not, however, prove the absolute per- 
 manency of the system, and we know, from the " more 
 sure word of prophecy," that it is not destined to last 
 for ever. 
 
 There is, indeed, another element to be taken into 
 consideration, which the French philosophers, already 
 alluded to, have overlooked or rejected, but which bears 
 directly upon the question of inherent stability, I mean 
 the question regarding a resisting medium. All their 
 calculations have been founded on the two simple powers 
 of attraction and inertia, under the supposition that these 
 powers acted in empty space, without the existence of 
 any impeding force. If it be found, therefore, that a 
 resisting medium actually exists in the system ; that is, 
 that there is some fluid matter, however rare, in which 
 the celestial bodies move, then this one fact will over- 
 turn the conclusion as to the absolute and inherent per- 
 manency of the present system of things, so far as me- 
 chanical powers are concerned. Nor will this discovery 
 invalidate the reasoning in the preceding paper ; for it 
 will still remain a truth, worthy of the deepest admira- 
 tion, that the plan was adopted, which, of all others, is 
 best calculated to balance and counteract disturbing forces, 
 even although other considerations should prove that the 
 system was not intended to be eternal. It is this prin- 
 ciple which secures the equal and salutary working of the 
 system while it lasts, and which bestows upon it proper- 
 ties suited for the habitation of organized existences, 
 during that period ; and this is the whole extent of the 
 view for which we have been contending. 
 
 Is there, then, a resisting medium, a fluid in which 
 our system floats ? or are our planetary spheres wheeled 
 in empty space ? The diffusion of light throughout the 
 universe, might, of itself, form a powerful argument for 
 the existence of such a medium, on whatever theory its 
 
RESISTING MEDIUM. 107 
 
 properties are accounted for. Light is either an emanation 
 from the great central body, and then that emanation must 
 be something material ; or it is an exciting cause of vi- 
 bratory motion ; and in that case, the vibrations must ap- 
 parently be conveyed through some material substance. 
 In either case, the theory of an absolute vacuum seems 
 to be untenable. But, independent of this view, some 
 facts have been very recently discovered, which cannot 
 well be accounted for, but on the supposition of a resist- 
 ing medium. I allude to certain circumstances occurring 
 in the motion of one of the comets belonging to our so- 
 lar system, to which the importance of Buckets observa- 
 tions have justly caused that astronomer's name to be 
 attached. The revolution of this body round the sun, is 
 found to be completed in a period of about three years 
 and four months, while its orbit is so eccentric and elon- 
 gated, that it is more than ten times nearer the sun in one 
 part of its course, than in another. The materials of 
 which it is composed, seem to be exceedingly thin and 
 transparent ; so much so, indeed, that the stars may be 
 seen through the most condensed part of its nucleus, with- 
 out any apparent diminution of their brilliancy. In 
 1786, this comet was first observed ; but it was not till 
 1822, that its periods were accurately determined ; and 
 then Encke, on comparing the calculated with the ob- 
 served places, perceived a difference, which he attributed 
 to the effect of a resisting medium. It was again the sub- 
 ject of observation in 1825, in 1828, and still more re- 
 cently ; and the conclusion has become general, that the 
 obvious and constant disturbance of its course, arises 
 from no other cause than that of its being affected by its 
 motion in an ethereal fluid. 
 
 This fluid, however, must be of inconceivable rarity, 
 and would probably not produce any apparent effect in 
 its velocity, were it not from the small quantity of mat- 
 ter contained in the vapory sphere, which, as will easily 
 be perceived, must increase the power of resistance of the 
 medium through which it moves. Light and loose, how- 
 ever, as the body is, it has been found to be acted on by 
 the solar and planetary attraction, in the same manner 
 
103 THE STARRY HEAVENS. 
 
 with the other heavenly bodies; and the result having been 
 accurately calculated, what Sir J. Herschel calls a re- 
 sidual phenomenon, has been discovered, which has giv- 
 en rise to the inference of a resisting medium. 
 
 The effect, however, though something very discern- 
 ible, is yet but trifling ; and, what may appear strange, 
 this retardation of the motion, causes the body to per- 
 form its revolutions round the sun more quickly. The 
 reason is, that the increasing slowness of the motion has 
 the effect of augmenting the relative power of the sun's 
 attraction, thus drawing the comet nearer to himself, 
 and shortening its orbit. Within the last fifty years, in 
 which its course .has been observed, it has been found, 
 that, while it has advanced about ten days farther in its 
 path, than would otherwise have been the case, the time 
 of its revolution has been diminished by about two days. 
 
 Now, the very same power of resistance, which acts 
 so perceptibly on this unsubstantial body, must act also 
 on every other body which passes through the same me- 
 dium ; and, however small the effect produced may be, 
 it must be something, which, though not, perhaps, suffi- 
 cient to produce any sensible effect on those more solid 
 bodies, for many centuries, must yet, in reference to a 
 period of eternal duration, be sufficient to derange, and 
 finally to destroy, the whole system. As yet, no retar- 
 dation of the planetary bodies has been observed, which 
 could be referred to the existence of a resisting medium, 
 because our observations extend to a period too limited ; 
 but this may only prove the extreme remoteness of the 
 final catastrophe. "It may be millions of millions of 
 years," says the distinguished author, whom we chiefly 
 follow in this part of our work, u before the earth's re- 
 tardation may perceptibly affect the apparent motion of 
 the sun ; but still the day will come (if the same Provi- 
 dence which formed the system, should permit it to con- 
 tinue so long,) when this cause will entirely change the 
 length of the year, and the course of our seasons, and 
 finally stop the earth's motion round the sun altogether. 
 The smallness of the resistance, however small we choose 
 to suppose it, does not allow us to escape this certainty. 
 
RESISTING MEDIUM. 109 
 
 There is a resisting medium ; and therefore the move- 
 ments of the solar system cannot go on for ever. The 
 moment such a fluid is known to exist, the eternity of 
 the movements of the planets becomes as impossible as 
 a perpetual motion on the earth."* 
 
 The obvious use to be made of the fact now stated is, 
 that our present system of things, which must have an 
 end, must also have had a beginning. There must have 
 been a period in which the impulse, now proceeding, ori- 
 ginated. A period of commencement implies a cause ; 
 the order and regularity of the system implies an Intelli- 
 gent Cause ; and thus the idea of a Creator is forced 
 upon us ; and, instead of an eternal operation of me- 
 chanical powers, and an eternal succession of organized 
 existences, which is the dream of the atheist, we see a 
 system, glorious with the impress of a Divine hand, and 
 rejoicing in the smile of a present Deity. 
 
 An ingenious living writer, after attributing the resist- 
 ing medium to the remains of the nebulous matter out of 
 which, according to Laplace's theory, the whole universe 
 has originally been formed, concludes his account of the 
 disturbing effects of that medium with the following strik- 
 ing observations : 
 
 u The idea of the ultimate dissolution of the solar 
 system has usually been felt as painful, and forcibly resisted 
 by philosophers. When Newton saw no end to the de- 
 ranging effect of the common planetary perturbations, he 
 called for the special interference of the Almighty to 
 avert the catastrophe ; and great was the rejoicing when 
 a recent analyst descried a memorable power of con- 
 servation in our system's constituent phenomena. But, 
 after all, why should it be painful ? Absolute permanence 
 is visible nowhere around us ; and the fact of change 
 merely intimates, that, in the exhaustless womb of the 
 future, unevolved wonders are in store. The phenomena 
 referred to, would simply point to the close of one mighty 
 cycle in the history of the solar orb, the passing away 
 of arrangements which have fulfilled their objects, that 
 
 * Wbewell's Bridgewater Treatise, p. 200. 
 I. 10 vii. 
 
110 DIVINE AND HUMAN 
 
 they might be changed into new. Thus is the periodic 
 death of a plant perhaps the essential to its prolonged 
 life, and when the individual dies and disappears, fresh 
 and vigorous forms spring from the elements which com- 
 posed it. Mark the chrysalis ! It is the grave of the 
 worm, but the cradle of the sunborn insect. The broken 
 bowl will yet be healed and beautified by the potter ; and 
 a voice of joyful note will awaken, one day, even the 
 silence of the urn. 
 
 u Nay, what though all should pass! What though 
 the close of this epoch in the history of the solar orb, 
 should be accompanied, as some, by a strange fondness, 
 have imagined, by the dissolution and disappearing of 
 all these shining spheres ? Then would our universe 
 not have failed in its functions, but only been gathered 
 up and rolled away, these functions being complete. 
 That gorgeous material framework wherewith the Eter- 
 nal hath adorned and varied the abysses of space, is only 
 an instrument by which the myriads of spirits borne upon 
 its orbs, may be told of their origin, and educated for 
 more exalted being ; and a time may come, when the 
 veil can be drawn aside, when spirit shall converse di- 
 rectly with spirit, and the creature gaze without hinder- 
 ance on the effulgent face of the Creator."* 
 
 FIFTH WEEK SUNDAY. 
 
 DIVINE AND HUMAN KNOWLEDGE COMPARED. 
 
 WHEN the philosopher compares his knowledge of ex- 
 ternal nature with that of his fellow-men not conversant 
 with such high studies, there is danger of his becoming 
 
 * Dr. Nichol, ' On the Architecture of the Heavens,' pp. 189192, 
 a work containing a beautiful popular view of the recent discoveries of 
 the two Herschels, and other modern astronomers, published in June, 
 1837. 
 
KNOWLEDGE COMPARED. Ill 
 
 vain of his attainments. He has unbarred the gate of 
 science, and penetrated the mysteries of creation. He 
 follows the course of the sun, and measures the stars, 
 and unravels the mystic changes of the planets, and dis- 
 covers new worlds in distant space, and puts his finger 
 on the law which sustains, impels, and guides the im- 
 mense machine of the universe. This sounds proudly ; 
 and if we only consider the limited faculties of man, his 
 attainments are undoubtedly worthy of admiration ; but 
 w r hen viewed in the light of the Divine perfections, they 
 dwindle and disappear. With reference to these, the 
 capacity of man to acquire knowledge is extremely lim- 
 ited. As he advances but a few steps beyond the ordi- 
 nary train of his ideas, he is lost in the immensity of his 
 own conceptions. He has not faculties to grasp the 
 wonders even with which he is more immediately sur- 
 rounded, and how much less to form any adequate idea 
 of the nature and character of the Self-existent ! Let 
 any man reflect, for an instant, on the Divine attributes 
 of Eternity, Infinity, Unchangeableness, and he will at 
 once perceive how imperfectly he comprehends them. 
 Who can do this without being awed, confounded, and 
 bewildered ? u Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; 
 it is high, I cannot attain unto it !" 
 
 But even supposing we were capable of comprehend- 
 ing all mysteries, and all knowledge, how extremely lim- 
 ited is our sphere of observation. We are placed in a 
 remote corner of creation. What a mere atom is the 
 world which we inhabit, compared with the universe ! 
 Even if we knew every thing under the sun, nay, if all 
 the powers of Nature within our planetary system, with 
 all the transactions of the whole animated creation which 
 it contains, lay naked and open before us, how ignorant, 
 even then, would we be ! Worlds on worlds, and sys- 
 tems on systems, would still be entirely unknown to us. 
 
 But how little do we know even of the earth which 
 we inhabit ! We are confined to a little spot of this little 
 world. And yet, of this diminutive region, how insig- 
 nificant is the space with which we are acquainted ! And 
 even of the objects within our view, how ignorant are 
 
112 DIVINE AND HUMAN 
 
 we ! Nay, of the things with which we are most familiar, 
 what do we know ! We observe their outward appear- 
 ance, we can tell what they are to the eye, to the ear, 
 and to the touch ; but what they are in their own nature, 
 the greatest philosopher cannot so much as conjecture. 
 Indeed, the very production of organized existences, is 
 an impenetrable mystery. Who can define the secret 
 power by which a single blossom of the spring germi- 
 nates and grows, opening its beauties to the sun, and em- 
 balming the air with its perfume ? 
 
 Compared with this stinted portion of knowledge, how 
 amazing is the knowledge of God ! As He made all 
 things, He must be intimately acquainted, not only with 
 their properties, but with their very essence. His eye, 
 at the same instant, surveys all the works of His im- 
 measurable creation ; He observes, not only the com- 
 plicated system of the universe, but the slightest motion 
 of the most minute microscopic insect ; not only the 
 sublimest conceptions of angels, but the meanest pro- 
 pensity of the most worthless of His creatures. At this 
 moment, He is listening to the praises breathed by grate- 
 ful hearts in distant worlds, and reading every grovelling 
 thought which passes through the polluted mind of the 
 most sinful inhabitant of earth ! 
 
 Another difference between Divine and human knowl- 
 edge, arises from the limited term of man's existence, 
 and the limited extent of his memory. Threescore and 
 ten years sum up the days of his earthly career. In that 
 short period, how little can he learn ! How much of that 
 little does he lose by inattention, or by defect of memory 
 and judgement ! From books, indeed, he may acquire 
 some knowledge of the past ; and from Revelation, still 
 more, not only of the past, but of the present and fu- 
 ture. But of what we learn from the works of fallible 
 men, if we were to deduct all that is false or doubtful, 
 how little would remain ! And even of the unerring ora 
 cles of God, how much is there that we cannot fully 
 comprehend ! 
 
 To this, also, what a contrast do we find in the knowl- 
 edge of God ! At one view, He surveys the past, the 
 
KNOWLEDGE COMPARED. 113 
 
 present, and the future. No inattention prevents Him 
 from observing ; no defect of memory or of judgement 
 obscures His comprehension. In His remembrance, are 
 stored not only the transactions of this world, but of all 
 the worlds in the universe ; not only the events of the 
 six thousand years which have passed since the earth was 
 created, but of a duration without beginning. Nay, 
 things to come, extending to a duration without end, are 
 also before Him. An eternity past, and an eternity to 
 come, are, at the same moment, in His eye ; and with 
 that eternal eye, He surveys infinity. How amazing ! 
 How inconceivable ! 
 
 But while we thus do homage to the perfections of the 
 Eternal, let us not undervalue the studies by which these 
 perfections are elucidated. Though, when compared 
 with the Divine mind, the mind even of a Newton must 
 sink into utter insignificance ; yet, to feeble man, it is 
 great, it is admirable, to have removed the veil which 
 lay on the face of Nature; to have pierced, with keen 
 glance, to the suns of other systems, and to have known 
 the law, so simple and so sublime, by which the beauty, 
 order, and harmony of the universe, are sustained. By 
 enlarging our views of Nature, the philosopher enlarges 
 our conceptions of Nature's God. He throws new light 
 on the power, the wisdom, and the infinity of the Crea- 
 tor ; and this is well : but it is not enough. Without a 
 higher principle, his knowledge is ignorance ; his wis- 
 dom is folly ; his light is darkness. Every discovery 
 which extends our conceptions of the Divine power, 
 while it hides from our view the beauty and grace of his 
 paternal character, only places man at a more awful dis- 
 tance from his Maker, and surrounds the throne of the 
 Eternal with new terrors, till, in the full blaze of the 
 Godhead, the corrupted child of earth shrinks, is con- 
 sumed, is annihilated ! 
 
 O ! how unspeakably more cheering and glorious, 
 how infinitely better adapted to our condition and our 
 wants, would be a simple message from the unseen world, 
 intimating favor to the sinful and perishing race of Adam. 
 And that message has been sent ! The Almighty has 
 10* 
 
114 THE STARRY HEAVENS. 
 
 broken the silence of Nature, and sent that message by 
 his own Son. 
 
 FIFTH WEEK MONDAY. 
 
 VII. THE STARRY HEAVENS. THE SATELLITES. 
 
 WE have considered the arrangements of the planetary 
 system, in reference to its stability, and to the diffusion 
 of light and heat ; but there is a contrivance of a differ- 
 ent kind, which seems to require a slight notice. The 
 existence of satellites, or secondary planets, as they are 
 called, is a striking concomitant of the system. These 
 smaller bodies attend the primary planets in their course 
 round the sun, partaking of their motion, and at the 
 same time wheeling round them, in an orbit of their own, 
 at greater or less distances. Now, it has been remarked, 
 that, speaking generally, these moons are bestowed as 
 attendants on the planets, in some relation to their dis- 
 tance from the sun, increasing in number in proportion as 
 we recede from that luminary. The inferior planets, 
 that is, those that are nearer the sun than our earth, have 
 none. The earth has one ; Jupiter, which is five times 
 more distant from the sun than our planet, has four ; Sat- 
 urn, which nearly doubles the distance of Jupiter, has 
 seven, besides the curious anomaly of a ring ; Uranus is 
 known to have five, and may, in all probability, have 
 many more, which the extreme remoteness of his situa- 
 tion, at the distance of one billion eighteen hundred and 
 thirteen millions of miles, may well render invisible, even 
 with the use of our best instruments. Supposing, how- 
 ever, that this is the case, there are still exceptions to 
 the rule of increase. Mars, and the four other planetary 
 bodies which are stationed between the Earth and Jupi- 
 ter, have no attendants. As to the ultra-zodiacal plan- 
 ets, the peculiarity of their condition might lead us to 
 expect this deviation ; and though it may be more diffi- 
 
THE SATELLITES. 115 
 
 cult to account for the want of an attendant in the case 
 of Mars, there are few who, on this account, will with- 
 hold their assent to the truth of the general observation. 
 
 What purpose, then, do these secondary planets serve ? 
 This question has been well answered by Mr. Whewell, 
 in reference to our own moon, and in refutation of the 
 skeptical doubts of Laplace. "A person of ordinary 
 feelings," observes this sound philosopher, u who, on a 
 fine moonlight night, sees our satellite pouring her mild 
 radiance on field and town, path and moor, will, probably, 
 not only be disposed to ' bless the useful light,' but also 
 to believe that it was ordained for that purpose ; that the 
 lesser light was made to rule the night, as certainly as 
 the greater light was made to rule the day. 
 
 " Laplace, however, does not assent to this belief. He 
 observes, that ' some partisans of final causes have ima- 
 gined that the moon was given to the earth to afford 
 light during the night ;' but he remarks that this cannot 
 be so, for that we are often deprived at the same time of 
 the light of the sun and of the moon, and he points out 
 how the moon might have been placed so as to be always 
 'full.' 
 
 u That the light of the moon affords, to a certain ex- 
 tent, a supplement to the light of the sun, will hardly be 
 denied. If we take man in a condition in which he uses 
 artificial light scantily only, or not at all, there can be no 
 doubt that the moonlight nights are for him a very impor- 
 tant addition to the time of daylight. And, as a small 
 proportion, only, of the whole number of nights are with- 
 out some portion of moonlight, the fact, that sometimes 
 both luminaries are invisible, very little diminishes the 
 value of this advantage. Why we have not more moon- 
 light, either in duration or in quantity, is an inquiry, 
 which a philosopher could hardly be tempted to enter 
 upon by any success which has attended previous specu- 
 lations of a similar nature. Why should not the moon 
 be ten times as large as she is ? Why should not the 
 pupil of a man's eye be ten times as large as it is, so as 
 to receive more of the light which does arrive ? We do 
 not conceive, that our inability to answer the latter ques- 
 
116 THE STARRY HEAVENS. 
 
 tion, prevents our knowing that the eye was made for 
 seeing ; nor does our inability to answer the former, dis- 
 turb our persuasion, that the moon was made to give light 
 upon the earth."* 
 
 To show that the light derived from the moon exhibits 
 no proof of an Intelligent Cause, Laplace undertakes to 
 suggest a better arrangement himself, and points out a 
 position of that luminary, which would always cause her 
 to appear full to the inhabitants of the earth. Mr. Whe- 
 well answers this suggestion by proving, that such a posi- 
 tion could only be found by placing the moon four times 
 farther from us than she is at present, which would di- 
 minish her apparent size no less than sixteen times, and, 
 of course, proportionally diminish her light. Whether 
 or not this arrangement would be preferable to the pres- 
 ent, may well be doubted ; but even if its superiority 
 could be demonstrated, it seems doubtful if the influence 
 of the disturbing forces, which, on such a supposition, 
 would certainly act more powerfully, would suffer the ar- 
 rangement to be stable. 
 
 But, even allowing the full force to Laplace's objec- 
 tion, which the validity of his suggestion could with any 
 show of reason afford, it amounts, after all, just to this, 
 that the provision thus made for the comfort and happi- 
 ness of living creatures, and especially of man, is mingled 
 with imperfection and privation. Is not this, however, 
 the precise character which is inscribed on all sublunary 
 things ? and does not the analogy which we here discover, 
 serve to confirm the very view of the Divine perfections, 
 as exhibited in his works, with reference to the moral 
 government of the human race, which I have been en- 
 deavoring all along to establish ? This is a checkered 
 scene of brightness and gloom, of sunshine and shade, of 
 enjoyment and depression ; and such is the discipline 
 best suited to our fallen condition. 
 
 In turning from our own satellite to those of the other 
 planets, a similar train of reasoning may be applied. 
 These nightly luminaries, attached to Jupiter, Saturn, 
 
 *Whewell's Bridgewater Treatise, p. 174. 
 
PROPORTIONS OF THE PLANETARY SYSTEM. 117 
 
 and Uranus, certainly compensate, in some degree, by 
 their numbers, for the increased deficiency of light arising 
 from the remoteness of their primaries from the sun. 
 This view will not be successfully redargued by the fact 
 already stated, that Mars, and the four small planets, still 
 more distant than he from the source of light, are desti- 
 tute of these useful appendages. The answer to such an 
 objection just is, that, according to the analogy of crea- 
 tion, we may expect exceptions for which we may be 
 altogether incapable of assigning an adequate cause ; but 
 the ignorance inherent in our limited views, can never 
 invalidate the evidence of facts and principles clearly 
 established. 
 
 FIFTH WEEK TUESDAY. 
 
 VIII. THE STARRY HEAVENS. RELATIVE PROPORTIONS OF 
 
 THE PLANETARY SYSTEM. 
 
 BEFORE concluding our remarks on the system with 
 which we are more immediately connected, it may be. 
 useful to take a general survey of the whole, in its rela- 
 tive proportions, that we may be enabled to form to our- 
 selves some idea of the enormous scale on which even 
 our comparatively diminutive department of the universe 
 is constructed. It is exceedingly difficult for the mind 
 to compare very great things with each other ; because, 
 beyond a certain point, all proportions seem to be lost in 
 a kind of undefined immensity. We are commonly con- 
 versant with things on so minute a scale, being ourselves 
 mere atoms, as it were, of a little planet, that it requires 
 an effort to raise our thoughts to so vast a subject ; and, 
 in contemplating it, we are, at every step, forced to feel 
 the inadequacy of our own powers of comprehension. It 
 is reported of some savages, that the scantiness and tri- 
 fling nature of the objects which occupy their attention, 
 have so contracted their faculty of estimating quantities, 
 
118 THE STARRY HEAVENS. 
 
 that they have no means of enumeration beyond the num- 
 ber of their fingers ; and all groups of objects above ten 
 are expressed, in their language, by a word which implies 
 what is innumerable, on account of its immensity. We 
 are surprised at the want of comprehension which this in- 
 dicates ; but it is, in reality, only a greater degree of a 
 defect which belongs to the condition of our nature and 
 circumstances as human beings ; and the astronomer him- 
 self, familiar as he is with numbers and quantities, the 
 very statement of which startles a less practised mind, 
 comes quickly to a point, at which, though his mechani- 
 cal power of calculation may continue, his imagination 
 flags, his judgement is confounded, and he finds himself 
 much in the state of the untutored savage. 
 
 The author from whom we yesterday made an interest- 
 ing quotation, adverting to this difficulty, has taken an 
 ingenious method of bringing the relative proportions 
 and distances of the bodies connected with our system, 
 nearer to a level with a common apprehension, by re- 
 ducing their dimensions. "If we suppose the earth," 
 says he, u to be represented by a globe, a foot in diame- 
 ter, the distance of the sun from the earth will be about 
 two miles ; the diameter of the sun, on the same suppo- 
 sition, will be something above a hundred feet ; and, con- 
 sequently, his bulk such as might be made up of two 
 hemispheres, each about the size of the dome of St. 
 Paul's. The moon will be thirty feet from us, and her 
 diameter three inches, about that of a cricket ball. 
 Thus, the sun would much more than occupy all the 
 space within the moon's orbit. On the same scale, Jupi- 
 ter would be above ten miles from the sun, and Uranus 
 forty. We see, then, how thinly scattered through space 
 are the heavenly bodies. The fixed stars would be at 
 an unknown distance ; but, probably, if all distances were 
 thus diminished, no star would be nearer to such a one- 
 foot earth, than the moon now is to us. On such a ter- 
 restrial globe, the highest mountains would be about one 
 eightieth of an inch high, and, consequently, only just dis- 
 tinguishable. We may imagine, therefore, how imper- 
 ceptible would be the largest animals. The whole 
 
PROPORTIONS OF THE PLANETARY SYSTEM. 119 
 
 organized covering of such an earth would be quite undis- 
 coverable by the eye, except, perhaps, by color, like the 
 bloom on a plum.* 
 
 " In order to restore the earth and its inhabitants to 
 their true dimensions, we must magnify the length, 
 breadth, and thickness, of every part of our supposed 
 models, forty millions of times ; and, to preserve the pro- 
 portions, we must increase equally the distances of the 
 sun and of the stars from us. They seem thus to pass 
 off into infinity ; yet each of them, thus removed, has its 
 system of mechanical, and perhaps of organic, processes, 
 going on upon its surface."! 
 
 While, by the process of diminution, we are enabled 
 to form a clearer estimate of the relations of those vast 
 bodies which exist in our system, we may accomplish a 
 similar object by magnifying those which, from their mi- 
 nuteness, strain our imagination on the other side. By 
 far the greater part of organized beings are so small, that 
 the human eye, in its naked state, formed only for the dis- 
 cernment of objects of practical utility, cannot detect 
 them. These the microscope discloses ; and, while they 
 thus become apparent to the sight, it requires a similar 
 process of the mind to bring their amazing minuteness 
 within the scope of the understanding. " We know," says 
 our author, u that we may magnify objects thousands of 
 times, and still discover fresh complexities of structure. 
 If we suppose, therefore, that we thus magnify every 
 member of the universe, and every particle of matter of 
 
 * Sir John Herschel's illustration of the relative magnitudes and or- 
 bits of the planets is not less striking : " Choose any well-levelled 
 field or bowling-green : on it place a globe, two feet diameter, this will 
 represent the SUN ; Mercury will be represented by a grain of mustard- 
 seed, on the circumference of a circle 164 feet in diameter from its or- 
 bit ; Venus, a pea, on a circle 284 feet in diameter ; the Earth also a 
 pea, on a circle of 430 feet ; Mars, a rather large pin's head, on a cir- 
 cle of 654 feet ; Juno, Ceres, Vesta, and Pallas, grains of sand, in 
 orbits of from 1000 to 1200 feet ; Jupiter, a moderate sized orange, on 
 a circle nearly half a mile across ; Saturn, a small orange on a circle 
 of four fifths of a mile ; and Uranus, a full-sized cherry or small plum, 
 upon the circumference of a circle more than a mile and a half in diam- 
 eter." 
 
 t Whewell's Bridgewater Treatise, pp. 273, 274. 
 
120 THE STARRY HEAVENS. 
 
 which it consists, we may imagine that we make per- 
 ceptible to our senses the vast multitude of organized 
 adaptations which lie hid on every side of us ; and, in 
 this manner, we approach toward an estimate of the ex- 
 tent through which we may trace the power and skill of 
 the Creator, by scrutinizing his work with the utmost 
 subtilty of our faculties." 
 
 These views are calculated to impress the mind with 
 very elevated and interesting conceptions of the stupen- 
 dous nature of those Divine perfections, by which our 
 system was originally called into existence, and is still 
 upheld and governed ; but it is, after all, but the entrance 
 to a survey of the universe. The planetary system to 
 which we belong, is but that of a single star ; and, when 
 we cast our eye over the heavens, and endeavor to rouse 
 our faculties to the comprehension of the fact, that every 
 one of those little twinkling lights with which the blue 
 vault is bespangled, with the exception only of those few 
 which are known to change their relative positions, is a 
 sun like our own, and that each of them has, in all prob- 
 ability, a planetary system analogous to ours, w r e want 
 words to express the sublimity of the conception, and 
 receive a more vivid impression of the feeling of the poet 
 of the Seasons, when, overpowered by the vastness of 
 his subject, he exclaims, 
 
 " I lose 
 
 Myself in HIM in light ineffable ! 
 
 Come, then, expressive silence muse His praise." 
 
 FIFTH WEEK WEDNESDAY. 
 
 IX. THE STARRY HEAVENS. DISTANCE OF THE FIXED STARS. 
 
 THE precise distance of any of the fixed stars cannot 
 be ascertained by such means as have hitherto been em- 
 ployed by astronomers, although it may be considered as 
 
DISTANCE OF THE FIXED STARS. 121 
 
 certain that the nearest of them does not approach our 
 sun so near as nineteen billions of miles ! The calculation 
 by which this inconceivable distance is established, is 
 entirely satisfactory, and may readily be understood. I 
 shall state it in as popular a manner as I can. As the 
 earth moves round the sun at the average distance of about 
 95,000,000 of miles, it follows that she must be nearer 
 those fixed stars that lie in the plane of her orbit, at one 
 period of the year than at another, by double that dis- 
 tance, or 190,000,000 of miles ; but it has been found 
 that an approach of this immense amount makes not the 
 very slightest perceptible alteration in the apparent size 
 of these bodies ; and hence we justly conclude, that 
 190,000,000 of miles is but as a point in comparison of 
 the space which still intervenes between us and them. 
 On this fact, we may form a loose estimate of a distance 
 within which the stars, situated as I have mentioned, 
 cannot be stationed. But we must take another and 
 somewhat more scientific method of judging with regard 
 to the distance of those stars which are otherwise situated. 
 It might be expected, that the vast diameter of the earth's 
 orbit would produce some perceptible amount of annual 
 parallax in the stars ; that is to say, that in moving over 
 this immense space, some change would be effected in 
 their relative position, just as a lateral movement of a 
 few miles along a road produces a change in the outline 
 even of the most distant hills. Were this the case, the 
 distance of the stars might be ascertained with some de- 
 gree of accuracy. But it is not so : " After exhausting 
 every refinement," says Sir John Herschel, " astrono- 
 mers have been unable to come to any positive or coinci- 
 dent conclusion upon this head ; and it seems, therefore, 
 demonstrated, that the amount of such parallax, even for 
 the nearest fixed star which has hitherto been examined 
 with the requisite attention, remains still mixed up with, 
 and concealed among, the errors incidental to all astro- 
 nomical demonstrations. Now, such is the nicety to 
 which these have been carried, that, did the quantity in 
 question amount to a single second, (that is, did the radius 
 of the earth's orbit subtend, at the nearest fixed star, that 
 i. 11 vn. 
 
 
122 THE STARRY HEAVENS. 
 
 minute angle,) it could not possibly have escaped detec- 
 tion and universal recognition." Hence, by a simple 
 mathematical process, he is led to the conclusion that the 
 distance of the stars cannot be so small as 4,800,000,000 
 radii of the earth, or 19,200,000,000,000 miles ! But, 
 for any thing we can tell, the very nearest of them may 
 be much farther removed from us than even this incon- 
 ceivable distance. 
 
 Now, with regard to the size of these bodies, remote 
 as they are, science has invented a way of forming some 
 comparative estimate. Dr. Wollaston, by experiments 
 on the light of Sirius, the brightest of the fixed stars, has 
 ascertained that his splendor, when it reaches our earth, 
 is twenty billions of times inferior in intensity to that of 
 the sun. That the sun, therefore, might be made to 
 appear no brighter than Sirius, he would require to be 
 removed from us 141,400 times his actual distance ; 
 but this is scarcely two thirds of the distance beyond 
 which we know the nearest fixed star to be actually 
 placed. It follows, therefore, that the light of Sirius, 
 and probably also his bulk, is much greater than that of 
 our sun. Dr. Wollaston, on data that cannot easily be 
 disputed, has assumed the distance of Sirius to be so 
 great, that his intrinsic light must be nearly equal to 
 fourteen suns. Sir John Herschel, taking a more mod- 
 est and cautious, but perhaps not truer, estimate of his 
 distance, concludes that, u upon the lowest possible com- 
 putation, the light really thrown out by Sirius, cannot 
 be so little as double that emitted by the sun ; or that 
 Sirius must, in point of intrinsic splendor, be at least 
 equal to two suns, and is, in all probability, vastly 
 greater." 
 
 I cannot better conclude this paper, than by the judi- 
 cious remarks with which the eminent philosopher, above 
 quoted, follows up his statements on the size and dis- 
 tances of the fixed stars. " For what purpose," says 
 he, u are we to suppose such magnificent bodies scattered 
 over the abyss of space ? Surely not to illuminate our 
 nights, which an additional moon, of the thousandth part 
 of the size of our own, would do much better ; nor to 
 
IMMENSITY OF THE UNIVERSE. 123 
 
 sparkle as a pageant, void of meaning and reality, and be- 
 wilder us among vain conjectures. Useful, it is true, 
 they are to man, as points of exact and permanent ref- 
 erence ; but he must have studied astronomy to little 
 purpose, who can suppose man to be the only object of 
 his Creator's care, or who does not see, in the vast and 
 wonderful apparatus around us, provision for other races 
 of animated beings. The planets, as we have seen, de- 
 rive their light from the sun ; but that cannot be the case 
 with the stars. These, doubtless, then, are themselves 
 suns, and may, perhaps, each in its sphere, be the pre- 
 siding centre, round which other planets, or bodies of 
 which we can form no conception, from any analogy of- 
 fered by our own system, may be circulating."* 
 
 FIFTH WEEK THURSDAY. 
 
 X. THE STARRY HEAVENS. IMMENSITY OF THE UNIVERSE. 
 
 ON casting the eye across the heavens, it is arrested 
 by a streak of faint light, which passes athwart the whole 
 sky, in the direction, speaking loosely, of east and west. 
 This streak is called the milky way, in allusion to a well- 
 known childish fancy of heathen mythology. When we 
 regard the stars, with reference to this permanent band, 
 we find that, in proportion as they recede from it on 
 either side, they gradually become less and less numer- 
 ous, till, towards the extreme north and south, there is 
 an obvious deficiency in the comparative richness of the 
 garniture with which the mighty dome is adorned. On 
 applying the telescope to the diffused light of this Remark- 
 able part of the heavens, the astronomer is lost in admi- 
 ration, to find, that this appearance is occasioned by an 
 amazing multitude of stars, too minute to be detected by 
 the naked eye, and too numerous to be accurately calcu- 
 
 * Herschel's Astronomy, p. 380. 
 
124 THE STARRY HEAVENS. 
 
 lated, "scattered by millions, like glittering dust, on the 
 black ground of the general heavens." Sir William 
 Herschel informs us, that, on calculating a portion of the 
 milky way, about ten degrees long, and two and a half 
 broad, he found it to contain 258,000 stars, a quantity 
 so great, in so small a space, that the moon would eclipse 
 2000 of them at once ! Now, all these are suns, proba- 
 bly at as great a distance from each other, as our sun is 
 from Sirius, a distance so incomprehensible, when 
 stated in miles, that the best way of forming some clear 
 idea of it, is, to compare it with the velocity of some 
 moving body with which we are acquainted. We know 
 of nothing so swift as light, which moves at the rate of 
 12,000,000 miles in a minute; and yet, light would be 
 at least three years in passing between the sun and Sirius. 
 Let any one, then, comprehend, if he is able, the distan- 
 ces implied in the conception, that the minute and thick- 
 ly studded sparks of the milky way, are suns, each so 
 far separated from each other, that it would require three 
 years for the light of the one to reach the other ! And 
 yet this astonishing view is not a mere gratuitous imagi- 
 nation, but a calm philosophical deduction from observed 
 facts and obvious analogies. 
 
 But this stretch of the mental powers is little, com- 
 pared with what is required for comprehending the con- 
 clusions we are led to form, from other celestial pheno- 
 mena. In various parts of the heavens, and in all quar- 
 ters, there are discovered either small groups of stars, or 
 certain dusky spots, called nebulae, which the power of 
 the telescope has multiplied to thousands of greater or 
 less distinctness and magnitude.* Now, these nebulae, 
 when subjected to a very strong magnifying power, gen- 
 erally resolve themselves into vast assemblages of minute 
 stars, " crowded together," as Sir John Herschel ex- 
 presses rt, " so as to occupy almost a definite outline, 
 
 * " In the northern hemisphere, after making all allowances, those 
 whose places are fixed, cannot be fewer than between one and two 
 thousand ; and you will have a good idea how plentifully they are dis- 
 tributed, by remarking, that this is at least equal to the whole number 
 of stars which the naked eye perceives on any ordinary night." Nicholas 
 Architecture of the Heavens, p. 47. 
 
IMMENSITY OF THE UNIVERSE. 125 
 
 and to run up to a blaze of light in the centre, where 
 their condensation is usually the greatest." " Many of 
 them," adds this astronomer, "are of an exactly round 
 figure, and convey the complete idea of a globular space, 
 filled full of stars, insulated in the heavens, and constitut- 
 ing, in itself, a family or society apart from the rest, and 
 subject only to its own internal laws. It would be a 
 vain task to count the stars in one of these globular clus- 
 ters. They are not to be reckoned by hundreds ; and, 
 on a rough calculation, grounded on the apparent intervals 
 between them at the borders, (where they are seen not 
 projected on each other,) and the angular diameter of 
 the whole group, it would appear that many clusters of 
 this description must contain at least 10,000 or 20,000 
 stars, compacted and wedged together in a round space, 
 whose angular diameter does not exceed eight or ten 
 minutes ; that is to say, in an area not more than a tenth 
 part of that covered by the moon." 
 
 Are these numerous spangles, suns like our own, sep- 
 arated from each other by distances similar to those by 
 which our solar star is separated from the other stars of 
 the group to which he belongs ? And are we, then, to 
 believe that the system of stars to which our sun belongs, 
 is nothing else than a nebula ? Immense as are the bod- 
 ies which that system embraces, and extensive, beyond 
 all human conception, as is the space which it occupies, 
 must we conclude, that, if viewed from the distance of 
 the other nebulae of which we have been speaking, it 
 would appear but as a little cloud, no bigger than a man's 
 hand ? Such is, in truth, the astonishing conclusion to 
 which the study of celestial appearances seems almost 
 inevitably to conduct us. 
 
 Now, if we are permitted, on such a subject, to argue 
 from analogy, we may fancy to ourselves some such idea 
 as this, that each nebula, or group of stars, bears the 
 same reference to other groups, which our planetary 
 system does to the globes of which it is composed ; and 
 that, while they may be impressed with a rotatory mo- 
 tion round each other, like our satellites round their 
 primaries, there is some central point of unknown posi- 
 11* 
 
126 THE STARRY HEAVENS. 
 
 tion, and immeasurable dimensions, round which the 
 whole groups of the universe revolve, like our little 
 worlds round their sun. There are not wanting reasons 
 for such a supposition, extravagant as it may appear. The 
 two great laws of gravitation and inertia, by which our 
 own system is regulated and maintained, have been proved 
 to exist with precisely the same powers, at least in some 
 of the fixed stars. The probability, therefore, is, that 
 these are universal qualities inherent in all material ob- 
 jects. This, being granted, seems to imply the neces- 
 sity of a balanced rotatory motion in every system of 
 worlds, for preserving the general equilibrium of the 
 whole ; because universal attraction must prevent any 
 body from remaining absolutely stationary. Now, the 
 same principle appears to apply to groups of systems 
 which applies to systems themselves. Hence, we may 
 infer a complication of movements of the most wonderful 
 and extensive kind, combining not merely worlds with 
 worlds, and systems with systems, but nebulae with ne- 
 bulae, embracing the whole material creation, and extend- 
 ing to infinity. What a magnificent view does this afford 
 of the works of the Eternal ; and what a beautiful unity 
 does it give to His operations ! Could we but stretch 
 our faculties to the conception, we might figure to our- 
 selves the Almighty present, in some peculiar sense, in 
 the centre of His works, and thence surveying the infinite 
 machine which His hand has formed groups upon groups, 
 each containing tens of thousands of worlds, moving in 
 constant succession before Him, without confusion, and 
 without interference, rolling in an ethereal fluid, which 
 bears light and heat in the waves of its never-failing tide, 
 and which communicates life, and intelligence, and joy, 
 to organized existences over the whole, reflecting, 
 wherever they move, the perfections of an Eternal 
 Mind, and experiencing, throughout all their members, 
 and in all their revolutions, the blessings of a Father's 
 smile. 
 
NEBULAE. 127 
 
 FIFTH WEEKFRIDAY. 
 
 XI. THE STARRY HEAVENS. NEBULA. 
 
 SIR WILLIAM HERSCHEL, by the use of his powerful 
 telescopes, has made other most interesting discoveries 
 in the starry heavens, some of which it will be the ob- 
 ject of this paper briefly to detail, as throwing light on 
 the condition of the universe, and demonstrating that 
 the same mighty hand, which " wheels the rolling spheres" 
 in our own system, is equally employing its amazing 
 powers in the most distant regions, and regulating the 
 material world every where, so far as we are able to 
 discern, by the same laws, under some remarkable varie- 
 ties of application. 
 
 We have already noticed the wonderful discovery of 
 the apparently general arrangement, whereby the innu- 
 merable suns, of which the universe is composed, are 
 thrown into groups, each containing vast numbers of 
 these splendid bodies, and comprehending systems of 
 their own. Of these nebulae, as they are called, our own 
 seems to be of a singular figure, forming a stratum of 
 which the thickness is small in comparison with its length 
 and breadth, and which is divided into two branches, 
 inclined at a small angle to each other, near the point in 
 which our sun, with its planetary system, is situated. 
 This figure seems, at least, to account for the appearan- 
 ces of the heavens, with their milky way, studded with 
 innumerable stars, which branch off, in one place, in a 
 remarkable manner, from the main body, and which, as 
 we have observed, decrease rapidly in numbers, in pro- 
 portion to their distance from that singular belt. The 
 other nebulae are of various forms, and even seem to 
 differ from each other in their nature. Sir William 
 Herschel divides them into six classes, of which the two 
 first appear to be distinguished merely by their relative 
 
128 THE STARRY HEAVENS. 
 
 distance from us, but the rest to be in a state altogether 
 different from any thing of which we have experience. 
 These latter, he describes under the four heads of nebu- 
 lae in which there is no appearance whatever of stars, 
 planetary nebulae, stellar nebulae, and nebulous stars. Of 
 these the variety is very great, some being formed of little 
 flaky masses, like " wisps of cloud," adhering to small 
 stars ; others being of a round or oval form, increasing 
 more or less in density and brightness toward the central 
 point ; others offering u the singularly beautiful and striking 
 phenomenon, of a sharp and brilliant star, surrounded by a 
 perfectly circular disk or atmosphere ;" others, again, 
 of more rare occurrence, are annular, exhibiting, in the 
 central opening, a faint hazy light ; and, last of all, come 
 nebulae, which have "exactly the appearance of planets, 
 round, or slightly oval disks, in some instances quite 
 sharply terminated, in others a little hazy at the borders, 
 and of a light exactly equable, or only a very little mot- 
 tled, which, in some of them, approaches in vividness to 
 that of actual planets." These last are bodies of enor- 
 mous magnitude, so large, indeed, that they would 
 include the whole of our planetary system within their 
 diameter, forming masses of solid matter, if they are 
 solid, such as the greatest stretch of imagination cannot 
 grasp. 
 
 " The nebulae," says the younger Herschel, "furnish, 
 in every point of view, an inexhaustible field of specu- 
 lation and conjecture. That by far the larger share of 
 them consists of stars, there can be little doubt ; and in 
 the interminable range of system upon system, and fir- 
 mament upon firmament, which we thus catch a glimpse 
 of, the imagination is bewildered and lost. On the other 
 hand, if it be true, as, to say the least, seems extremely- 
 probable, that a phosphorescent, or self-luminous matter 
 also exists, disseminated through extensive regions of 
 space, in the manner of a cloud or fog, now assuming 
 capricious shapes, like actual clouds, drifted by the wind, 
 and now concentrating itself, like a cometic atmosphere, 
 around particular stars ; what, we naturally ask, is the 
 nature and destination of this nebulous matter? Is it 
 
NEBULAE. 129 
 
 absorbed by the stars, in whose neighborhood it is found, 
 to furnish, by its condensation, their supply of light and 
 heat ? Or is it progressively concentrating itself, by 
 the effort of its own gravity, into masses, and so laying 
 the foundation of new sidereal systems, or of insulated 
 stars ?"* 
 
 The author sagely remarks, that it is easier to pro- 
 pound such questions, than to offer any probable reply 
 to them ; and it would be well if other astronomers were 
 to imitate the modesty and philosophical forbearance of 
 this eminent man. But there are, unfortunately, philos- 
 ophers, who feel pleasure in every conjecture by which 
 an intelligent First Cause may be excluded from the uni- 
 verse ; and the obscure and doubtful phenomena afforded 
 by these nebulous appearances, have furnished one of 
 the most profound mathematicians of his classf with a 
 theory, by which he attempts to show, that the whole 
 construction of Nature depends on mere unintelligent 
 mechanical powers. He supposes, for example, that our 
 own sun, with his planetary system, was originally noth- 
 ing else than a part of a universally diffused phospho- 
 rescent vapor, which, condensing into a nucleus, gave 
 rise to a revolving sun, of excessive heat ; that as the 
 heat diminished, the solar atmosphere contracted, leaving 
 portions of itself detached by the centrifugal motion, 
 which became gradually condensed into solid planets and 
 satellites ; and these he, with much ingenuity, attempts 
 to show, from mechanical considerations, would assume 
 the form and motions which we find actually impressed 
 on them. Mr. Whewell mentions this u nebular hypoth- 
 esis," as he calls it, and triumphantly shows, that even 
 granting it could account for the phenomena, it could 
 not be held, in the most remote degree, to prove the suf- 
 ficiency of mechanical causes without intelligence and 
 design. On this highly satisfactory reasoning, I cannot 
 enter, but must refer the reader to the work itself; and 
 I am quite sure,that no candid mind can resist the con- 
 clusion to which he comes, that, whatever may be the 
 
 * HerschePs Astronomy. t Laplace. 
 
130 THE STARRY HEAVENS. 
 
 scientific merits of this hypothesis, they cannot, in sound 
 reason, affect at all the view of the universe as the work 
 of a wise and great Creator. "Let it be supposed," ob- 
 serves he in conclusion, "that the point to which this 
 hypothesis leads us, is the ultimate point of physical sci- 
 ence ; that the furthest glimpse we can obtain of the 
 material universe by our natural faculties, shows it to be 
 occupied by a boundless abyss of luminous matter ; still, 
 we ask, how space came to be thus occupied, how 
 matter came to be thus luminous ? If we establish, by 
 physical proofs, that the first fact which can be traced 
 in the history of the world is, that 'there was light,' we 
 shall still be led, even by our natural reason, to suppose 
 that, before this could occur, ' God said, Let there be 
 light.'" 
 
 Dr. Nichol, who adopts the hypothesis of Laplace, as 
 to the gradual conversion of nebulae into stellar and plan- 
 etary systems, and illustrates it in a very striking manner, 
 deduces from it the following pleasing and sublime views : 
 "The ideas I have presented to you august and 
 strange though they are should not appear in contradis- 
 tinction to what every moment is passing around us. 
 Supposing these phenomena did unfold the long growth 
 of worlds, where is the intrinsic difference between that 
 growth and the progress of the humblest leaf, from its 
 seed, to its intricate and most beautiful organization ? 
 The thought that one grand and single law of attraction, 
 operating upon diffused matter, may have produced all 
 those stars which gild the heavens, and, in fact, that the 
 spangling material universe is, as we see it, nothing other 
 than one phase of a mighty progress, is indeed truly sur- 
 prising ; but I appeal to you again, in what essential it 
 were different from the growth of the evanescent plant ? 
 There, too, rude matter puts on new forms, in outward 
 shape most beauteous, and in mechanism most admirable : 
 and there cannot be a more astonishing process, or a 
 mightier power, even in the growth of a world ! The 
 thing which bewilders us, is not any intrinsic difficulty or 
 disparity, but a consideration springing from our own 
 fleeting condition. We are not rendered incredulous 
 
BINARY STARS. 131 
 
 by the nature, but overwhelmed by the magnitude, of 
 the works ; our minds will not stretch out to embrace 
 the periods of this stupendous change. But time, as we 
 conceive it, has nothing to do with the question ; we are 
 speaking of the operations, and tracing the footsteps, of 
 One who is above all time ; we are speaking of the en- 
 ergies of that Almighty Mind, with regard to whose infi- 
 nite capacity, a day is as a thousand years, and the life- 
 time of the entire human race but as the moment which 
 dies with the tick of the clock which marks it which is 
 heard and passes."* 
 
 FIFTH WEEK SATURDAY. 
 
 XII. THE STARRY HEAVENS. BINARY STARS. 
 
 THERE is yet another singular phenomenon in the 
 starry heavens, which shall form the subject of this day's 
 paper, I allude to the curious fact of the existence of 
 binary revolving stars. These are very numerous. Sir 
 William Herschel has enumerated upwards of 500, and 
 Professor Strave, of Dorpat, has recently added to this 
 number between 2000 and 3000. When these combina- 
 tions were first observed, it was thought probable, that 
 their extreme apparent proximity would enable astrono- 
 mers to ascertain their distance from the earth, by the 
 discovery of an annual parallax ; for supposing, as might 
 naturally be expected, that one of the combined stars 
 should be nearer the earth than the other, and that both 
 should prove to be stationary in relation to each other, 
 the motion of the earth in her orbit would cause these 
 stars to alter their apparent position ; and, if that should 
 be the case, even in the slightest appreciable degree, this 
 circumstance would furnish data, on which calculations 
 
 * Architecture of the Heavens, pp. 143, 144. 
 
132 THE STARRY HEAVENS. 
 
 of the greatest importance might be founded.* This 
 consideration induced Sir William Herschel to turn his 
 attention to the double stars, and to subject them to 
 careful and minute measurements ; but he had scarcely 
 begun his task, when he was arrested by phenomena of 
 a very unexpected character. Instead of the effect which 
 might be produced by the earth's annual motion, he ob- 
 served, in many instances, a regular progressive change, 
 " in some cases bearing chiefly on their distance; in 
 others, on their position, and advancing steadily in one 
 direction, so as clearly to indicate either a real motion 
 of the stars themselves, or a general rectilinear motion 
 of the sun and the whole solar system, producing a par- 
 allax of a higher order than would result from the earth's 
 orbitual motion, and which might be called systematic 
 parallax." 
 
 * We may perhaps despair of fixing the distance of any but the very 
 nearest of the fixed stars, by means of noting their parallax, i. e. the 
 variation which takes place in their relative position in different parts 
 of the earth's orbit ; but there is another and highly ingenious method 
 of determining the distances of the binary stars, which has been pointed 
 out by M. Arago. This method depends on the progressive motion 
 of light. If the orbit of a revolving star presents nearly its edge to the 
 observer's eye, it is evident that during one half of its revolution it is 
 constantly receding from the observer, and, during the other half, con- 
 stantly approaching him. Supposing the light of that star to take thirty 
 days in travelling to the earth from the nearest point of its orbit, it will 
 require more than thirty days to reach the earth from the farthest point. 
 Hence it will appear to spend more time in one part of its orbit than in 
 the other ; and the difference between the calculated and the apparent 
 time of its transit through the nearest and farthest halves of its orbit, 
 though it should be but a few seconds, will supply the astronomer with 
 the data he requires. The two observed semi-revolutions differ from 
 each other by the double of the time which the light takes to pass across 
 the star's orbit. Hence half the difference of time expressed in seconds, 
 and multiplied by 200,000, the number of miles which light traverses 
 in a second, will give the diameter of the orbit. This element known, 
 the distance from the earth is easily found. What a new accession to 
 our knowledge will be acquired, when, by a long and careful observ- 
 ance of these double stars, this discovery is made ! " The day in which 
 the distance of a double star is determined," says M. Arago, "will be 
 the day in which it may be weighed, in which we shall know how many 
 millions of times it contains more matter than our globe. We shall thus 
 penetrate into its internal constitution, though it may be removed from 
 us more than 120,000,000,000,000 of leagues." 
 
BINARY STARS. 133 
 
 After a patient investigation of twenty-five years, the 
 elder Herschel ascertained, what has been further estab- 
 lished by subsequent observations, " that there exist si- 
 dereal systems, composed of two stars, revolving about 
 each other in regular orbits."* Between fifty and sixty 
 instances of changes in the position of double stars, were 
 adduced by this astronomer, in communications publish- 
 ed in the Transactions of the Royal Society, for 1803 
 and 1804. The revolutions of these combinations of 
 stars round each other, are of extremely different peri- 
 ods, one in the Crown being completed in little more 
 than forty years, while that which is found in the Lion, 
 extends to a cycle of no less than 1200 years. Many 
 of the double stars exhibit the curious and beautiful phe- 
 nomenon of contrasted or complimentary colors. In 
 such instances, the larger star is usually of a ruddy or 
 orange hue, while the smaller one appears blue or green. 
 The complimentary color of the smaller star may, in 
 some instances, be considered as an optical illusion ; but 
 the contrast cannot be thus accounted for in others. The 
 double star in Cassiopeia, for instance, exhibits the beau- 
 tiful combination of a large white star, and a small one 
 of a rich, ruddy purple. Sir John Herschel, in mentioning 
 these combinations, indulges his fancy in the following 
 somewhat amusing remarks : u It may be easier suggest- 
 ed in words, than conceived in imagination, what variety 
 of illumination two suns, a red and a green, or a yellow 
 and a blue one, must afford a planet circulating about 
 either ; and what charming contrasts and 'grateful vicis- 
 situdes,' a red and a green day, for instance, alternating 
 with a white one, and with darkness, might arise from 
 the presence or absence of one or other, or both, above 
 the horizon. "f 
 
 Without entering into this speculation, which, of course, 
 is taken from the views and tastes of human beings, and 
 may or may not bear reference to the feelings of the ani- 
 mated creation in these distant worlds, I cannot dismiss 
 
 * In some instances the combination consists of three stars, in others 
 of four, and even of more, with very complex motions, 
 t Herschel's Astronomy, p. 395. 
 
 i. 12 vn. 
 
134 THE STARRY HEAVENS. 
 
 this curious subject without a single remark on the beau- 
 tiful variety which appears in the works of the Creator, 
 combined with a sameness which gives evidence of the 
 architecture of One Creating Hand. The revolving mo- 
 tions of these binary stars have been found to be govern- 
 ed by the same centripetal and centrifugal forces as reg- 
 ulate and preserve the order and harmony of our own 
 planetary system. M. Savary, Professor Encke, and the 
 younger Herschel, having each applied the Newtonian 
 law of gravitation to the calculation of the elliptic orbits 
 of binary stars, have thus elicited their periods, and the 
 forms of their ellipses : and the correspondence between 
 their calculated and observed places, has satisfactorily 
 proved the existence of the law in these remote regions 
 of the universe. Here, then, a new element is added to 
 our knowledge of creation. The identity of the light 
 emitted by the fixed stars, and by our own sun, had been 
 previously ascertained, as well as various other particu- 
 lars which seemed to mark these distant luminaries as be- 
 longing to the same universal system ; but although, uni- 
 ted with these considerations, the phenomena of comets 
 seemed to intimate some connexion between the great 
 laws which govern our own planetary worlds, and those 
 of other suns, and although analogy certainly rendered 
 the extension of these laws to all things created more 
 than probable, it was not till the revolution of these bina- 
 ry stars was observed, and subjected to calculation, that 
 the fact was demonstrated. 
 
 It is most curious and instructive to trace the same 
 character in the operations of the Eternal, throughout 
 every corner of His universe, which science unfolds to 
 our view. It is true, that even now, after all the insight 
 which astronomy has afforded of more distant worlds, it 
 is but a faint glimpse that we obtain ; but still that glimpse, 
 while it opens to us a profusion of wonders, establishes 
 principles which connect system with system, and group 
 with group ; and the gradation and variety which it dis- 
 plays, correspond so remarkably with what we perceive 
 around us, both on the large and the minute scale, that 
 we seem warranted in feeling confidence in our reason- 
 
TELESCOPE AND MICROSCOPE COMPARED. 135 
 
 ings founded on these analogies, and while we trace every 
 where the exercise of the same power and wisdom, may 
 legitimately infer also, every where, the exercise of the 
 same moral qualities. 
 
 SIXTH WEEK SUNDAY. 
 
 DISCOVERIES OF THE TELESCOPE AND MICROSCOPE COM- 
 PARED. 
 
 THE inconceivable space, and innumerable quantities, 
 with which we become conversant in contemplating the 
 phenomena of the heavens, while they stretch the human 
 mind, till it is lost in infinity, are calculated to produce a 
 peculiar effect on our religious views and feelings. They 
 elevate our conceptions of the Creator, and fill us with 
 the utmost astonishment and awe. But there is some- 
 thing so incomprehensible in the attributes of that Self- 
 existent Being, by whose power these wonders were 
 created, and by whose wisdom they are governed, as to 
 overpower and confound the mind. In the presence of 
 such a God, we appear to become as nothing ; and, were 
 we only to dwell on the immensities of Nature, it seems 
 as if we should scarcely be in a fit state for receiving the 
 truths of Revealed Religion, or for cherishing those pi- 
 ous and filial affections, which the doctrines of the Gos- 
 pel are so admirably adapted to excite. After wander- 
 ing through the boundless realms of space, and observing 
 worlds on worlds, and systems on systems, and even 
 groups of systems on groups, in interminable succession, 
 all glorious with the perfections of the Eternal, it is not 
 easy to conceive, that the dreadful and stupendous Pow- 
 er, who created and sustains this infinite universe, should 
 condescend to care for such worms of earth as we are, 
 much less that He should extend to us the tender affec- 
 tions of a Father. To think of such a Being as pro- 
 
136 DISCOVERIES OF THE 
 
 viding food for the ravens, and sustaining the sparrow in 
 its flight, or even looking regardfully on man, and num- 
 bering the hairs of the hoary head, or counting the beat- 
 ings of the infant's heart, seems to the mind thus exclu- 
 sively prepossessed, as little better than a fond and idle 
 dream. A general Providence, such a mind will readily 
 admit ; but, that the Creator and Sustainer of the uni- 
 verse should occupy Himself with the little affairs of 
 such an insignificant and worthless creature as man, is a 
 doctrine, to say the least, by no means so congenial to 
 the habits of thinking which astronomy induces. 
 
 It is not, however, only in the large and magnificent 
 scale of operations, to which the view of the starry heav- 
 ens introduces us, that the perfections of the Creator are 
 visible. We have seen, that the hand of the Almighty 
 may be equally perceived to be at work in little things as 
 in great. u The cattle on a thousand hills are His." 
 He not only created them, and endowed them with most 
 wonderful instincts for self-preservation, and faculties for 
 enjoyment ; but adapts these instincts and faculties to the 
 revolution of the seasons, and the revolution of the sea- 
 sons to them. The deeper we examine this subject, the 
 more powerfully are we struck with proofs of the minute 
 and tender care of a Parent in making provision for the 
 wants of His offspring. Descending from the larger to 
 the smaller animals, we find no point in the scale where 
 this parental character stops, or is even diminished. The 
 same wise and most wonderful provision is made for the 
 worm and the mite, as for the lion and the elephant, 
 their bodies are equally formed with consummate art, and 
 equally contrived with amazing care, for the circumstances 
 in which they are placed, and the means of subsistence 
 and happiness within their reach. 
 
 Nor is this all : Science applies its skill to aid Nature 
 in investigating the little as well as the great. If, by 
 means of a telescope, the astronomer has been enabled to 
 lay open a thousand wonders of the starry heavens, hid 
 from our unaided sight, and taught us to believe, that, after 
 all, we are only on the threshold of discovery in this de- 
 partment ; that we still see, " as through a glass darkly ;" 
 
TELESCOPE AND MICROSCOPE COMPARED. 137 
 
 and that it is but a faint and feeble glimpse of creation 
 which our most approved instruments can exhibit ; the 
 microscope has directed our attention to wonders no less 
 worthy of admiration on our own earth, and within our 
 own limited locality, and has informed us that there is a 
 species of infinitude in the minuteness of organized exist- 
 ences, as well as in the magnitude of those which are un- 
 organized ; that, in the former, as well as in the latter, 
 in the myriads of inhabitants in a drop of water, or in the 
 leaf of a plant, or in a grain of sand, the perfections of 
 the Creator are no less certainly to be seen, than in those 
 mighty suns which, at His command, shed light, and life, 
 and joy, over their attendant worlds, and fill boundless 
 space with His glory. 
 
 It is here that the Christian finds an antidote against 
 those doubts which a contemplation of infinite magnitude 
 might otherwise excite in his mind. If it be natural for 
 him to ask, with some feeling of unbelief, " Can the Crea- 
 tor of innumerable worlds look down with pity on the 
 sinful race of Adam ? can He be conceived to deal with 
 this race in the way which Scripture unfolds ? is it possi- 
 ble that He, the Eternal God, should, in very truth, send 
 His only-begotten Son to this little planet, to dwell with 
 men, taking upon Himself their nature ; subjecting Him- 
 self to their infirmities ; nay, for their sakes, suffering 
 sorrow, torture, and death ?" If, I say, it be natural for 
 the mind, expanded by the philosophy of the heavens, to 
 put these skeptical questions, it can scarcely fail to be 
 brought back to a sounder state, when it takes in a more 
 comprehensive view of the Divine character, and humbly 
 contemplates the very same Hand which moves the uni- 
 verse, preserving the existence, and presiding over the 
 enjoyment, of the microscopic world. 
 
 This view is most beautifully and convincingly unfold- 
 ed by Dr. Chalmers, in what have been called his c As- 
 tronomical Sermons.' By a comparison, in his own 
 characteristic manner, of the discoveries of the micro- 
 scope with those of the telescope, he shows that we have 
 as much reason, from the works of creation, to conceive 
 of the Creator, as infinitely minute in His providential 
 12* 
 
138 TELESCOPE AND MICROSCOPE COMPARED. 
 
 care, as we have to conceive of Him as infinitely great 
 and powerful ; and having established this important truth, 
 he leads us irresistibly to the conclusion, that the exhibi- 
 tion made of the Divine Being in His Revealed Word, is 
 in perfect harmony with the character of Himself, which 
 He has impressed on nature. 
 
 "They, therefore," says this admirable writer, "who 
 think that God will not put forth such a power, and such 
 a goodness, and such a condescension, in behalf of this 
 world, as are ascribed to Him in the New Testament, 
 because He has so many other worlds to attend to, think 
 of Him as a man. They confine their view to the infor- 
 mations of the telescope, and forget altogether the infor- 
 mations of the other instrument. They only find room, 
 in their minds, for His one attribute, of a large and gen- 
 eral superintendence, and keep out of their remembrance 
 the equally impressive proofs we have for His other attri- 
 bute, of a minute and multiplied attention to all the di- 
 versity of operations, where it is He that worketh all in 
 all. And when I think, that, as one of the instruments 
 of philosophy has heightened our every impression of the 
 first of these attributes, so another instrument has no less 
 heightened our impression of the second of them, then 
 I can no longer resist the conclusion, that it would be a 
 transgression of sound argument, as well as a daring im- 
 piety, to draw a limit around the doings of this unsearcha- 
 ble God ; and, should a professed revelation from Heav- 
 en, tell me of an act of condescension, in behalf of some 
 separate world, so wonderful that angels desired to look 
 into it, and the Eternal Son had to move from His seat 
 of glory to carry it into accomplishment, all I ask is the 
 evidence of such a revelation ; for, let it tell me as much 
 as it may of God letting Himself down for the benefit of 
 one single province of His dominions, this is no more than 
 I see lying scattered in numberless examples before me, 
 and running through the whole line of my recollections, 
 and meeting me in every walk of observation to which I 
 can betake myself; and, now that the microscope has 
 unveiled the wonders of another region, I see strewed 
 around me, with a profusion which baffles my every at- 
 
INFUSORY ANIMALCULES. 139 
 
 tempt to comprehend it, the evidence that there is no one 
 portion of the universe of God too minute for His notice, 
 nor too humble for the visitation of His care." 
 
 SIXTH WEEK MONDAY. 
 
 WONDERS OF THE MICROSCOPE. INFUSORY ANIMALCULES. 
 
 HAVING spoken of the wonders of the microscopic 
 world, as a proof that there is nothing too little to be be- 
 neath the care of the universal Father, it seems desirable 
 to follow out this statement by an induction of particu- 
 lars ; and I shall devote this paper to that department of 
 animated nature which, on account of its extreme mi- 
 nuteness, escapes the human vision, unless assisted by 
 the resources of art. 
 
 The microscope has revealed to human observation 
 new races, and indeed new systems, of organized and 
 living beings, whose existence, had it not been for the 
 invention of that instrument, could have scarcely been 
 suspected, and whose functions must have been entirely 
 unknown. These are the most numerous of all terres- 
 trial creatures, and exhibit properties which fill the mind 
 with a kind of wonder, different from, but scarcely infe- 
 rior to, that which is excited by the view of Nature on 
 the largest scale. Although they are so extremely mi- 
 nute, that a single drop of water may contain hundreds 
 of them, and yet appear to the naked eye as pellucid as 
 if it were a pure and simple globule of newly distilled 
 dew, they are discovered, by the magnifying power of 
 the solar microscope, not only to be animated beings, 
 but to possess members, some of them formed in the 
 most delicate symmetry, and all of them framed with 
 consummate art. Their species are incalculably numer- 
 ous, each adapted to the element which it occupies, and 
 the peculiar sphere in which it is destined to move. 
 
140 WONDERS OF THE MICROSCOPE. 
 
 They have obviously volitions, feelings and preferences, 
 like the superior animals ; and, like them, they display 
 symptoms of hatred and affection, of rapacity and con- 
 tentment, of enjoyment and suffering. Here, then, is a 
 new world of living beings, sufficiently resembling that 
 in which we are ourselves destined to exist, to prove 
 that it is the work of the very same Creator ; yet, as we 
 shall presently see, so different in many respects, besides 
 its extreme minuteness, as to show, still more distinctly, 
 the inexhaustible resources of the Divine Mind, in the 
 endless variety of created existences. The most minute 
 of these animalcules which have been studied and delin- 
 eated, are the infusory, that is, those which are found in 
 liquids ; and to these we shall at present confine our- 
 selves. They have been divided into two classes, those 
 with external organs, and those in which such organs are 
 wanting. Of the former, seven genera have been enu- 
 merated, and 254 species ; of the latter, ten genera, 
 and 123 species. These, it is not to be doubted, form 
 a very small part of the actual existences, many of which 
 are so minute, that they elude the action of the most 
 powerful magnifiers, as may be safely inferred from 
 the fact, that new species, descending in minuteness, 
 have constantly been discovered, in proportion as the 
 power of the microscope has been increased. 
 
 The wonderful diversity of shape in these animalcules, 
 has been thus described: " Let one suppose himself 
 transported to a region, where the appearance, figure, 
 and motion, of every animal is unknown, and he will 
 form some idea of the variety presented by a drop of an 
 infusion, observed by means of the microscope. One 
 animalcule is a long slender line ; another is coiled up 
 like an eel or a serpent ; some are circular, elliptical, or 
 globular ; another a triangle or a cylinder ; some resemble 
 thin flat plates ; and some maybe compared to a number 
 of articulated reeds ; one is like a funnel, and another 
 like a bell ; and the structure of many cannot be com- 
 pared to any object familiar to our senses. Certain ani- 
 malcula, such as the Proteus diffluens, can change their 
 figure at pleasure, being sometimes extended to immod- 
 
INFUSORY ANIMALCULES. 141 
 
 erate length, and then contracted to a point ; one mo- 
 ment they are inflated into a sphere, the next completely 
 flaccid, and then various eminences will project from the 
 surface, altering them apparently into animals entirely 
 different. Neither is the peculiar motion of animalcula 
 less remarkable ; in several species, it consists of inces- 
 sant gyration on the head as a centre, or around a partic- 
 ular point, as if one of the foci of an ellipse ; the pro- 
 gression of others is by means of leaps or undulations ; 
 some swim with the velocity of an arrow, and the eye can 
 scarcely follow them ; some drag their unwieldy bodies 
 along with painful exertion ; and others, again, seem to 
 persist in perpetual rest."* 
 
 In turning to the organs of these microscopic animals, 
 we shall find equal subject for admiration. Some take 
 their food by absorption, being destitute of a mouth ; 
 others have a mouth, and several stomachs, amounting, 
 sometimes, to the remarkable number of forty or fifty ; 
 some are without eyes, others have several ; some have 
 mandibles, and others have processes resembling eggs ; 
 while many have their mouths fringed with ray-like 
 bristles. In many, the internal structure is quite pecu- 
 liar ; in others, it bears a remarkable analogy to that of 
 higher species. Each class has its own particular food ; 
 some live on vegetable substances, others are predaceous, 
 and others, again, seem to derive their nourishment en- 
 tirely from absorbing the liquid in which they exist. 
 
 Let it not be forgotten, that all this minute organiza- 
 tion, and these various appetites, habits, and motions, 
 belong to existences too minute, in most instances, to be 
 even discernible by the human eye ; and we shall find it 
 almost as difficult to stretch our imagination downwards, 
 to the infinitely little among created objects, as it was to 
 rise to the contemplation of the infinitely great. To the 
 minute subdivision of matter there seems to be no con- 
 ceivable bounds. This is not very hard to admit ; but, 
 to be compelled to believe that the most minute particle 
 
 * Edinburgh Encyclopedia article Animalcule, written by Dalzell, 
 the Translator of Spallanzani. 
 
142 WONDERS OF THE MICROSCOPE. 
 
 which our fancy can frame is an organized and living be- 
 ing ; that it has a complex system of members, each of 
 which is most skilfully fitted for its peculiar functions ; 
 that the processes of digestion, of nutrition, and of re- 
 production, are carried on in these invisible particles with 
 equal perfection as in our own bodies ; that they have 
 instincts, and habits, and powers of choice and of enjoy- 
 ment : all this appears so amazing, that the mind can 
 scarcely yield itself to the belief. And yet, why should 
 it not ? All magnitude and quantity are relative. We 
 judge of them merely by the measure of our own expe- 
 rience ; and, if we could but sufficiently disengage our 
 minds to take an abstract view, we should perceive that 
 there is, in reality, nothing more incredible in the subdi- 
 vision and organization of what appears to us infinitely 
 minute, than in the construction of the animals with 
 which our senses are conversant. 
 
 Yet what an amazing view is opened to us, of the 
 Creator, and his infinitely diversified works ! The ex- 
 clamation of Pliny, with regard to insects, may, with pe- 
 culiar emphasis, be applied to the wonders of the micro- 
 scopic world : In his tarn parvis, atque tarn nullis, quoe, 
 ratio , quanta vis, quam inextricabilis perfectio !* It may 
 be difficult to determine to what extent, or even in what 
 manner, these innumerable myriads of invisible beings 
 produce a salutary effect on the visible world ; but we 
 may be sure that it was not without a benevolent object 
 that they were every where scattered over the world. 
 Like the larvae of certain insects, they probably act the 
 important part of scavengers, in removing nuisances from 
 the liquids in which they live, and preserving in them a 
 healthy action. At all events, besides enjoying, as they 
 doubtless do, a kind of happiness in themselves, they 
 furnish food to animals of a somewhat higher species, 
 while these, again, afford support to animals still higher 
 in the scale, and so on through all the gradations of ani- 
 mated beings, one species preying upon another, and 
 thus, by a mysterious arrangement, increasing the quanti- 
 
 * [' In these atoms, and, as it were, nothings, what a plan is exhibited, 
 what power, what inscrutable perfection !' AM. ED.] 
 
PLANTS AND ANIMALS COMPARED. 143 
 
 ty of living creatures, by an increase of their means of 
 subsistence. It is truly wonderful to observe the wise 
 contrivances by which life is sustained, in all its forms. 
 First, from the crude earth springs the vegetable by 
 which food is elaborated for living creatures ; and then 
 follow the countless hosts of invisibles, which prey on 
 these, or their infusions, and on one another ; and then, 
 rising through numerous grades, in a thousand different 
 forms, and with continually varying faculties and habits, 
 come the various orders of sentient beings, which fill and 
 adorn the visible creation, deriving their food, like their 
 microscopic fellow-creatures, some directly from the 
 vegetable kingdom, others from the bodies of animals 
 which have died a natural death, and others again by the 
 destruction of living creatures. Such is the law of ex- 
 istence, exhibiting the clearest evidence of wise contriv- 
 ance, but yet marked in this, as well as in other particu- 
 lars, with the peculiar character belonging to a world of 
 evils and compensations. 
 
 SIXTH WEEK TUESDAY. 
 
 I. PLANTS AND ANIMALS COMPARED. 
 
 IT is my intention now to devote some papers to the 
 consideration of what has been called the hibernation* 
 of plants and animals ; but before entering on this subject, 
 I shall make a few observations on some of the general 
 characters in which vegetables and animals resemble each 
 other, and of others in which they differ. Such an exam- 
 ination is not only curious in itself, and satisfactory, as 
 illustrating the remarkable unity of design which exists 
 in creation, but useful to our purpose, as forming a proper 
 introduction to the various particulars which I shall af- 
 terwards have to investigate. 
 
 * [Mode of passing the winter, or wintering. AM. ED.] 
 
144 PLANTS AND ANIMALS COMPARED. 
 
 The first and most important resemblance between 
 plants and animals, is in their possessing what has been 
 called a living principle. This constitutes the chief differ- 
 ence between organized and unorganized existences ; and 
 it is only while it exists in the former, that these exhibit 
 the other qualities by which they are distinguished from 
 brute matter. What this living principle is, it may be 
 impossible to say ; but that it is something which pos- 
 sesses distinct properties, and performs peculiar functions, 
 the most ignorant are aware. An animal breathes, and 
 moves, and feels, and performs certain actions, for a time: 
 This is animal life. It then ceases to show any of these 
 properties ; it lies motionless and insensible ; it under- 
 goes rapid decomposition, and is resolved into its origi- 
 nal elements : This is death. And something analo- 
 gous to this takes place in plants. The living principle 
 appears, indeed, under a different and less perfect modi- 
 fication ; but still it is there. Although vegetable exist- 
 ences have no voluntary motion, they yet possess cer- 
 tain vital functions ; they select and secrete their food ; 
 they grow ; they expand and flourish : This is vegeta- 
 ble life. After a time, these functions cease ; they 
 droop, decay, and are decomposed : Their life is fled. 
 
 Both in animals and vegetables, the principle of life 
 is endowed, or at least connected, with a power of re- 
 pairing injuries to a certain extent, so as to reproduce 
 decayed or destroyed parts. In both, also, there exists 
 a power of reproducing the species. Nor is the similar- 
 ity less remarkable in regard to a property, the existence 
 of which, in vegetables, was, till lately, but little known, 
 I mean the circulation of a fluid through every part of 
 the body. That the blood circulated through the veins 
 of animals, was a fact which could never escape obser- 
 vation, although the principle on which this remarkable 
 function depended, was but lately discovered ; but it does 
 not seem to have been suspected, till within these few 
 years, that there was an analogous circulation through 
 vegetable substances. That sap existed in plants, in- 
 deed, was a familiar fact, and even that it was to be 
 found in greater profusion at one season than at another ; 
 
PLANTS AND ANIMALS COMPARED. 145 
 
 but it now appears to be satisfactorily ascertained, that 
 there is a regular and periodical circulation of the sap 
 from the root, through the stem of the plant, to the 
 branches, buds and leaves ; and back again through the 
 bark to the root ; and that this circulation is as essen- 
 tially necessary to the life and growth of vegetables, as 
 the circulation of the blood is to the life and growth of 
 animals. 
 
 In the manner of continuing the species, too, there 
 are some curious resemblances between the vegetable 
 and animal creation. Besides that the whole classes of 
 plants, like animals, with few exceptions, are divided 
 into male and female, there is another resemblance, which 
 will scarcely be considered fanciful. All the winged 
 tribes, and most of the inhabitants of the sea, as well as 
 amphibious animals, reproduce the species by means 
 of eggs. In like manner, the whole races of plants, 
 from the moss to the tree, with scarcely any exception, 
 propagate their species by means of seeds, which, in many 
 remarkable particulars, deserve the name of vegetable 
 eggs. 
 
 Animals seem to differ essentially from the vegetable 
 kingdom, in the possession of sensibility, a property 
 which the Author of Nature has apparently denied to 
 the latter. This quality forms the first step in the scale, 
 by which the former rises above the latter ; but, as it has 
 pleased the Almighty to cause the various grades of ex- 
 istences to run, as it were, into each other, we see here, 
 also, a connecting link of the chain, in the wonderful 
 properties of the sensitive plant, with which most of my 
 readers are probably familiar, which, as it were, simulates 
 sensibility, and approaches so near this vital principle, 
 that authors who delight in those theories which aim at 
 confounding the distinctions that subsist among organ- 
 ized existences, have plausibly maintained the identity 
 of the one with the other. 
 
 I have said, that plants, as well as animals, select and 
 
 secrete their food ; but there is a marked difference both 
 
 in the nature of the food, and in the process by which 
 
 this nourishment is conveyed and appropriated. The 
 
 i. 13 vii. 
 
146 HYBERNATION OF PLANTS. 
 
 vegetable, adhering to the soil, draws its food from thence, 
 through the medium of roots, by mechanical action, 
 without volition, without feeling, and without locomotion ; 
 and that food is inorganic matter. The animal, on the 
 contrary, seeks for its food by a voluntary action, receives 
 it into its system by a mouth, digests it in a stomach, 
 and rejects crudities by an intestinal canal. Its food is 
 organized matter, either animal or vegetable ; the Creator 
 having appointed the nourishment of this superior class 
 to be elaborated from crude and indigestible materials by 
 the organized, indeed, but insentient creation below them. 
 This is one of the wonders of that astonishing gradation 
 of beings with which the world is stored, and cannot but 
 be contemplated with admiration and gratitude. 
 
 The view which is presented to us, even on the most 
 cursory contemplation of organized matter, as may be 
 perceived from these remarks, is that of a comprehensive 
 whole, united together with the most consummate wis- 
 dom, and beautifully harmonizing in all its parts ; and 
 this impression will be found to be mightily confirmed 
 and strengthened, when we come to consider the details. 
 
 SIXTH WEEK WEDNESDAY. 
 
 II. HYBERNATION OF PLANTS. ADJUSTMENT OF THE CONSTI- 
 TUTION OF PLANTS TO THE ANNUAL CYCLE. 
 
 FROM what has been already said, it appears that the 
 chilly nature of the season is not the only cause of the 
 changes in the vegetable kingdom, which begin in au- 
 tumn, and are consummated in winter. The disappear- 
 ance of flowers and fruits, the fall of the leaf, and the 
 general sterility which prevails, are evidently the indica- 
 tions of a cycle, belonging to the constitution of this 
 department of Nature, which corresponds with the cycle 
 of the year, and affords, by its existence, a new proof 
 
ADJUSTMENT TO THE ANNUAL CYCLE. 147 
 
 of wise adaptation. The effects produced by the sudden 
 occurrence of a tract of frosty and tempestuous weather 
 in summer, compared with a similar occurrence in win- 
 ter, has been elsewhere alluded to, as illustrative of this 
 principle. But a thousand other illustrations might be 
 given. There is something exceedingly interesting and 
 instructive in this view of the subject. The nice adjust- 
 ment of organic substances to climate, has already been 
 slightly noticed ; and, were this inquiry to be followed 
 out in detail, it could not fail to afford conclusive evi- 
 dence of the same kind of contrivance with that to which 
 we are now adverting. Every where we should find the 
 productions of the soil admirably adapted to their local- 
 ities, as to nourishment and climate ; and, in the phys- 
 ical distribution of plants, we should discover new grounds 
 for adoring the perfections of the Creator. The most 
 superficial comparison of the plants of tropical regions 
 with those of the polar circles, would be sufficient for 
 this purpose. In the diminutive Empetrum nigrum,* 
 with its well- flavored berries, which forms probably the 
 last link of the descending chain of fruits in our progress 
 to the poles, we observe the same careful adaptation of 
 vegetation to the circumstances of external nature, which 
 forces itself on our view in the majestic and luxuriant 
 productions of the equator. 
 
 In the extremes of climate, taken on the average, we 
 have, as it were, permanent summer, on the one hand, 
 and permanent winter on the other ; but, in the temper- 
 ate regions, we have a regular alternation of modified 
 heat and cold, which requires a different constitution of 
 the vegetable creation ; and that constitution has been 
 bestowed. We here find the gradual developement of 
 seeds, and shooting forth of buds and leaves, in spring ; 
 the vigor and prime of vegetation in summer ; its ma- 
 turity and commencing decay in autumn ; its temporary 
 
 * [The crow-berry or crake-berry ; a small fruit which grows wild in 
 the northern countries of Europe. Professor Bigelow tells us that it is 
 also to be found on the summits of our White Mountains. The berry 
 is roundish and black, growing on a prostrate shrub, with small, dense, 
 evergreen foliage. AM. ED.] 
 
148 HYBERNATION OF PLANTS. 
 
 death in winter. Now, what deserves to be peculiarly 
 remarked in this, is the adjusted correspondence of this 
 annual revolution in plants, to the precise circumstances 
 of the character and duration of the seasons. 
 
 That the stimulants of heat and cold exercise a consid- 
 erable influence in promoting or retarding the periodical 
 changes in the vegetable world, there can be no doubt ; 
 and this, indeed, is just one of those wise contrivances 
 which indicate design ; as, without this modifying power, 
 a slight variation in the temperature of the season, such 
 as frequently takes place in all countries, and especially 
 in a changeable climate like ours, might be productive 
 of fatal effects ; but the influence of heat and cold does 
 not extend beyond a certain range, and is undoubtedly 
 controlled, as we have said, by another principle, which 
 we have called the natural constitution of plants. If 
 proof of this were wanting, we should find it in the fact, 
 that fruit trees, for example, when transplanted from our 
 northern temperate zone to that of the south, where the 
 seasons are reversed, continue to flourish for several 
 years in the winter months of these regions ; and, for the 
 same reason, plants from the Cape of Good Hope, and 
 from Australia, transplanted to our climate, preserve 
 their' accustomed period of blooming, notwithstanding 
 the influence of an altered climate. Of this the heaths 
 of those countries, which bloom in the most rigorous sea- 
 son of our year, may be taken as a familiar example. 
 
 It appears, then, that the functions of plants have a 
 periodical character, entirely independent of heat and cold. 
 Such stimulants could not produce the effects which 
 actually take place, were not the plants formed by the 
 Author of Nature to run their annual cycle. Now, let it 
 be observed, that a year might, by possibility, be of any 
 length. Instead of extending to twelve months, it might 
 be completed in six, and all the seasons might be com- 
 prised in that period ; or its revolution might be length- 
 ened to double, or fourfold its present period. In either 
 case, the adjustment which now takes place between the 
 seasons and the constitution of plants, would be entirely 
 destroyed, and an utter derangement of the vegetable 
 
ADJUSTMENT TO THE ANNUAL CYCLE. 149 
 
 world would take place. " The processes of the ris- 
 ing of the sap," says Mr. Whewell, "of the formation 
 of proper juices, the unfolding of leaves, the opening of 
 flowers, the fecundation of the fruit, the ripening of the 
 seed, its proper deposition in order for the reproduction 
 of a new plant, all these operations require a certain 
 portion of time, which could not be compressed into a 
 less space than a year, or at least could not be abbrevi- 
 ated in any very great degree. And, on the other hand, 
 if the winter were greatly longer than it now is, many 
 seeds would not germinate at the return of spring." 
 
 " Now, such an adjustment, "adds this author, u must 
 surely be accepted as a proof of design exercised in the 
 formation of the world. Why should the solar year be 
 so long, and no longer ? Or, this being of such a length, 
 why should the vegetable cycle be exactly of the same 
 length ? Can this be chance ? And this occurs, be it 
 observed, not in one, or in a few species of plants, but 
 in thousands. Take a small portion only of known 
 species, as the most obviously endowed with this adjust- 
 ment, and say ten thousand. How should all these or- 
 ganized bodies be constructed for the same period of the 
 year ? How should all these machines be wound up, so 
 as to go for the same time ? Even allowing that they 
 could bear a year of a month longer or shorter, how do 
 they all come within such limits? No chance could pro- 
 duce such a result ; and, if not by chance, how other- 
 wise could such a coincidence occur, than by an inten- 
 tional adjustment of these two things to one another ? 
 by a selection of such an organization in plants, as would 
 fit them to the earth on which they were to grow ; by an 
 adaptation of construction to conditions ; of the scale of 
 the construction to the scale of conditions."* 
 
 The concluding paragraph of the chapter from which 
 we have just quoted, which carries the view of adjust- 
 ment between organized existences and the annual cycle 
 still farther, is also well worthy of being quoted. " The 
 same kind of argument might be applied to the animal 
 
 *Whewell's Bridgewater Treatise, pp. 28, 29. 
 13* 
 
150 HYBERNATION OF PLANTS. 
 
 creation. The pairing, nesting, hatching, fledging, and 
 flight of birds, for instance, occupy each its peculiar 
 time of the year ; and, together with a proper period of 
 rest, fill up the twelve months. The transformations of 
 most insects have a similar reference to the seasons, their 
 progress, and duration. It is not our business here to 
 settle the details of such provisions, beautiful and strik- 
 ing as they are. But the prevalence of the great law of 
 periodicity in the vital functions of organized beings, will 
 be allowed to have a claim to be considered in its refer- 
 ence to astronomy, when it is seen that their periodical 
 constitution derives its use from the periodical motions 
 of the planets round the sun ; and that the duration of such 
 cycles in the existence of plants and animals, has a refer- 
 ence to the arbitrary elements of the solar system, a re- 
 ference which we maintain is inexplicable and unintelligible 
 except by admitting into our conceptions an Intelligent 
 Author alike of the organic and inorganic universe. " 
 
 SIXTH WEEK THURSDAY. 
 
 III. HYBERNATION OF PLANTS. PHYSIOLOGICAL CONDITION 
 
 OF PLANTS DURING WINTER. 
 
 THE beautiful variety of shades in our woods and 
 groves, towards the close of autumn, which the most in- 
 attentive observer must have admired, arises from the 
 preparation which Nature is making for the winter state 
 of our shrubs and trees. The functions of the produc- 
 tive seasons are ended ; the forest trees have completed 
 their annual growth ; the fruit-bearing trees have yielded 
 their stores ; and the leaves, which performed such an 
 important part in these processes, being no longer use- 
 ful, are to be dropped, that they may, by mingling with 
 their parent earth, supply the waste of the vegetable soil, 
 and repair its exhaustion from the efforts of the preced- 
 
PHYSIOLOGICAL CONDITION. 151 
 
 ing year. The sap which had risen profusely in the be- 
 ginning of autumn, to aid Nature in giving maturity to the 
 fruits, and vigor to the young branches, and thus to 
 crown the labors of the year, having performed this im- 
 portant office, has begun to flow downwards through the 
 inner integuments of the bark, thus completing its peri- 
 odical circulation. The leaf and flower-bud, destined to 
 be developed in the ensuing spring, have been already 
 formed, and are carefully shut up in their winter cerements. 
 The tree exposed naked to the wintry blast, is rendered, 
 by a wonderful provision of the All-wise Creator, proof 
 against the injurious effects of frost. It is in its state 
 of hybernation, like many beasts and insects ; for here, 
 too, the analogy of Nature is striking : it has fallen 
 into its winter sleep. 
 
 The proofs of this state of torpidity are numerous and 
 interesting. Among these, the most familiar is that of 
 the capability of removal, without material injury, to 
 another place. There is no size or age of a tree which 
 would prevent it from enduring transportation, at this 
 season, with perfect safety, provided only it could be 
 effected without greatly injuring the root ; and it is only 
 in winter that such an experiment can be performed with 
 any chance of success. Why? Because the powers of 
 Nature are then suspended. The plant has ceased to 
 draw nourishment from the earth, and its vital principle, 
 though by no means extinguished, is in a state of tem- 
 porary lethargy. 
 
 Now, the importance of this state of plants, in winter, 
 will be obvious, if we consider the condition of the soil 
 and climate of temperate regions, during that period. 
 The genial warmth which caused the juices to flow is 
 gone ; the ground is frequently rendered, by frost, rigid 
 and almost impenetrable ; tempestuous weather would 
 threaten the destruction even of firmly rooted trees, did 
 not the removal of the leaves admit a free passage to the 
 wind through the branches ; the cold would blast the 
 delicate fibre of the growing shoot. All these dangers 
 are either entirely provided against, or at least rendered 
 by no means formidable, by the torpidity which invades 
 
152 HYBERNATION OP PLANTS. 
 
 the vegetable creation. The plant still lives, but its food 
 is gone ; its active operations would expose it to be the 
 sport of the angry elements, and therefore it has retired 
 within itself, like the coiled hedgehog, to sleep out the 
 ungenial season, and to prepare, with new vigor, for the 
 exercise of its renovated powers, in the coming spring. 
 Much less is known of the physiology of plants, than 
 the interesting nature of the subject would lead us to 
 desire ; but there is one circumstance connected with 
 their state in winter, which is too curious to be over- 
 looked. The vital principle, whatever it may be, exerts 
 a peculiar energy in defending them from the influence 
 of frost. A very simple experiment, within the power 
 of every person, will show this. Let a bud be cut off 
 from the parent tree, and suspended, during a strong 
 frost, either by a string, or even within a glass vessel, 
 upon one of the branches, and it will be found that this 
 severed bud will be completely frozen through, while all 
 the buds still attached to the tree, are entirely unaffected 
 by the cold. There is, then, a living power in plants 
 which, of itself, resists, to a considerable extent, the 
 effects of cold. But the Author of Nature does not 
 rest the security of vegetable productions on this princi- 
 ple ; on the contrary, the safety of the bud, on which 
 the future existence of the plant so materially depends, 
 is provided for by its careful envelopement in plies of 
 scales, or within a downy substance, besides being often 
 united together by a coat of resinous matter, of which 
 latter state the horse-chestnut furnishes a familiar example. 
 The intention of this kind of protection is distinctly in- 
 dicated by the fact, that it occurs only in northern 
 countries, the buds of trees in milder regions being des- 
 titute of the scaly covering. The security from injury, 
 which the resinous coat affords, may be proved by a 
 simple experiment. Let a bud of this kind be taken 
 from the tree, and, sealing up the cut end, let it be 
 plunged into the water ; and in this state it may be kept 
 uninjured for several years. In tropical regions, the leaf 
 or flower, not requiring any such means of safety, starts 
 into existence at once, without the intervention of buds, 
 
PHYSIOLOGICAL CONDITION. 153 
 
 another proof of the designing hand of Nature m this 
 provision. 
 
 We have mentioned the power possessed by plants, in 
 a living state, of resisting the effects of cold ; and this 
 fact has led some physiologists to conceive, that an inter- 
 nal heat is generated in plants, as it is in the animal 
 frame. The experiments, however, which have been 
 made to test this opinion, have been of somewhat doubt- 
 ful result, though some curious facts have been adduced 
 in confirmation of it. It is well known, for example, 
 that snow dissolves more quickly in a meadow than on 
 bare ground ; and this has, with apparent force, been 
 attributed to the existence of a slight degree of heat in 
 the vegetation. In certain states of some plants, it has 
 been ascertained, that heat is evolved. M. Hubert re- 
 lates a striking example of this kind, in the spadices of 
 a Madagascar plant, the Arum cordifolium. On apply- 
 ing a thermometer to five spadices, which had unfolded in 
 the preceding night, he observed a rise of twenty-five de- 
 grees from the temperature of the atmosphere. The tem- 
 perature became gradually lower, till, in the evening of the 
 second day, the difference between the heat of the spa- 
 dices and of the surrounding atmosphere, was only seven 
 degrees. The observation which we have recorded above, 
 of the power ot living buds to resist frost, Willdenow 
 extends to the sap of trees, which, he says, will remain 
 unfrozen in very intense cold. The case, however, 
 is different, as he informs us, in plants of warm and hot 
 regions. The sap of these plants congeals on a very 
 Alight cold, and the plants themselves decay ; which 
 shows a very remarkable difference between tropical 
 plants and those of colder climates, and strikingly indi- 
 cates intention. Another observation is, that, although 
 the sap will not congeal in winter, yet, after the buds 
 have been forced out by warm weather in spring, it will 
 readily congeal on exposure to cold, an effect which 
 Dr. Smith ascribes to " the increased susceptibility of 
 the vital principle," at that season. Dead or diseased 
 branches, too, are said to be more liable to be frostbitten 
 than living and sound ones. These facts, though not 
 
154 HYBERNATION OF PLANTS. 
 
 conclusive, seem to give probability to the opinion, that 
 the degree of heat necessary to the support of vegetable 
 life, in winter, is maintained by natural processes going 
 on in the plant itself. But, whatever truth there may be 
 in such an opinion, the facts themselves are sufficient to 
 show the impress of an Intelligent Cause, in this, as in 
 every other department of organized matter. We may 
 not be able satisfactorily to trace all the various steps of 
 the process, but we are able confidently to say, Here, 
 too, is the hand of God. 
 
 SIXTH WEEK FRIDAY. 
 
 IV. HYBERNATION OP PLANTS. THEIR PHYSIOLOGICAL CON- 
 DITION CONTINUED. 
 
 WE have already seen some of the provisions made 
 for the preservation, during this inclement season, of 
 plants of larger growth, which are exposed, leafless, and 
 bare, to all the severity of a chilling atmosphere ; and we 
 are now to mention other provisions for a similar purpose, 
 which are no less admirable. One reason, as we have 
 already hinted, why trees of great dimensions throw off 
 their summer clothing of leaves, is, that they may more 
 readily resist the force of the winds, which frequently 
 blow with fury in the winter. But there are some tree* 
 which are not endowed with this property ; among these, 
 the pine tribe are the most common and conspicuous. 
 Now, remark the contrivances by which the difficulty 
 arising from such a deviation is met. In the first place, 
 the leaves, if they deserve that name, instead of being 
 broad and flat, like those of other trees, are rather in the 
 form of bristles, which shape suffers the wind to pass 
 freely through, and offers the smallest resistance ; and, 
 in the second place, the roots of this class of trees are 
 spread widely along the surface of the earth, laying fast 
 
PHYSIOLOGICAL CONDITION. 155 
 
 hold of the soil, as they intertwine among each other, 
 and insert their numerous fibres ; by which contrivance 
 they are able to stand firm upon their extended base, 
 easily resisting the force of all ordinary tempests. This 
 fact must have struck the mind of any one, who has 
 happened to observe the great breadth of earth and of 
 roots attached to a fir-tree overthrown by some furious 
 storm. 
 
 There is a remark, of a more general nature, which 
 occurs here. All trees are known to attach their roots 
 to the soil, with more or less tenacity, in proportion to 
 their exposure to the wind. There is nothing more fa- 
 miliar to the wood-forester than this striking fact, or more 
 necessary for him to know. The trees, on the outside 
 of a grove or wood of pine, are so firmly fixed in the soil, 
 that scarcely any tempest can uproot them ; and those 
 shelter the rest, whose hold is not so secure. Were this 
 outer ring to be cut down, the wind, thus suddenly let 
 in, would be sure to injure the rest, and the safety of the 
 whole wood might be endangered. Here we find an in- 
 stance of adaptation to circumstances, which cannot be 
 too much admired. 
 
 Other kinds of evergreens, which enliven the winter 
 months, are to be found among shrubs, and some of the 
 lower species of trees. These are more able to resist 
 the fury of violent winds, on account of their diminutive 
 height, which exposes a shorter, and therefore less pow- 
 erful, lever to the action of this force, while their roots 
 are equally adapted, with those of the pine, to the pecu- 
 liarities of their nature. Besides this, the leaves of 
 these hardy plants are generally of a solid texture, and 
 glossy surface, well suited to resist the various vicissi- 
 tudes of the season. Such delightful varieties seem to 
 have been bestowed on us, for the purpose of affording 
 relief from the stern aspect of winter ; and the grounds 
 of the rich, show how well a judicious use of these, and 
 of various herbaceous plants, can throw, over the bleak- 
 ness of this gloomy season, some of the charms of sum- 
 mer. 
 
 If, from shrubs and trees, we turn to the numerous 
 
156 HYBERNATION OF PLANTS. 
 
 and useful classes of herbs, we shall find ourselves intro- 
 duced into a new field of wonders. Some of these only 
 survive till they have shed their seed in autumn ; and, 
 having thus provided for the propagation of their spe- 
 cies, perish as individuals, and mingle with their parent 
 earth, resembling, in this respect, many species of in- 
 sects. But others survive the winter ; and of these, 
 many die down to the root, and thus, like numerous ani- 
 mals, burrow, as it were, underground, where, in virtue 
 of their combined torpidity and vital energy, they remain 
 secure from the attacks of frost, even when it penetrates 
 to their retreats. Here some of them are secretly pre- 
 paring, by mysterious internal processes, for the com- 
 ing spring ; while others appear to lie entirely dormant, 
 till more genial weather awake them from their deep 
 sleep. Again, other classes of herbaceous plants con- 
 tinue to breathe the rigors of winter, cheering our other- 
 wise desolate gardens and fields with their languid smile, 
 and expanding their blossoms, or stretching their green 
 leaves, from soil bound in the iron fetters of ice, or cov- 
 ered with a cold but bright mantle of snow. Of those 
 species which survive the winter, some are biennial, 
 and others perennial ; and of the former species, it has 
 been remarked, that, though their life may be prolonged 
 by transplanting them, and thus retarding the period of 
 flowering and bearing seed, yet no artificial means can 
 prevent their decay, after they have provided for the 
 continuance of their species, by exercising this import- 
 ant function. 
 
 Cowper, with his usual piety and felicity, adverts to 
 these paternal provisions of the God of the seasons : 
 
 "He marks the bounds which Winter may not pass, 
 And blunts his pointed fury ; in its case, 
 Russet and rude, folds up the tender germ 
 Uninjured, with inimitable art ; 
 And, ere one flowery season fades and dies, 
 Designs the blooming wonders of the next." 
 
 Before closing this paper, we may just hint at another 
 remarkable provision of Nature, with regard to plants, 
 as applicable to the present season of the year, that by 
 
PHYSIOLOGICAL CONDITION. 157 
 
 which the vegetable principle acquires a kind of acceler- 
 ated impulse, by being pent up for a more than ordinary 
 period. Every one is familiar with the fact, that a cold 
 spring retards the vegetation ; and that, when this has 
 been the case to a more than ordinary extent, a few days 
 of warm weather succeeding, will cause a sudden and 
 wonderful burst of vegetation, which soon compensates 
 for the delay. Nature is in haste, as it were, to regain 
 her lost time. This principle is peculiarly remarkable 
 in very northern climates. Where the snow lies on the 
 ground more than ten months of the year, as in Siberia 
 and Lapland, spring, summer, and autumn, are all com- 
 prised in the short space of five or six weeks ; and, dur- 
 ing that period, the whole process of springing, growing, 
 flowering, producing fruit, and ripening, is completed. 
 This is exemplified in a register kept of the Siberian 
 vegetation, of which the following is a copy : 
 
 July 1. Snow gone. 
 
 9. Fields quite green. 
 
 17. Plants at full growth. 
 25. Ditto in flower. 
 
 August 2. Fruit ripe. 
 
 18. Snow. 
 
 And from that time, snow and ice to 23d June, when they begin to 
 melt. 
 
 This astonishing elasticity in the principle of vegetable 
 life, is an exceedingly striking provision of the God of 
 Nature, which indicates an admirable adaptation to a 
 very peculiar state of climate. Where Nature sleeps 
 for five sixths of the year, the plants sleep during the 
 same period ; and yet, when they awake, they run their 
 course, like other plants, only hastening their pace, that 
 they may accomplish it within the allotted time. 
 
 i. 14 VII 
 
158 INSTINCT. 
 
 SIXTH WEEK SATURDAY. 
 
 INSTINCT. 
 
 IN proceeding from examining the state of plants dur- 
 ing winter, to the consideration of that of animals, the 
 subject of Instinct forces itself on our attention. This 
 is one of the most mysterious and wonderful of all the 
 qualities inherent in organized beings, and, in its opera- 
 tion, exhibits so distinctly a Designing Cause, separate 
 from the being which possesses it, as to be calculated, 
 more perhaps than almost any other natural phenomenon, 
 to carry to the inquiring mind a settled conviction of a 
 supreme and intelligent Creator. 
 
 Instinct has been defined to be "the operation of the 
 principle of organized life, by the exercise of certain nat- 
 ural powers, directed to the present or future good of 
 the individual ;" and it has been distinguished from rea- 
 son, by considering the latter as "the operation of the 
 principle of intellectual life, by the exercise of certain 
 acquired powers, directed to the same end."* This defi- 
 nition, without entering into the theory with which it is 
 connected, seems sufficiently accurate to answer our 
 present object. 
 
 Symptoms of an instinctive principle, as thus defined, 
 are to be found in various productions of the vegetable 
 world. Two or three instances of this kind may be 
 mentioned. 
 
 A strawberry offset, planted in a patch of sand, will 
 send forth almost the whole of its runners in the direc- 
 tion in which the proper soil lies nearest. 
 
 When a tree, which requires much moisture, has been 
 planted in a dry soil, in the vicinity of water, it has been 
 observed, that much the greater proportion of its roots 
 have been directed towards the water. 
 
 * Good's 'Book of Nature,' vol. ii. p. 141. 
 
INSTINCT. 159 
 
 Trees which have sprung up on a bare rock, will send 
 out their roots in every direction, till they reach the soil 
 below. Every one is familiar with this fact, who has 
 frequented a wooded rocky district. 
 
 A fact of a similar nature, which is noticed, I think, 
 by Lord Kames, and which I have myself witnessed, 
 occurred at the Abbey of Sweetheart, in Galloway, where 
 an ash- tree, growing on the wall which surrounds the 
 abbey, after exhausting the small quantity of soil which 
 had collected on its site, stopped from growing for a time, 
 and seemed to unite all its strength in sending down a 
 root to the ground. As soon as this root had established 
 itself in the soil, the tree began again to flourish and in- 
 crease, till it grew to a considerable size. 
 
 I have somewhere seen an account of a tree, which 
 grew in the valley of the Earn, in Perthshire, if I mis- 
 take not, on a scanty soil, by the bank of a stream, over 
 which, in its immediate vicinity, a footbridge, covered 
 with turf, had been erected. The tree, taking advantage 
 of this circumstance, pushed its roots through the dead 
 turf of the bridge, till they fastened in the fertile soil, 
 which happened to be on the other side of the stream ; 
 and then, swelling and strengthening its new organ of 
 communication, drew sufficient nourishment from this 
 source to supply all the wants of its nature. 
 
 All facts of this kind, and many more that might be 
 mentioned, may, in my opinion, be clearly attributed to 
 the principle of instinct. 
 
 Of instinct in animals, Dr. Good gives the following 
 curious notices : u All the different species of birds, in 
 constructing their nests, not only adhere to a peculiar 
 plan, but, whenever they can obtain them, to peculiar 
 kinds of materials ; but, if these materials be not to be 
 procured, the accommodating power of the instinctive 
 principle directs them to others, and suggests the best 
 substitutes. Thus, the redbreast uniformly prefers oak 
 leaves as a lining for her nest, wherever she can acquire 
 them ; but, if these are not to be had, she supplies the 
 want by moss and hair. So, when the bird is of a small 
 size, and the eggs are naturally numerous, the nest is 
 
160 INSTINCT. 
 
 always made proportionally warm, that the nestlings 
 may all equally partake of the vivifying heat. Thus, 
 the wren, who lays from ten to eighteen eggs, constructs 
 her little edifice with the greatest care, and of the warm- 
 est materials ; while the plover and the eagle, whose eggs 
 are so few, that the body may easily cover them, build with 
 little solicitude, and sometimes content themselves with 
 the naked cleft of a rock. And thus, too, in very cold 
 winters in Lapland, the fond waterfowl will occasionally 
 strip the down off its breast, to line its nest and protect 
 its progeny. When a wasp, in attempting to transport 
 a dead companion from the nest, finds the load too heavy, 
 he cuts off its head and carries it out in two portions." 
 
 These illustrations may suffice for the present, espe- 
 cially as by far the greater share of the facts relative to 
 the animal creation, which I am about to adduce, must 
 be referred to the same principle. Instinct, I may add, 
 as in some of the above instances, does not unfrequently 
 resemble reason, and it maybe united with, and modified 
 by, this quality ; but it may always be distinguished 
 from it by this, that its operations are generally perfect 
 of their kind ; that its powers are precisely the same in 
 all generations ; that they belong, nearly in an equal de- 
 gree, to all individuals of the same species ; and that its 
 functions proceed blindly towards the attainment of an 
 important object, the use and tendency of which is not 
 perceived by the creature itself. 
 
 I have said, that this principle is probably calculated, 
 better than any other natural phenomenon, to lead the 
 mind to an acknowledgement of a Divine Hand. Let us 
 revert, for a few moments, to this view. 
 
 In examining the general structure of the universe, we 
 observe a few simple, though vast and comprehensive, 
 powers inherent in matter, which, by their universal and 
 uniform operation, move Nature with the same regularity 
 as if it were a mighty machine impelled by brute force ; 
 and hence the indolent or skeptical may be inclined to 
 rest in the existence of these powers as an ultimate fact, 
 without seeking for an intelligent Creator, from whom 
 they emanated, and by whom they have been adjusted 
 
INSTINCT. 161 
 
 and regulated. The same thing may take place in con- 
 templating the structure of organized bodies. So much 
 of mere mechanical power enters into every process of 
 their formation, growth, and preservation, that, although 
 it does seem to be the blindness of utter stupidity to 
 deny to these productions unequivocal marks of wise and 
 beneficent design, it is possible to conceive, that, in 
 tracing the mere physical laws by which their various 
 properties are governed, the cold calculations of a con- 
 tracted mind may proceed no further. On turning from 
 these appearances of external nature, to the operations 
 of rational creatures, such minds may be led to admire 
 the wisdom which contrives, and the power and skill 
 which executes, the various plans of life, without direct- 
 ing one serious thought beyond the intelligence of the 
 immediate agent. But it requires a still greater degree 
 of obtuseness and of obstinacy, to resist the evidence 
 of a designing and bountiful Creator, in the wonders of 
 instinct. These are altogether independent of reasoning 
 powers, and impel organized beings, by a sagacity, obvi- 
 ously not their own, to compass important ends, which, 
 though essential to the welfare, and even to the very ex- 
 istence, not only of the individual, but of the species, 
 could not, by any possibility, be within their contempla- 
 tion, being far beyond the range of their limited facul- 
 ties. Here, then, there is a designing cause, distinct 
 from, and superior to, the agent ; and this is the more 
 clearly discernible, because its operations are governed 
 by other than mere mechanical powers. u I look upon 
 instinct," says Addison, " as upon the principle of grav- 
 itation in bodies, which is not to be explained by any 
 known qualities inherent in the bodies themselves, nor 
 upon any laws of mechanism ; but, according to the best 
 notions of the greatest philosophers, is an immediate im- 
 pression from the First Mover, and the Divine energy 
 acting in the creatures ; such an operation of the Su- 
 preme Being as that which determines* all the portions of 
 matter to their proper centre." 
 14* 
 
162 ON SEEING GOD IN HIS WORKS. 
 
 SEVENTH WEEK SUNDAY. 
 
 ON SEEING GOD IN HIS WORKS! 
 
 ALMOST all men, not in the lowest stages of barbarism 
 or degradation, are capable of admiring the beauties of 
 Nature. Even the dullest and most unreflecting mind 
 is, at times, more or less vividly impressed with the won- 
 derful skill and beauty so profusely scattered over all 
 creation. But the intelligent eye is always delighted, 
 and frequently kindled into rapture, by the rich and splen- 
 did scenery that on every side solicits its attention. Our 
 susceptibility of impressions of grandeur or beauty, de- 
 serves to be ranked among our original faculties ; for it 
 is observable in all classes of the human family, refined 
 and exalted in the bosom of the enlightened European, 
 and not unfelt by the savage tenant of the African or 
 American desert. A love of Nature appears to be im- 
 planted in man, to feed the flame of religion in his soul, 
 to assist in leading him from the wonderfully contriv- 
 ed objects around him to a belief in an intelligent and 
 bountiful Creator. We are told in Holy Scripture, that 
 God never left Himself without a witness to the human 
 race, inasmuch as His power and goodness may be always 
 clearly known from the exuberant plenty and beauty scat- 
 tered over the earth, their magnificent abode. As they 
 had hearts to feel a sentiment of gratitude for bounty 
 lavishly bestowed, and understandings to reason from 
 effects to causes, the ancient heathen were altogether in- 
 excusable in not knowing the true God, the great First 
 Cause of all, and the source of " every good and per- 
 fect gift." They wandered from the right way, only be- 
 cause they were heedless or wilfully perverse. Their 
 feelings and powers became the instruments of their self- 
 delusion ; and, instead of seeing in Nature a supreme and 
 infinite God, they saw a thousand grovelling divinities ; 
 
ON SEEING GOD IN HIS WORKS. 163 
 
 and fancy lent all the fascinations of poetry to their cor- 
 rupt and irrational mythology. 
 
 But if the heathen, who lived in times of rudeness 
 and ignorance, were subject to condemnation for abusing 
 their faculties and opportunities, how much more guilty 
 are we in not seeing God in all his works ? How much 
 more worthy of punishment are we, if we turn not into 
 their proper and legitimate channel that sympathy with 
 external nature, and that instinctive admiration of the 
 grand and the beautiful, with which we are endowed ? 
 The question is not, Do we, like the heathen of ancient 
 or modern times, believe in a polytheism, and people, 
 with the vain creatures of our imagination, the regions 
 of the land and the sea? for we at once, unintelligibly, 
 perhaps, and, as it were, mechanically, assent to the re- 
 ceived truth, There is one God ; and we also readily 
 acquiesce in the grave lessons that may be read us by 
 some pious student of the book of Nature. But the in- 
 quiry to be made of our own hearts is, Do we habitually 
 see the Creator in His works, and associate His glorious 
 perfections with every witnessed specimen of His skill ? 
 We luxuriate in the glowing summer landscape ; we 
 there admire the universal flush of inanimate nature ; we 
 listen, with delight, to the sweet singing of birds, and 
 the mingling murmurs of winds and streams : But do 
 we straightway lift up our eyes to heaven in adoring 
 gratitude, and own a God around us ? or do all our feel- 
 ings but minister to a luxurious sensibility, and evaporate 
 in some poetic dream ? When we survey, by night, the 
 starry heaven, and direct our telescope to those count- 
 less worlds that there crowd upon the vision, are we lost 
 in devout admiration of the wondrous universe of God ? 
 or do we merely resign ourselves to those emotions of 
 sublimity that such a magnificent scene is so well fitted 
 to awaken ? We are too apt and too habituated to behold 
 the glories of creation, without looking further. We are 
 satisfied with a vague sentimental feeling of beauty, and 
 think not of that Hand from which all beauty flows. 
 We are struck with the endless adaptations of the mate- 
 rial world, but we do not always raise our thoughts to 
 
164 ON SEEING GOD IN HIS WORKS. 
 
 the great Designer. We analyze and admire the splen- 
 did machinery of the heavens, but we recognise not 
 the matchless power of the Mechanist. We philoso- 
 phize, we speculate, we declaim, on the structure of a 
 flower, or the mechanism of a planetary system, but 
 only talk the while of Nature and her works, as if Nature 
 a mere fashioned mass of inert matter were the pa- 
 rent of all things, and the grand object of our worship. 
 
 Would we read the book of Nature aright, and see 
 God in His works, we must have recourse to the book 
 of Revelation ; for these two great volumes, written by 
 the same Hand, and for a similar purpose, cast a strong 
 light upon each other. As the book of Nature, by the 
 visible impress of Divinity stamped upon it, is fitted to 
 prepare us for the more glorious display of the Divine 
 perfections contained in the book of Revelation, so is 
 this latter the truest and safest guide to the profitable pe- 
 rusal of the former. In the Bible, the great productions 
 and aspects of nature are always mentioned in connexion 
 with the glory of God. They are introduced, often in 
 strains of the boldest poetry, to^teach the infinite power 
 and goodness of Jehovah. We there find the noblest 
 descriptions of natural objects ever penned ; and one 
 great moral runs through them all. Every masterly pic- 
 ture of the grand or the beautiful in nature, is but a de- 
 lineation of God's wondrous attributes. 
 
 It is, therefore, a positive duty, sublimely taught us 
 both by precept and example, to cherish a sense of the 
 infinite skill and bounty displayed in creation. We 
 should associate, with all that attracts the eye by its 
 beauty, or excites our admiration by its delicate struc- 
 ture, the liveliest expressions of adoration and gratitude. 
 Every survey of natural scenery, every examination of 
 even the smallest of God's works, should be to us a de- 
 votional exercise. To a mind accustomed to consecrate 
 all its perceptions of beauty and design to the inward 
 worship of God, every mountain and field, every leaf and 
 flower, teems with instruction. The tiny wing of the 
 ephemeral insect, as well as the noblest animal form, 
 affords food for the loftiest admiration. The man of true 
 
REASON IN THE LOWER ANIMALS. 165 
 
 piety and refined feeling, enjoys the beauties of Nature 
 with the keenest relish ; for Nature is but a pictured vol- 
 ume in which he reads the character of the Divinity. 
 Every object that meets his eye, be it vast or minute, 
 simple or complex, suggests exalted conceptions of Him 
 
 " Who gives its lustre to an insect's wing, 
 And wheels His throne upon the rolling worlds." 
 
 All our feelings and intellectual powers should be de- 
 voted to the glory of God, their Author and their End. 
 Our purest sympathies, our liveliest sensations, our most 
 exquisite perceptions, are due to His worship, and are 
 all originally fitted to exalt our conception of His char- 
 acter. To behold the wonderful scene in which we are 
 placed, with the eye of reason, and with feelings of ele- 
 vated devotion, is both our duty and our privilege. 
 When we contemplate, therefore, the heavens, with the 
 sun, moon, and stars, which God has ordained, the 
 earth, with all its array of plants and flowers, and animat- 
 ed beings, the sea, with its multitude of waves and 
 living forms, let us gratefully adore the Almighty Cre- 
 ator, and exclaim, with the Psalmist, ( ' O Lord, our Lord, 
 how excellent is thy name in all the earth !" J. D. 
 
 SEVENTH WEEK MONDAY. 
 
 REASON IN THE LOWER ANIMALS. 
 
 INSTINCT, if the definition which I have given of it in 
 my paper of Saturday be correct, will not account for 
 all the operations of the lower animals. Instinct is uni- 
 form. It belongs to all the species nearly in the same 
 degree. The young possess it as soon as they are pro- 
 duced ; or, at least, as soon as their bodily powers will 
 enable them to employ it, in as great perfection as the 
 old. It is not communicated by instruction ; it is not 
 
166 REASON IN THE LOWER ANIMALS. 
 
 learned by experience. The young bee, for instance, 
 the moment it leaves the cell where it has been produced 
 and cradled, cleans its body, smooths its wings, then 
 leaves its hive, and flies, without a guide or teacher, to 
 the nearest flower, where, using its feelers, and inserting 
 its proboscis, it sips the sweet nectar with which the 
 Author of Nature has, for its use, filled so many vegeta- 
 ble cups, and then returns to its native roof, tracing its 
 solitary way through the trackless air, and deposits the 
 gleanings of its industry, to add to the hoarded treasures 
 of the parent swarm. Then, again, it exudes the se- 
 creted wax from the rings of its body ; and, still without 
 instruction, begins to form those wonderful hexagonal 
 cells, the scientific construction of which the mathema- 
 tician has found such reason to admire. All this is in- 
 stinct. 
 
 Yet, though there is wisdom here, it is not that of the 
 animal, but of its Creator. It has been guided to these 
 intelligent works by a blind impulse. This, however, 
 is not the case with many of the actions of the inferior 
 creation ; and, however difficult it may be to draw the 
 line between reason and instinct, I believe no person who 
 has, without prejudice, studied the character and habits 
 of the living creatures below him, will find it easy to 
 deny them at least some glimpses of that higher faculty 
 to which his own species has the most appropriate claim. 
 A few well-authenticated instances will illustrate this re- 
 mark. 
 
 I have the following anecdote from a gentleman* of 
 undoubted veracity, and acute observation, in the vicinity 
 of Dumfries. A few years ago, this gentleman had beau- 
 tified his residence, by converting a morass in its neigh- 
 borhood into an extensive piece of water, which he had 
 stocked with fish ; and, as places of retreat for these 
 tenants of his lake, he had caused numerous roots of trees 
 to be thrown in here and there, which were usually hid 
 below the surface. In the year 1836, however, the un- 
 usually dry spring caused the necessary supply of water 
 unexpectedly to fail, and the pond sank so low, that some 
 
 * James Lennox, Esq. of Dalscairth. 
 
REASON IN THE LOWER ANIMALS. 167 
 
 of the roots made their appearance, and on one of these, 
 more elevated than the others, a pair of wild ducks con- 
 structed their inartificial nest ; and the female had already 
 laid some eggs, when the weather changed, and the de- 
 scending rains having filled the streams by which the lake 
 was fed, the surface gradually rose, and threatened to 
 overwhelm the labors of this luckless pair, and to send 
 their eggs adrift upon the waves. Here instinct had no 
 resource. It was an unexpected occurrence, for which 
 this faculty could not provide ; but if any glimmerings 
 of reason belonged to these fond parents, it might be ex- 
 pected to be exerted. And so it was. Both the duck 
 and the drake were observed to be busily employed in 
 collecting and depositing materials ; presently the nest, 
 which the rising waters had already reached, was seen to 
 emerge as it were from the flood ; more and more straw 
 and grass were added, till several inches of new eleva- 
 tion was gained, and the nest, w T ith its precious contents, 
 appeared to be secure. Here the mother patiently 
 brooded her full time ; and one duckling rewarded her 
 care ; when, just as it had escaped from the shell, an- 
 other torrent of rain fell, more sudden and more violent 
 than the first ; the water rose higher and higher ; the 
 nest, and remaining eggs, were swept away. In this 
 emergency, the whole attention of the parents was given 
 to the living progeny, which was safely conveyed by 
 them to the shore, where another nest was constructed ; 
 and thus their sagacity and solicitude were finally crown- 
 ed with success. 
 
 An example, it should seem, of a still higher order of 
 intelligence, is recorded by Mr. Jesse, in his ' Glean- 
 ings in Natural History,' which came under his own ob- 
 servation. u I w r as one day," says he, u feeding the 
 poor elephant (who was so barbarously put to death at 
 Exeter Change) with potatoes, which he took out of my 
 hand. One of them, a round one, fell on the floor, just 
 out of the reach of his proboscis. He leaned against 
 his wooden bar, put out his trunk, and could just touch 
 the potato, but could not pick it up. After several in- 
 effectual efforts, he at last blew the potato against the 
 
168 REASON IN THE LOWER ANIMALS. 
 
 opposite wall with sufficient force to make it rebound ; 
 and he then, without difficulty, secured it." If we can 
 believe that this extraordinary action was any thing but 
 an ebullition of anger which led him to puff away the 
 root which he could not secure, that this half-reasoning 
 animal, as the elephant has been called, really intended 
 the potato to rebound within his reach, it is impossible 
 to deny the justice of Mr. Jesse's conclusion, that it 
 could not be instinct which taught him to procure his food 
 in this manner ; and that it must, therefore, have been 
 reason which " enabled him to be so good a judge of 
 cause and effect." 
 
 In some of the insect tribes, there seems to be an ex- 
 traordinary faculty, which, if it can be called instinct, 
 surely approaches to the highest faculty possessed by 
 man, I mean the power of communicating information 
 by some natural language. Huber affirms, u that Nature 
 has given to ants a language of communication, by the 
 contact of their antennae ; and that, with these organs, 
 they are enabled to render mutual assistance in their la- 
 bors and in their dangers, discover again their route when 
 they have lost it, and make each other acquainted with 
 their necessities." This power seems to be confirmed 
 by what occurred to Dr. Franklin. Upon discovering 
 a number of ants regaling themselves with some treacle 
 in one of his cupboards, he put them to the rout, and 
 then suspended the pot of treacle by a string from the 
 ceiling. He imagined that he had put the whole army to 
 flight, but was surprised to see a single ant quit the pot, 
 climb up the string, cross the ceiling, and regain its nest. 
 In less than half an hour, several of its companions sal- 
 lied forth, traversed the ceiling, and reached the reposi- 
 tory, which they constantly revisited, till the treacle was 
 consumed. The same power of communication belongs 
 also to bees and wasps ; as may be proved by any one 
 who carefully attends to their habits. This is their lan- 
 guage, not of articulate sounds, indeed, but of signs, 
 a language which, as Jesse observes, " we can have no 
 doubt is perfectly suited to them, adding, we know not 
 how much, to their happiness and enjoyments, and fur- 
 
REASON IN THE LOWER ANIMALS. 169 
 
 nishing another proof that there is a God all-mighty,- all- 
 wise, and all-good, who has 'ornamented the universe' 
 with so many objects of delightful contemplation, that we 
 may see Him in all his works, and learn, not only to fear 
 Him for his power, but to love Him for the care which 
 He takes of us, and of all his created beings." Wheth- 
 er this power of communication be rational or instinctive, 
 it is obviously only suited to be useful to a being pos- 
 sessed, at least to a certain extent, of intellectual facul- 
 ties, of the power of forming designs, of combining, 
 with others, to execute them, of accommodating itself 
 to circumstances, and, therefore, of remembering, of com- 
 paring, of judging, and of resolving. These are assuredly 
 acts of reasoning ; at least, I know not under what other 
 category to arrange them. 
 
 The instance which Dr. Darwin gives of a wasp, no- 
 ticed by himself, is in point. As he was walking one 
 day in his garden, he perceived a wasp upon the gravel 
 walk, with a large fly, nearly as big as itself, which it 
 had caught. Kneeling down, he distinctly saw it cut off 
 the head and abdomen, and then, taking up with its feet 
 the trunk or middle portion of the body, to which the 
 wings remained attached, fly away ; but a breeze of wind, 
 acting on the wings of the fly, turned round the wasp, 
 with its burden, and impeded its progress. Upon this, 
 it alighted again on the gravel walk, deliberately sawed 
 off, first one wing, and then another > and having thus re- 
 moved the cause of its embarrassment, flew off with its 
 booty. 
 
 Here we have contrivance, and recontrivance ; a res- 
 olution accommodated to the case, judiciously formed 
 and executed ; and, on the discovery of a new impedi- 
 ment, a new plan adopted, by which final success was 
 obtained. There is, undoubtedly, something more than 
 instinct in all this. And yet we call the wasp a despica- 
 ble and hateful insect ! 
 
 There is, I am well aware, a great reluctance in some 
 
 minds to admit that any of the lower animals can be 
 
 gifted with a faculty superior to blind unreasoning in- 
 
 tinct. It is imagined that this would be to confound, 
 
 i. 15 vn. 
 
170 HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 
 
 man with the brutes, and thus to deprive him of that 
 distinctive superiority on which he founds his strongest 
 argument for the immortality of the human soul. Of 
 such a consequence, I have no fear. It is not on natural 
 arguments that the Christian's hope of future happiness 
 is chiefly founded, but on that gospel, which has u brought 
 life and immortality to light." Yet, I freely admit, 
 that the argument from natural religion is satisfactory as 
 a proof of the coincidence of revelation with the rational 
 expectations, and the analogical reasonings, of man. But 
 these expectations and reasonings are founded on stronger 
 grounds than that of the absence of every thing approach- 
 ing to reason among the lower animals, otherwise, I 
 fear, they could not be readily sustained. Whatever 
 may be their strength, however, it is delightful to know 
 that our assurance comes from a higher source, and that 
 we are not reduced, like one of the most enlightened 
 and virtuous of heathens, to end all our anxious argu- 
 ments on this most important subject, with the feeble and 
 doubting conclusion, u Qworf, si in hoc erro, libenter 
 * [" If in this I am in error, I am content to err."] 
 
 SEVENTH WEEK TUESDAY. 
 
 HIBERNATION OP INSECTS. EGGS. 
 
 IN attending to the state of animated nature in winter, 
 as compared with that of summer, few things are more 
 striking than the almost total disappearance, during the 
 former season, of all the insect tribes. In the warmth 
 and sunshine of the summer months, all Nature was 
 instinct with life ; and the abundance and variety of the 
 more minute animals could not fail to attract the obser- 
 vation, and excite the wonder, of all who have eyes to 
 see. The bee, the dragon-fly, the butterfly, the gnat, 
 
 * Cicero. 
 
EGGS. 171 
 
 and the midge, in all their varieties, with myriads of flies 
 of other species, seemed to communicate life and enjoy- 
 ment to the very air we breathed ; while the worm, the 
 beetle, the ant, the caterpillar, the spider, and innumerable 
 other creatures, some of them too minute to be examined 
 without the assistance of art, swarmed on every flower 
 we plucked, and animated the very dust beneath our 
 feet. Where now is all this busy world ? Tribe after 
 tribe, they have vanished from our view; and even in 
 days of balmiest air, and brightest sunshine, we seek for 
 them in vain. Has the breath of winter pierced through 
 their tiny forms, and frozen the current of life at its source ? 
 And, if so, by what process of reproduction shall all 
 their various species be reanimated in the returning 
 spring ? The inquiry is at once interesting and useful ; 
 and here, again, we shall have occasion to admire the in- 
 exhaustible resources of Divine intelligence. 
 
 Of some insect families, it is known, that all the 
 individuals are destined to perish before the cold of win- 
 ter arrives. The natural term of their existence is com- 
 prised within the span of a few months ; and their periods 
 of youth, of vigor, and of decay, nay, of resuscitation 
 under new forms, and of the various stages of their sec- 
 ond or even third state of existence, have all been accom- 
 plished during the season of genial warmth ; so that they 
 naturally cease to exist before the heat which cherished 
 them, and the food which sustained them, are withdrawn. 
 Their modes of life will more properly form the sub- 
 ject of attention at another season ; but at present we 
 have to inquire into the provision of Providence, by 
 which the various species are preserved after the whole 
 race has ceased to live. 
 
 As the principle of equivocal generation is nearly ex- 
 ploded from natural history, it will readily be conjec- 
 tured that the Creator must have provided for the pres- 
 ervation of the future generations of these animals by 
 means of their eggs ; and this, in reality, is the case. 
 There are various conditions, however, that require to 
 be fulfilled, before this could be successfully accomplished. 
 Not to advert, at present, to the wonderful but familiar 
 
172 HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 
 
 contrivance of an egg containing the embryo of the fu- 
 ture animal, a contrivance which shall afterwards be 
 considered, it is to be remarked that, in the present in- 
 stance, the egg must be endifed with the quality of 
 preserving its principle of vitality for several months, in 
 circumstances which would have proved fatal to the ani- 
 mal itself ; that it must only produce the living creature 
 when the wintry storms are past, and when those vege- 
 table substances have begun to appear, on which that 
 creature can subsist ; and, that it must be so situated, 
 and so endowed, as to be able, when animated, to find 
 its way to the open air, and to its natural food. If any one 
 of these conditions were wanting, it is sufficiently appa- 
 rent that the species must perish. 
 
 Now, let us take an instance, and see what actually 
 occurs. I select the case of the gipsy-moth, which I 
 abridge from the article Insect Transformations, in the 
 ' Library of Entertaining Knowledge.' The female of 
 this insect has her body thickly covered with a soft down, 
 of a hair-brown color, apparently for the express pur- 
 pose of enabling her to protect her eggs during winter ; 
 and she follows the impulse of her nature, in a manner 
 well worthy of notice. Having emerged from her pupa- 
 case in the month of August, she enjoys life for a few 
 days, and then prepares for the continuation of her species, 
 after which she quickly dies. She places herself on the 
 trunk of an oak or elm, invariably with her head down- 
 wards. Having made a bed or nest of down, by tearing 
 it from her body, she lays an egg in it ; and this egg 
 being covered with adhesive gluten, attaches around it 
 all the hairs of the down with which it comes in contact, 
 and also sticks to the bark of the tree, from its being 
 pushed home. Proceeding in this manner, she continues 
 for several hours adding to the mass ; but she does not, 
 in general, finish the operation in less than two days, in- 
 dulging in occasional rests. At intervals, she takes care 
 to protect the eggs placed in the heap, which is made in 
 a conical shape, with an exterior covering of the same 
 down : and, it is not a little remarkable, that in the ex- 
 ternal coping, which is designed to keep Out the winter 
 
EGGS. 173 
 
 rains, the hairs are carefully placed in a sloping direc- 
 tion, like the tiles on a house, or the nap of a well-brushed 
 hat, pointing downwards, towards the base of the cone. 
 The eggs, which are deposited with so much care, are 
 destined to abide all the pitiless pelting of the storms of 
 winter ; for, although they are laid in the beginning of 
 harvest, they are not hatched till the elm, which is to 
 furnish food to the future caterpillar, comes into leaf in 
 the following spring. This covering of down, from the 
 manner in which it is tiled and brushed smooth by the 
 mother moth, not only protects them from wet, but, be- 
 ing one of the best non-conductors, keeps them safe from 
 the injury which they might sustain from severe cold, or, 
 what might be more fatal, from sudden alternations of 
 heat and cold. 
 
 In the instance now detailed, there are some things 
 worthy of particular notice ; and, as it is a fair specimen 
 of the wonderful instincts of insects with reference to the 
 preservation of the species during winter, it may be prop- 
 er to make a few remarks on the subject. Let it be 
 observed, first, that in the previous states of the insect, 
 whether as a caterpillar or a chrysalis, it had no power 
 of continuing its species. It is not till its last and most 
 perfect stage that this faculty is bestowed ; and it enters 
 on that stage just in time to flutter awhile in the sunshine, 
 and then to die before the cold of the waning year inter- 
 rupts its enjoyments, withers the vegetables on which it 
 feeds, and chills its delicate frame ; and in time, too, to 
 lay its eggs, that they may weather the coming storms of 
 winter, which the parent could not endure, and be hatched 
 when the breezes of spring begin to breathe softly, and 
 Nature again proceeds to scatter her stores of food. It 
 cannot be here said, either that the insect dies from the 
 inclemency of the season, or that the hatching of the eggs 
 is retarded by the deficiency of warmth ; for the season 
 is still genial, when the former, having fulfilled the inten- 
 tions of Nature, ceases to exist, and months of weather 
 not inferior to the heat of spring, succeed the depositing 
 of the latter. It is no other than a wise Providential 
 arrangement. 
 
174 HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 
 
 Another surprising feature of the instinct displayed by 
 this moth, (which, however, so far from being peculiar to 
 the species, is only an instance of the general faculty af- 
 fecting almost the whole insect creation,) is the choice 
 of the spot where she deposits her eggs. These eggs, 
 when hatched, are destined to produce caterpillars, whose 
 peculiar food is to be found in the leaves of the oak or 
 elm. From all the trees of the forest, she, therefore, 
 selects one or other of these as the place for depositing 
 her precious gift to a future year, although it is not from 
 them that her own means of subsistence are to be gath- 
 ered ; and although, so far as we are able to judge, there 
 is nothing in her condition, as a moth, which could lead 
 to the preference. 
 
 We have already spoken of the remarkable manner 
 in which the gipsy-moth protects her eggs from the 
 weather ; but it may be proper to make an observation or 
 two on the eggs, themselves, applicable generally to all 
 insect eggs, which are exposed to the storms of winter. 
 The glutinous matter by which the eggs are united, 
 when protruded from the insect, and which is so neces- 
 sary for preserving them in a mass, and for fixing them 
 to the spot, is found, contrary to the nature of many 
 similar substances, to be insoluble in water, and therefore 
 incapable of being affected by the copious rains to which 
 they are destined to be exposed. But this is not so 
 remarkable as another fact, which has been proved by 
 some severe tests, and which shows how admirably the 
 constitution of these eggs is adapted to the season of 
 winter. Both Spallanzani and Hunter made experi- 
 ments to ascertain the degree of cold which the eggs of 
 insects were capable of enduring without injury ; and 
 we subjoin the statement of the latter. u I have ex- 
 posed eggs to a more rigorous trial than the winter of 
 1709.* Those of several insects, and, among others, the 
 silkworm, moth, and elm-butterfly, were enclosed in a 
 glass vessel, and buried five hours in a mixture of ice 
 
 * The year 1709 is celebrated for its rigor, and its fatal effects on 
 plants and animals. Fahrenheit's thermometer fell to one degree below 
 zero, and yet the insects were as numerous in spring as ever. 
 
EGGS. 175 
 
 and sal-gemmae, (rock salt.) The thermometer fell six de- 
 grees below zero. In the middle of the following spring, 
 however, caterpillars came from all the eggs, and at the 
 same time as from those which had suffered no cold. In 
 the following year, I submitted them to an experiment 
 still more hazardous. A mixture of ice and sal gem. 
 with the fuming spirit of nitre, (nitrate of ammonia,) re- 
 duced the thermometer twenty-two degrees below zero, 
 that is, twenty-one degrees lower than the cold of 1709. 
 They were not injured, as I had evident proof, by 
 their being hatched." 
 
 It is, indeed, a singular and unaccountable fact, that 
 the eggs of these insects are incapable of being frozen 
 even by the intense cold now mentioned. Spallanzani 
 discovered this, by crushing some of them with the nail, 
 when he found that their contents remained fluid ; and 
 he justly infers, that the included embryos remain 
 equally unfrozen. The final cause of this is easily un- 
 derstood ; but the chemical property which resists so 
 severe a trial, has not been ascertained. 
 
 The modes by which instinct has taught insects to 
 preserve their eggs during winter, are very various. One 
 of these I have already detailed ; but, before leaving the 
 subject, there is another, which, on account of its singu- 
 larity, I cannot deny myself the pleasure of mentioning ; 
 I allude to the cochineal insects, (Coca'dce,) so called 
 from one of the species furnishing the wellknown valua- 
 ble dye-stuff. These little insects contrive to render 
 their dead bodies useful to their future progeny, by pro- 
 tecting their eggs from the severity of the weather. 
 They die in the act of incubation. Their eggs are de- 
 posited under their bodies, which become glued to the 
 spot, and thus serve as a covering. In this state, the 
 dead insects appear on the bark of trees, like small warts, 
 of various forms. The mother is seldom larger than a 
 peppercorn, yet the number of eggs which she lays 
 amounts to several thousands. Some of them secrete a 
 sort of white silky gum, very like gossamer, as the first 
 bed of their eggs. Some naturalists have supposed this 
 substance to be of the nature of the spider's web ; but 
 
176 HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 
 
 the author of 'Insect Transformations' says he has as- 
 certained it to be " precisely similar to the gluten which 
 envelopes the eggs of most insects." 
 
 SEVENTH WEEK WEDNESDAY. 
 
 HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. VARIOUS STATES. 
 
 TURNING from the consideration of insect eggs, let us 
 look to some of the other means which the Creator has 
 employed for preserving these minute animals during the 
 rigorous season of the year. Some assume the chrysalis 
 form, in which state they require no food, and can endure 
 a greater degree of cold than in their more perfect con- 
 dition, though they are much inferior, in this respect, to 
 the eggs already mentioned. We shall take an example 
 of this method of hybernation from the butterfly family, 
 which is remarkable for the variety of modes by which 
 the Author of Nature has provided for the safety of the 
 different species. The history of the large white butter- 
 fly, which we select, is not perhaps so peculiar, among 
 the insect tribes, as it is remarkable. It undergoes a 
 double round of transformations in the course of the year, 
 and its instincts are wonderfully adapted to the state of 
 the season in each. From the chrysalis state, these in- 
 sects assume that of caterpillars, about the last days of 
 April, or the beginning of the following month. They 
 first appear on wing in the middle of May, and, about the 
 end of the same month, lay their eggs in clusters on the 
 under side of cabbage-leaves. In a few days after, the 
 caterpillars come forth, and continue to feed together till 
 the end of June, when they are at their full growth. They 
 then wander about in search of convenient places to fix 
 themselves, where, after their change, the chrysalis may 
 be sheltered. When such are found, they each fasten 
 their tail by a web, and carry a strong thread of the same 
 
VARIOUS STATES. 177 
 
 round their body, near the head ; and, thus firmly se- 
 cured, hang a few hours, when the chrysalis becomes 
 perfectly formed, and divested of the caterpillar's skin. 
 In fourteen days after this, the fly is on the wing.* Such 
 is the history of their first series of transformations. But 
 a long period of genial weather still remains, and a new 
 succession of changes takes place. The butterfly lays 
 its eggs, which are again converted into caterpillars, and 
 about the end of September, these caterpillars become 
 chrysalides, in which state they are prepared to pass the 
 winter. Now, however, as if acquainted with the change 
 which Nature is about to undergo, they do not seek for 
 protection beneath the fading vegetation which formed 
 their previous retreat, but may be found hanging under 
 the copings of garden walls, under pales, and in other 
 places, where they can have a tolerable shelter from the 
 inclemency of the weather, and yet be in the neighbor- 
 hood of their food, when they throw off this state of in- 
 activity on the revival of Nature in spring. 
 
 An instance of the hybernation of insects, in the cater- 
 pillar state, may be found in another branch of this family, 
 that of the marsh fritillary. These small butterflies, the 
 color of which is a brownish orange, variegated with 
 orange and black, are found in the caterpillar state in the 
 month of September. As the season advances, they spin 
 for themselves a fine web, in which they congregate, and 
 under covert of which they pass the winter. During this 
 time, they are so nearly reduced to a torpid state, as to 
 require no food ; nor do they venture out of their cover- 
 ing, till invited by the warmth of spring. They have 
 not yet come to their full size, and their growth is sus- 
 pended during winter. If we pursue their history a little 
 further, we find that, about the end of April, they are in 
 full maturity, and, suspending themselves by the tail, 
 change into chrysalides. " Their mode of suspension," 
 says Captain Brown, "is a singular instance of the ex- 
 traordinary power of instinct. They first draw two or 
 three small blades of grass across towards the top, and 
 
 * Goldsmith's Animated Nature, Note, vol. iv. p. 297. 
 
178 HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 
 
 fasten them together by means of their silk, then hang 
 themselves beneath the centre of these, each having his 
 own little canopy. By this means, they are not only 
 hidden from the sight of birds, but defended, in a great 
 measure, from the damage they might otherwise sustain 
 from windy and boisterous weather."* 
 
 In speaking of the hybernation of caterpillars, we must 
 not forget to mention a beneficent provision by which 
 many species are defended from the cold ; we allude to 
 the hair which at that season covers their bodies. The 
 younger Huber found some larvae of the smaller species 
 of ants, which spend the winter-heaped up in the lower- 
 most floor of their dwelling ; and he remarks, that " those 
 which are to pass the winter in this state, are covered 
 with hair, which is not the case in summer., affording 
 another proof of that Providence with which naturalists 
 are struck at every step." Now, the very same thing 
 occurs among various tribes of caterpillars, though it is 
 by no means the case with all insects that pass the winter 
 in this form. Even those which envelope themselves in 
 silken shrouds, have generally this additional protection, 
 of which the caterpillars of the brown-tail moth and mal- 
 low butterfly are instances. Some are thickly clothed 
 with hair, a remarkable example of which occurs in the 
 caterpillar of the drinker moth, whose very feet are cov- 
 ered with fine shaggy down. This insect does not be- 
 come torpid in winter ; and, as it feeds on grass, it can 
 always find plenty of food. c< When a fine sunny day 
 chances to break in upon the gloom of winter, this pretty 
 insect may be often seen stretched at its full length on a 
 low twig, or the withered stem of a nettle, basking in the 
 sunshine with apparent delight, "f 
 
 Some insects survive the winter in their perfect state, 
 but these are comparatively few. Several species of the 
 genus Vanessa are of this number ; but it is observed by 
 Mr. Rennie, that this can only be positively affirmed of 
 the female. It is certain, however, that, even in this 
 
 * Goldsmith's Animated Nature, Note, p. 298. [Both the species 
 mentioned are European. AM. ED.] 
 t Insect Transformations, p. 193. 
 
VARIOUS STATES. 179 
 
 state, insects will bear an almost incredible degree of 
 cold with impunity. We extract two instances recorded 
 in the publication of Mr. Rennie, on Insect Transforma- 
 tions, already alluded to.* " In Newfoundland, Captain 
 Buchan saw a lake, which, in the evening, was entirely 
 still and frozen over ; but, as soon as the sun had dis- 
 solved the ice in the morning, it was all in a bustle of 
 animation, in consequence, as was discovered, of myriads 
 of flies let loose, while many still remain infixed and 
 frozen round." A still more striking instance is men- 
 tioned by Ellis, in which " a large black mass, like coal 
 or peat upon the hearth, dissolved, when thrown upon 
 the fire, into a cloud of mosquitoes (Culicidce.)" 
 
 One other remarkable instance I shall mention, not 
 only because it relates to another form of the hybernating 
 principle, but also because it throws light upon a passage 
 of Scripture, which naturalists were inclined to consider 
 as founded on mistake. The passage is from the Prov- 
 erbs of Solomon, " Go to the ant, thou sluggard ; con- 
 sider her ways, and be wise ; which having no guide, 
 overseer, nor ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, 
 and gathereth her food in the harvest."! It has been al- 
 leged, that the ant has no such instinct ; that indeed if 
 she had, it would be altogether useless to her, as, in win- 
 ter, she falls into a state of torpidity ; and that Solomon 
 must, therefore, have mistaken for her winter store, the 
 larvae of this insect, which she tends with much assidui- 
 ty, and which are found carefully deposited in her nest. 
 But it is gratifying to the pious mind to observe in how 
 many instances, the discoveries of science throw light 
 on the difficult passages of Scripture ; and prove the 
 accuracy of its statements, even in matters of natural 
 history, which it incidentally notices. Of these instan- 
 ces, this is one. It is true that, in climates such as that 
 of Europe, where the cold of winter is intense, the ant 
 does fall into a state of torpidity ; and, as if she antici- 
 pated this state, she makes no provision for the severity 
 of winter. But it is different, at least with one species 
 
 * Insect Transformations, p. 406. t Proverbs vi. 6. 
 
180 HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 
 
 of ant, in India, named by Mr. Hope the Provision Ant, 
 as is stated by Mr. Kirby, on the authority of Colonel 
 Sykes. " These ants," says Mr. Kirby, "after long- 
 continued rains, during the monsoon, were found to bring 
 up, and lay on the surface of the earth, on a fine day, 
 their stores of grass-seeds, and grains of Guinea-corn, 
 for the purpose of drying them. Many scores of these 
 hoards were frequently observable on the extensive pa- 
 rade at Poona. This account," he adds, " clearly proves 
 that, where the climate, and their circumstances, require 
 it, these industrious creatures do store up provisions." 
 The strong propensity of the ant, thus attested, serves 
 to indicate the accuracy of Solomon's information ; and, 
 after this discovery, there can be little doubt, that, though 
 the naturalist, who is too little acquainted with the ani- 
 mals of the Holy Land, has not yet ascertained the fact 
 by actual observation, these insects do, in that country, 
 follow a similar instinct, during its mild winter. 
 
 The immense variety of the insect tribes, and the in- 
 exhaustible resources of the Author of Nature in accom- 
 modating their instincts and functions to their peculiar 
 circumstances and condition, precludes the possibility of 
 comprising any thing like a particular detail of the manner 
 in which the various tribes are enabled to pass the winter 
 months, within the bounds we have prescribed to ourselves. 
 The above sketch will suffice to afford some insight into 
 these wonderful and diversified provisions, and to direct the 
 reader to inquiries which will amply repay his industry, 
 and which he will find grow upon him at every step. 
 Some observations on the Cybernation of the honey-bee, 
 the snail, and the beetle, which will be found in subsequent 
 papers, must close my observations on this part of the 
 history of insects. Their still more astonishing faculties 
 and modes of existence, in the other seasons of the year, 
 shall be considered afterwards. 
 
HYBERNATION OF BEES. 181 
 
 SEVENTH WEEK THURSDAY. 
 
 HYBERNATION OF BEES. 
 
 AMONG insects, there is none more commonly known, 
 or more universally admired for its extraordinary instincts, 
 than the honey-bee. Of these instincts, such as are in- 
 tended for its preservation during winter, come particu- 
 larly under our notice at present ; but it may be proper 
 to premise a few words as to the general state and econ- 
 omy of this wonderful insect. The inhabitants of a hive 
 have been usually divided into three distinct classes, viz. 
 the queen, the drones, and the workers ; but it has been 
 recently discovered that there is yet another distinct 
 class, or, at least, that the working-bees may be divided 
 into two separate tribes or castes, called Nurse-bees and 
 Wax-workers. This last distinction, which is not gen- 
 erally known, was ascertained by M . Huber, and is too 
 curious to be passed over, especially as it is on the wax- 
 workers that the provision of winter food entirely de- 
 volves. The business of the nurse-bees, which are 
 somewhat smaller than the wax-workers, is to collect 
 honey for the immediate subsistence of those which do 
 not leave the hive, as well as of the young grubs, of 
 which latter they seem to have the special charge ; and 
 also to give the finishing touches to the cells and combs 
 left imperfect by the others. The duty of the wax- 
 workers, on the other hand, is to provide cells, in which 
 the queen may deposit her eggs, and reservoirs, in which 
 they may store the honey for future use ; and it has been 
 found, by accurate observation, that the one caste does 
 not interfere with the functions of the other. The queen 
 is the absolute monarch of the hive, and the mother of 
 its progeny ; the drones are all males. Of the drones, 
 it is said that there are not more than the proportion of 
 100 to a hive consisting of 5000 or 6000. Of the fe- 
 i. 16 vii. 
 
182 HYBERNATION OF BEES. 
 
 males, though several are produced, only one is permit- 
 ted to live, this autocrat bearing no rival near her throne. 
 
 Such being the remarkable constitution of this indus- 
 trious community, let us now see in what manner they 
 are directed by the Author of their instincts to secure 
 themselves against the sterility of the winter months. 
 First of all, it seems to be a law of this little common- 
 wealth, that no idlers shall be permitted to exist. Be- 
 fore any serious and united effort is made to complete 
 the winter's provision, the unfortunate drones are con- 
 demned to utter extermination. In July or August, the 
 whole working-classes seem to be suddenly seized with 
 a deadly fury towards the unproductive part of the great 
 family. They chase their unhappy victims from every 
 place of refuge, till at last they are brought to the bottom 
 of the hive, where they are indiscriminately massacred, 
 their bodies being transfixed with many wounds, and then 
 thrown lifeless out of the hive. So great is their antip- 
 athy, at this time, to the whole race of drones, that they 
 simultaneously destroy the male larvae, and tear open the 
 cocoons of their pupae, in order to devote them to one 
 common destruction. " This destruction of the males, 
 however," says a writer in the Supplement to the Ency- 
 clopedia Britannica, u is not the effect of a blind and in- 
 discriminating instinct ; for, if a hive be deprived of its 
 queen, the massacre does not take place, while the hot- 
 test persecution rages in all the surrounding hives. In 
 this case, the males are allowed to survive one winter." 
 The providential design of this doubtless is, that, should 
 a young queen be reared, she may find a husband. 
 
 No sooner has the hive got rid of the incumbrance of 
 the drones, than they commence, with the greatest assi- 
 duity, to lay up their winter stores. During the preced- 
 ing months of summer, honey was to be found in great 
 abundance, being yielded by almost every flower ; and 
 they had partly availed themselves of that season of ex- 
 uberance, to replenish their cells. But they had not set 
 about the matter in good earnest ; they had considered 
 it as a pastime, rather than as a task : when they poured 
 the delicious food into their cells, it would seem to have 
 
HYBERNATION OF BEES. 183 
 
 been rather with the view of disgorging a too plentiful 
 meal, and of relieving themselves from the effects of 
 gluttony, than from any care about the future. They 
 had been luxuriating in overflowing sweets, and were lit- 
 tle careful of a coming season of scarcity. 
 
 Now, however, the state of things is altered. Though 
 the season is still fine, the honey-bearing flowers have 
 begun to appear in less plenty, and much remains to be 
 done, with diminished means. The young brood are 
 fast vacating the cells, where they were hatched, and 
 these cradles must now be converted into storehouses. 
 All is bustle and animation. Not an idler is to be seen. 
 The queen, like a presiding genius, hurries from place 
 to place, to see that all are at their proper tasks. Some 
 clean out the emptied cells, or rather smooth and pre- 
 pare them, for the cocoons of the maggots are never re- 
 moved ; others repair the wax, where injured, or, if ne- 
 cessary, construct new depositories ; while others, again, 
 fly far and wide in search of the honey and pollen, which 
 are to form the treasure of the hive, and to preserve 
 them from want in the winter, and early days of the fu- 
 ture spring. The eagerness and industry of these tiny 
 foragers, is quite delightful. Not only do they rifle the 
 nectaries, of flowers, especially those of the clover and 
 heath ; but put in requisition the ripening fruits, when 
 pierced by birds, and the leaves of some trees, from 
 which a saccharine fluid, at this season, exudes, and even 
 the honey-dew, as it is called, an excrement emitted 
 by the aphides. 
 
 It sometimes happens, however, that an unfavorable 
 harvest causes all these resources to fail, and a coming 
 famine is anticipated. The bees are then thrown upon 
 their shifts, and the law of self-preservation overcomes 
 the respect which they seem otherwise inclined to show 
 to the property of their neighbors. "On these occa- 
 sions," says the author of the article in the Supplement 
 to the Encyclopedia, already alluded to, " the distressed 
 bees often betake themselves to plunder. Spies are sent 
 out to examine the neighboring hives. Allured by the 
 smell of honey, they examine the appearance and strength 
 
184 HYBERNATION OF BEES. 
 
 of its possessors ; and, selecting the weakest hive as the 
 object of attack, they begin a furious onset, which costs 
 great numbers their lives. If the invaders should fail 
 in their attempt to force the entrance, they retreat, and 
 are not pursued by those they have assailed ; but if they 
 succeed in making good the assault, the war continues to 
 rage in the interior of the hive, till one party is utterly 
 exterminated ; reenforcements are sent for by the in- 
 vading army ; and the bees from the neighboring hives 
 often join the assailants, and partake of the plunder. In 
 a short time, the whole of the enemies' magazines are 
 completely emptied. If, on the other hand, the invaders 
 should be defeated, the successful party is by no means 
 safe from the attacks of the bees from other hives, if any 
 of them should chance to have mingled in the fray, and 
 especially if they have once penetrated as far as the 
 magazines ; for, in that case, they are sure to return, ac- 
 companied with a large reenforcement ; and the unfortu- 
 nate hive that has been once attacked, ultimately falls a 
 sacrifice to those repeated invasions." 
 
 Meanwhile, the year advances, and the increasing cold 
 warns the little commonwealth, that it is dangerous to 
 go abroad ; and, indeed, the growing deficiency of their 
 natural food, convinces them, before the end of autumn, 
 that the period of cessation from labor out of doors has 
 arrived. They now live on their collected provisions, 
 till the reduced temperature of the atmosphere causes 
 them to lose their appetite, arid to become torpid. The 
 sleep of this little insect is by no means so deep, or so 
 continuous, as that of many other species of animals ; 
 and, had not the Creator endowed them with the wonder- 
 ful industry and forethought we have described, the whole 
 species would soon have become extinct in this northern 
 climate, and indeed in almost any climate of the temper- 
 ate zone. Some naturalists have even disputed the fact 
 of the torpidity of the bee, under any ordinary circum- 
 stances ; while others have gone to an opposite extreme. 
 We believe there is no doubt, that, in an equable tem- 
 perature, approaching to frost, bees do become torpid, 
 a proof of which is to be found in the fact that a hive, 
 
HYBERNATION OF BEES. 185 
 
 buried, in the beginning of winter, under ground, will 
 survive till spring, when it may be disinterred in a healthy 
 state, without much exhaustion of its winter stock. Now, 
 it has been proved by various experiments, that a cur- 
 rent of air through a hive is absolutely necessary to the 
 existence of bees in their active state, and that this ven- 
 tilation is kept up by means of the bees themselves, who 
 use their wings for that purpose, which produces the 
 humming noise to be observed in hives. Were the bees, 
 therefore, when buried, awake and active, they would 
 assuredly be suffocated. Several of our most celebrated 
 naturalists, however, (and, among the rest, the elder Hu- 
 ber,) affirm positively, that bees do not become torpid in 
 winter. He says, that the heat of a well-peopled hive is 
 as high as eighty-six degrees of Fahrenheit, even in the 
 depth of winter, when the thermometer, in the open air, 
 is several degrees below zero, this heat being generated 
 by the bees clustering together, and keeping themselves 
 in motion ; and that, even in this degree of external cold^ 
 they may be heard buzzing, as they always do when ven- 
 tilating the hive. Reaumur, as well as other distinguished 
 observers, as positively maintains the opposite, and more 
 popular, opinion. Our own belief is that the truth lies 
 between ; that the ordinary state of a hive, in cold wea- 
 ther, is, as we have already observed, a state of torpidity, 
 but that bees are easily excited, and that, when roused, 
 the temperature of the hive quickly rises, in proportion 
 to their alarm or irritation. While we think, therefore, 
 that Huber's experience may thus be accounted for, we 
 heartily acquiesce in the following observations of Reau- 
 mur, taken as expressing the general state of a hive in 
 winter. u lt has been established," says he, u with a 
 wisdom which we cannot but admire with which every 
 thing in Nature has been made and ordained that, during 
 the greater part of the time in which the country furnishes 
 nothing to bees, they have no longer need to eat. The 
 cold, which arrests the vegetation of plants, which 
 deprives our fields and meadows of their flowers, throws 
 the bees into a state in which nourishment ceases to be 
 necessary to them ; it keeps them in a sort of torpidity, 
 16* 
 
186 HYBERNATION OF BEES. 
 
 in which no transpiration from them takes place, or at 
 least during which the quantity of what transpires is so 
 inconsiderable, that it cannot be restored by aliment, 
 without their lives being endangered." 
 
 The following humane observations, in a recent pub- 
 lication, are well worthy of attention, and we strongly 
 recommend to bee-breeders the practice of Mr. Nutt, as 
 detailed by this author, by which the cruelty he depre- 
 cates may be avoided, even with profit. 
 
 u The usual practice of obtaining honey from domestic 
 bees, was one of great, and, as it should seem, wanton 
 and unnecessary cruelty. The little creatures, after they 
 had toiled throughout the whole season, were not only 
 deprived of all the winter store which they had accumu- 
 lated, but they were smoked with sulphur in the hive, by 
 means of which both old and young were entirely cut 
 off. There is a degree of unfeeling cruelty in this, at 
 which the mind revolts ; because, though all creatures 
 are, in some way or other, adapted for the use of man, 
 the destruction of the creatures is no part of man's legiti- 
 mate occupation. He has, undoubtedly, a right to his 
 share of every production of the earth, which can in any 
 way contribute to his comfort ; but it is his duty and his 
 interest to take that share, in wisdom, not in wantonness ; 
 and he could, upon every occasion, so manage matters, as 
 that the quantity which he takes, might benefit that which 
 is left ; and thus, while he uses, he might ameliorate and 
 improve all that grows and lives around him ; and so be 
 the adorner of creation, and not the destroyer. 
 
 "Many plans have been resorted to, for the preserva- 
 tion of bees, and the leaving of as much honey as shall 
 support them during the winter. One of the most recent, 
 and, perhaps, the best of these, is that introduced by Mr. 
 Nutt, a cultivator of bees in Lincolnshire. In this meth- 
 od, three boxes are placed together, with a door for 
 entrance in the central box only, but with a communica- 
 tion between it and each of the lateral ones. By means 
 of ventilation, the two side boxes are kept at a heat which 
 is well adapted for laboring bees, but below that at which 
 the young are hatched. The bees are placed, at first, in 
 
HYBERNATION OF BEES. 187 
 
 the central box only ; and when the first swarm of the 
 season is produced, and would depart, admission is given 
 to one of the side boxes ; and, when that is filled, simi- 
 lar admission is given into the other. The temperature 
 of these is regulated by means of ventilators ; and, when 
 it is ascertained that one of them is full, as much ventila- 
 tion is given to it, as drives all the bees into the central 
 box ; the communication between them is closed, and 
 the box is removed, without the destruction of a single 
 bee. 
 
 " This is not the only advantage gained ; for the honey 
 is purer, and altogether of superior quality. The low 
 temperature of the side boxes not only prevents a queen 
 bee from taking up her abode in them ; but none of the 
 eggs, the young, or the substances required for their 
 nourishment in the larva state, are ever deposited in those 
 boxes. Thus they contain only honey-cells and honey ; 
 and as those cells are constructed only as they are re- 
 quired, the combs are always full. 
 
 " By this means, from one swarm of bees, cultivated 
 for five years, Mr. Nutt obtained 737 Ibs. of honey, and 
 left 712 Ibs. during the currency of the time for the 
 maintenance of the bees, the increase of which was regu- 
 larly progressive during the whole time, which, from its 
 superior quality, would be worth fourteen guineas, on the 
 average of every year, besides the expense of bringing it 
 to market. There are very many situations in this country, 
 where every cottager might cultivate one such establish- 
 ment of bees, the profits of which would suffice to furnish 
 himself and his family with comfortable clothing, and also 
 to replace their household furniture."* 
 
 * Mudie's edition of Wesley's Natural Philosophy, vol. ii. pp. 264266. 
 
188 HYBERNATION OF THE SNAIL. 
 
 SEVENTH WEEK FRIDAY. 
 
 HYBERNATION OF THE SNAIL. 
 
 THE garden-snail is admirably adapted to its mode of 
 life, and is furnished with organs almost as complete as 
 the largest animal ; with a tongue, brain, salival ducts, 
 glands, nerves, stomach, and intestines ; with liver,heart, 
 and blood-vessels. These it possesses in common with 
 other animals, but it has some striking peculiarities, one 
 of which is, that, of four flexible horns with which it is 
 furnished, the two uppermost are gifted with eyes, which 
 appear like black spots on their extreme ends, and which 
 it can hide, by a very swift contraction, in the interior 
 of its body. Every one knows, that another peculiarity, 
 which distinguishes it from other land animals, is its shell, 
 which it carries on its back wherever it goes, and which 
 serves at once as its house for lodging, and as its armor 
 for defence. 
 
 The history of this animal, so far as it suits our present 
 purpose to advert to it, is as follows : It lays its eggs 
 in shady and moist hollows, which it excavates with a 
 member which is called its foot, as by this it has the power 
 of locomotion. These eggs are hatched, sooner or later, 
 according to the temperature, producing little snails, ex- 
 actly resembling their parent, but so delicate, that a sun- 
 stroke destroys them, so that few, comparatively speak- 
 ing, reach the end of the first year, when they are suffi- 
 ciently defended by the hardness of their shell. The 
 animal, at its first exclusion, lives solely on the pellicle 
 of the egg from which it was produced. "Providence," 
 as Kirby justly observes, " which, in oviparous and other 
 animals, has provided for the first nutriment of the young 
 in different ways, appropriating the milk of the mother 
 to the young of quadrupeds, the yolk of the egg to those 
 of birds, tortoises, and lizards, and the white of the egg 
 
HYBERNATION OF THE SNAIL. 189 
 
 to frogs and toads, has made this pellicle, or coat, the 
 best nutriment of the young snail. In fact, this pellicle, 
 consisting of carbonate of lime, united to animal substance, 
 is necessary to produce the calcareous secretion of the 
 mantle, and to consolidate the shell, as yet too soft for 
 exposure." When this natural envelope is eaten, the 
 young snail finds its nourishment in the vegetable soil 
 around it. After the concealment of a month, it ap- 
 pears on the vegetable productions of the garden or 
 meadow, which it seems indiscriminately to devour, its 
 house still growing with its growth, till it has completed 
 five convolutions, by which time the animal has attained 
 its full size. 
 
 These snails cease feeding, when the first chills of 
 autumn are felt ; and, generally associating in considera- 
 ble numbers, on hillocks, in the banks of ditches, or in 
 thickets and hedges, they set about their preparations for 
 their winter retreat. They first expel the contents of 
 their intestines, and then, concealing themselves under 
 moss, grass, or dead leaves, each forms, by means of its 
 foot, and the viscid mucus which it secretes, a cavity 
 large enough to contain its shell. The mode in which it 
 effects this is remarkable ; collecting a considerable quan- 
 tity of the mucus on the sole of its foot, a portion of 
 earth and dead leaves adheres to it, which it shakes off 
 on one side ; a second portion is again collected and de- 
 posited, and so on, till it has reared around itself a kind 
 of wall, of sufficient height to form a cavity that will con- 
 tain its shell ; and then, by turning itself round, it presses 
 against the sides, which renders them smooth and firm. 
 The dome, or covering, is formed in the same way ; earth 
 is collected on the foot, which it then turns upward, and 
 throws off by exuding fresh mucus ; and this is repeated, 
 till a perfect roof is formed. Having now completed its 
 winter house, it draws in its foot, covering it with the 
 mantle, and opens its spiracle to draw in the air. On 
 closing this, it forms, with its slime, a fine membrane, 
 interposed between the mantle and extraneous substances. 
 Soon afterwards, the mantle secretes a large portion of 
 very white fluid over its whole surface, which instantly 
 
190 HIBERNATION OF THE SNAIL. 
 
 sets uniformly, and forms a kind of solid operculum, like 
 plaster of Paris, about half a line in thickness, which ac- 
 curately closes the mouth. When this is become hard, 
 the animal separates the mantle from it. After a time, 
 expelling a portion of the air it had inspired, and thus 
 being reduced in bulk, it retreats a little further into the 
 shell, when it forms another leaf of mucus ; and it con- 
 tinues repeating this operation, till there are sometimes 
 five or six of these leaves, forming cells filled with air 
 between it and the operculum. Respiration ceases during 
 the period of hybernation.* 
 
 The mode in which these animals escape from their 
 winter confinement is singular : The air which they 
 had expired, on retiring into their shell further and further, 
 remains between the different partitions of the mucous 
 membrane above-mentioned, which forms so many shells 
 hermetically sealed ; this they again inspire, and thus 
 acquiring fresh vigor, each separate partition, as they 
 proceed, is broken by the pressure of the foot, projected 
 in part through the mantle ; when arrived at the oper- 
 culum, they burst in by a strong effort, and finally de- 
 taching it, then emerge, begin to walk, and to break their 
 long fast ! 
 
 "In all these proceedings," observes Mr. Kirby, after 
 recording the above details, " the superintending care 
 and wise provisions of a Father-Being are evident. This 
 creature can neither foresee the degree of cold to which 
 it may be exposed in its state of hybernation, nor know 
 by what means it may secure itself from the fatal effects 
 it would produce upon it, if not provided against. 
 
 " But, at a destined period, often when the range of 
 the thermometer is high, not stimulated by a cold atmo- 
 sphere, except perhaps by the increasing length of the 
 night, at the bidding of some secret power, it sets about 
 erecting its winter dwelling ; and, employing its foot, not 
 only as a shovel to make its mortar, but as a hod to trans- 
 port it, and a trowel to spread it duly and evenly, at 
 
 * Goldsmith is mistaken when he says, that the snail opens an air- 
 hole into its shell. Gaspard and Bell ; Zoological Journal, i. 93 ; 
 ii. 174. 
 
HYBERNATION OF THE BEETLE. 191 
 
 length finishes and covers in its snug and warm retreat ; 
 and then, still further to secure itself from the action of 
 the atmosphere, with the slimy secretion with which its 
 Maker has gifted it, fixes partition after partition, and 
 fills each cell, formed by it, with air, till it has retreated 
 as far as it can from every closed orifice of its shell, and 
 thus barricades itself against a frozen death. Again, in 
 the spring, when the word is spoken, Jlwake^ thou that 
 sleepest, it begins immediately to act with energy ; it re- 
 inspires, as above related, the air stored in its cells ; 
 bursts all its cerements; returns to its summer haunts, 
 and again lays waste our gardens."* 
 
 SEVENTH WEEK SATURDAY. 
 
 HYBERNATION OF THE BEETLE. ANIMALCULES IN PASTE. 
 
 AMONG insects, the beetle has some peculiar instincts, 
 which will come more properly under our observation at 
 another season. At present, I shall only mention three 
 instances of remarkable habits, relating to the state of 
 particular species of this insect in winter. Beetles, it 
 may be premised, are distinguished from other tribes of 
 the same order, by being furnished with cases to cover 
 two transparent wings. Like other insects, they are bred 
 from eggs, which first become grubs ; then chrysalides, 
 in which parts of the future fly are distinctly seen ; and, 
 lastly, assuming their perfect or imago state, they acquire 
 wings, and mount into the air. 
 
 The first species of this little animal which I shall in- 
 troduce to the notice of my readers, is the May-bug, or 
 
 * [Our American snails, or Helices, form for their operculum, or epi- 
 phragm, merely a thin, and almost transparent membrane, and not a 
 calcareous and opaque one. Nor do they infest our gardens, but are 
 principally to be found in thick forests and unsettled or thinly inhabited 
 regions. AM. ED.] 
 
192 HYBERNATION OF THE BEETLE. 
 
 Dorr -beetle, well known to children by its evening buzz 
 during the months of summer. In its maggot state, in 
 which it remains, without any other change than increase 
 of size and the annual renewal of its skin, for no less a 
 period than three years, it burrows underground, so near 
 the surface, as to devour the roots of plants, on which it 
 feeds voraciously, and without discrimination. When 
 largest, it is found an inch and a half long, of a whitish- 
 yellow color, with a body consisting of twelve segments 
 or joints, on each side of which there are nine breathing 
 holes, and three red feet ; but it is destitute of eyes, hav- 
 ing no occasion for them in its natural habitation, where 
 light does not penetrate, here exhibiting a new and re- 
 markable instance of the attention of the Creator, in adapt- 
 ing the faculties of creatures to the situation for which 
 they are destined, as well in what He withholds as in what 
 He grants. 
 
 At the end of the fourth year of its existence, it be- 
 gins to provide itself a secure winter habitation, with a 
 view to its future condition. About the latter end of 
 August, it seems first to come under the influence of that 
 extraordinary instinct, which leads it to prepare for its 
 important change. It then buries itself deeper and deep- 
 er in the earth, sometimes, in favorable situations, to the 
 depth of six feet, and there forms for itself a capacious 
 apartment, the walls of which it renders very smooth and 
 shining, by the exertions of its body. Its abode being 
 thus formed, it begins soon after to shorten itself, to 
 swell, and to burst its last skin, in order to assume the 
 form of a chrysalis. This, in the beginning, appears of a 
 yellowish color, which heightens by degrees, till at last 
 it appears nearly red. Its exterior form plainly discov- 
 ers all the vestiges of the future winged insect, the entire 
 fore-parts being distinctly seen ; while, behind, the ani- 
 mal seems as if wrapped in swaddling-clothes. 
 
 The young May-bug continues in this state for nearly 
 three months, and then divests itself of all its impedi- 
 ments, and becomes a winged insect, completely formed. 
 This happens about the beginning of the year ; but it is 
 not yet time for it to emerge into open day, the season 
 
HYBERNATION OF THE BEETLE. 193 
 
 of the year being unpropitious to its new habits. Unlike 
 most other insects, therefore, which, immediately after 
 their change, enter at once into all the enjoyments of 
 their new being, it remains in a state of infant imbecility 
 for four months longer, during which time, though with- 
 out food, it gradually acquires firmness and vigor ; and, 
 about the end of May, when the genial season has re- 
 turned, it works its way to the light and warmth of the 
 summer's atmosphere, where, from living for four years 
 under ground, and feeding only on roots, it buzzes joy- 
 fully through the mild air, having the sweetest vege- 
 tables for its banquet, and the dew of evening for its 
 drink. 
 
 Another insect, allied to the beetle kind, is still more 
 remarkable in its instincts, if any thing in this world of 
 wonders can be said to have the preeminence : I allude 
 to the nut- weevil, (Curculio nuctim.) Dr. Good has 
 chosen this little creature as an illustration of the absurd- 
 ity of the hypothesis, which makes instinct to depend 
 on imitation, education, or reasoning ; and, assuredly, even 
 though the supposition were not contradicted by almost 
 every habit and pursuit of the inferior creation, this in- 
 stance might of itself be sufficient to show the untenable 
 nature of the theory. The nut-weevil, " with a finished 
 knowledge of the art," as Dr. Good expresses it, u sin- 
 gles out a nut, in the month of August, while its shell is 
 yet soft and penetrable ; and, having prepared to deposit 
 her eggs, pierces it with her proboscis, and then, turning 
 round accurately, drops an egg into the minute perfora- 
 tion. Having accomplished this, she passes on, pierces 
 another nut, drops another egg, and so continues, till 
 she has exhausted her whole stock. The nut continues 
 to grow ; the egg is soon hatched ; the young maggot 
 finds its food already ripened, and in waiting for it ; and, 
 about the time of its full growth, falls with the mature 
 nut to the ground, and at length, when its provision here 
 is exhausted, creeps out, by gnawing a circular hole in 
 its side. It then burrows under the surface of the ground, 
 where it continues dormant for eight months ; at the ter- 
 mination of which, it casts its skin, becomes a chrysalis 
 i. 17 vn. 
 
 ^%^ 
 
194 HYBERNATION OF THE BEETLE. 
 
 of the general shape and appearance of the beetle kind, 
 and, in the beginning of August, throws off the chrysalid 
 investment, creeps to the surface of the ground, finds 
 itself accommodated with wings, becomes an inhabitant 
 of the air, and instantly pursues the very same train of 
 actions to provide for a new progeny, which had been 
 pursued by the parent insect of the year before." 
 
 One more example, which I shall notice, of the habits 
 of particular species of the remarkably varied class of 
 beetles, is of a very different kind ; and my object, in 
 adverting to it, is, to show another principle, by which the 
 sterility of winter is rendered innoxious to certain animals. 
 We have seen instances in which, among vertebrated as 
 well as invertebrated beings, the expedient of torpidity 
 is resorted to by the Author of Nature, to sustain life, 
 and perhaps enjoyment also, during this rigorous season. 
 But, in the example I am going to produce, there ap- 
 pears to be no need of this suspension of motion and 
 external sensation, as the little creature is able to survive 
 a whole winter, and even much longer, without any food 
 whatever, except what is derived from the atmosphere ; 
 and this, indeed, is a property which belongs to various 
 classes of the invertebrated genus. The account is tak- 
 en from the communication of a writer in the Philosoph- 
 ical Transactions : " On the removal of a large leaden 
 cistern, I observed, at the bottom of it, black beetles. 
 One of the largest I threw into a cup of spirits, it be- 
 ing the way of killing and preparing insects for my pur- 
 pose. In a few minutes, it appeared to be quite dead. 
 I then shut it up in a box, about an inch and a half in 
 diameter, and, throwing it into a drawer, thought no more 
 of it for two months ; when, opening the box, I found 
 it alive and vigorous, though it had no food all the time, 
 nor any more air than it could find in so small a box, 
 whose cover shut very close. A few days before, a 
 friend had sent me three or four cockroaches. These I 
 had put under a large glass ; I put my beetle among them, 
 and fed them with green ginger, which they ate greedily ; 
 but he would never taste it, for the five weeks they lived 
 there. The cockroaches would avoid the beetle, and 
 
ANIMALCULES IN PASTE. 195 
 
 seemed frightened at his approach ; but he usually stalked 
 along, not at all regarding whether they came in his way 
 or not. During the two years and a half that I have 
 kept him, he has neither ate nor drank. 
 
 " How, then, has he been kept alive ? Is it by the air? 
 There are particles in this, which supply a growth to 
 some species of plants, as sempervivum, orpine, and 
 house-leek. May not the same or like particles supply 
 nourishment to some species of animals? In the amazing 
 plan of Nature, the animal, vegetable, and mineral king- 
 doms are not separated from each other by wide distan- 
 ces ; indeed, their boundaries differ from each other by 
 such minute and insensible degrees, that we cannot find 
 out certainly where the one begins, or the other ends. 
 As the air, therefore, nourishes some plants, so it may 
 nourish some animals ; otherwise, a link would seem to 
 be wanting in the mighty chain of beings. It is certain, 
 chameleons and snakes can live many months without any- 
 visible sustenance, and probably not merely by their 
 slow digestion, but rather by means of particles contained 
 in the air, as the beetle did ; yet, doubtless, in its natu- 
 ral state, it used more substantial food. So the plants 
 above-mentioned thrive best with a little earth, although 
 they flourish a long time, and send forth branches and 
 flowers, when they are suspended in the air. Even in 
 the exhausted receiver, after it had been there half an 
 hour, it seemed perfectly unconcerned, walking about as 
 briskly as ever ; but, on the admission of the air, it 
 seemed to be in a surprise for a minute." 
 
 It is impossible not to view, with wonder and admira- 
 tion, the various ways in which animal life is sustained, 
 sometimes even under circumstances which, arguing from 
 ordinary analogies, would seem to insure its destruction. 
 I have already alluded to the power possessed by some 
 insects' eggs to resist extreme cold ; and, before passing 
 to the hybernation of higher species, I shall conclude 
 this paper by remarking, that there are some very mi- 
 nute kinds of animalcules, the germs of which seem ca- 
 fable of resisting the extremes both of heat and cold, 
 f the paste of flour, which has been boiled ever so long 
 
196 GREATNESS OF GOD 
 
 in the making, be allowed to become sour, and then be 
 mixed with water, the mixture, when a microscope of 
 sufficient magnifying power is applied to it, will appear 
 to be composed, almost entirely, of little eels, very hand- 
 somely formed, and moving about with great activity. 
 Allow the same mixture of paste and water to become 
 solid by drought, or by freezing, and let it be again moist- 
 ened or thawed, and it will be as completely peopled as 
 ever, with its microscopic inhabitants. Now, as it would 
 be quite unphilosophical to admit the principle of equiv- 
 ocal generation, we are bound to conclude, that the germs 
 of these living creatures were lodged in the mixture, be- 
 fore it was subjected to the process of boiling, and were 
 only developed by the subsequent fermentation ; so that 
 it would appear, in this case, that the principle of life, in 
 whatever form it may exist, is indestructible by very 
 great alternations of heat and cold ; and, indeed, we are 
 not warranted to affix boundaries to this power, or to 
 conclude, from the experiments which have yet been 
 made, that any length of time, however extended, or any 
 degree of heat or cold, however great, would be sufficient 
 to destroy the vitality of these germs. 
 
 The wonders, indeed, which an examination of the 
 incalculably, numerous and amazingly- diversified classes 
 of invertebrated animals discloses, grow upon us in every 
 direction, as we proceed ; and the pious exclamation of 
 the Psalmist, recurs to us, perpetually, U O Lord ! how 
 manifold are Thy works ! In wisdom hast Thou made 
 them all." 
 
 EIGHTH WEEK SUNDAY. 
 
 GREATNESS OF GOD EVEN IN THE SMALLEST THINGS. 
 
 THE following reflections of Mr. Sturm, the wellknown 
 popular German writer, are so appropriate, as a sequel 
 
EVEN IN THE SMALLEST THINGS. 197 
 
 to our observations in the course of the preceding week, 
 as well as to the previous notices respecting the wonders 
 of the microscope, that I think it would not be easy to 
 direct my readers to a more suitable subject of consid- 
 eration on this sacred day. 
 
 He who delights to contemplate the works of God, will 
 not only discover His hand in those immense globes which 
 compose the system of the universe, but also in the little 
 worlds of insects, plants, and metals. He will search for, 
 and adore the wisdom of God, as well in the spider's 
 web, as in the power of gravitation, which attracts the 
 earth towards the sun. These researches are at present 
 the easier, as microscopes have discovered to us new 
 scenes and new worlds, in which we behold, in miniature, 
 whatever may excite our admiration. They who have 
 not the opportunity of using such instruments will read 
 at least with pleasure, the following remarks on micro- 
 scopic objects. 
 
 Let us, in the first place, observe the inanimate world. 
 Behold those mosses and little plants which God has 
 produced in such abundance. Of what extremely small 
 particles, and fine threads, are these plants composed! 
 What a variety in their forms and shapes ! Think on the 
 innumerable multitude of small particles of which every 
 body is composed, and which may be detached from it ! 
 If a hexagon, of an inch square, contain a hundred mil- 
 lions of visible parts, who can calculate all the particles 
 which compose a mountain ? If millions of globules of 
 water may be suspended from the point of a needle, how 
 many must there be in a spring, in a well, in a river, in 
 the sea ? If, from a lighted candle, there issue in a sec- 
 ond more particles of light than there are grains of sand in 
 the whole earth, how many igneous particles must there 
 issue from a large fire in an hour ?* If one grain of sand 
 contain more than a thousand millions of particles of air, 
 how many must there be in the human body ? If men 
 can divide one grain of copper into millions of parts, 
 
 * This remark proceeds, of course, on the old theory of the emana- 
 tion of light and heat. But, on the undulatory theory, the wonder is not 
 lessened. H. D. 
 
 17* 
 
198 GREATNESS OF GOD 
 
 without arriving at the first elements of matter if odor- 
 iferous bodies can exhale a sufficiency of odorous parti- 
 cles, so as to be perceived at a great distance, without 
 any sensible diminution of weight, it would require an 
 eternity for the human mind to calculate the number of 
 particles which exist in those bodies. 
 
 If we pass next to the animal kingdom, the scene will 
 be incalculably extended. In summer, the air is full of 
 living creatures. Every person has seen those innumera- 
 ble swarms of flies, gnats, and other insects, which gather 
 together in a small space. What prodigious hosts must 
 there be of them, that live and sport over the whole 
 earth, and in the immense extent of the atmosphere ! 
 How many millions of still smaller insects and worms are 
 there, which crawl on the earth, or in the entrails of ani- 
 mals ! With what splendor, does the power of God 
 manifest itself to the mind, when we reflect on the mul- 
 titude of parts of which these creatures are composed, of 
 whose very existence most men are ignorant ! Were we 
 not, at any time, able to prove it by experiment, could 
 we imagine there were animals a million of times less than 
 a grain of sand, with organs of nutrition, motion, &c. ? 
 There are shellfish so small, that, even viewed through 
 the microscope, they appear scarcely so large as a grain 
 of barley ; and yet they are real animals, with durable 
 dwelling places, the foldings and recesses of which, form 
 so many different apartments. How exceedingly small 
 is a mite ; nevertheless, this almost imperceptible point, 
 seen through a microscope, is a hairy animal, perfect in 
 all its members, of a regular figure, full of life and sen- 
 sibility, and provided with every necessary organ. Al- 
 though this animal is scarcely visible to us, yet it has a 
 multitude of still smaller parts ; and, what is yet more 
 admirable, the glasses which show us so many faults and 
 imperfections in the most finished works of man, can 
 observe nothing but regularity and perfection in these 
 microscopic objects ! How inconceivably thin and ten- 
 der are the threads of a spider ! It has been calculated 
 that it would take 36,000 of them to make the thickness 
 of a thread of common sewing silk ! Each of the six 
 
EVEN IN THE SMALLEST THINGS. 199 
 
 papillae from which the spider draws that glutinous liquor 
 of which it forms its web, is composed of a thousand in- 
 sensible pores, which give passage to so many threads ; 
 so that, however fine the spider's thread may appear, it 
 is composed of 6000 smaller ones ! 
 
 You are struck with astonishment : but, suppose we 
 had microscopes which could magnify some thousands of 
 times more than those glasses do, through which a mite 
 appears no larger than a grain of barley, what wonders 
 should we then see ! And, even then, should we reach 
 the limits of creation in these inconceivably small pro- 
 ductions ? Certainly not : and it would be presumption 
 and extravagance to believe it. Each creature has a 
 kind of infinity ; and the more we contemplate the works 
 of God, the more the wonders of His power shall be mul- 
 tiplied in our sight. 
 
 Our imagination is confounded in the two extremes of 
 Nature, the great and the small ; and we know not whether 
 we should admire the Divine power more in those enor- 
 mous masses which roll over our heads, or in those mi- 
 croscopic objects which are invisible to the naked eyes. 
 Should not the contemplation of the works of God be 
 our most pleasing occupation ? The trouble of study 
 would be amply compensated by the pure and innocent 
 pleasures which it would afford. It would, at least, 
 awaken in us an ardent desire to arrive in those blessed 
 regions where we should require neither microscopes nor 
 telescopes to enable us to discover the wondrous works 
 of God. There, all His works shall be so unveiled to our 
 eyes, that we shall be able to distinguish the destination, 
 structure, and relations of each object. There, immortal 
 songs of praise shall resound to the honor of the Creator 
 of the universe. There, all distinction of great and small 
 shall be entirely done away ; for every thing shall appear 
 great in our sight, and fill our souls with admiration and 
 
200 HYBERNATION. 
 
 EIGHTH WEEK MONDAY. 
 
 HYBERNATION. MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 
 
 THE migration of birds, before winter deprives them 
 of their natural food, or diminishes the temperature of 
 the atmosphere below what their constitution is able to 
 bear, is not only one of the familiar, but one of the most 
 remarkable operations of this interesting class of the ani- 
 mal creation. No person of observation can reside long 
 in a rural district, without being struck with the change 
 which takes place in its feathered inhabitants about the 
 commencement of this less genial season. While hardier 
 races of birds, unknown to us in spring and summer, 
 begin to appear, we lose sight of many of those tenants 
 of our hedges and groves, which cheered us with their 
 music, or pleased our eye by the variety and brilliancy 
 of their plumage. They had long since almost ceased to 
 afford us agreeable notice of their presence, by the dis- 
 tinctive variety of their music ; but we had, only a few 
 days or weeks before, seen them flitting gayly across our 
 path, or perched quietly or peeringly on some neighbor- 
 ing bough ; yet now, neither to the eye nor ear, do they 
 any longer give indications of their existence. What 
 has become of these interesting attendants on our sum- 
 mer walks ? The solicitude to which reflections on 
 their fate, during the vicissitudes of our rude winter cli- 
 mate, give rise, is beautifully and feelingly expressed by 
 the Scottish poet :* 
 
 " Ilk happing bird, wee, helpless thing, 
 Which, in the merry months of spring, 
 Delighted me to hear thee sing, 
 
 What comes o' thee? 
 Where wilt thou cow'r thy chittering wing, 
 
 And close thy e'e?" 
 
 * Burns. 
 
MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 201 
 
 Were we, indeed, for the first time, and without the cor- 
 rection of experience, to witness the arrival of winter, 
 when the bountiful hand of Nature seems suddenly to be 
 withdrawn, it would appear to us impossible that the 
 myriads, not only of the races of insects we have been 
 considering, but of quadrupeds, birds, and reptiles, which 
 swarm on the surface of the earth in the more genial 
 months of summer and autumn, should be able, during 
 the privations of this season, to preserve their comforts, 
 or even their very existence. There is something ap- 
 palling in the idea, that such multitudes of creatures 
 should be called into being, only to fall victims to an in- 
 evitable and cruel fate ; and it would seem to reflect on 
 the wisdom or goodness of Providence, were such antici- 
 pations to be realized. But it is not so ; and the benefi- 
 cent contrivances by which such a calamity is averted, 
 tend, in no slight degree, to intimate the presence and 
 operation of an intelligent Creator. 
 
 With regard to those animals which are actually ex- 
 posed to the storms of winter, let it be observed, that 
 this season of scarcity and privation, is immediately pre- 
 ceded by a period of peculiar plenty, when the edible 
 seeds and plants are in greatest abundance ; and that 
 these, although they cease to vegetate, do not, in many 
 instances, cease to exist as articles of food. The seeds 
 and debris of plants lie scattered about the ground in 
 great profusion ; and, though unnoticed by us, are easily 
 discovered by the microscopic eye of many of the infe- 
 rior animals. The grass, too, which forms at once the 
 soft carpet, and the favorite food, of so many living crea- 
 tures, although faded, is still spread over our hills and 
 valleys, and affords to the larger classes of graminivorous 
 animals, a more scanty indeed, but yet a considerable 
 supply of succulent food. The roots of once luxuriant 
 plants and flowers, the fruit of the bramble, the hawthorn, 
 and the eglantine, [or wild rose,] the acorn, the beech- 
 mast, and even the decaying leaves of the forest, all con- 
 tribute their varied nourishment to different tribes of ani- 
 mated beings. 
 
 But to this subject we shall afterwards have occasion 
 
202 HYBERNATION. 
 
 more particularly to advert ; and, with reference to the 
 winged creation, we have at present to remark, that He, 
 without whose permission "not even a sparrow falleth 
 to the ground," and who "feedeth the ravens which 
 have neither storehouse nor barn," deals in another man- 
 ner with those tribes, to which subsistence could not 
 now be afforded in the place of their summer residence ; 
 and, by means of a secret impulse, not less wonderful 
 than beneficent, bears them beyond the reach of coming 
 want, and the chilling breath of a wintry sky. The Cre- 
 ator, as He has furnished this class of His living creatures 
 with wings to travel through the air, where there are nei- 
 ther rivers nor seas to arrest their progress, and where 
 they can readily overtop even the obtruding mountains, 
 has also bestowed on them that mysterious instinct, which 
 leads them to migrate to southern climes, where the food 
 on which they subsist is still abundant, and the arrival of 
 winter has only mitigated the intensity of the heat, and 
 rendered it to them little else than a continuance of the 
 blessings of summer. 
 
 A continental writer has attempted to define the im- 
 pulse which induces birds to migrate ; but he has been 
 forced to do so, after minute attention, more by nega- 
 tives than by any positive and very intelligible assertion 
 of a principle. u It is not want of nourishment," says 
 M. Brehm, "for most of them commence their migra- 
 tion while there is still abundance in the country they 
 are leaving. Atmospherical currents are not the cause, 
 nor do the changes of season explain it, as the greatest 
 number set off while the weather is yet fine ; and others, 
 as the larks and starlings, arrive while the season is bad. 
 Atmospherical influences can only hasten the migration 
 in autumn, but must rather retard or derange it in spring. 
 It is the presentiment of what is to happen, which deter- 
 mines birds to begin their journey. It is an instinct 
 which urges them, and which initiates them into the me- 
 teoric changes that are preparing. They have a particu- 
 lar faculty of foreseeing the rigors of the coming season ; 
 an exquisite sensibility to the perception of atmospheri- 
 cal changes which are not yet arrived, but are approach- 
 ing." 
 
MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 203 
 
 The same intelligent and judicious writer states some 
 facts relative to the manner of these migrations, which 
 he conceives to be established ; and, as they are curious 
 in themselves, and condensed into few words, we shall 
 make no apology for quoting them. u Every bird has 
 its native country, where it freely reproduces, and re- 
 mains part of the year, travelling in the remainder. 
 Most birds spend half the year at their home, and pass 
 the other half in travelling. Some, particularly birds of 
 prey, travel by day, but by far the greater part travel 
 by night ; and some perform their migrations indifferent- 
 ly, either by day or night. They seem to pass the whole 
 of their migration without sleep ; for they employ the 
 day in seeking their food, stopping in the places where 
 they are most likely to find it. They commonly keep 
 very high in the air, and always at nearly the same dis- 
 tance from the earth, so that they rise very high over 
 mountains, and fly lower along valleys. They require 
 a wind that blows against them, as a contrary wind as- 
 sists in raising them. 7 '* 
 
 In some subsequent papers, we shall follow out this 
 interesting subject, by entering into a few details ; but we 
 cannot conclude this preliminary sketch, without a sin- 
 gle remark respecting the astonishing faculty on which 
 the migratory habits of birds are founded. 
 
 It would be in vain to look for a solution of the phe- 
 nomena of migration in the reasoning powers of the birds 
 themselves. They have obviously neither a faculty of 
 reflection, nor a geographical nor meteorological knowl- 
 edge, which could enable them either to plan or to 
 execute so astonishing an enterprise ; and we are com- 
 pelled to rank this means of self-preservation among the 
 numerous habits and practices of the lower animals, 
 which Brehm calls "a presentiment," " an instinct," 
 
 * Quoted from Library of Entertaining Knowledge, on Faculties of 
 Birds, p. 286. There appears in these remarks rather too much dis- 
 position to generalize. The author of the article from which the quota- 
 tion is extracted, observes, that the last statement must be subject to 
 some very large exceptions. The same may be probably said of some 
 of the rest ; and particularly of the first, which seems to aver that every 
 bird travels through part of the year. 
 
204 HYBERNATION. 
 
 " an exquisite sensibility," and which the immortal 
 Newton justly and piously ascribes to " nothing else than 
 the wisdom and skill of a powerful and everliving Agent." 
 
 EIGHTH WEEK TUESDAY. 
 
 HYBERNATION. MIGRATION OF BIRDS CONTINUED. 
 
 CURIOSITY has long directed its inquiries to ascertain 
 the countries to which our various birds of passage mi- 
 grate during the winter months ; but it is mortifying to 
 think how little definite information has been obtained on 
 so interesting a question. That several of our native 
 birds are capable of taking long and rapid flights, is gen- 
 erally known. The swallow and the hawk, for example, 
 can continue on the wing, without rest, for many hours, 
 and are believed to be capable of travelling at the amaz- 
 ing rate of one hundred and fifty miles in the hour. Sup- 
 posing, however, the average rate of the flight of birds to 
 be only one third of this velocity, it is obvious that they 
 may, without difficulty, perform journeys to any extent 
 necessary for carrying them to the warmest climates. 
 From the British shore to the coast of France, the dis- 
 tance is comparatively so trifling, that, even taking the 
 broadest part of the channel, it could, at the moderate 
 average we have mentioned, be performed in little more 
 than two hours ; and thence again, stretching through 
 the intervening countries of France and Spain, the jour- 
 ney to Africa might be accomplished in the short period 
 of two or three days, making all reasonable allowance 
 for needful rest. Supposing such data to be correct, this 
 would obviously be no formidable labor ; and, that we 
 have not overstated the powers of the feathered race, 
 may be gathered from various known facts. It is a mat- 
 ter of history, that a falcon belonging to Henry IV. of 
 France, having escaped from Fontainbleau, was found, 
 
MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 205 
 
 at the end of twenty-four hours, at Malta, a distance of 
 about 1350 miles ! It has been said, that birds generally 
 begin their flight with an adverse wind ; but, granting 
 this to be the case, which we may be permitted to doubt, 
 the intention probably is, that they may thus be assisted 
 in rising into a higher region of the atmosphere, where 
 they may expect to meet with a counter current ; for 
 we can scarcely suppose that they purposely encounter 
 the disadvantage of a permanent contrary breeze ; and, 
 should the gale be favorable, they would, without any 
 effort, except what was just necessary to keep them afloat, 
 be borne along, with the moving element, at the rate of 
 thirty, forty, or even eighty miles an hour. As to the 
 power of birds to keep, for a lengthened period, on wing, 
 many remarkable facts have been mentioned. That of 
 the blue-bird of America seems to be beyond dispute, 
 which, though one of the smaller species, passes and re- 
 passes annually, in great quantities, from the mainland to 
 the Bermudas, a distance of not less than six hundred 
 miles, without any intervening land. "Nothing is more 
 common in Pennsylvania," says Wilson, "than to see 
 large flocks of these birds, in spring and fall, passing at 
 considerable heights in the air, from the south in the for- 
 mer, and from the north in the latter season." 
 
 The distance to which some birds migrate from their 
 native place, may be illustrated by the following anecdote, 
 if it be worthy of credit, related in the article on the 
 c Faculties of Birds,' already alluded to, as found in 
 several public journals. "Last year, (1833,) a Polish 
 gentleman having caught a stork upon his estate, near 
 Lemberg, put round its neck an iron collar, with this 
 inscription, 'Hcec ciconia ex Polonia^ (This stork comes 
 from Poland,) and set it at liberty. This year, (1834,) 
 the bird returned to the same spot, and was again caught 
 by the same person. It had acquired a new collar of 
 gold, with the inscription, c India cum donis, remittit 
 ciconiam Polonis^ (India sends back the stork to the 
 Poles with gifts.) The gentleman, having shown the 
 inscription to his neighbors, again set the bird at lib- 
 
 erty." 
 
 i. 18 vn. 
 
206 HYBERNATION. 
 
 We shall not now be surprised to hear that the swal- 
 low, as well as several other British birds, such as the 
 nightingale and the quail, should find its way to the shores 
 of Africa. Indeed, if it possess the strength and swift- 
 ness of the American blue-bird, and there is every rea- 
 son to believe that it exceeds this point rather than falls 
 short, it would require but a small restingplace in its 
 passage, and arrive with ease on the second day. 
 
 As to the mode of migration, this differs in different 
 species, some assembling in vast flocks, and taking their 
 flight together, such as swallows, geese, &c., while others 
 seem to prefer plying their solitary way. Of this latter 
 kind is the cuckoo, which, indeed, is seldom at any time 
 observed in company even with its mate. But, what 
 would scarcely be expected, and cannot easily be account- 
 ed for on the analogy of the other habits of the feathered 
 family, there seem to be some kinds of birds, the males 
 of which take their migratory flight unaccompanied by the 
 females, who follow them at the interval of some days ; 
 and others, the females of which lead the way, and leave 
 their mates behind. The nightingale and the wheatear 
 are said to be of the ungallant habits of the first-men- 
 tioned species. 
 
 While those birds, whose food fails, or becomes scanty 
 in winter, take their flight, as we have seen, to more 
 southern climates, their place is partly supplied by the 
 emigration of winged strangers from the shores of the 
 north, actuated obviously by a similar impulse, namely, 
 that of escaping from a more rigorous region, and finding 
 a supply of congenial food, when that of their summer 
 haunts is about to be exhausted. These are chiefly sea- 
 fowl, or the frequenters of lakes, or the inhabitants of 
 fens and marshes ; and it is, doubtless, the approach, 
 though not perhaps the actual arrival, of frost, about to 
 bind their more northerly places of resort in icy fetters, 
 and thus to render them unfit for their subsistence, which 
 has made the instinct necessary that drives them southward . 
 
 It is worthy of notice, and what might confidently be 
 expected from the nature of the case, that although our 
 summer visitants are not confined to any particular order 
 
MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 207 
 
 or tribe, including, not only both land and water-fowl, 
 but devourers of all different kinds of food, yet of those 
 which reside amongst us, in winter, there are none insec- 
 tivorous, and very few granivorous. It is also remarka- 
 ble, that, while all our summer birds of passage hatch 
 their young in this country, few, if any, of the winter 
 kinds remain to execute this necessary duty. They leave 
 our shores before the breeding season commences, to 
 give a birthplace to their progeny in their own native re- 
 gions of Sweden, Norway, or Iceland, some of them, 
 such as the snow-bunting, even approaching the Arctic 
 Circle, and performing the office of incubation on the 
 ice-bound coast of Greenland, or amidst the icebergs of 
 Spitzbergen. 
 
 It is impossible not to admire the care which Provi- 
 dence has thus manifested, at once to preserve the winged 
 tribes from the fatal effects of a change of climate, too 
 severe for their nature, and to cheer the short summer 
 of the northern regions with the presence of inhabitants, 
 which only a few days of a stern polar winter would de- 
 stroy. The spring, summer, and autumn of Spitzbergen, 
 for example, are all comprised in the space of a few 
 weeks. Even so late as the end of April, the whole 
 island is a wild and dreary waste of ice and snow ; not a 
 sound of animated beings is to be heard ; though the sun, 
 after an absence of four dismal months, has appeared for 
 some time, skirting, with his cold and languid lamp, the 
 edge of the bleak horizon. Gradually, however, he rises 
 higher in the southern heavens ; and in May or June, 
 his never-setting orb sheds a genial warmth through the 
 placid air, and on the smiling earth. The change is like 
 that of magic. The snows dissolve, and rush in torrents 
 to the sea. The ground appears, first in spots, and then 
 in one vast unbroken extent, along the valleys, and even 
 on the less elevated hills. Instantly the powers of vege- 
 tation burst forth with an energy of which we can scarcely 
 form a conception. In a few days, a land, which seemed 
 the region of perpetual snow, is clothed with the loveliest 
 verdure, and becomes instinct with life. The gaunt bear 
 leaves his cave, where he had spent the winter in a happy 
 
208 HYBERNATION. 
 
 torpidity, while numerous insects start from their winter 
 tombs, and flutter gladly in the balmy atmosphere. It 
 is at this auspicious period, that the snow-buntings, and 
 perhaps some other winter birds, having lingered probably 
 for a time in the intervening islands of Shetland, Faroe, 
 and Iceland, arrive on this awakened coast, which they 
 render vocal with their song ; and, while they find a con- 
 genial climate, and food adapted to their nature, im- 
 mediately begin the important offices required for the 
 continuance of the species, obtaining, in this remote isl- 
 and, a retreat comparatively free from the- molestation 
 of their enemies. In a few weeks, the sun begins again 
 to lose its genial warmth, and symptoms of approaching 
 winter warn these annual visitants to return to a more 
 temperate climate ; but this interval has sufficed, not only 
 for the hatching of the brood, but for their being reared 
 and cherished till they have acquired a strength of wing 
 enabling them to accompany their adventurous parents, 
 in shaping their pathless way for hundreds of miles across 
 a stormy and apparently shoreless ocean, without a single 
 landmark in the distant horizon to direct their course. 
 
 The case of the little snow-bunting is only a particular 
 instance, though a striking one, of that wonderful instinct 
 which belongs to so many of the feathered family. It 
 marks, in a very lively manner, the peculiar features, 
 the extent, and the beneficent intentions of this impulse 
 of a wonder-working power ; and, while it fills the pious 
 mind with an undefinable feeling of awe, under the sense 
 of a present Deity, directs it to the cheering doctrines, 
 and blessed promises, of Revealed Truth, and may well 
 serve to increase its confidence in the never-failing pro- 
 tection of a reconciled Father, who bestows those secret 
 and mysterious influences of Divine grace, through which 
 the Christian is led " by a way which he knows not," 
 from the wintry scenes of earth, to the glories of an eternal 
 summer. 
 
 The snow-bird of America is another of the feathered 
 tribe, which the hand of a beneficent Providence drives 
 northwards to fulfil some important end. When the 
 weather begins to be warm, the snow-bird moves towards 
 
BIRDS WHICH PARTIALLY MIGRATE. 209 
 
 the colder regions, and arrives about the Hudson's Bay 
 Factory in June, whence it continues its course still further 
 north, where it breeds. This kind is so numerous as to 
 be found scattered over the greater part, probably the 
 whole, of the northern regions of North America, in great 
 profusion. Speaking of this remarkable species, Mr. 
 Wilson says, u In the circuitous route I travelled, of more 
 than 1800 miles, I never passed a day, and scarcely a mile, 
 without seeing numbers of these birds, and frequently large 
 flocks of several thousands." 
 
 The impulse which urges these tenants of the air to 
 seek the wilds of the north, is evidently connected with 
 the instinct which leads them to propagate the species ; 
 and indeed some naturalists are of opinion, that, in all 
 instances of migration, the same instinct operates. How- 
 ever this may be, it is certain that these little creatures 
 find a more secure retreat in the countries near the Arctic 
 Circle, for the important purpose of incubation, than 
 could readily be chosen in the circle of their summer 
 haunts. But, while they thus escape many formidable 
 enemies, they are probably not altogether free from dan- 
 ger ; for their appearance will be hailed as a seasonable 
 boon of Providence, by the scattered inhabitants of these 
 inhospitable regions, who must find, in this annual sup- 
 ply of dainty food, thus mysteriously sent them by an 
 Unseen Hand, an agreeable and wholesome variety, after 
 being confined, during the dismal winter months, to the 
 unvarying sameness of that coarse and oily nourishment, 
 which their rude skill extracts from the surrounding seas. 
 
 EIGHTH WEEK WEDNESDAY. 
 
 HYBERNATION. BIRDS WHICH PARTIALLY MIGRATE. 
 
 THERE are some of the British feathered tribes, which, 
 although they do not pass beyond the sea, are yet, to a 
 
 18* 
 
210 HYBERNATION. 
 
 certain extent, migratory within the bounds of the island. 
 These are chiefly influenced in their change of residence, 
 by the desire of finding a more remote retreat, for the 
 purpose of incubation, or of acquiring a more plentiful 
 supply of food, or, perhaps, in some instances, a more 
 sheltered place of residence during the stormy months. 
 "Of these," says Mr. Rennie, "may be mentioned, 
 in our country, the curlew and golden-plover, which in 
 winter reside chiefly along the shores, while in summer 
 they betake themselves to the inland lakes and moors ; 
 the lapwing, which seems to move northwards in winter ; 
 the linnet, which in that season deserts the hilly re- 
 gions, and approaches the habitations of man ; and the 
 dipper, which in summer ascends the streams, towards 
 their sources." 
 
 But it is in continental countries, and especially in 
 America, where interminable forests are mingled with 
 districts and bounded by regions cultivated by the labor 
 of man, and teeming with crops of grain, that the most 
 remarkable instances of this kind of partial migration 
 take place. The countless multitude of pigeons in that 
 country, which, at particular seasons, shift their residence 
 in continuous and almost interminable flocks, have long 
 been the admiration of travellers. Audubon, in his usu- 
 al graphic manner, describes a flight of this tribe, of 
 which he was an eyewitness. "In the autumn of 1813," 
 says he, "I left my house at Henderson, on the banks 
 of the Ohio, on my way to Louisville. In passing over 
 the Barrens, a few miles below Hardensburgh, I observ- 
 ed the pigeons flying from northeast to southwest in 
 greater numbers than I thought I had ever seen them be- 
 fore ; and feeling an inclination to count the flocks that 
 might pass within the reach of my eye in one hour, I dis- 
 mounted, seated myself on an eminence, and began to 
 mark with my pencil, making a dot for every flock that 
 passed. In a short time, finding the task that I had un- 
 dertaken impracticable, as the birds poured on in count- 
 less multitudes, I rose, and counting the dots then put 
 down, found 163 had been made in twenty-one minutes. 
 
BIRDS WHICH PARTIALLY MIGRATE. 211 
 
 I travelled on, and still met more, the further they pro- 
 ceeded. The air was literally filled with pigeons ; the 
 light of noonday was obscured as by an eclipse ; the 
 dung fell in spots, not unlike melting flakes of snow; 
 and the continued buzz of wings had a tendency to lull 
 my senses to repose." " Before sunset," he adds after- 
 terwards, " I reached Louisville, distant from Hardens- 
 burgh fifty-five miles. The pigeons were still passing in 
 undiminished numbers, and continued to do so for three 
 days in succession." * * -* u The atmosphere, 
 during this time, was strongly impregnated with the pecu- 
 liar odor which emanates from the species." 
 
 Though not entirely to the point we are considering, 
 we willingly yield to the temptation of inserting a striking 
 passage which occurs in this account : "I cannot de- 
 scribe to you the extreme beauty of their aerial evolu- 
 tions, when a hawk chanced to press upon the rear of a 
 flock. At once, like a torrent, and with a noise like 
 thunder, they rushed into a compact mass, pressing upon 
 each other towards the centre. In these almost solid 
 masses, they darted forward in undulating and angular 
 lines, descended, and swept close over the earth, with 
 inconceivable velocity, mounted perpendicularly, so as 
 to resemble a vast column, and, when high, were seen 
 wheeling and twisting within their continued lines, which 
 then resembled the coils of a gigantic serpent. " 
 
 These flights are, doubtless, in search of food, and 
 may throw some light on the nature of the principle by 
 which migrations are influenced, as they are obviously 
 regulated by an impulse, if not observing and intelligent, 
 at least capable of being adapted to new circumstances, 
 and of taking advantage of new discoveries. Catesby 
 mentions, that since the discovery of America has intro- 
 duced crops of foreign grain into that once savage and 
 uncultivated country, not only have these comparatively 
 novel articles of food become the familiar resource of 
 native birds from distant regions, but various species of 
 the winged tribes, naturally strangers to that continent, 
 have, by some means, become aware of the existence of 
 such exotic stores, and arrive annually in numerous flocks, 
 
HYBERNATION. 
 
 at the proper season, to avail themselves of this new 
 provision for their wants. The rice-bird and the wheat- 
 bird are of this description. The latter, if Catesby's 
 observations be correct, has taken this new course of 
 migration across the sea from the island of Cuba, between 
 one and two hundred miles distant from the nearest point 
 of the mainland, leaving that region immediately after the 
 rice harvest, and alighting in Carolina in time to partake 
 of the rice crop in that latter climate, and afterwards of 
 the ripening wheat in the more northerly plains of Vir- 
 ginia. It is, indeed, but a few years, since the wheat- 
 birds first found their way to this latter State, where'they 
 now regularly flock at the proper season, in such num- 
 bers, as materially to interfere with the gains of the far- 
 mer. 
 
 This is a very interesting view of the nature of the 
 winged family, and gives rise to some curious and diffi- 
 cult questions. By what means do birds ascertain the 
 introduction of their proper food into these new and dis- 
 tant regions ? How do they communicate the information 
 to their fellows, after they have obtained it ? And when 
 once known, by what faculty is it perpetuated in the in- 
 dividuals, and transmitted to their posterity ? Are we to 
 believe that, like man, they make distant voyages of dis- 
 covery in search of new stores ; that they possess a 
 faculty resembling that of speech, by which they convey 
 a knowledge of the discoveries they have made; and that 
 they are furnished with memories sufficiently retentive, 
 and reasoning powers sufficiently strong, to enable them, 
 from year to year, as the season returns, to profit by the 
 new knowledge they have acquired? This seems to be 
 Catesby's opinion ; and it would, doubtless, readily ac- 
 count for these and various other phenomena of a simi- 
 lar nature, which may occur to the inquiring mind ; but 
 it seems to be so inconsistent with what is known of the 
 limited mental power of birds, that it will not readily be 
 assented to, and we must, probably, look for the true so- 
 lution in some qualities bearing more resemblance to the 
 admitted faculties of the race. If, however, we attempt 
 to pursue the inquiry further, we shall, perhaps, here, as 
 
MIGRATION OF QUADRUPEDS. 213 
 
 in a thousand other instances, land ourselves in perplex- 
 ity and darkness, and be forced to rest in the humbling 
 conviction, that such knowledge is too high for us. When 
 we become aware that the migratory impulse varies ac- 
 cording to circumstances, and is modified by changes in 
 climate or in food, whether dependent on natural causes 
 or on the labors of civilized man, we seem to have ac- 
 quired a glimmering of something like a principle of rea- 
 son as applicable to that impulse. But when, on the other 
 hand, we consider the extent to which that reasoning 
 principle must necessarily be carried, before it can ac- 
 count for the phenomena, when we recollect, that it 
 must include some high powers of memory, reflection, 
 and judgement, as well as considerable geographical knowl- 
 edge, and an accurate acquaintance with the progress of 
 time, as connected with the changes of the seasons and 
 the ripening of the fruits of the earth, it seems altogeth- 
 er impossible to maintain this ground ; and we feel com- 
 pelled to fall back on our first conclusions, and to resolve 
 the whole, or at least by far the greater part, into a pow- 
 er, the nature of which has hitherto eluded all attempts 
 to analyze it, and our ignorance of which, we endeavor 
 to conceal under the name of instinct. 
 
 Here, then, we find new cause to look up with awe 
 and adoration to the mysterious but beneficent operations 
 of that unseen, omnipresent Intelligence, who causes 
 a the stork in the heaven to know her appointed times, 
 and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow, to observe 
 the time of their coming." 
 
 EIGHTH WEEK THURSDAY. 
 
 HYBERNATION. MIGRATION OF QUADRUPEDS. 
 
 THE care of Providence in securing the subsistence 
 and comfort of quadrupeds in the winter months, is not 
 
214 HYBERNATION. 
 
 less remarkable than that which is displayed towards the 
 feathered creation ; and the modifications of their hy- 
 bernating instincts, and of other arrangements, exhibit 
 equal indications of wise and beneficent design. A strik- 
 ing example of that adaptation of propensities to external 
 circumstances, which is to be found characterizing the in- 
 stincts of all the orders of organized beings, occurs among 
 the brute tribes, in the limited extent of their migratory 
 habits. Being destitute of wings, which transport the va- 
 rious species of birds so expeditiously and safely through 
 the air, they cannot leave their native haunts without dif- 
 ficulty and danger, arising from the rugged and intersect- 
 ed nature of the earth to which they are confined, and the 
 fury of the enemies they would meet with in a journey 
 necessarily tedious, and often unsheltered. Some quad- 
 rupeds, however, do possess this instinct in situations fa- 
 vorable for its exercise. In Great Britain, for exam- 
 ple, the stag and the roebuck leave the higher regions 
 on the approach of winter, and seek protection in the more 
 sheltered plains. But it is in continental countries, where 
 larger space is afforded, and where the variety of climate 
 gives freer scope for the developement of the principle, 
 that migratory habits are to be chiefly expected, and it is 
 there that they actually exist to the greatest extent. I 
 shall confine myself, on this subject, to the quotation of 
 an interesting passage in Mr. Kirby's Bridgewater Trea- 
 tise, which occurs under the head of Geographical Dis- 
 tribution of Animals. 
 
 u \Ve are next to consider those migrations that take 
 place periodically, and usually at certain seasons of the 
 year ; the general intention of which appears to be a sup- 
 ply of food, and often a temperature best suited to repro- 
 duction ; Providence, in this, taking care, that their in- 
 stincts shall stimulate them to change their quarters, when 
 these two objects can be answered at the same time, and 
 by a single removal. 
 
 " In North America, that ferocious and lion-like ani- 
 mal, the bison, called there the buffalo, forms regular mi- 
 grations, in immense herds, from north to south, and from 
 the mountains to the plains ; and, after a certain period, re- 
 
MIGRATION OF QUADRUPEDS. 215 
 
 turns back again. Salt springs, usually called salt-licks 
 or salines, found in a clay compact enough for potter's 
 clay, are much frequented by these animals ; whence they 
 are called buffalo salt-licks. Dr. Richardson informs me, 
 that the periodical movements of these animals are regu- 
 lated almost solely by the pastures ; when a fire has spread 
 over the prairies, it is succeeded by a fine growth of ten- 
 der grass, which they are sure to visit. How the bison 
 discovers that this has taken place, seems not easily ac- 
 counted for ; perhaps stragglers from the great herds, 
 when food grows scarce, may be instrumental to this. 
 
 u The musk-ox, a ruminating animal, between the ox 
 and sheep, has the same habit, extending its migratory 
 movements as far as Melville, and other islands of the 
 Polar Sea, where it arrives about the middle of May ; 
 and going southward towards the end of September, where 
 it has been seen as low as latitude sixty-seven degrees 
 north, which, as Dr. Richardson observes, approaches the 
 northern limit of the bison. Its food, like that of the rein- 
 deer, or caribou, is grass in the summer, and lichens in the 
 winter. Its hair is very long ; and, as well as that of the 
 bison, which has been manufactured, both in England and 
 America, into cloth, might be woven into useful articles. 
 This animal inhabits, strictly, the country of the Esqui- 
 maux, and may be regarded as the gift of a kind Provi- 
 dence to that people, who call it oomingmak, and not 
 only eat its flesh, but also the contents of its stomach, 
 as well as those of the rein-deer, which they call norrooks, 
 which, consisting of lichens and other vegetable substan- 
 ces, as Dr. Richardson remarks, are more easily digest- 
 ed by the human stomach when they are mixed with the 
 salivary and gastric juices of a ruminating animal. 
 
 u The wild rein-deer, in North America, in the sum- 
 mer," as the excellent man and author lately mentioned, 
 states, " seek the coast of the Arctic Seas. It is singu- 
 lar, that the females, driven from the woods by the mus- 
 quitoes, migrate thither before the males, generally in the 
 month of May, (some say in April and March ;) while 
 the latter do not begin their march till towards the end 
 of June. At this time the sun has dried up the lichens 
 
216 HYBERNAT10N. 
 
 on the barren grounds ; and the moist pastures in the val- 
 leys of the coasts and islands* of the above seas, afford 
 them sufficient food. Soon after their arrival, the females 
 drop their young. They commence their return to the 
 south in September, and reach the vicinity of the woods 
 towards the end of October. In the woods, they feed 
 on lichens which hang from the trees, and on the long 
 grass of the swamps. The males do not usually go so 
 far north as the females. Columns, consisting of eight 
 or ten thousand of these caribous, so numerous are they 
 in North America, may be seen annually passing from 
 north to south in the spring, infested and attacked in their 
 progress by numbers of wolves, foxes, and other preda- 
 ceous quadrupeds, which attack and devour the strag- 
 glers. 
 
 " The prong-horned antelope, f as well as the rein-deer, 
 appears to go northward in the summer, and return to 
 the south in winter. 
 
 " Dr. Richardson remarks to me in a letter : c The 
 musk-ox and rein-deer feed chiefly on lichens, and there- 
 fore frequent the barren lands and primitive rocks, which 
 are clothed with these plants. They resort, in winter, 
 when the snow is deep, to the skirts of the woods, and 
 feed on the lichens winch hang from the trees ; but, on ev- 
 ery favorable change of weather, they return to the barren 
 grounds. In summer, they migrate to the moist pastures 
 on the seacoast, and eat grass ; because the lichens on 
 the barren lands are then parched by the drought, and too 
 hard to be eaten. The young grass is, I suppose, better 
 fitted for the fawns, which are dropt about the time the 
 deer reach the coast.' In all this, we see the hand of 
 Providence, directing them to those places where the 
 necessary sustenance may be had." 
 
 Mr. Kirby might have added to this latter observation, 
 another, which seems to be not less striking, and which 
 we have already noticed, in reference to some of the wing- 
 
 * There seems to be a trifling inaccuracy here. In the month of June, 
 the ice has ceased to bridge the northern seas ; and the males cannot 
 reach the islands if they do not arrive sooner than this period. H. D. 
 
 t Antelope furcata. 
 
MIGRATION OF QUADRUPEDS. 217 
 
 ed tribes ; that the chief reason why the rein-deer is 
 taught to seek the north for the birthplace of its young, 
 is, that there the latter are comparatively unmolested by 
 those ferocious beasts of prey, which inhabit the more 
 southerly regions, and which would assuredly greatly di- 
 minish their numbers, if they did not entirely exterminate 
 the race, were the fawns to reside in the neighborhood of 
 these hordes of enemies, before they had acquired suffi- 
 cient swiftness and strength to elude pursuit. This pro- 
 vision of Providence is truly wonderful. At the time 
 appointed for the dropping of their young, the food of the 
 rein-deer, as well as of the musk-ox, is to be found in 
 abundance, at a distance from the chief haunts of their 
 natural enemies ; and thus these peaceful tribes are led, 
 by a kind of double instinct, to the preservation of their 
 species, both as regards its maintenance and reproduc- 
 tion. 
 
 In speaking of the migrations of the rein-deer, I must 
 not omit to mention a striking peculiarity, which belongs 
 to this as well as some other of the more intelligent 
 species of animals : their motions appear to be directed 
 by leaders of their own species, whom they implicitly 
 obey, and who head their march. As they are gregari- 
 ous animals, such an instinct must be exceedingly useful 
 to them, in the unfrequented wildernesses through which 
 they travel. They will thus profit by the experience of 
 their captain, who is always probably one of the oldest 
 and most experienced of the herd ; for, that many of the 
 inferior animals do learn by experience, and thus show a 
 sagacity above mere instinct, it is impossible to doubt. 
 The same subjection to leaders, in their movements, is 
 observable in the elephant. The Hottentots told Mr. 
 Pringle, that, in the dense thorny forests, the great bull 
 elephants always march in the van, bursting through the 
 jungle, treading down the prickly brushwood, and break- 
 ing off with their trunks the larger branches that obstruct 
 their passage, while the females and younger part follow 
 them in single file. 
 
 That the younger or more feeble should voluntarily 
 subject themselves to the guidance of the stronger, indi- 
 i. 19 vn. 
 
218 HYBERNATION. 
 
 cates a fine instinct ; but it is not so surprising in the 
 case of the elephant, where it would appear that all the 
 largest males of the herd take the precedence, as it is in 
 the instance of the rein-deer, who seem to select a single 
 leader, and obey him, as if he were invested with lawful 
 authority. By what principle, whether of instinct or of 
 something approaching nearer to the faculty of reason, 
 this sagacious race look up, with common consent, to one 
 individual of the herd, it seems difficult to determine ; 
 but, however this may be, it does not less display the 
 paternal care of the Creator. Something approaching 
 to the same habit is found in other gregarious animals. 
 The Mongalian antelopes have their leader, whom they 
 follow in regular files. The old ram of the flock, the 
 bull among the kine, the dunghill cock who has proved 
 his superior prowess and courage, each, in its own de- 
 partment, exercises a sway, approaching, in the last 
 mentioned, to a species of petty despotism, which indi- 
 cates an inferior degree of the same principle. Indeed, 
 were we better acquainted with the habits of gregarious 
 animals, the remarkable property of subjection to a supe- 
 rior, would probably be found to be far more extended, 
 than may at first sight appear ; for wherever living beings 
 congregate and act in concert, some presiding intellect, 
 if not absolutely necessary, is yet of great utility ; and 
 it is a new instance of the wisdom and benevolence of 
 the Creator, that, where He has been pleased to bestow 
 the social instinct, He should also have so generally be- 
 stowed a quality, by which the peace and welfare of the 
 respective communities are essentially promoted; and 
 that, among the various tribes of lower animals, from the 
 mighty elephant to the tiny bee, the most wonderful 
 of them all, the important principle of subordination 
 should be so widely diffused. 
 
CHRISTMAS-DAY. 219 
 
 EIGHTH WEEK FRIDAY. 
 
 CHRISTMAS-DAY. 
 
 THIS day is usually consecrated to the remembrance 
 or solemn celebration of our blessed Lord's nativity. 
 Though not disposed to look with favor on the pompous 
 ceremonials with which it is greeted by some branches 
 of the church, even were it clearly proved to be the 
 true anniversary, we yet deem it a profitable and pleasing 
 duty to turn our thoughts this morning to the great event* 
 that occurred at Bethlehem, and that was destined to 
 usher in the dawn of our glorious day. 
 
 Who, then, was He that was born at Bethlehem, and 
 whose birth was attended by every circumstance of pov- 
 erty and meanness? The humble mother, the lowly 
 stable, the manger, the poorness and obscurity of the 
 place, the absence of all public rejoicing, declared it to 
 be no earthly prince that was born, the joy of his scep- 
 tered father, and the hope of nations ; but only an infant 
 who might, in future years, have nowhere to lay his head, 
 and might live and die unknown. Yet the bursting of 
 heaven's gates at the midnight hour ; the glad announce- 
 ment to the awe-struck shepherds ; and the enraptured 
 song of the heavenly host singing, " Glory to God in the 
 highest, and on earth peace, good-will toward men ;" 
 the miraculous star, and the wise men of the East bring- 
 ing costly gifts, and offering them in lowly reverence, 
 proclaimed the advent of that celestial King who was to 
 rule in Zion, even of the beloved Son of God, in whom 
 He was well pleased. Humble was the guise in which 
 the Messiah appeared, and unheeded by a sinful world 
 the hour of His birth ; but a few rays of His glory were 
 permitted thus early to shine forth, and declare to a 
 chosen band the secret of His greatness. The tongue of 
 man was silent on that most joyful of all occasions ; but 
 
220 CHRISTMAS-DAY. 
 
 angel harps were visibly struck to celebrate the new-born 
 Saviour of Mankind. 
 
 And what was the life, on earth, of Him who thus came 
 in glory and humiliation ? It was that of a Deliverer of 
 man. But did He overturn the thrones of blaspheming 
 tyranny, and hurl to the dust, with an arm of physical 
 power, the vain pride of mortals ? Did He trample down 
 the haughty and the great, and exalt the humble poor ? 
 Did He take signal vengeance upon the crafty and blood- 
 stained ministers of idolatry, and vindicate the majesty 
 of Jehovah by the visible overthrow of their hideous 
 altars and shrines ? No ; though the greatest of Deliverers, 
 He did none of these things. He was the meekest of 
 the sons of men. He went about continually doing good ; 
 and, wherever He went, He scattered the heavenly light 
 of truth. Along with the benevolence and the wisdom, 
 He displayed also the power of God. He proclaimed to 
 all that would come unto Him, the forgiveness of sins ; and 
 He healed the most loathsome and fatal bodily diseases, 
 in token of His power to heal the great maladies of the 
 soul. It was also His office u to bring life and immor- 
 tality to light;" and to prove, by the clearest evidence, 
 that resurrection which He taught, He raised the corpse, 
 already mouldering in its decay, and gave back the lost 
 and the lamented to their weeping friends. He poured 
 on the sightless eyeball the light of day, and on the long- 
 benighted soul the cheering radiance of mercy and truth. 
 Every word and action showed His love to man, and was 
 fraught with the sublimest meaning. 
 
 Such was the life of the Redeemer, as it is recorded 
 by His chosen followers, a life which, though sketched, 
 as it were, in outline, yet carries upon it the significant 
 stamp of Divinity. A celebrated infidel,* apparently over- 
 powered, for a moment, by the moral beauty and har- 
 mony of the New Testament, in one of his works de- 
 clares that "the inventor of the Gospel would be a more 
 astonishing character than the Hero." A more striking 
 sentiment could scarcely have proceeded from the lips 
 
 * Rousseau. 
 
CHRISTMAS-DAY. 221 
 
 of a believer in our holy faith. Yes ! the character of 
 Jesus was unimaginable by mortal man. That humility, 
 sustained by Divine dignity ; that benevolence, so free 
 from ostentation ; that prudence, so closely conjoined 
 with courage ; that compassion for human weakness and 
 suffering, so far removed from any tolerance of human 
 sin ; that patience and benignity ; that holiness and love, 
 which adorn the Saviour's walk on earth, lay entirely 
 beyond the reach of finite conception. It is the province 
 of imagination, when called into play by some powerful 
 emotion, to form sublime or beautiful ideal pictures from 
 the stores furnished by our perception of material things ; 
 to preside over the creations of the painter or the poet, 
 who study nature and human life, in order to supply their 
 prevailing mental power with appropriate imagery. Ima- 
 gination can only arrange into new combinations the 
 ideas drawn from this living world ; its range is limited 
 by our experience ; the groups and images it creates may 
 be new, but the constituent parts of these are solely de- 
 rived from what we see and hear. Magnificent and glow- 
 ing may be the ideal scenery it draws, of superhuman 
 excellence the moral hero that it places before the eye 
 of the mind ; but the elements of the one and of the 
 other are merely of this earth, and are marked with the 
 imperfection and mortal stain of all things earthly. The 
 fine creations of a Virgil or a Plato are palpably but the 
 imaginings of beings with limited faculties, and corrupt 
 moral natures, whose experience is only mundane, and 
 whose fancy is fed with the imagery of a sinful world. 
 Who, then, could have conceived the character of the 
 Son of God, manifested on earth, in human form ? The 
 materials of such a conception were unknown. They 
 lay in the bosom of the Eternal Father, unseen, unheard 
 of, by mortal eye or ear. How could that Divine love, 
 which glowed in the bosom of Jesus of Nazareth, have 
 been imagined by one in whose heart dwelt pride, hatred, 
 and all evil passions ? Can it even yet be fathomed by 
 the loftiest intellect ? Who could, in a few simple words, 
 have drawn a picture of the human heart, the fidelity of 
 which all are at once compelled to own ? Who could 
 19* 
 
222 CHRISTMAS-DAY. 
 
 have opened such a spring of consolation as that unlocked 
 by the man Christ Jesus ? Who could have discovered 
 such a simple and efficacious remedy for the great disease 
 of our nature as that contained in the Gospel ? Who 
 could have presented such objects to love, such promises 
 to hope, such solemn and elevating mysteries to faith ? 
 The Gospel an invention ! Jesus Christ a fictitious char- 
 acter ! This would be a miracle of miracles ; a phenome- 
 non wholly incomprehensible ; at utter variance with all 
 we know of the human mind ; plainly transcending, in- 
 deed, its loftiest efforts ; an inscrutable enigma in the 
 history of man. 
 
 Who can describe the consequences of the Redeem- 
 er's life and death ? The tongues of angels would falter 
 and fail in the attempt. The world, with all its sin and 
 suffering, exists only that it may become the wide thea- 
 tre of his glory. The light from Heaven that first shone 
 forth among the mountains of Judea, though it has often 
 been obscured, and even disastrously eclipsed, now shines, 
 and will continue to shine, with a far-spreading radiance. 
 Darkness is flying before it. Idolatry is hiding her mon- 
 strous head ; and nations, at length disenthralled, and 
 joyously surprised, are stretching forth their arms to hail 
 their rising day. The inspired record of redemption 
 is borne by all the winds of heaven to distant shores ; 
 and the church, in sublime hope, is waiting the result. 
 The consequences of the Redeemer's life and death ! 
 Their number and grandeur overpower the imagination. 
 Who shall tell the tears that have been wiped away, the 
 hopes that have been inspired, the guilty passions quelled, 
 and the moral energy infused by the glad tidings of sal- 
 vation? What tranquil happiness, what sanctifying devo- 
 tion, what benevolent deeds and aspirations have result- 
 ed from the glorious Gospel ! And O, how can we con- 
 template, in thought, the present and the future ransomed 
 millions, that shall, through a rapturous eternity, encom- 
 pass the throne of the Lamb, without being lost in won- 
 der, love, and adoration ! 
 
 Such are the thoughts that ought to employ us, not only 
 as oft as this joyful anniversary comes round, but as oft 
 
NO SEASON UNPLEASANT, ETC. 223 
 
 as the morning dawns, or the shades of evening close 
 around us. On our sabbaths, and other solemn seasons, 
 the birth, life, and death of our Redeemer, may be 
 dwelt upon with peculiar and blessed effect; but yet they 
 belong to all times, and afford, on all occasions, appro- 
 priate themes of meditation. O, then, let the rising orb 
 of day be ever linked in our minds with the Sun of 
 Righteousness, and let the sweetest star of eve ever re- 
 mind us of the Star of Bethlehem ! 
 
 EIGHTH WEEK SATURDAY. 
 
 NO SEASON UNPLEASANT TO THE CHEERFUL MIND. 
 
 THIS is a season set apart, by almost universal con- 
 sent, in the Christian world, as a time of festivity. The 
 friendly greetings of the season owe their origin, in a 
 great measure, to religious feelings, although they are very 
 seldom conducted in a religious spirit. There is much 
 reason to regret the abuse, while we cannot condemn the 
 principle on which the enjoyments of this anniversary were 
 originally founded. To the Christian, the advent of the 
 Son of God is indeed "good tidings of great joy ;" and 
 when his rejoicings truly take their rise from a grateful 
 and pious recollection of this most glorious event, which 
 was the harbinger of " peace on earth, " and the pledge 
 of "good-will towards men," it cannot but produce a 
 salutary effect upon the mind. 
 
 " There is something in the very season of the year," 
 says Washington Irving, taking another view of the sub- 
 ject, " that gives a charm to the festivity of Christmas. 
 At other times, we derive a great portion of our pleas- 
 ures from the mere beauties of Nature. Our feelings 
 sally forth, and dissipate themselves over the sunny land- 
 scape, and we live abroad and every where.' The song 
 of the bird, the murmur of the stream, the breathing 
 
224 NO SEASON UNPLEASANT 
 
 fragrance of spring, the soft voluptuousness of summer, 
 the golden pomp of autumn, earth with its mantle of 
 refreshing green, and heaven with its deep delicious blue, 
 and its cloudy magnificence, all fill us with mute but 
 exquisite delight, and we revel in the luxury of mere 
 sensation. But, in the depth of winter, when Nature 
 lies despoiled of every charm, and wrapped in her shroud 
 of sheeted snow, we turn for our gratifications to moral 
 sources. The dreariness and desolation of the landscape, 
 the short gloomy days, and darksome nights, while they 
 circumscribe our wanderings, shut in our feelings, also, 
 from rambling abroad, and make us more keenly disposed 
 for the pleasures of the social circle." 
 
 There is truth in this view, as applicable to a rightly 
 constituted mind ; but, on the temper and feelings of the 
 selfish and querulous, a very different effect is produced. 
 A person of this disposition usually gives way to a feel- 
 ing of bodily uneasiness, and is visibly disturbed by the 
 coldness and fog of the atmosphere, and the unpleasant 
 state of the ground. He exaggerates the peculiar incon- 
 veniences of the season, and invests the gloom of the long- 
 continued storm with his own deeper gloominess. He 
 dwells, with a sort of satisfaction, on every circumstance 
 of annoyance, and rejects every ray of comfort ; unlike 
 the more grateful earth, that in the midst of almost inces- 
 sant darkness and storm, so soon as the sun scatters for 
 an instant the thick clouds, is kindled into a smile, and 
 seems to anticipate the coming gladness of spring. But 
 these are the symptoms of a mental disease not uncom- 
 mon at this period. 
 
 Whatever be the cause of this disorder, it is undoubt- 
 edly heightened in its virulence by the high notions and 
 exquisite feeling of comfort^ consequent upon the great 
 progress of society amongst us, and the still ascending 
 scale of our enjoyments. Our remote British forefathers, 
 even in the depth of winter, could repose their weary 
 limbs upon a pillow of heath in the open air, gathering, 
 like the oaks of their country, strength and hardihood 
 from the storm. They seemed utterly insensible to the 
 numberless small discomforts that their descendants make 
 
TO THE CHEERFUL MIND. 225 
 
 or find in the gloomy weather and bleak dominion of 
 winter. They had neither the defences against the in- 
 clemency of the season, nor the resources of domestic 
 recreation, that we enjoy ; and yet we are apt to murmur 
 and complain, as if our circumstances and theirs were 
 exactly reversed. We have secure and comfortable 
 homes, conveniences in clothing and shelter, of which 
 they never dreamed, the sweets of refined society, the 
 mental luxury of books, and numerous fascinating amuse- 
 ments, equally innocent and useful ; and yet, notwith- 
 standing these multiplied blessings, we can yield to low 
 impatience and despondency, if, haply, the wintry tem- 
 pest, however magnificent and sublime in its appearance 
 and effects, hinder our rural excursions, or transiently af- 
 fect our frames with its moisture and its cold. 
 
 Into such ingratitude are we ever disposed to fall. In- 
 stead of cultivating cheerfulness at all times and in all 
 seasons, we too frequently lapse into moroseness and 
 melancholy. If, in place of allowing ourselves to be 
 disturbed by any state of the weather or of the country 
 around us, we kept steadily in view the various comforts 
 and enjoyments within our reach at every period of the 
 year, we should only be fulfilling an important duty ; and 
 we should also be on the surest way to attain that seren- 
 ity of mind which is its own reward. That habit of 
 cheerfulness would thus be formed, which constitutes no 
 small portion of the philosophy of daily life ; and cheer- 
 fulness, when once it becomes an habitual feeling, finds 
 food and nourishment in all scenes and seasons. As the 
 man who is keenly alive to the sublime and the beautiful 
 in Nature frequently finds the cherished feelings of his 
 soul ministered unto by objects that to other minds have 
 in them nothing to attract or enliven, so the cheerful 
 mind derives enjoyment from scenery the most unprom- 
 ising, and perceives, even in the desolation of winter, a 
 beauty and an expression of its own. 
 
 It has been said, that the bee extracts honey, and the 
 spider poison, from the same flower ; but, perhaps, with 
 greater truth may this be figuratively affirmed of men of 
 different dispositions, for, whatever be the condition of 
 
226 NO SEASON UNPLEASANT, ETC. 
 
 the fretful or the self-indulgent, the cheerful man finds 
 the prevailing feeling of his mind reflected back upon 
 him, as it were, from all the varied phenomena of the 
 seasons. He looks at Nature through a medium that has 
 to him all the effects of fabled enchantment. As the 
 eye of the painter or the poet is quick to discern, in ev- 
 ery landscape, the subtile elements of his creative art, so 
 does he, by a seeming intuition, by an almost uncon- 
 scious alchymy of the mind, select from the concomi- 
 tants of every passing season all that is fitted to compen- 
 sate his incidental privations, and to inspire that tempered 
 gladness which it is his object to attain. The winds of 
 winter may blow coldly over the ravaged earth, and be- 
 wail the departed glories of the year ; the mountains 
 may be hid from his eye in thickest clouds ; the fields 
 and groves may be verdureless and dead ; but these only 
 enhance the endearments of his home, and heighten his 
 gratitude for all the blessings congregated there. 
 
 I have already dwelt on the peculiar delights of the 
 domestic hearth at this season ; and I need not here re- 
 mark, that these can only be enjoyed in all their power, 
 by the bosom in which contentment and tranquillity reign. 
 The fine enjoyments of borne shun the stormy breast, 
 and take up their abode with him who is of a cheerful 
 temper, and who finds, in u all seasons and their change," 
 matter of gratitude and delight. Winter, " stern ruler 
 of the inverted year," may ravage the loved scenery 
 around his dwelling ; but, within his own breast, and in 
 his dear family circle, there reigns a summer of social 
 and domestic joy. The glories of the calm autumnal 
 day may have vanished ; but the sublimer glories of the 
 nocturnal heavens more frequently greet his enraptured 
 sight, brightly beaming through the clear frosty air. In 
 the deadness of Nature he sees her necessary repose be- 
 fore another spring ; the rain, the frost, and the snow, 
 are, in his regard, sent by the Almighty Father, to fer- 
 tilize the soil, and herald the bounty of another harvest. 
 
 Thus it is beneficently ordained, that the happy and 
 contented spirit should find, at all times, the means of 
 enjoyment. The great Framer of the human mind has 
 
PROOFS OF DIVINE BENEVOLENCE. 227 
 
 exquisitely adapted the external world to its various feel- 
 ings and powers ; and when these are in healthful action, 
 Nature, in her wintry as well as her vernal aspects, is 
 full of beauty and harmony. Though the flowery and 
 the fruitful seasons of the year may be over and gone, and 
 the blasts of winter howl among the desolate mountains, the 
 past is without regret, the present full of enjoyment, and 
 the future rich in hope. How should we then adore that 
 Divine goodness, which has given us power to enjoy the 
 seasons as they pass in grand succession before us ; and, 
 even among the sternest scenes of winter, to behold in 
 vision the luxuriant beauty of spring ! J. D. 
 
 NINTH WEEK SUNDAY. 
 
 PROOFS OF DIVINE BENEVOLENCE IN THE WORKS OF CREA- 
 TION. 
 
 "CONTRIVANCE proves design," argues Dr. Paley ; 
 " and the prominent tendency of the contrivance indi- 
 cates the disposition of the designer. The world abounds 
 with contrivances ; and all the contrivances we are ac- 
 quainted with, are directed to beneficial purposes. Evil, 
 no doubt, exists ; but it is never, that we can perceive, 
 the object of contrivance. Teeth are contrived to eat, 
 not to ache ; their aching now and then is incidental to 
 the contrivance, perhaps inseparable from it ; or even, 
 if you will, let it be called a defect in the contrivance ; 
 but it is not the object of it. This is a distinction that 
 well deserves being attended to. In describing im- 
 plements of husbandry, you would hardly say of a sickle, 
 that it is made to cut the reaper's fingers, though, from 
 the construction of the instrument, and the manner of 
 using it, this mischief often happens. But, if you had 
 occasion to describe instruments of torture or execution, 
 this, you would say, is to extend the sinews ; this to dis- 
 
228 PROOFS OF DIVINE BENEVOLENCE 
 
 locate the joints ; this to break the bones; this to scorch 
 the soles of the feet. Here pain and misery are the very 
 objects of the contrivance. Now, nothing of this sort is 
 to be found in the works of Nature. We never discover 
 a train of contrivance to bring about an evil purpose. 
 No anatomist ever discovered a system of organization 
 calculated to produce pain and disease ; or, in explain- 
 ing the parts of the human body, ever said, this is to ir- 
 ritate ; this is to inflame ; this duct is to convey the 
 gravel to the kidneys ; this gland to secrete the humor 
 which forms the gout. If, by chance, he come at a part 
 of which he knows not the use, the most he can say is, 
 that it is useless. No one ever suspects that it is put 
 there to incommode, to annoy, or torment. Since, then, 
 God hath called forth his consummate wisdom to con- 
 trive and provide for our happiness ; and the world ap- 
 pears to have been constituted with this design at first, so 
 long as this constitution is upheld by Him, we must, in 
 reason, suppose the same design to continue."* 
 
 This is a beautiful, and, in many respects, a just view 
 of the constitution of Nature, with reference to living be- 
 ings ; which, while it does not account for the origin of 
 evil, nor vindicate its existence, yet undeniably proves 
 benevolence in the great Creator. Had He been ma- 
 levolent, we should certainly have met with malevolent 
 contrivances ; had He been indifferent to good and evil, 
 we should not have so constantly found, in all the con- 
 trivances of Nature, a regard to happiness. Still, it must 
 never be forgotten, that the same Divine power, which 
 called such a world as ours into existence, might have 
 formed it free from both moral and natural evil ; and this 
 proves, beyond contradiction, that this wise and benevo- 
 lent Being did not admit the presence of evil, without a 
 wise and benevolent design, whatever that may be. Pa- 
 ley, in his eagerness to vindicate the Divine perfections, 
 seems sometimes to lose sight of that important truth, 
 and to argue as if evil were either an unavoidable inci- 
 dent of creation, or an effect of chance, both of which 
 are obviously untenable positions ; and, if such tendency 
 
 * Paley's Moral Philosophy, book ii. chap. 5. 
 
IN THE WORKS OF CREATION. 229 
 
 can be discovered in the argument quoted above, I am 
 not inclined to justify it. The fact that all the contriv- 
 ances of Nature are benevolent, so far as they go, is all 
 that I contend for. The existence of evil, notwithstand- 
 ing, is to be accounted for on another principle, the na- 
 ture of which we can only understand, as I have already 
 stated, by studying the book of Revelation. 
 
 Referring to the subject we were considering during 
 the last week, the migration of animals, there can be no 
 doubt, that the Creator, if He had so willed, might have 
 constituted their frames in such a manner as to render 
 winter as profuse of blessings to them, in their native 
 haunts, as summer, and thus have prevented the neces- 
 sity of the long journeys which some of them are impelled 
 to take ; that is to say, instead of contrivances to avoid or 
 mitigate evils, He could have removed the evils them- 
 selves altogether ; and, in their place, have bestowed 
 positive enjoyment. That He has not done so, is one 
 of those striking peculiarities in the Divine administra- 
 tion of which we can find no adequate solution in natural 
 appearances, and for explanation of which, we must refer 
 to another source. This view has already been stated ; 
 but, as it meets us at every turn, and qualifies all our rea- 
 sonings, it is necessary constantly to recur to it. 
 
 Taking the constitution of Nature as we find it, we 
 have abundant reason to perceive indications of goodness, 
 as well as of wisdom, in the migratory propensities which 
 the Creator has so wonderfully impressed on the winged 
 creation, as well as in those contrivances by which the 
 rigor of winter is softened to the various tribes who are 
 not furnished with this resource. Besides the views of 
 this subject already taken, there is another, which ought 
 not to be omitted. There is a pleasure attached by the 
 Author of our being to variety. I do not know whether 
 or not this pleasure is felt by the inferior creation ; but, 
 assuredly, it is a constituent feature of the human mind. 
 Now, observe one of the provisions made for the gratifi- 
 cation of this source of enjoyment, in the changes effect- 
 ed by the migratory habits of birds. The very same 
 swallows, which " twitter from the straw-built sheds" of 
 i. 20 vn. 
 
230 PROOFS OF DIVINE BENEVOLENCE 
 
 Britain, during the summer months, delight the swarthy 
 sons of Africa in winter, as they dart after their insect 
 prey, along the plains of that distant continent. The 
 same cuckoo, too, which stopped the little satchelled 
 urchin, on his way from school, in this civilized land, 
 that he might imitate the wellknown lay, startles the ear 
 of the young African savage, as he roams over his native 
 wilds. The birds of Norway, Sweden, and Iceland, 
 supply the blank made by the retiring of our summer resi- 
 dents ; while those which leave our shores in autumn for 
 the south, probably only occupy the regions left vacant 
 by the transit of the summer visitants of those countries 
 to still more southerly latitudes. Thus a constant inter- 
 change of the feathered tribes is kept up, to attract the 
 curiosity and gratify the love of variety implanted in the 
 heart of man ; while these interesting tenants of the air, 
 doubtless, fulfil another benevolent intention of their 
 Creator, by feeding on the insects which the warm cli- 
 mates so abundantly produce ; thus providing against their 
 increase to such undue extent as to destroy, or materially 
 to injure, animals of a higher grade, and disturb the beau- 
 tiful balance of Nature. 
 
 But, in regarding the provisions of the God of Nature 
 for the welfare of the animated creation during this com- 
 paratively dismal season, and tracing the hand of a be- 
 neficent Parent in the tender care which He manifests 
 for their subsistence and comfort, we can scarcely avoid 
 extending our thoughts further, and raising them higher. 
 The beautiful language of our Saviour, which affords so 
 just and so encouraging a view of the Universal Parent, 
 naturally occurs, in such a review, to the pious mind : 
 u Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither 
 do they reap, nor gather into barns ; yet your heavenly 
 Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than 
 they ?" Better, assuredly, in our moral and intellectual 
 powers, if only these be properly employed ; and the 
 sentiment points obviously to the higher destiny, to 
 which, as immortal beings, we are called, by Him who 
 brought life and immortality to light. 
 
 The migration of birds to fairer climes, when the 
 storms of winter gather, cannot, indeed, be said to fur- 
 
IN THE WORKS OF CREATION. 231 
 
 nish any analogy, on which we can build a solid argu- 
 ment for the existence of a future state ; but yet there is 
 something in the paternal feeling which it indicates, that, 
 at least, forcibly recalls the promised blessing to the mind, 
 and affords an agreeable illustration of the revealed truth. 
 We can fancy the bird, borne by a secret impulse 
 from the coming gloom and sterility of its native haunts, 
 winging its way over sea and land, looking down with 
 indifference on the placid expanse of the ocean, or rising 
 far above its stormy waves ; gliding, without the desire 
 of rest or food, over flowery plains and wide-spread 
 wastes, forests, lakes, and mountains ; fixing its eager 
 eye on the distant horizon ; still onward onward keep- 
 ing its steady course ; and giving no rest to its buoyant 
 wings, or at least none except what Nature loudly de- 
 mands, till it reaches the happy shore to which an unseen 
 hand was guiding it, and a voice, unheard by the out- 
 ward ear, was whispering all the while, " Behold the 
 place of your rest." All this, which every recurring 
 year realizes, we can paint to ourselves, and we can see, 
 in that wonderful flight, an emblem of the race of the 
 pious Christian, who seeks his rest in heaven. The 
 same unseen hand is guiding him from the storms of 
 earth, the same unheard voice communicates inwardly 
 with his conscious soul ; with a similar desire he burns ; 
 with a corresponding eagerness he pants ; but his view 
 is not bounded by a horizon of earth ; his hopes are far, 
 far beyond the regions of the sun : To the distant heav- 
 ens he directs his anxious gaze ; before him still he sees 
 a radiant track, and knows the footmarks of his crucified 
 Redeemer ; dim in the distant sky, a shining spot ap- 
 pears ; on that spot his anxious eye is fixed ; it bright- 
 ens and enlarges as he advances ; one struggle more ; 
 the ties which bound him to the world are broken ; 
 earth disappears ; he enters the portals of heaven ; he is 
 in the arms of his Saviour ; he is singing hosannahs with 
 angels and blessed spirits before the throne of God !* 
 
 * [This train of remark seems to have been suggested by Moore's 
 beautiful lines, beginning 
 
 " The bird let loose in Eastern skies." 
 At any rate it strongly reminds us of them. AM. ED.] 
 
232 MIGRATION OF FISHES. 
 
 NINTH WEEK MONDAY. 
 
 MIGRATION OF FISHES. 
 
 THERE is yet another class of migratory creatures, 
 which we take notice of here, although their annual jour- 
 neys are not so immediately connected with temperature, 
 and the means of subsistence, as those we have already 
 mentioned, and although these journeys do not properly 
 belong to this season of the year ; I allude to the inhabit- 
 ants of the seas. There is indeed one analogy, by which 
 these numerous classes are connected, in their change of 
 place, with the migratory animals of the land that of the 
 instinct by which they seek for a fit place for the repro- 
 duction of the species. That this, is at least one of the 
 laws which regulate the removals of birds and beasts, Dr. 
 Jenner has very distinctly and ingeniously proved.* To 
 whatever extent this may be the case with land animals, 
 there can be no doubt, that such a law has a most pow- 
 erful effect on those which glide through the waters of 
 the great deep. 
 
 Of migratory fishes, the sturgeon, and its gigantic con- 
 gener, the huso, are well known. This latter species is 
 only to be found in the Caspian and Black Seas, and the 
 rivers which flow into them. It enters the Don and 
 Volga, in vast shoals, about the middle of winter, where 
 it spawns, and then returns to its usual places of summer 
 resort. The prodigious fertility of this fish, may be 
 judged of by the circumstance, that its eggs equal nearly 
 a third of its whole weight ; and Pallas, who gives an in- 
 teresting account of the mode of fishing the huso, men- 
 tions one which weighed no less than 2800 Ibs. Of these 
 eggs the caviare is made, which is in great demand, as 
 an article of food, among the Russians and Turks, and 
 
 * In a paper, published after his death, in the Philosophical Trans 
 actions, for 1824. 
 
MIGRATION OF FISHES. 233 
 
 on which the Greeks are said almost entirely to subsist, 
 during their long fasts. 
 
 The codfish, the haddock, and the mackerel, are also 
 different species of migratory fishes. The former of 
 these, frequent shallows and sand-banks, between the forti- 
 eth and sixty-eighth degrees of north latitude, both in the 
 Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and is taken in immense 
 numbers, especially on the banks of Newfoundland. This 
 fish makes for the coast at spawning time, which takes 
 place about the end of winter. It is said by Leuwenhoek, 
 that there are more than nine millions of eggs in a cod- 
 fish of the middle size. What a bountiful provision for 
 the numerous tribes of the broad ocean, which exist by 
 devouring the fry, &c., as they rise to maturity ! 
 
 But, of all the inhabitants of the ocean, the herring is 
 the most valuable, as affording the greatest quantity both 
 of profitable employment and of food to man. Three 
 thousand decked vessels, of different sizes, besides smaller 
 boats, are stated to be employed in the herring fishery, 
 with a proportionable number of seamen, besides many 
 thousands of hands, who are, at certain seasons, employed 
 in curing them. Of this fish, Kirby gives the following 
 interesting account. 
 
 " The herring belongs to the tribe called abdominal 
 fishes, or those whose ventral fins are behind the pecto- 
 ral, and may be said to inhabit the Arctic Seas of Eu- 
 rope, Asia, and America, from whence they annually 
 migrate, at different times, in search of food, and to de- 
 posit their spawn. Their shoals consist of millions of 
 myriads, and are many leagues in width, many fathoms 
 in thickness, and so dense, that the fishes touch each 
 other ; they are preceded, at the interval of some days, 
 by insulated males. The largest and strongest are said 
 to lead the shoals, which seem to move in a certain order, 
 and to divide into bands as they proceed, visiting the 
 shores of various islands and countries, and enriching 
 their inhabitants. Their presence and progress are usu- 
 ally indicated by various sea birds, sharks, and other ene- 
 mies. One of the cartilaginous fishes, the sea ape,* is 
 
 * Chimsera monstrosa. 
 20* 
 
234 MIGRATION OF FISHES. 
 
 said to accompany them constantly, and is thence called 
 the king of the herrings. They throw off, also, a kind of 
 oily or slimy substance, which extends over their col- 
 umns, and is easily seen in calm weather. This substance, 
 in gloomy, still nights, exhibits a phosphoric light, as if 
 a cloth, a little luminous, were spread over the sea. 
 
 u Some conjecture may be made of the infinite num- 
 ber of these invaluable fishes, that are taken by European 
 nations, from what Lacepede relates, that, in Norway, 
 20,000,000 have been taken at a single fishing ; that 
 there are few years that they do not capture 400, 000,000 ; 
 and that, at Gottenburg, and its vicinity, 700,000,000 
 are annually taken. ' But what are these millions,' he 
 remarks, c to the incredible numbers that go to the share 
 of the English, Dutch, and other European nations ?' 
 
 c c Migrations of these fishes are stated to take place at 
 three different times ; the first, when the ice begins to 
 melt, which continues to the end of June ; then succeeds 
 that of summer, followed by the autumnal one, which lasts 
 till the middle of September. They seek places for 
 spawning, where stones and marine plants abound, against 
 which they rub themselves, alternately, on each side, all 
 the while moving their fins with great rapidity."* 
 
 The instincts and habits of the finny tribes are neces- 
 sarily less known than those of the inhabitants of the land, 
 where their motions are constantly under the eye of man ; 
 but all that we do know of them, proves that the same 
 wonder-working and beneficent Power, which watches 
 over, and so mysteriously guides, the living creation in 
 the regions of earth and air, extends His government and 
 His paternal care to the vast ocean ; adapting the various 
 natures of the creatures, with which He has so abundantly 
 peopled it, with consummate wisdom, to the element in 
 which they are destined to move ; providing for their 
 reproduction, their subsistence and their happiness, in a 
 manner analogous to, and yet different from, that of the 
 land tribes ; and both, in their analogy and their differ- 
 ence, exhibiting a skill transcending all adequate expres- 
 
 * Kirby's Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. pp. 113115. 
 
CETACEOUS ANIMALS. 235 
 
 sion, and filling the mind with astonishment and awe. ^ No 
 wonder that the Psalmist, even with his comparatively 
 limited knowledge, should express his admiration in this 
 glowing strain : " O Lord, how manifold are Thy works ! 
 in wisdom hast Thou made them all : The earth is full of 
 Thy riches. So is this great and wide sea, wherein are 
 things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. 
 There go the ships : there is that leviathan, whom Thou 
 hast made to play therein. These wait all upon Thee : 
 that Thou mayest give them their meat in due season." 
 
 NINTH WEEK TUESDAY. 
 
 CETACEOUS ANIMALS.* 
 
 OF the migratory inhabitants of the ocean, the most 
 remarkable is that class of which the whale is the chief. 
 As there are animals of a low grade, which, by their 
 structure and amphibious habits, seem intended, by the 
 Author of Nature, to form the link between the denizens 
 of the land and of the sea, so it has pleased Providence 
 to place at the top of the scale of creatures whose "home 
 is in the deep," a gigantic race, so nearly allied to the 
 inhabitants of the land, that many naturalists have denied 
 it the name of fish, and have bestowed on it the some- 
 what awkward appellation of " beast of the ocean." Ani- 
 mals of this genus resemble quadrupeds, indeed, as to 
 their structure, in many striking particulars. Like quad- 
 rupeds, they have lungs, a stomach, intestines, liver, 
 spleen, and bladder. Like quadrupeds, too, they have 
 a heart, with its partitions, driving warm and red blood 
 in circulation through the body ; they breathe the air ; 
 they are viviparous ; and they suckle their young. Their 
 
 * For a great part of this paper, I have to acknowledge my obligating 
 to Dr. Bushnan, the intelligent author of the * Introduction to the Study 
 of Nature.' 
 
236 CETACEOUS ANIMALS. 
 
 internal parts, which bear so close a resemblance to land 
 animals, are similarly protected from the cold, being 
 covered, like the hog, between the skin and the muscles, 
 with a thick coat of fat or blubber. It is this latter 
 property which renders them valuable to man, by whom 
 they are so pertinaciously hunted, that it is believed not 
 one of the largest species dies a natural death in our 
 northern seas, or arrives nearly at its natural size. 
 
 Notwithstanding their close .resemblance to quadru- 
 peds, however, in so many particulars, they are not less 
 closely connected with the families of the sea. They 
 are shaped as fishes ; they swim with fins ; they are en- 
 tirely destitute of hair ; they live wholly in the depths of 
 the ocean, qualities which, although the whale order is 
 justly ranked by naturalists among Mammalia, have pro- 
 cured for them, in ordinary language, that distinctive 
 name, by which we distinguish the finny tribes.* The 
 various species of this animal are the whale, and its 
 varieties, the cachalot, the dolphin, the grampus, and the 
 porpoise. 
 
 These cetaceous animals, as they require to breathe 
 the air, have holes at the top of their head, called spira- 
 cles, corresponding to the nostrils of land animals, which 
 they frequently raise above the surface of the water, and 
 through which the air finds access to the lungs. It is 
 through these orifices that the water-spouts of the whale 
 are ejected, accompanied with a noise, loud as a rushing 
 torrent, and rising sometimes to the height of forty feet. 
 These spouts, which have occasioned much discussion, 
 consist merely of expired air, and watery vapor, con- 
 densed by the cold of the atmosphere. 
 
 The whale is superior to all other warm-blooded ani- 
 mals, both from the extent of the domain, which he has 
 held uninterrupted from the beginning of time, and from 
 the enormous size to which he attains. f The hippopo- 
 
 * Goldsmith's Animated Nature. 
 
 t The whale is said to have been found, formerly, of the amazing 
 size of two hundred and even two hundred and thirty feet ; but it sel- 
 dom is permitted, in the present day, to escape the rapacity of man, af- 
 ter it has attained the length of seventy or eighty feet, except in the 
 South Seas, where it may still be occasionally taken of double that size. 
 
CETACEOUS ANIMALS. 237 
 
 tamus, the elephant, the crocodile, are pigmies to him ; 
 and, while they cower before the blast, he plays with the 
 storm-vexed ocean, mounts carelessly upon the giant 
 waves, lies like a cradled creature 'mid their dark and dis- 
 mal furrows, and, defying the power of the most tempest- 
 uous seas, sinks in security to the deep profound. The 
 strength of the whale, too, is prodigious. " A large 
 boat," says Martins, in his voyage to Spitzbergen, u he 
 valueth no more than dust ; for he can beat it to shivers 
 at a blow." The blows of the tail of the white shark, 
 when hauled upon the decks of a vessel, are so tremen- 
 dous, as to threaten destruction to all on board ; and, 
 while in the water, the basking shark, when harpooned, 
 has been known to tow a vessel of seventy tons' burden, 
 at a rapid rate, against a fresh gale, for a considerable 
 distance. 
 
 Against these mighty animals, man wages a war so ex- 
 terminating, as to have driven them from their ancient 
 haunts, to seek for safety in the more inaccessible parts 
 of the ocean : here, however, they are followed. The 
 object is to obtain the great quantity of oil which is found 
 in what is called their blubber. The quantity of this 
 oil, procured from the great northern whale, frequently 
 amounts to one twelfth of the weight of its enormous 
 carcass ; the tongue alone, which has been said to be 
 u about the size of a great feather-bed," often yielding 
 five or six barrels. Besides this mass of subcutaneous 
 fat, many cetaceous animals, as the bottle-nosed or sper- 
 maceti whale, have a second collection of a similar sub- 
 stance, except that it is of a purer quality, and firmer 
 consistence, in a large reservoir, often sixteen or eigh- 
 teen feet long, and wide in proportion, at the top of their 
 heads, near the spiracles or breathing-holes. This is the 
 spermaceti of commerce. 
 
 Here we have a strong illustration of the all-provident 
 care of the Almighty. The solid parts of the body of 
 these animals are heavier than water ; consequently, had 
 they not been provided with a sufficient supply of some 
 substance lighter than water, by which their tendency 
 to sink might be counteracted, it would have required a 
 
238 CETACEOUS ANIMALS. 
 
 constant effort, on their parts, to keep themselves at any 
 given level below the water ; and besides this, cetaceous 
 animals, unlike other fishes, require frequently to be 
 raised to the surface. It has, therefore, been wisely 
 provided, that, while the oil of the blubber serves to ren- 
 der the body, collectively, lighter than the water which 
 they inhabit, the spermaceti should render the top of the 
 head the most buoyant part of the body ; and, in this 
 way, it is kept above the surface, without any exertion. 
 
 We are indebted to Captain Scoresby for the following 
 interesting notices of the Greenland Whale Fisheries. 
 
 The first impulse of the whale, when harpooned, is to 
 plunge deep beneath the waves, going at the rate of eight 
 or ten miles an hour, and carrying the harpoon, to which 
 a long line is attached, still fixed in the wound. The 
 depth to which it sometimes plunges, is eight hundred 
 fathoms, and the pressure there sustained would, accord- 
 ing to this writer, be equal to 211,200 tons, a degree 
 of pressure, of which we have but an imperfect concep- 
 tion. " It may assist our comprehension, however, to be 
 informed, that it exceeds in weight sixty of the largest ships 
 of the British navy, when manned, provisioned, and fit- 
 ted for a six months' cruise." 
 
 " No sooner does the exhausted whale appear, than 
 the assisting boats make for the place, with the utmost 
 speed, and, as they reach it, each harpooner plunges his 
 harpoon into its back, to the amount of three, four, or 
 more, according to the size of the whale, and the nature 
 of the situation. Most frequently, it descends for a few 
 minutes after receiving the second harpoon, and obliges 
 the other boats to wait its return to the surface before 
 any further attack can be made. It is afterwards actively 
 plied with lances, which are thrust into its body, aiming 
 at its vitals. At length, when exhausted by numerous 
 wounds, and the loss of blood, which flows from the huge 
 animal in copious streams, it indicates the approach of 
 its dissolution, by discharging from its blow-holes a mix- 
 ture of blood, along with the air and mucus which it 
 usually breathes out, and finally, jets of blood alone. 
 The sea, to a great extent around, Is dyed with its blood, 
 
CETACEOUS ANIMALS. 239 
 
 and the ice, boats, and men, are sometimes drenched with 
 the same. Its final capture is, at times, preceded by a 
 convulsive and energetic struggle, in which its tail, reared, 
 whirled, and violently jerked in the air, resounds to the 
 distance of miles. " 
 
 This animal exhibits such warm affections for its mate 
 and its young, as to excite the strongest sympathy for its 
 fate, in the benevolent mind ; and this feeling is certainly 
 not diminished by the circumstance, that these very af- 
 fections are frequently made use of, by the heartless ava- 
 rice of man, to decoy it into his power. Captain Scores- 
 by mentions, that the cub is often attacked to lure the 
 mother, and, when this cruel plan is adopted, it generally 
 succeeds. " In June, 1811," says he, giving an exam- 
 ple, u one of my harpooners struck a sucker, with the 
 hope of its leading to the capture of its mother. Pres- 
 ently she arose close by the fast-boat, and, seizing the 
 young one, dragged about one hundred fathoms of line 
 out of the boat, with remarkable force and velocity. 
 Again she arose to the surface, darted furiously to and 
 fro, and frequently stopped short, or suddenly changed 
 her direction, and gave every possible intimation of ex- 
 treme agony. For a length of time, she continued thus 
 to act, though closely pursued by the boats ; and, in- 
 spired with courage and resolution, by her concern for 
 her offspring, seemed regardless of the danger that sur- 
 rounded her. At length one of the boats approached so 
 near, that a harpoon was hove at her ; it hit, but did not 
 attach itself. A second harpoon was struck ; this also 
 failed to penetrate ; but a third was more effectual, and 
 held. Still she did not attempt to escape, but allowed 
 other boats to approach ; so that, in a few minutes, three 
 more harpoons were fastened ; and, in the course of an 
 hour afterwards, she was killed." 
 
 There is something exceedingly interesting in the fact, 
 that, in these monsters of the ocean, the hand of the 
 Creator has placed the same kindly and disinterested af- 
 fections, which ennoble the most exalted of His creatures 
 who tread the solid land, and claim kindred with heaven. 
 
240 MIGRATION OF FISHES 
 
 NINTH WEEK WEDNESDAY. 
 
 MIGRATION OF FISHES FROM THE SEA INTO RIVERS. 
 
 WITH regard to the tenants of the ocean which peri- 
 odically find their way into the fresh water, for the pur- 
 pose of spawning, Mr. Kirby gives the following inter- 
 esting notices. 
 
 " The next tribe of migratory fishes is one whose sev- 
 eral species are intermediate between marine and fresh 
 water fishes, roving, indifferently, in the sea, and rivers, 
 and lakes, which thus is fitted, by Providence, to make 
 up to the inhabitants of inland countries, their distance 
 from the other migrators, by a supply, brought, as it 
 were, to their very doors. The fishes in question, be- 
 long, like the herrings, to the abdominal class, and form 
 the salmon genus, including the salmon, the salmon-trout, 
 the trout, the grayling, the char, the smelt, the hucho, 
 and many other species. I shall, however, confine my 
 observations principally to the king, as it may be called, 
 of the river migrators, the salmon. In our own coun- 
 try, this noble fish is too high priced to form a general 
 article of food, and may be reckoned among the luxuries 
 of the rich man's table ; but in others, especially amongst 
 some of the North-western American tribes, they are 
 gifts of Providence, which form their principal food at 
 all seasons. One of these tribes, which Sir George 
 Mackenzie fell in with, in his journey from Canada to 
 the Pacific, were perfect ichthyophagites, and would touch 
 
 no other animal food. 
 
 # # # # * 
 
 " The salmon, indeed, frequents every sea, the Arctic 
 as well as the equatorial; and it is found even in great 
 lakes and inland seas, as the Caspian, into which it is 
 even affirmed to make its way by a subterranean chan- 
 
FROM THE SEA INTO RIVERS. 241 
 
 nel from the Persian Gulf;* it goes as far south as New 
 Holland and the Australian seas ; but it is said never to 
 have been found in the Mediterranean, and appears to 
 have been unknown to Aristotle. Pliny mentions it as 
 a river fish, preferred to all marine ones by the inhabit- 
 ants of Gaul. It traverses the whole length of the larg- 
 est rivers. It reaches Bohemia by the Elbe, Switzer- 
 land by the Rhine, and the Cordilleras of America by 
 the mighty Maragnon, or river of the Amazons, whose 
 course is nearly 3000 miles. In temperate climates, the 
 salmon quit the seas early in spring, when the waves are 
 driven by a strong wind against the river currents. It 
 enters the rivers of France, in the beginning of the au- 
 tumn in September ; and in Kamtschatka and North 
 America still later. 
 
 " They rush into rivers that are freest from ice, or 
 where they are carried by the highest tide, favored by 
 the wind ; they prefer those streams that are most 
 shaded. They leave the sea in numerous bands, formed 
 with great regularity. The largest individual, which is 
 generally a female, takes the lead, and is followed by 
 others of the same sex, two and two, each pair being at 
 the distance of from three to six feet from the preceding 
 one ; next come the old, and after them the young males, 
 in the same order. 
 
 "The noise they make in their transit, heard from a 
 distance, sounds like a far-off storm. In the heat of the 
 sun, and in tempests, they keep near the bottom ; at 
 other times, they swim a little below the surface. In 
 fair weather, they move slowly, sporting as they go, at 
 the surface, and wandering again and again from their 
 direct route ; but, when alarmed, they dart forward, with 
 such rapidity, that the eye can scarcely follow them. 
 They employ only three months in ascending to the 
 sources of the Maragnon, the current of which is re- 
 markably rapid, which is at the rate of nearly forty 
 miles a day ; in a smooth stream, or lake, their progress 
 
 * It is somewhat surprising to see this ridiculous fable gravely men- 
 tioned, even as a report, by so judicious a naturalist as Mr. Kirby. 
 H. D. 
 
 I. 21 vii. 
 
242 MIGRATION OF FISHES 
 
 would increase in a fourfold ratio. Their tail is a very 
 powerful organ, and its muscles have wonderful energy ; 
 by placing it in their mouth, they make of it a very elas- 
 tic spring ; for, letting it go with violence, they raise 
 themselves in the air to the height of from twelve to fif- 
 teen feet, and so clear the cataract which impedes their 
 course ; if they fail in their first attempt, they continue 
 their efforts till they have accomplished it.* The fe- 
 male is said to hollow out a long and deep excavation in 
 the gravelly bed of the river, to receive her spawn, and, 
 when deposited, to cover it up ; but this admits of some 
 doubt. 
 
 " Among the migrations of fishes, I must not neglect 
 those, which take place in consequence of the water in 
 the ponds or pools that they inhabit being dried up. 
 Some of these are very extraordinary, and prove, that 
 when the Creator gave being to these animals, he fore- 
 saw the circumstances in which they would be placed, 
 and mercifully provided them with the means of escape 
 from dangers to which they would be necessarily ex- 
 posed. 
 
 u In very dry summers, the fishes, that inhabit the 
 above situations, are reduced often to the last extremi- 
 ties, and endeavor to relieve themselves, by plunging, 
 first their heads, and afterwards their whole bodies, in 
 the mud, to a considerable depth. * * * 
 
 " But others, when reduced to this extremity, desert 
 their native pool, and travel in search of another, that is 
 better supplied with water. This has long been known 
 of eels, which wind, by night, through the grass, in search 
 of water, when so circumstanced. Dr. Hancock, iu the 
 Zoological Journal, gives an account of a species of fish, 
 called, by the Indians, the flat-head hassar, and belong- 
 ing to a genusf of the family of the Siluridans, which is 
 instructed by its Creator, when the pools in which they 
 
 * If it be true that the salmon which frequents the waters of the Mar- 
 agnon can clear a cataract of fifteen feet in height, in the manner stated 
 by Mr. Kirby, it must be a much more powerful and active fish than the 
 species found in the British rivers. H. D. 
 
 t Doras. 
 
FROM THE SEA INTO RIVERS. 243 
 
 commonly reside, in very dry seasons, lose their water, 
 to take the resolution of marching by land, in search of 
 others in which the water is not evaporated. These fish, 
 which grow to the length of a foot, travel in large droves 
 with this view ; they move by night, and their motion is 
 said to be like that of the two-footed lizard.* A strong 
 serrated arm constitutes the first ray of its pectoral fin. 
 Using this as a kind of foot, it should seem, they push 
 themselves forward, by means of their elastic tail, moving 
 nearly as fast as a man will leisurely walk. The strong 
 plates which envelope their body, probably facilitate their 
 progress, in the same manner as those under the body of 
 serpents, which, in some degree, perform the office of 
 feet. It is affirmed, by the Indians, that they are furnished 
 with an internal supply of water, sufficient for their jour- 
 ney."! 
 
 * * * * 
 
 .Mr. Kirby mentions some other tribes of migrating 
 fishes ; and, among these, one found in Tranquebar, by 
 Daldorff, which not only creeps upon the shore, but even 
 climbs the fan-palm, in pursuit of certain crustaceans 
 which form its food. Its structure is admirably adapted 
 to this extraordinary instinct. The lobes of its gill- 
 covers are so divided and armed, as to be employed to- 
 gether or separately, as hands, for the suspension of the 
 animal, till, by unsheathing its dorsal and anal fins, 
 which at other times it folds up into the cavity of its 
 body, and, fixing them in the bark, it prepares to take 
 another step. 
 
 How curious are these contrivances, and how varied 
 the resources of the Author of Nature ! The instances 
 now mentioned, however, are, in reality, no more worthy 
 of attention than the instincts of those animals with which 
 we are most familiar. We are only more surprised and 
 impressed with them, on account of their peculiarity. 
 The hand of a wonder-working God is every where. 
 
 * Bipes. t Kirby's Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. pp. 116 122. 
 
244 MIGRATION OF EELS. 
 
 NINTH WEEK THURSDAY. 
 
 MIGRATION OF EELS. 
 
 THE following observations of Sir Humphrey Davy, 
 in his ' Salmonia,' on the migration of eels, are too 
 curious to be omitted. 
 
 " There are two migrations of eels, one /row, and the 
 other /o, the sea : the first, in spring and summer ; the 
 second, in autumn, or early in winter : the first, of very 
 small eels, which are sometimes not more than two, or 
 two and a half inches long; the second, of large eels, 
 which sometimes are three or four feet long, and weigh 
 from ten to fifteen, or even twenty pounds. There is 
 great reason to believe, that all eels found in fresh water 
 are the results of the first migration.* They appear, in 
 millions, in April and May, and sometimes continue to 
 rise as late even as July and the beginning of August. 
 I remember this was the case in Ireland, in 1823. It had 
 been a cold backward summer ; and when I was at Bal- 
 lyshannon, about the end of July, the mouth of the river, 
 which had been in flood all this month, under the fall, 
 was blackened by millions of little eels, about as long as 
 the finger, which were constantly urging their way up 
 the moist rocks by the side of the fall. Thousands died ; 
 but their bodies remaining moist, served as a ladder for 
 
 *Mr. Mudie,in his volume on the * Sea,' observes, that the brackish 
 water at the mouth of rivers is warmer, by two or three degrees, than 
 the water either in the sea itself, or in the river, a circumstance which 
 he accounts for, by the chemical action of the saline substances in the 
 sea on the fresh water. He supposes that eels and other kinds of fish, 
 resort to estuaries, on account of the warmth ; and he adds, that, " in 
 the case of the eel, this heat brings forward the spawn till it is ready 
 to be deposited in the manner in which it is done by the generality of 
 oviparous fishes:" and he considers this to be proved by the fact, 
 "that the young eels are observed ascending the rivers in great num- 
 bers, during the following season, while no young eel is, at the same 
 time, found either descending the stream, or crossing the river." 
 Mudie's Sea, p. 68. 
 
MIGRATION OF EELS. 245 
 
 others to make their way ; and I saw them ascending 
 even perpendicular stones, making their road through wet 
 moss, or adhering to some eels that had died in the at- 
 tempt. Such is the energy of these little animals, that 
 they continue to find their way, in immense numbers, to 
 Loch Erne. The same thing happened at the Fall of 
 Bann, and Loch Neagh is thus peopled with them. Even 
 the mighty Fall of SchafFhausen, does not prevent them 
 from making their way to the Lake of Constance, where 
 I have seen many very large eels. 
 
 " There are eels in the Lake of Neufchatel, which 
 communicates by a stream with the Rhine ; but there 
 are none in the Leman Lake, because the Rhone makes 
 a subterraneous fall below Geneva ; and though small 
 eels can pass by moss, or mount rocks, they cannot 
 penetrate limestone, or move against a rapid descending 
 current of water, passing, as it were, through a pipe. 
 Again, no eels mount the Danube from the Black Sea ; 
 and there are none found in the great extent of lakes, 
 swamps, and rivers, communicating with the Danube, 
 though some of these lakes and morasses are wonderfully 
 fitted for them ; and though they are found abundantly 
 in the same countries, in lakes and rivers connected with 
 the ocean and the Mediterranean ; yet, when brought 
 into confined water in the Danube, they fatten and thrive 
 there. 
 
 " As to the instinct which leads young eels to seek 
 fresh water, it is difficult to reason : probably they pre- 
 fer warmth; and, swimming at the surface, in the early 
 summer, find the lighter water warmer, and likewise con- 
 taining more insects, and so pursue the courses of fresh 
 water, as the waters from the land, at this season, become 
 warmer than those of the sea. Mr. Couch says, (Lin. 
 Trans., part 14, p. 70,) that the little eels, according 
 to his observation, are produced within reach of the tide, 
 and climb round falls to reach fresh water from the sea. 
 I have sometimes seen them, in spring, swimming in 
 immense shoals in the Atlantic, in Mount Bay, making 
 their way to the mouths of small brooks and rivers. 
 When the cold water from the autumnal floods begins to 
 21* 
 
246 MIGRATION OF EELS. 
 
 swell the rivers, this fish tries to return to the sea ; but 
 numbers of the smaller ones hide themselves during the 
 winter in the mud, and many of them form, as it were, 
 masses together. 
 
 u Various authors have recorded the migration of eels 
 in a singular way, such as Dr. Plot, who, in his History 
 of Staffordshire, says, that they pass in the night, across 
 meadows, from one pond to another ;* and Mr. Ander- 
 son (Trans. Royal Soc.) gives a distinct account of small 
 eels rising up the floodgates and posts of the waterworks 
 of the city of Norwich ; and they made their way to the 
 water above, though the boards were smooth planed, and 
 five or six feet perpendicular. He says, when they first 
 rose out of the water, upon the dry board, they rested a 
 little, which seemed to be till their slime was thrown out, 
 and sufficiently glutinous, and then they rose up the per- 
 pendicular ascent as if they had been moving on a plain 
 surface. There can, I think, be no doubt, that they are 
 assisted by their small scales, which, placed like those of 
 serpents, must facilitate their progressive motion. These 
 motions have been microscopically observed by Leuwen- 
 hoek, (Phil. Trans, vol. iv.) 
 
 " Eels migrate from the salt water, of different sizes ; 
 but, I believe, never, when they are above afoot long, 
 and the great mass of them are only from two and a half 
 to four inches. They feed, grow, and fatten, in fresh 
 water. In small rivers, they are seldom very large ; but 
 in large deep lakes, they become as thick as a man's arm, 
 or even leg ; and all those of a considerable size, attempt 
 to return to the sea.,in October or November. Those 
 that are not of the largest size, pass the winter in the 
 deepest parts of the mud of rivers and lakes, and do not 
 seem to eat much, and remain, I believe, almost torpid. 
 
 * There can be no doubt that eels occasionally leave the water for 
 the land. Mr. Jesse, who is an accurate inquirer, says, " Eels certainly 
 come upon grass lands, to feed at night upon worms and snails. In the 
 meadows at Barford, in Warwickshire, they have been cut in two by 
 the mowers, and an old keeper there, assured a friend of mine, that he 
 had frequently intercepted them, on their way back to the river, early 
 in the morning. Their movements on land were very quick." Jesse's 
 Gleanings, 3d series, p. 68. 
 
MIGRATION OF EELS. 247 
 
 Their increase is certainly not known in any given time, 
 but must depend on the quantity of their food ; but it is 
 probable that they do not become of the largest size, from 
 the smallest, in one or even two seasons. As very large 
 eels, after having migrated, never return to the river again, 
 they must (for it cannot be supposed that they all die im- 
 mediately in the sea) remain in salt water ; and there is 
 great probability that they are then confounded with the 
 conger, which is found of different colors and sizes, from 
 the smallest to the largest, from a few ounces to one 
 hundred pounds weight." 
 
 I shall conclude this paper, with some observations of 
 Mr. Jesse, [in his ' Gleanings,'] on the hybernation of 
 eels. " That eels hybernate during the cold months, 
 there can, I think, be little doubt, few or none being 
 caught, at that time. I have endeavored also, but with- 
 out success, to procure eels in the winter, from those 
 places in the river Thames, where, I have every reason 
 to believe, they go to spawn. I read an account which, 
 if correct, would serve to prove what I have now stated. 
 A boy at Arthurstown, in the county of Wexford, per- 
 ceived something of a very unusual appearance floundering 
 upon the sand at low water. Upon a nearer approach 
 he found it to be a quart bottle, which showed many 
 symptoms of animation. He seized it, and brought it in. 
 It was found to contain an eel so much thicker than the 
 neck of the bottle, that it must be supposed the eel made 
 its lodgement there, when it was younger, and of course 
 smaller. It was necessary to break the bottle for the 
 purpose of liberating the fish. 
 
 " If this account be true, it goes to prove, in a curious 
 way, as far as one instance can do so, the propensity 
 which eels have to hybernate, during the cold months. 
 It also seems to prove, that they do this in the tide-way 
 if they can, and that they neither feed nor deposit their 
 spawn till the season of hybernation is over. It is, in- 
 deed, a general opinion among old fishermen that eels can- 
 not bear cold."* 
 
 * [If Mr. Jesse had ever been in Boston, during the winter, he could 
 have entertained no doubt regarding the hybernation of eels, and could 
 
248 NEW-YEAR'S DAY. 
 
 NINTH WEEK FRIDAY. 
 NEW-YEAR'S DAY. 
 
 IT is said to be the custom, in some nations, to mourn 
 at the birth of a child, because of the anticipated evils 
 which it is destined to endure in this vale of tears. This 
 is, doubtless, to form a false estimate of human life, in 
 which, on the average, pleasure far predominates over 
 pain ; and surely the contrary custom of rejoicing when 
 another rational and immortal creature is brought into ex- 
 istence, is much more justifiable. But I am not certain 
 that the same principle will apply to the birth of a new 
 year. There are so many recollections of past delin- 
 quencies and omissions, and of losses that can never be 
 repaired, to unite with anticipations of the future ; so 
 much to regret as well as to fear; that the thoughtless 
 levity with which this first day of another annual cycle is 
 generally ushered in, seems to be altogether misplaced. 
 We should certainly do what is at once more reasonable 
 and more edifying, were we to spend the first hours of a 
 new year in solemn meditation, both on the year which 
 has fleeted away, and on that which has just commenced. 
 
 But, in such an exercise, while there is cause of self- 
 accusation and of sorrow, there is also ground for grati- 
 tude, for hope, and for enjoyment. The protecting care 
 of an overruling Providence, is a fruitful source of these 
 feelings, whether we regard external Nature, or reflect 
 
 have seen as many of them caught, as he pleased. They lie at that time 
 in great numbers, and, no doubt, in a torpid state, imbedded in the mud 
 of our flats, or shallow waters, near the shores. Quite an animated 
 scene is often presented by companies of eel-fishers, who cut holes in 
 the ice over these retreats, through which they busily spear their prey, 
 with an instrument of several barbed prongs, having a long wooden 
 handle. When the eels are brought up on the ice, they move about 
 uneasily, but not so briskly, by any means, as they would in warmer 
 weather. AM. ED.] 
 
NEW-YEAR'S DAY. 249 
 
 on our own individual experience of the guidance and 
 protection of a Father's unseen hand. 
 
 When Nature lies clothed in the cold and cheerless 
 mantle of winter, all seems dreary, and desolate, and 
 hopeless. She is, however, only in a state of repose. 
 Rest was necessary to recruit her exhausted strength. 
 But, during her repose, the hand of Him who " slumber- 
 eth not," has been working in secret. The germs of fu- 
 ture plants and flowers have been wonderfully preserved : 
 insects, reptiles, birds, and beasts, have all partaken of a 
 Father's care ; and His rational creatures have been ena- 
 bled, by employing the higher powers with which He has 
 gifted them, to provide for the supply of their more nu- 
 merous necessities and comforts. 
 
 And now,a new scene appears. The sun has changed 
 his course, and begins again to take a wider course in the 
 heavens. Soon his warmth, and glory, and genial influ- 
 ence will return. Nature will burst anew into life, and 
 beauty, and joy. The husbandman will once more ply 
 his labors, while hope cheers his toil ; and, all around, 
 the cattle crop the tender herbage as it rises, and the 
 bleating lambs play amidst the flocks scattered over the 
 neighboring hills ; and 
 
 The lark, high poised, 
 Makes heaven's blue concave vocal with his lay. 
 
 As the year advances, summer will again smile, and 
 will cast from her green lap a profusion of flowers ; and, 
 when she has fulfilled her course, autumn will return 
 crowned with plenty. Last of all, amidst a thousand 
 varied and most bountiful preparations for the sustenance 
 of animal and vegetable life, during the rigors of an 
 ungenial sky, winter will arrive, and once more prepare 
 the earth, by a night of rest, for the labors of the coming 
 year. 
 
 These wonders of Divine providence need only to be 
 mentioned, to show with what consummate skill and 
 goodness God accommodates the seasons to the comfort, 
 the convenience, and the happiness of every thing that 
 lives, and especially of the human family. While the 
 
250 
 
 labor, to which man is doomed, strengthens his bodily 
 powers, and rouses, exercises, and sharpens his mental 
 Faculties, the changes, which are continually taking place, 
 are highly conducive to his improvement and happiness. 
 Sameness deadens curiosity, and satiates enjoyment. 
 We are so constituted, as to require constant vicissitudes 
 for stimulating the mind, and giving relish to our exer- 
 cises ; and in each season of the year we find employ- 
 ments suitable to our faculties, and calculated to afford 
 them agreeable and useful occupation. Even in winter, 
 cold and comfortless as it appears, how much do we find 
 to make us both happier and better. The family circle, 
 collected in the long evenings round the cheerful winter 
 fire, feel those affections warmed, which soften the heart 
 without enfeebling it, and those domestic endearments 
 increased by exercise, without, which life is scarcely de- 
 sirable ; while the soul, enlightened and enlarged, is bet- 
 ter prepared to receive impressions of religion, to love 
 Him who first loved us, and, rising to more exalted 
 views, to aspire after the society of the just made perfect, 
 in the world of spirits. 
 
 The paternal care of the Supreme Being, thus strongly 
 impressed on the mind, by contemplating the traces of 
 His beneficence, which are every where conspicuous in 
 the seasons as they revolve, are calculated to reassure 
 the mind, in looking forward to that great change, of the 
 approach of which we are forcibly reminded by the pass- 
 ing away of another year, of the short and uncertain pe- 
 riod allotted us on earth. We, too, have our spring, 
 our summer, our autumn, and our winter. Will another 
 spring dawn on the winter of the grave ? To the en- 
 couraging answer which Revelation gives to this impor- 
 tant question, is added our experience of the operations 
 of the God of the Seasons. Under His administration, 
 nothing perishes, though every thing changes. The 
 flowers die but to live again. In the animal world, many 
 species sleep out the winter, to awake again in a new 
 season. Nature itself expires and revives ; even while 
 she lies prostrate and rigid, an Almighty hand preserves 
 the germs of future life, that she may once more start 
 
NEW-YEAR'S DAY. 251 
 
 from the grave, and run a new round of beauty, anima- 
 tion, and enjoyment. Is there not hope, then, -for the 
 human soul ? Shall not the same paternal goodness watch 
 over it in its seeming extinction, and cause it to survive 
 the winter of death ? Yes, there is hope here, but there 
 is no assurance. It is from the word of inspiration alone 
 that the assurance of immortality springs. That book of 
 unerring truth informs us, that, after our mortal winter, 
 there comes a spring of unfading beauty and eternal joy, 
 where no cold chills, and no heat scorches ; where there 
 is bloom without decay, and a sky without a cloud. 
 
 But let it never be forgotten, that the prospect which 
 lies before us is not all bright and smiling. The same 
 book of truth which reveals to us our immortal nature, 
 informs us, also, that, in the unseen world to which we 
 are travelling, there is a state of misery as well as a state 
 of blessedness ; that we are now, step by step, ap- 
 proaching the one or the other of these states ; and that 
 each successive year, as it passes over our heads, instead 
 of leading us upward to the unchanging glories which 
 belong to the children of God, may be only conducting 
 us downward, on that road which " leadeth to destruc- 
 tion.' 7 
 
 This is inexpressibly dreadful ! And when we think 
 of our own character and qualifications, we shall find 
 nothing calculated to allay our terrors. If, from the ele- 
 vated spot on which we now stand, at the commence- 
 ment of a new stage of our journey, we look back on 
 the scenes through which we have passed, and reflect 
 on the transactions in which we have been engaged, 
 what shall we discover that can recommend us to Him 
 " who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity ?" If, 
 again, we look forward, what a scene of turmoil and 
 disorder, temptation and danger, do we descry in a world 
 lying in wickedness ! When we think of the weakness 
 of our own hearts, and of the enemies we have to en- 
 counter so numerous and so formidable we cannot 
 fail to be appalled, and to experience the same kind of 
 misgiving which led an apostle to exclaim, "Who is 
 sufficient for these things !" 
 
252 NEW-YEAR'S DAY. 
 
 But when, in the exercise of faith, we turn to the 
 Gospel, a more blessed view opens to us ; for it is full 
 of the most encouraging promises to those who will ac- 
 cept of them. It tells us of "the Lord God merciful 
 and gracious, long suffering and slow to anger, abundant 
 in loving kindness and tender mercy ;" and, in proof of 
 this character, it reminds us of the impartial manner in 
 which the Creator employs inanimate nature for the good 
 of His creatures, "making His sun to rise on the evil 
 and on the good, and sending rain on the just and on the un- 
 just ;" it reminds us, also, of the parental affection with 
 which His own exuberant bounty has inspired the animal 
 creation, and, taking an example from the inferior tribes, 
 it beautifully declares, that "as an eagle stirreth up her 
 nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her 
 wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings," so He 
 watches over His rational offspring, delighting to lead, 
 instruct, and bless them. Rising still higher, it reminds 
 us of the tenderness He has infused into the mind of 
 earthly parents, and says, " If you being evil, know how 
 to give good gifts unto your children, how much more 
 shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to 
 them that ask Him." Nay, it represents the Eternal as 
 condescending to compare his regard for his people, 
 with that of a fond mother for the infant smiling upon her 
 knee, "Can a mother forget her sucking child, that she 
 should not have compassion on the son of her womb ? 
 yea, she may forget ; yet will I not forget thee." It does 
 much more ; it reveals to us the wonders of redeeming 
 love, presenting to our view the Son of the Eternal 
 humbling himself for our sakes, to assume the form of 
 a servant; becoming a man of sorrows; submitting to 
 ignominy, torture, and death ; and then it crowns all, by 
 making this unanswerable appeal, " If God spared not 
 His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall 
 He not, with Him, also freely give us all things !" 
 
 Such is the unspeakable encouragement which the 
 Christian derives from the Gospel of his Divine Master. 
 And shall we not " work out our own salvation, seeing 
 it is God who worketh in us both to will and to do of 
 
MIGRATION OF THE LAND-CRAB. 253 
 
 his good pleasure ?" In this mighty task, we cannot in- 
 deed avoid being affected with " fear and trembling," 
 when we reflect on what we have at stake ; but we have 
 also every thing to hope, for He who is for us, is great- 
 er than all that can be against us ; and the value of the 
 prize which is set before us is inestimable. 
 
 NINTH WEEK SATURDAY. 
 
 MIGRATION OF THE LAND-CRAB. 
 
 As I do not intend to resume, in any other part of this 
 work, the subject of migration, I shall now notice one 
 other migratory animal, which deserts its usual haunts 
 for the purpose of finding an appropriate spot for deposit- 
 ing its eggs, and whose instinct, in this respect, is pecu- 
 liarly remarkable. I allude to the land-crab. It is 
 noticed by Kirby, but I shall chiefly follow the account 
 given in c Goldsmith's Animated Nature,' which con- 
 tains most of the particulars known of this extraordinary 
 little animal, and from which the description of it, both 
 in the work already mentioned, and in the Edinburgh 
 Encyclopedia, seems to be principally drawn. 
 
 The crab is of the same kind with the lobster, which 
 in many particulars it resembles. The residence of the 
 greater part of the species is in the waters ; but that 
 which I am now about to present to my readers, is en- 
 tirely an inhabitant of the land, being found chiefly among 
 the mountainous ranges of the Caribbee Islands ; and 
 although it has gills like a fish, it speedily perishes when 
 submerged. There is one occasion, however, and only 
 one, when it seeks the seacoast, and seems to prove, 
 not only by its form, but by its habits, its affinity to its 
 congeners of the ocean ; and that is, when it is about to 
 wash off or deposit its eggs. It would seem that the eggs 
 of this creature, which bear a remarkable resemblance to 
 i. 22 vn. 
 
254 MIGRATION OF THE LAND-CRAB. 
 
 the spawn of fish, require to be hatched in the sea. The 
 crab is warned of this by its instinct ; and, though its 
 usual residence is in mountainous districts, at a consid- 
 erable distance from the shore, where it lives on roots 
 and vegetables, and where its habits are exceedingly re- 
 tired, it undertakes a tedious and perilous journey, in 
 obedience to the first law of its nature. The form of 
 this animal is little fitted for travelling. It is thus graphi- 
 cally described by Goldsmith: " The violet-crab some- 
 what resembles two hands, cut through the middle, and 
 joined together ; for each side looks like four fingers, and 
 the two nippers or claws resemble the thumbs. All the 
 rest of the body is covered with a shell as large as a 
 man's hand, and bunched in the middle, on the fore-part 
 of which there are two long eyes, of the size of a grain 
 of barley, as transparent as crystal, and as hard as horn. 
 A little below these, is the mouth, covered with a sort 
 of barbs, under which there are two broad sharp teeth, 
 as white as snow. They are not placed, as in other ani- 
 mals, cross ways, but in an opposite direction, not much 
 unlike the blades of a pair of scissors. With these teeth 
 they can easily cut leaves, fruits, and rotten wood, which 
 is their usual food. But their principal instrument for 
 cutting and seizing their food, is their nippers, which 
 catch such a hold, that the animal loses the limb sooner 
 than its grasp, and is often seen scampering off, having 
 left its claw still holding fast upon its enemy. 7 '* 
 
 * [The description given above, of the form of the land-crab, is not 
 of much value ; for Goldsmith, though an elegant writer both of poetry 
 and prose, was no naturalist. It is sufficient to say, for the information 
 of general readers, that the land-crab (GECARCINUS) resembles the sea- 
 crab, except that its body or carapace is remarkably full and rounded. 
 The writer of this note saw thousands of them in Cuba, and is this mo- 
 ment writing, with one of them, a dried specimen, before him. This 
 is a large individual, of a uniform pale ash color. The main facts which 
 may be relied on, in the history of this curious genus, are given in the 
 following brief summary by Latreille. 
 
 " The crabs pass the greatest part of their life on land, hiding them- 
 selves in holes, and not coming forth till evening. Some keep about 
 cemeteries. Once a year, when they would lay their eggs, they assem- 
 ble in numerous bands, and move in the shortest direction to the sea, 
 without caring for any obstacles. After they have finished their deposit, 
 they return much weakened. It is said that they block up their bur- 
 
MIGRATION OF THE LAND-CRAB. 255 
 
 Such is the creature whose extraordinary instinct we 
 are about to describe. Among the mountains, they live 
 in a kind of orderly community, usually burrowing in the 
 earth, in the midst of inaccessible retreats. They choose 
 the month of April or May to begin their expedition, 
 and then sally out by thousands from the stumps of hol- 
 low trees, from the clefts of the rocks, and from the 
 holes which they dig for themselves under the surface of 
 the ground. The procession sets forward with the regu- 
 larity of a well-disciplined army. They are commonly 
 divided into three battalions, of which the first consists 
 of the strongest and boldest males, that, like pioneers, 
 march forward to clear the route, and face the greatest 
 dangers. The main body of the army is composed of 
 females, which never leave the mountains till the rain is 
 set in for some time, and these descend in regular array, 
 being formed into columns sometimes of fifty paces broad, 
 and three miles long, and so close that there is no set- 
 ting down one's foot, without treading on some of them. 
 Three or four days after this, the rear-guard follows, a 
 straggling undisciplined tribe, consisting of males and fe- 
 males, neither so robust nor so numerous as the former. 
 The sea being the place of their destination, to that they 
 direct their march, with right-lined precision, turning 
 neither to the right hand nor the left, except compelled 
 by absolute necessity, and attempting even to scale the 
 walls of houses which may be in their way, rather than 
 be diverted from their direct course. u At this sea- 
 son," says Mr. Barclay, speaking of what happens in 
 Jamaica, in a paper published in the New Edinburgh 
 Philosophical Journal, " it is impossible to keep them 
 out of the houses, or even out of the bedrooms, where, 
 at one time scratching with their large claws, and at 
 another rattling across the floor, they make a noise that 
 would not a little astonish and alarm a stranger." The 
 night is their chief time of proceeding ; but, if it rains by 
 
 rows during their moult ; and their flesh is then much esteemed, al- 
 though it is sometimes poisonous. This quality is attributed to the 
 fruit of the manchineel, of which the people think, falsely perhaps, that 
 the crabs have eaten." AM. ED.] 
 
256 MIGRATION OF THE LAND-CRAB. 
 
 day, they do not fail to profit by the occasion, continuing 
 to move forward in their slow uniform manner. When 
 the sun shines, and is hot on the surface of the ground, 
 they make a universal halt, and wait till the cool of the 
 evening. When terrified, they move back in a confused 
 disorderly manner, holding up their nippers as a weapon 
 of offence, and clattering them together, as if to threaten 
 with vengeance those who disturb them. It is remarka- 
 ble, that if any of them get maimed on their journey, 
 and unable to proceed, instead of leaving them to fall a 
 prey to their enemies, their companions fall upon them, 
 and tear them to pieces ; and, although not naturally 
 carnivorous animals, they are said to devour them on 
 the spot. 
 
 After escaping a thousand dangers, in the course of a 
 march, which sometimes occupies three months, they at 
 last arrive at the shore, and prepare to cast their spawn. 
 The eggs are still within their bodies, not being as yet 
 excluded, as is usual in animals of this kind, into a re- 
 ceptacle under their tail. But no sooner does the crab 
 reach the shore, than it eagerly goes to the edge of the 
 water, and lets the waves wash over its body two or three 
 times. This seems to be a necessary preparation for bring- 
 ing the spawn to maturity ; and without further delay, 
 it withdraws to seek a lodging on land. The spawn now 
 grows rapidly larger, is excluded from the body, and 
 sticks to the barbs under the flaps of the tail. This bunch 
 is seen as big as a hen's egg, and exactly resembling 
 the roes of herrings. In this state, the crabs once more 
 seek the shore ; and shaking off the spawn into the water, 
 leave it to be hatched by the united influence of the sea 
 and a tropical sun, and immediately begin their retreat 
 to the mountains, which, however, their exhausted state 
 often prevents them from ever again being able to reach, 
 especially as they are said to moult or cast their shells by 
 the way. It has been stated that whole shoals of hungry 
 fish are, at this time, watching the shore, in expectation 
 of the annual supply which Providence has thus provided 
 for them. However this may be, millions escape the 
 rapacity of these enemies ; and, soon after, an immense 
 
MIGRATION OF THE LAND-CRAB. 257 
 
 tribe of little crabs is seen quitting the shore, and slowly 
 travelling up to the mountains. Mr. Barclay, in the pa- 
 per already alluded to, gives a striking description of a 
 migration of these singular animals, which he himself 
 witnessed in Jamaica, but which he seems to consider as 
 altogether unusual in that island, at least to the extent 
 which he details. "On descending Quahill," says this 
 gentleman, "from the vale of Plaintain-garden River, the 
 road appeared of a reddish color, as if strewed with 
 brick-dust. I dismounted from my horse to examine the 
 cause of so unusual an appearance, and was not a little 
 astonished to find that it was owing to myriads of young 
 black crabs,* about the size of the nail of a man's finger, 
 crossing the road, and moving, at a pretty pace, direct 
 for the mountains. I was concerned to think of the de- 
 struction I was causing in travelling through such a body 
 of useful creatures, as I fancied that, every time my horse 
 put down a foot, it was the loss of at least ten lives. I 
 rode along the coast, a distance of at least fifteen miles, 
 and found it nearly the same the whole way, only that, in 
 some places, they were more numerous, in others less 
 so. Returning the following day, I found the road still 
 covered with them, the same as the day before. "f It is 
 worthy of remark, that this prodigious multitude of young 
 ones, were moving from a rock-bound shore, formed by 
 inaccessible cliffs, the abode of seabirds, and against 
 which the waves of the sea were constantly dashed by the 
 trade-wind blowing directly upon them. That the old 
 crabs should be able to deposit their eggs in such a part 
 of the coast, (if that, as would appear, is the habit of the 
 animal,) is not a little extraordinary. 
 
 The whole of this well-authenticated history is so full 
 
 * This % is the same species as that above described, which is called 
 by Goldsmith the violet crab. 
 
 t Mr. Barclay expresses the utmost surprise at this phenomenon, 
 which he declares to be altogether unprecedented ; but if it be true that 
 the young as well as old crabs, usually burrow through the day, and 
 travel only by night, this may partly account for the appearance not 
 being familiar to the inhabitants. On the present occasion, some pecu- 
 liar state of the atmosphere may perhaps have led the animal to devi- 
 ate from its usual instinct. 
 22* 
 
258 WINTER AN EMBLEM OF DEATH. 
 
 of wonder and instruction, that, did space admit, I should 
 be tempted to express the feelings to which it naturally 
 gives rise ; but the conclusions which may be drawn 
 from it, in favor of Creative Intelligence, are too obvious 
 to require comment, and may be safely left to the reflec- 
 tions of the reader. The delicate food which is thus 
 thrown, as if by the immediate hand of Providence, in 
 the way both of the inhabitants of the land and sea, will 
 not escape observation.* 
 
 TENTH WEEK SUNDAY. 
 
 WINTER AN EMBLEM OF DEATH. 
 
 THE seasons of the year have been aptly compared to 
 the various stages in the life of man. Spring, when Na- 
 ture bursts into new life, and with such grace spreads 
 out its growing charms, amidst alternate smiles and tears, 
 beautifully shadows forth the period of infancy and 
 youth ; summer, with its full-blown beauties, and its vig- 
 orous powers, represents the maturity of manhood ; au- 
 tumn, when the golden harvests are reaped, and the fields 
 are stripped of their honors, and exhausted Nature begins 
 to droop, is a striking figure of the finished labors, the 
 gray hairs, and the advancing feebleness of old age ; 
 while winter, cold, desolate, and lifeless, indicates, with 
 an accuracy not more remarkable than it is affecting, the 
 rigid features and prostrate energies of the human frame 
 in death. 
 
 The close of the year which has just taken place, and 
 the gloom which still continues, seems peculiarly calcu- 
 lated to remind us of human decay. The vital powers 
 
 * Mr. Barclay says that he has seen several thousand crabs caught 
 in one night by the Negroes, for sale or home consumption ; and he 
 adds, that they are one of the greatest delicacies in the West Indies. 
 
WINTER AN EMBLEM OF DEATH. 259 
 
 which produced and sustained vegetation are withdrawn ; 
 the forests are leafless ; hill and dale mourn their faded 
 verdure ; and cheerless desolation reigns. Recollections 
 of the past, and anticipations of the future, oppress the 
 sensitive mind. Let us turn our thoughts, then, on the 
 congenial subject of death : it is the common lot of every 
 thing that lives. From the microscopic insect to man, 
 all must die. Each has its spring, its summer, and its 
 autumn ; each, also, has its winter. With some, life is 
 literally but a single day, or less, a few hours perhaps ; 
 others survive even the period of human existence ; 
 but the various stages of life belong to the ephemeron, 
 as well as to the elephant ; and the former fulfils the end 
 of its being, as well as the latter ; while the hours of the 
 one are perhaps equally pregnant with incidents, as the 
 years of the other. 
 
 Death is gloomy and revolting, if we look only at its 
 externals. Who, that has seen a lifeless corpse, has been 
 able to remain unmoved, by the affecting contrast to its 
 former self, which it exhibited ? The closed and sunk- 
 en eye, which erewhile beamed with intelligence, or spark- 
 led with delight ; the motionless lips, which gave utter- 
 ance to sentiments of wisdom and of piety, or, it may be, 
 of reckless folly and unblushing falsehood ; the heart 
 which beat with feeling, and the head which meditated, 
 planned, and formed conclusions, what are they now ? 
 A heap of lifeless clay, a mass of corruption, food for 
 worms ! 
 
 But, when we look deeper, and regard death with the 
 eye of reason and religion, it assumes a very different 
 aspect. The body is but the house of the soul. The 
 feeble tenement has fallen into decay, and its living inmate 
 has removed. It is but the covering in which the chrys- 
 alis was confined ; the time of its change has arrived, and 
 it has burst its shell, to expatiate in a new life ; or rather 
 it is the instrument with which an intelligent being per- 
 formed its work : the task is finished ; the instrument 
 is worn out, and cast away ; the artificer has gone to 
 other labors. 
 
 Such is the conclusion of reason ; and the analogy of 
 
260 WINTER AN EMBLEM OF DEATH. 
 
 Nature gives countenance to the view. Nothing is anni- 
 hilated. Every thing, indeed, organized matter above 
 all, grows old, corrupts, and decays; but it does not 
 cease to exist, it only changes its form. The herbs, the 
 flowers, and the leafy pride of spring and summer, with- 
 er, fall, and are mingled with their parent earth ; but from 
 their mouldering remains, elements are furnished which 
 clothe a new year with vegetable life, as fresh, and abun- 
 dant, and lovely as before. Nature is not dead, but 
 sleepeth. The seeds, roots, and buds of the year that are 
 past, are preserved, through the rigors of winter, with 
 admirable care, till the voice of a new spring calls them 
 once more into life, that the seasons may again run their 
 course, and autumn may again spread her liberal feast. 
 Neither does the soul perish. It has "shuffled off its 
 mortal coil," but it has not ceased to live. This is a 
 conclusion at which we eagerly arrive. 
 
 What, then, has become of this ethereal spark ? Rea- 
 son cannot tell ; but conjecture has been rife. Some 
 have imagined, that the disembodied spirit passes into 
 other bodies, and runs a new course of birth, life, and 
 death, in new forms ; that all living things, from the low- 
 est to the highest grade, are possessed of souls, which 
 either have animated, or may yet animate, human frames ; 
 and that a constant change from species to species, and 
 from individual to individual, is taking place, regulated, 
 in some mysterious way, by the law of retribution. This 
 ingenious fancy, which has been called the doctrine of 
 metempsychosis or transmigration, has been widely dis- 
 seminated through the extensive regions of the East, and 
 has given a very peculiar mould to the practices, and even 
 to the moral character, of those who receive it. 
 
 A prouder and more metaphysical philosophy, which 
 prevails in the same quarter of the world, has offered 
 another solution of the question. All life, it is said by 
 the followers of this sect, is but an emanation from the 
 great fountain of existence, a drop from the universal 
 ocean of life. Death comes, and the emanation is ab- 
 sorbed ; the drop returns to the ocean, and mingles, un- 
 distinguished, with its parent element. 
 
WINTER AN EMBLEM OF DEATH. 261 
 
 Another doctrine, well known, because associated with 
 all our classical recollections, is that of Greece and Rome; 
 which assigns to souls a separate state of existence in the 
 infernal regions, where rewards and punishments are 
 awarded, according to the good or evil deeds of a present 
 life. The puerile fables, false morality, and fanciful tra- 
 ditions, which are mingled with this doctrine, tend to 
 debase and render contemptible, what might otherwise 
 be considered as the germ of a purer faith. 
 
 All that history records, or modern discoveries have 
 ascertained, of the belief of mankind on this subject of 
 vital importance, tends to show the impotence of human 
 reason ; and shuts us up to the revealed word of God, as 
 the great source of light and of hope regarding the future 
 destiny of man. The soul survives the grave, but where 
 does it go ? What new forms of being does it assume ? 
 What conflicts and what triumphs are reserved for it ? 
 These are questions which curiosity, that powerful prin- 
 ciple, unites with every selfish and every ennobling feel- 
 ing of the human heart, to urge on the attention. And 
 what is the answer which the Divine oracles return ? 
 Man is a sinner, and "the wages of sin is death." Such 
 is the appalling response. And what is death ? Not the 
 separation of the soul from the body merely, but the sep- 
 aration of both soul and body from God. 
 
 And is there no remedy ? Not in the power of man, 
 but in the grace and mercy of God. " God so loved the 
 world, that He sent His only begotten Son, that whoso- 
 ever believeth on Him might not perish, but have ever- 
 lasting life." The Son of the Eternal God is our Sav- 
 iour. He came to earth, and assumed our form and nature, 
 that He might take away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 
 His own words are, "I am the resurrection and the life. 
 Whosoever believeth in me, though he were dead, yet 
 shall he live ; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me, 
 shall never die." 
 
 What, then, is death ? It is to the Christian but the 
 passing away of a feverish dream, and an awaking to the 
 glorious realities of an endless and unclouded day. This 
 at least, it is, as far as regards his soul. But his body 
 
262 HYBERNATION. 
 
 goes down to the grave, and, for all that we can perceive, 
 is finally resolved into its native elements. Yet it is not 
 so. A germ remains. It is like seed buried in winter, 
 by the sower, beneath the sluggish soil, that it may un- 
 dergo a mysterious change, and rise again to life, in a new 
 season, under a more propitious sky. The spring of an 
 eternal year will come. It will breathe on the dry bones, 
 and they shall live. Then shall the soul be reunited to 
 its material frame, "sown a natural body, but raised a 
 spiritual body ;" and this mysterious reunion, which 
 seems essential to the perfect happiness of human beings, 
 will consummate the appointed period, when death, the 
 last enemy, shall be " swallowed up in victory ;" when time 
 itself shall perish, along with the revolution of seasons ; 
 and when one vast, measureless, incomprehensible eter- 
 nity, shall embrace all. 
 
 TENTH WEEK MONDAY. 
 
 HYBERNATION. OF QUADRUPEDS THEIR CLOTHING. 
 
 ONE obvious disadvantage arising from the change of 
 climate from heat to cold, is the effect on the bodily 
 frame, which, at one season, is oppressed with the fervid 
 rays of an almost vertical sun, and, at another, made to 
 shiver under the biting blast of a wintry sky. It was not 
 consistent with the plans of Providence for our world, 
 that this inconvenience should be altogether compensated 
 for ; but the contrivances by which it is alleviated, and 
 rendered tolerable, are truly wonderful. One of the most 
 familiar of these contrivances, is a change from summer 
 to winter clothing. 
 
 Man is born naked, but his Creator has endowed him 
 with rational powers, which enable him to procure a 
 dress suited to the various climes in which he is destined 
 to live, and to change it with the changing weather, or 
 
QUADRUPEDS THEIR CLOTHING. 263 
 
 his altered residence. The lower animals, not being fa- 
 vored with the high attribute of reason, have their wants', 
 with respect to clothing, attended to in another way. 
 Those which reside under the burning suns of the trop- 
 ics, are remarkable for their covering of hair, and the 
 total absence of wool ; while animals of the very same 
 species, when resident in colder countries, are found to 
 be clothed with a warmer covering, which becomes still 
 more abundant and woolly as we approach the polar re- 
 gions. The remarkable change, in this respect, which 
 takes place within a very limited distance, and under no 
 very violent change of temperature, may be exemplified 
 by comparing the strong and thin bristles of the Devon- 
 shire swine, with the furry coat of those of the Highland 
 breed. As an instance of this beneficent law of Nature, 
 in a more extensive range, we may take the sheep, whose 
 covering, in the tropical regions, is a scanty coat of hair, 
 which, on the Alpine ranges of Spain, becomes a fine soft 
 and silky wool ; in the mainland of Britain, is changed 
 into a fleece, coarser, indeed, but thicker, and better 
 adapted to resist the vicissitudes of our changeable weath- 
 er ; in the Shetland Islands, undergoes another transfor- 
 mation, still more capable of resisting the cold ; and, in 
 Iceland, and other regions verging towards the Pole, 
 acquires the character of a thick fur, interspersed with 
 long and coarse hair, a provision which is common to 
 the clothing of numerous northern tribes, and which 
 seems admirably calculated at once to foster the animal 
 heat, to give free passage to the insensible perspiration, 
 and to serve as a protection from the penetrating rains.* 
 Now, what we wish the reader particularly to remark 
 is, that effects similar to those which are produced on the 
 clothing of animals by a change of climate, are, to a cer- 
 tain extent, produced also by the different seasons of the 
 year. There is a beneficent adaptation, in this respect, 
 to the alternations of heat and cold, in the same country. 
 Examples of this wise provision, among our domestic 
 animals, are familiar to every farmer. The horse, the 
 
 * See Kirby's Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. p. 64. See also Scripture 
 Geology, p. 349. 
 
264 HYBERNATION. 
 
 cow, and the sheep, when exposed to the open air, all 
 acquire a rough coat in winter, which they throw off as 
 the warm weather advances, being then supplied with a 
 thinner and sleeker covering ; and, what is remarkable, 
 the shagginess, and consequent heat, of their clothing is 
 proportioned, in each species, to the extent of their ex- 
 posure, and the intensity of the cold. So much is this 
 the case, that it has been alleged, probably, however, 
 with some degree of exaggeration, that, "if w r e were to 
 look at the horses, for example, of the farmers on a 
 market-day in winter, we might determine the relative 
 temperature of their respective farms, from the relative 
 quantity of clothing provided by Nature for the animals 
 which live on them."* The dealers in fur are well ac- 
 quainted with the change we are now considering. In 
 summer, the fur of those animals which are valued for 
 the possession of this article of commerce, is too thin 
 and short to be an object of pursuit ; but, as soon as the 
 frost and snow begin to show themselves, a rapid altera- 
 tion takes place, and the fur is then said to have sudden- 
 ly ripened. This is remarkably the case in the hare and 
 rabbit. 
 
 Another beneficent provision of the Creator, for alle- 
 viating the effects of cold in winter, is to be discovered 
 in the change of color, which takes place in the clothing 
 of some species, both of quadrupeds and birds. It is 
 remarkable, that the tendency of this change is from dark 
 to pure white. Thus, the ermine, which is in the sum- 
 mer months of a pale brown color, inclining to red, is 
 highly prized in winter for the snowlike whiteness of its 
 fur ; and the Alpine hare of the Grampian range under- 
 goes a similar change, throwing off its summer dress of 
 tawny gray, and appearing in a coat of the color of 
 milk. Among the feathered tribes, we find the ptarmi- 
 gan, which takes up its habitation on the summits of our 
 most lofty Highland mountains, and the guillemot, which 
 frequents our coasts, endowed with an analogous proper- 
 ty. In the former, the change is complete ; in the case 
 
 * Edinburgh Encyclopedia Article Hybernation. 
 
QUADRUPEDS THEIR CLOTHING. 265 
 
 of the latter, its summer covering of black, is, in this cli- 
 mate, converted into a plumage clouded with ash-color- 
 ed spots, on a white ground ; but, what distinctly marks 
 the intention of the Creator, is, that this latter bird, when 
 exposed, as in Greenland, to a more intense cold, throws 
 off its spotted mantle, and appears in feathers of a beau- 
 tiful and uniform white. 
 
 The object of this remarkable change in the appear- 
 ance of these animals, is not merely, as some writers have 
 supposed, to protect them from the prying eyes of their 
 enemies, by assimilating their color to that of the snow, 
 though this intention is not to be overlooked ; but chiefly, 
 as I believe, to provide more effectually for their protec- 
 tion from the alteration in the temperature of the seasons. 
 It might, perhaps, on a superficial view, appear, that 
 white, which consists in the reflection of all the rays of 
 light, was less favorable than any other color to the heat 
 of the body, and that, were the intention to protect the 
 animals from cold, the process would just be reversed. 
 It is true, indeed, that a dark surface imbibes the heat to 
 which it is exposed, in greater quantities than that which 
 is of a light hue, and if this were all that was required, 
 the objection might be held to be well founded. But it 
 must be remembered, that the temperature of a living body 
 depends chiefly on the power of retaining the animal 
 heat ; and it is on this principle that we are to look for 
 the ultimate design in the change of color to which we 
 have alluded. It would appear, from chemical experi- 
 ment, that the radiating power of bodies is inversely as 
 their reflecting power ; and, upon this principle, the white 
 color of animals, possessing less radiating power than any 
 other, must be best calculated to retain the heat genera- 
 ted in their bodies by the vital principle. Thus, while 
 there is less warmth absorbed from the external atmos- 
 phere than if their darker color had remained, this disad- 
 vantage is far more than compensated by the power which 
 their white clothing confers, of resisting the effects of 
 the external cold in reducing the temperature. This is 
 one of the cases which we so commonly meet with in in- 
 vestigations of a similar kind, where an imperfect knowl- 
 i. 23 vn. 
 
266 HYBERNATION. 
 
 edge of the laws of Nature affords room for plausible ob- 
 jections against the arrangements of Providence, which 
 a more profound acquaintance with these laws entire- 
 ly overturns, and even converts into an argument on 
 the opposite side. Had we only known, that a white 
 color rejects the influence of external heat more obsti- 
 nately than all the other colors, we might well be puz- 
 zled to account for the fact, that during the winter months 
 a change should take place, which was to render the bod- 
 ies of the animals subject to it, less susceptible of at- 
 mospherical warmth, in proportion as they seemed most 
 to require this blessing ; but, when the more recent dis- 
 coveries, which prove that the principle of radiation fol- 
 lows an opposite law, set the matter in its true light, it is 
 impossible not to feel that peculiar satisfaction which 
 arises from perceiving the consistency of benevolent de- 
 sign ; and the lesson which we are thus taught goes even 
 further, leading us, as it does, confidently to conclude, 
 that wherever facts apparently contradictory of Divine 
 wisdom or goodness are to be found, the difficulty lies, 
 not in the nature of the thing, but in the darkness of hu- 
 man ignorance. 
 
 TENTH WEEK TUESDAY. 
 
 HYBERNATION. STORING INSTINCTS. 
 
 As birds have the power, and are endowed, when neces- 
 sary, with the instinct of migration, they scarcely stand 
 in need of any other means of avoiding the inconveniences 
 of winter ; and, accordingly, we find, that except the 
 change already mentioned, of a summer for a winter 
 dress, which takes place in some species, and the autum- 
 nal repairing of their feathers, there is no other provision 
 of great importance and extent made for their hyberna- 
 tion. But with quadrupeds, reptiles, and insects, the 
 
STORING INSTINCTS. 267 
 
 case is different. As they were destined to be confined 
 to a limited locality, it was necessary to make sufficient 
 arrangements for their accommodation within their native 
 haunts. The warm clothing, which, as we have seen, 
 quadrupeds acquire, is calculated to preserve them from 
 the effects of cold ; but something more is necessary. 
 Not only is the breath of winter chilling, but its hand is 
 niggardly of food ; and there is danger of starvation, not 
 less from the cravings of hunger than from the rigor of 
 the weather. To this want, the beneficent Creator has 
 not been inattentive; and the means He employs to rem- 
 edy the evil are not less remarkable than they are effica- 
 cious. 
 
 There are two ways in which a deficiency in the sup- 
 ply of the necessaries of life may be compensated for, 
 namely, either by the accumulation of a store of provis- 
 ions during the period of plenty, or by placing the body 
 in such a state as to supersede the use of such accumula- 
 tion, by rendering it insensible to the demands of hunger, 
 and yet preserving its vital existence. The Creator em- 
 ploys both of these means. This paper shall be devoted 
 to the consideration of the former. 
 
 The class of quadrupeds, among which various spe- 
 cies are to be found, that lay up a winter store, is exclu- 
 sively what is known to naturalists by the appellation of 
 glires, or gnawing animals. Of this class are the mouse, 
 the squirrel, and the beaver. Of the first species, the 
 field-mouse is the most remarkable for this propensity. 
 This little animal is exceedingly active, about the end of 
 autumn, in preserving fallen acorns, by burying them un- 
 der ground ; being thus made subservient to the double 
 purpose of hoarding a store for future use, and of plant- 
 ing such part of the seed as it either forgets or does not 
 require, in such a manner that it may germinate and 
 spring up into a future tree,* destined to provide the 
 
 * " In the time of acorns falling," says Derharn, ** I have, by means 
 of the hogs, discovered that the mice had, all over the neighboring 
 fields, treasured up single acorns in little holes they had scratched, and 
 in which they had carefully covered up the acorn. These the hogs 
 would, day after day, hunt out by the smell." Derham's Physico- 
 Theology. 
 
268 HYEERNATION, 
 
 means of subsistence to distant generations of the species. 
 Such is the wonderful economy of Providence ; and this, 
 let it be remarked, in passing, is only one instance of a 
 kind of contrivance extensively employed, which we 
 shall afterwards have occasion to notice. 
 
 We have mentioned the common squirrel as another 
 example of the storing tribe. This agile and interesting 
 creature takes up its residence in our woods and forests, 
 and, during the last month of autumn, is exceedingly in- 
 dustrious in collecting for itself a hoard of nuts, acorns, 
 and other kinds of food, which it carefully deposits in a 
 storehouse, scooped out with some labor, in a well-chos- 
 en place of concealment, among the large and embower- 
 ing branches of a shaggy old tree. Here it takes up its 
 winter abode, prudently abstaining from the violation of 
 its little magazine, as long as it can find the means of sub- 
 sistence in its neighborhood. 
 
 But of all the quadrupeds which provide for their preser- 
 vation during winter, by laying up a stock of food, there are 
 none so wonderful as the beavers. A branch of this am- 
 phibious family was at one time to be found in Britain ; and 
 beavers are still natives of some northern countries in Eu- 
 rope, though their chief residence is in the wilds of Amer- 
 ica. They have long attracted the admiration of mankind 
 by their extraordinary habits. Some of our most celebra- 
 ted naturalists, indeed, fired by the exaggerated accounts 
 of travellers, have launched out into encomiums on their 
 wonderful faculties, which a more accurate knowledge 
 of their operations has of late considerably modified. 
 After every allowance, however, for the natural propen- 
 sity of men to add astonishment to the wonderful, we 
 find enough in the most sober and authentic accounts 
 given of this quadruped, to excite our surprise. 
 
 The form of the beaver does not appear to be pecu- 
 liarly well fitted for performing works of skill and labor. 
 It is described as not exceeding three feet in length ; its 
 paws are said to be about the size of a crown piece ; 
 and its tail, though, by its breadth and flatness, an- 
 swering some important purposes, seems to be limited 
 in power as an instrument of labor, by having naturally 
 
STORING INSTINCTS. 269 
 
 such an inclination downward, that it can with difficulty 
 be brought on a line with its back. Yet this apparently 
 weak and ill-furnished creature, is represented as supply- 
 ing, by its ingenuity, the seeming defects in its bodily 
 form, and constructing works for the comfort and con- 
 venience of its winter residence, which, in reference to 
 its more contracted wants, rival the skill and science of 
 a human architect ! The following notice of the manner 
 in which these animals provide against the inclemency of 
 the winter season, is abridged from a judicious article in 
 the Edinburgh Encyclopedia. 
 
 " Towards autumn, they quit their roving way of life, 
 form themselves into communities, and, instructed by 
 that admirable instinct of which we have so many ex- 
 amples in the history of the animal creation, begin to 
 provide for the wants of a season, whose duration and 
 inclemency would effectually preclude a regular supply 
 of their accustomed nourishment. 
 
 u The winter-quarters of the beavers are situated on 
 the banks of a river or creek, or, where these are not to 
 be found, on the edge of a lake or pond. In selecting 
 the exact spot where they may form their houses, they 
 appear to be guided by two considerations, viz. a suffi- 
 cient depth of water, to prevent its being completely 
 frozen ; and the existence of a current, by means of 
 which, they can readily convey wood and bark to their 
 habitations. To prevent the water from being drained 
 off, when the frost has stopped the current towards its 
 source, the beavers construct a dam across the stream ; 
 and, in this work, they certainly display wonderful sa- 
 gacity, skill, and perseverance. The dam is constructed 
 of drift-wood, branches of willows, birch, and poplar, 
 stones, and mud, brought by the beavers in their mouths, or 
 between their paws, and not, as many have asserted, on 
 their tails. If the current be slow, .the dam runs straight 
 across ; but if the stream be rapid, the dam is formed 
 with a regular curve, having the convexity towards the 
 current, so as effectually to resist the force of the water 
 and ice, that rush down during the storms of winter, or 
 the thaws that take place in spring. These dams are 
 
 23* 
 
 j^& 
 
 tfJJ^ OF 
 
270 HYBERNATION. 
 
 several feet in thickness, and of such strength, when com- 
 pletely formed, that a man can walk along them with per- 
 fect safety. 
 
 Having completed their dam, they proceed to con- 
 struct their cabins. These are partly excavations in the 
 ground, though their roofs form a sort of vaulted dome 
 that rises a little above the surface. The houses have 
 seldom more than one apartment, and never more than 
 one fk>or. which is raised in the middle, to allow of the 
 inhabitants eating and sleeping in a dry situation. The 
 principal entrance and outlet to these houses, is next the 
 water, on the very edge of which they are constructed ; 
 and the opening always slopes towards the water, till it 
 terminates so far below its surface, as to preserve a free 
 communication in the most severe frosts. There appears 
 to be another, though smaller, opening next the land. 
 The houses are of various sizes, in proportion to the 
 number of inhabitants, which seldom exceeds ten or 
 twelve, though sometimes double that number has been 
 found in the same dwelling. Many of these houses stand 
 together along the margin of the water, forming a village 
 of from ten to thirty tenements. 
 
 u During the latter end of summer, the beavers cut 
 down their wood and collect their roots. The latter are 
 kept in the water, whence they fetch them as occasion 
 may require. In eating, they sit on their rump like a 
 squirrel, with their tail doubled in between their hind 
 legs, and holding their food between their paws. When 
 disturbed, they utter a peculiar cry, and plunge into the 
 water, flapping the ground and the water with their 
 tail." 
 
 The faculty of storing is also to be found, as we have 
 previously stated, among insects, of which the example 
 of the honey-bee is the most striking. The habits of 
 this wonderful insect, the large and orderly community 
 in which it lives, yielding undeviating fealty to a female 
 sovereign ; the mathematical precision with which it 
 builds its cell ; its unwearying industry ; its wise fore- 
 sight ; its colonizing propensity, have already been de- 
 scribed in speaking of the hybernating instincts of the 
 
STORING INSTINCTS. 271 
 
 insect creation. In studying its operations, as well as 
 that of the beaver, and indeed of the other storing ani- 
 mals, we seem to get still deeper insight into the nature 
 of that mysterious faculty, which, resembling reason in 
 so many particulars, yet differs from it in this, that its 
 impulses are uniform and unchangeable, belonging nearly 
 in equal perfection in all ages, and under all circumstan- 
 ces, to every individual of the species ; not capable of 
 improvement by education, but regulated by propensities 
 directed by a wisdom of which the species is not con- 
 scious, to the attainment of a future object, which they 
 have not forethought to contemplate.* What is this but 
 the impress of the finger of God ? 
 
 * Mr. Broderip gives a curious and interesting account of the habits 
 of a tame beaver, brought to England, in 1825, which seems to illus- 
 trate the distinctive difference subsisting between reason and instinct, 
 even where they appear to make the nearest approach. This little 
 creature was still very young when let out of his cage, but immediate- 
 ly showed his building instinct. He began by selecting the longest ma- 
 terials within his reach, such as sticks, sweeping-brushes, &c., which 
 he piled up in such a way that one end touched the wall, and the other 
 projected into the room. " As the^work grew high, he supported him- 
 self upon his tail, which propped him up admirably ; and he would of- 
 ten, after laying on one of his building materials, sit up over against it, 
 apparently to consider his work, or, as the country people say, 'judge 
 it.' This pause was sometimes followed by changing the position of 
 the material 'judged,' and sometimes it was left in its place. After he 
 had piled up his materials in one part of the room, (for he generally 
 chose the same place,) he proceeded to wall up the space between the 
 feet of a chest of drawers which stood at a little distance from it, high 
 enough on its legs to make the bottom a roof for him, using for this 
 purpose, dried turf and sticks, which he laid very even, and filling up 
 the interstices with bits of coal, hay, cloth, or any thing he could pick 
 up. This last place he seemed to appropriate for his dwelling ; the 
 former work seemed to be intended for a dam. When he had walled 
 up the space between the feet of the chest of drawers, he proceeded to 
 carry in sticks, cloth, hay, cotton, and to make a nest ; and, when he 
 had done, he would sit up under the drawers, and comb himself with 
 the nails of his hind feet." 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to say, that there was, in the case of this 
 tame beaver, a propensity evinced to construct, where the object of the 
 propensity no longer existed. The Author of its being, had bestowed 
 on it this instinct, for the use of the species in its wild state ; and, be- 
 ing destitute of the reasoning power which would have taught it the need- 
 lessnesa of the trouble it was taking, it still continued not only to build 
 its house, and line its nest, where it was already sheltered and comfort- 
 able, but to construct a dam where there was no water. 
 
272 HYBERNATION. 
 
 TENTH WEEK WEDNESDAY. 
 
 HYBERNATION. TORPIDITY OF ANIMALS. 
 
 AMONG the contrivances by which the Author of Na- 
 ture enables the lower animals to sustain the privations 
 of winter, that by which they are endowed with the fac- 
 ulty of becoming insensible to external objects, and of 
 approaching a state of temporary death, is very worthy 
 of attention. The ordinary phenomena of sleep have 
 long been a subject of deep curiosity to the philosophical 
 inquirer. The torpidity of animals during the cold sea- 
 son, in some respects, resembles this state ; but there is 
 a marked difference not only in the period of insensibili-- 
 ty, and in the wise intentions of Providence which it ful- 
 fils, but also in the nature of this provision, as it affects 
 the bodily frame, as well as in other particulars. 
 
 The subject of torpidity has given rise to several in- 
 genious experiments, by which some curious facts have 
 been elicited. It is not our object to record these, but 
 merely to give a succinct view of their results, in so far 
 as they throw light on the operations of that Divine 
 Being, from whose wisdom and goodness they derive 
 their origin. 
 
 The classes of animals, among whom this kind of hy- 
 bernating principle is found, are very various, viz. quad- 
 rupeds, reptiles, insects, perhaps fishes, and, according 
 to some, even birds. Among quadrupeds, the species 
 which are known to become torpid, belong exclusively 
 to the digitated order. A few of these species are of the 
 class primates, such as the bat ; and of the class /erce, 
 such as the hedgehog ; but the most numerous instances 
 occur among the gUres, of which the dormouse and the 
 marmot are familiar examples. 
 
 Attempts have been made, but without much success, 
 to ascertain the causes on which torpidity depends. It 
 
TORPIDITY OF ANIMALS. 273 
 
 is not extreme cold, as many have maintained, for some 
 animals collect in deep caves, where the temperature is 
 never low, or congregate and burrow in the earth, where 
 the heat of their bodies preserves a temperature not much 
 inferior to that of the average state of the external at- 
 mosphere ; and others become lethargic even in warm 
 climates. It is not the position which the body assumes, 
 when about to become torpid, though this has also been 
 alleged ; for the different species seem to assume no 
 other position than that to which they are accustomed in 
 ordinary rest ; it is not, so far as has been ascertained, 
 any distinct, and uniform state of the anatomical conforma- 
 tion, for anatomists have, in vain, attempted to establish any 
 peculiarity in the bodily structure of such animals, which 
 can account for the phenomenon ; it is not, in fine, an im- 
 mediate destitution of food, for a remarkable fact connected 
 with this state is, that when animals become torpid, they 
 are, generally speaking, unusually plump, and fat. Some 
 of these circumstances, indeed, commonly occur at the 
 period when these animals fall into the dormant state, and 
 seem, in a certain degree, to influence the result. Thus, 
 the exact time of the change may be hastened or retarded, 
 by the temperature of the atmosphere, or the plenty or 
 scarcity of food ; but there seems to be no reason to con- 
 clude, that these circumstances, considered merely as 
 physical causes, are sufficient to account for the phenome- 
 non ; and we are rather inclined to believe, that the ani- 
 mals themselves have some power in their own volition, 
 of either inducing or resisting the lethargic condition. 
 Spallanzani has seen bats in a torpid state, even during 
 summer. A migratory hamster (cricetus glis,) was 
 placed by Mangili in a state of confinement, in spring, 
 when it was naturally in its waking period ; and, as soon 
 as it found that it could not escape, it refused to eat, and, 
 throwing itself on its back, became torpid, in which state 
 it remained till the 17th July. The land-testacea cer- 
 tainly have the power of becoming torpid, independent 
 of the severity of the weather. If specimens of the 
 helix hortensis, [or garden snail,] for example, be placed, 
 even a midsummer, in a box, without food, they soon 
 
274 HYBERNATION. 
 
 attach themselves to the side of the place of their con- 
 finement, and become dormant ; in which state they may 
 be kept for several years. 
 
 Torpidity, in short, is an instinct, and exhibits many 
 of the interesting but mysterious characteristics of this 
 faculty. When the season of storms and scarcity is 
 about to arrive, the animals to whom this habit belongs, 
 carefully select a proper place of retreat, respectively 
 corresponding to their several natures, where they may 
 spend, in a happy oblivion, the dreary winter months 
 " The bat," to borrow the words of the article 'Hyber- 
 nation,' in the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, u retires to the 
 roof of gloomy caves, or to the old chimneys of unin- 
 habited castles ; the hedgehog wraps itself up in those 
 leaves of which it composes its nest, and remains at the 
 bottom of the hedge, or under covert of the furze which 
 screened it during summer, from the scorching sun or 
 the passing storm ; the marmot and the hamster retire 
 to their subterranean retreats, and when they feel the 
 first approach of the torpid state, shut the passages to 
 their habitations in such a manner, that it is more easy to 
 dig up the earth any where else, than in the parts which 
 they have thus fortified." "Many of those animals, 
 particularly such as belong to the great natural family of 
 gnawers, make provision in their retreats during the har- 
 vest month. The marmot, it is true, lays up no stock 
 of provisions ; but the hamsters fill their stores with all 
 kinds of grain, on which they are supposed to feed until 
 the cold becomes sufficiently intense to induce torpidity. 
 The cricetus glis, or migratory hamster of Pallas, also 
 lays up a stock of provisions. The same remark is 
 equally applicable to the dormouse." 
 
 Animals, in preparing for this dormant state, are con- 
 siderably actuated by their usual habits while awake, not 
 only in the choice of a place of retreat, but also with 
 regard to their social or solitary habits. Thus, the hedge- 
 hog and dormouse spend their period of insensibility 
 alone, while the marmot, the hamster, and the bat, col- 
 lect, for this purpose, in large societies. 
 
 Some curious particulars have been noted of the phys- 
 
TORPIDITY OF ANIMALS. 275 
 
 ical condition of animals during their torpidity, which 
 it seems unnecessary to do more than barely to enumer- 
 ate. In this state, they suffer a great diminution of 
 bodily temperature ; they breathe slowly, and only at in- 
 tervals proportioned to the depth of their slumber, some- 
 times with long periods of total intermission ; the circu- 
 lation of their blood becomes languid to such an extent, 
 that even the pulsation of the heart is scarcely felt ; the 
 animal irritability decreases, so that limbs may be lopped 
 off, and even the vital parts laid open, almost without 
 exciting any symptoms of feeling ; the action of the di- 
 gestive organs is suspended ; the body becomes gradually 
 emaciated, and its weight is diminished, but without im- 
 pairing the living principle, which, on the contrary, is 
 found to be in a remarkably energetic and active state at 
 the period of resuscitation. 
 
 Many of the observations which we have made as to 
 quadrupeds, will apply also to reptiles. These cold- 
 blooded animals adopt similar precautions in selecting 
 proper places of retreat, to protect them from their ene- 
 mies, and to preserve them from sudden alternations of 
 temperature. Those, which inhabit the waters, sink into 
 the soft mud ; while such as live on land, enter the holes 
 and crevices of rocks, or other places, where there is 
 little change of temperature. Thus disposed of, they 
 obey the impulse, and become torpid. The effect of 
 cold in inducing and prolonging this state, is much more 
 remarkable than in warm-blooded animals. It is said 
 that frogs and snakes may be kept in a torpid state, in 
 an icehouse, for several years, without any diminution 
 of their vital energy. It is, perhaps, on a similar prin- 
 ciple, that toads have been found alive, after having, for 
 centuries, been imbedded in the heart of stones. 
 
 The torpidity of the mollusca tribes,* and of insects, 
 is much more general than that of the higher genera of 
 animals ; but as the state of these more minute animals 
 during winter has occupied our attention in other papers, 
 I shall at present pass the subject with this single obser- 
 
 * [Soft animals ; such as cuttle-fish, shellfish, snails, &c. AM. ED.] 
 
276 HYBERNATION. 
 
 vation, that the paternal care of the Creator is not less 
 conspicuous in the case of the microscopic insect, than 
 that of the most lordly quadruped ; and that the lower 
 we descend in the scale of existence, the more striking 
 appear to be the proofs of a universal Providence, which 
 has caused the world to teem with life and enjoyment. 
 
 If we cannot, from physical causes, account for the 
 torpidity of animals, neither shall we be able to discover, 
 in such causes, any adequate reason for their revival at 
 the fit period. This revival does not take place in all 
 classes at the same time ; but, speaking generally, none 
 of them burst their lethargic chains till the revolving 
 season has brought round a genial warmth, along with 
 supplies of proper nourishment. Had we only to ac- 
 count for the reviviscence of those animals which are 
 exposed to the changes of temperature, we might, per- 
 haps, rest satisfied with the idea, that the return of warmth 
 was the immediate stimulus by which the change was 
 effected ; but what shall we say of the numerous instances 
 in which these winter sleepers bury themselves so deep, 
 or lie congregated so close, and secured so carefully, as 
 to remain beyond the reach of atmospheric changes ? 
 By what calendar do the bats, for example, in the inter- 
 minable windings and dark recesses of the Mammoth 
 cave of Kentucky, count the return of the months of 
 spring ? What voice whispers to the little marmot, as it 
 lies in its deep burrow, fostered by the animal heat of its 
 fellows, with every avenue to the open air effectually 
 sealed up, that the stiffening frost no longer enchains the 
 soil, and that the season of herbs and of roots has returned ? 
 Only one answer can be returned ; and we are forced 
 anew to acknowledge the presence of a mysterious instinct, 
 or rather of that bountiful Being who, while He every 
 where works, every where conceals Himself from mor- 
 tal eyes ; or is seen only by reflection from his visible 
 creation. 
 
 We mean not to assert, either here or elsewhere, that, 
 in the processes of instinct, the Creator does not act, as 
 He acts in the better known operations of nature, by 
 means of second causes, which might be made manifest 
 
MAN IN WINTER. 277 
 
 to rational creatures, and the force and adequacy of which 
 might be understood by them ; but we do mean to say, 
 that these causes have not yet been discovered ; and 
 that, whether discovered or not, there is, in the appear- 
 ances we have been considering, a distinct and undeniable 
 indication of a Supreme Intelligence moulding the facul- 
 ties of living creatures, and wonderfully adapting their 
 powers to the circumstances of the external creation, so 
 as to promote the preservation of their existence, and to 
 contribute to their enjoyment. 
 
 TENTH WEEK THURSDAY. 
 
 I. MAN IN WINTER. PRIVATION STIMULATES HIS FACULTIES. 
 
 THERE is something very -peculiar, but remarkably 
 adapted to the general constitution of nature, in the cir- 
 cumstances and condition of man, as compared with 
 other animals, pointing directly to certain great ends and 
 principles of his existence, and confirming, in a very 
 striking manner, the character which we have already 
 stated to be impressed by the great Creator on His works. 
 Man is, of all animals, the least provided with natural 
 means of defence from his numerous enemies, as far as 
 relates to his bodily powers, and the most scantily sup- 
 plied with protection from the vicissitudes of climate. 
 He enters life unclothed, and utterly helpless ; he grows 
 up slowly to manhood, amidst a thousand difficulties and 
 dangers. During the first period of his existence, he 
 must necessarily depend on the good offices of others 
 for the means of preserving life ; and in the last stage he 
 descends again into all the feebleness, inactivity, and 
 dependence, of a second childhood. It is not so with 
 other animals. They come into the world clothed, armed, 
 and furnished with instruments and means of subsistence, 
 or, at least, after a few days or weeks of dependence on 
 i. 24 vn. 
 
273 MAN IN WINTER. 
 
 their parents, they are thrown upon their own resources, 
 with ample means of support and enjoyment. This con- 
 trast between the early condition of man and the lower 
 animals, is described by a Roman poet, in lines elegant, 
 but querulous, which may be thus translated : 
 
 The infant, first emerging into day, 
 
 Lies, like the shipwreck'd mariner, when toss'd 
 
 From the fierce billows, naked, helpless, sad ; 
 
 And weeps and moans, as well beseems a wretch 
 
 Cast on a world with grief and pain oppressed. 
 
 Not so the peaceful flocks and herds are rear'd, 
 
 Not so the savage beasts ; for nought want they 
 
 Of cradled rest, or bland and prattling talk 
 
 Of watchful nurse, or clothing warm or cool, 
 
 As varying seasons rule the inconstant year. 
 
 No arms they seek, nor lofty walls, to guard 
 
 Their hoarded treasures ; for, with bounteous hand, 
 
 Earth spreads her varied stores, and Nature yields 
 
 Her wond'rous powers, to bless their countless tribes.* 
 
 The intention of the Creator in thus throwing the in- 
 fant on the immediate protection and tender assiduities 
 of his parents, is not unkind, but the very reverse. Con- 
 stituted as man is, such a state of dependence on the one 
 hand, and of guardianship on the other, is of the highest 
 importance to the developement of the moral and even of 
 the intellectual faculties, and impresses a character of 
 affection and of mutual sympathy on the human heart, 
 which extends from the family circle to the whole rela- 
 tions of life ; and while it binds society together by the 
 strongest ties, sheds over it the most endearing charm. 
 
 But it is not in this view that we are led at present to 
 
 * " Turn porro puer, ut saevis projectus ab undis 
 Navita, nudus humi jacet, infans, indigus omni 
 Vitali auxilio, cum prim urn in luminis oras 
 Nixibus, ex alvo matris natura profudit ; 
 Vagituque locum lugubri complet, ut aequum est, 
 Cui tantum in vita restet transire malorum. 
 At varise crescunt Pecudes, Armenta, Feraeque ; 
 Nee crepitacula eis opu' sunt, nee cuiquam adhibenda est 
 Almae nutricis blanda atque infracta loquela : 
 Nee varias quserunt vesteis, pro tempore coeli. 
 Denique non armis opus est, non moenibus altis, 
 Q,ueis sua tutentur, quando omnibus omnia large 
 Tellus ipsa parit, naturaque dsedala rerum." 
 
PRIVATION STIMULATES HIS FACULTIES. 279 
 
 consider the subject. We have to inquire how this 
 naked and houseless creature finds shelter and protection 
 from the rigors of winter ; and this throws us into a wide 
 but most interesting field of inquiry, leading, as it does, 
 to a consideration of the peculiar provisions and adapta- 
 tions by which the energies of the human mind are called 
 forth and disciplined, a subject to which we formerly 
 adverted, but which seems worthy of reconsideration, as 
 applicable to this particular case. 
 
 The sentence which has passed on fallen man is, " In 
 the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return 
 unto the ground ;" and, by the peculiar ordinance of a 
 wonder-working Providence, that which is his curse is 
 converted into the means of giving vigor and enlargement 
 to his mental powers. It is by the pressure of necessity, 
 and the urgency of want, that our natural aversion to 
 labor and love of inaction are overcome. To prove 
 this, we do not need to revert to the theories of philoso- 
 phers, or to follow man through his fancied stages of ad- 
 vancement, from his lowest grade, a savage roamer of 
 the forest, feeding on nuts and roots, till we find him, 
 first a hunter and fisher, then a shepherd, next a tiller of 
 the soil, and, last of all, a man of commerce, and an 
 adept in the arts and sciences. 
 
 In the supposed steps of this progress, history does 
 not bear us out ; but we do know, from all history, as 
 well as from daily experience, that the wants of man 
 stimulate his ingenuity ; that these wants increase with 
 the power of gratifying them, while the ingenuity which 
 supplies them keeps pace with his enlarging desires, and 
 that thus there is a constant action and reaction, which, 
 by a most wonderful and interesting process, urges man 
 on from stage to stage of improvement, till he becomes, 
 what we find him to be in the most advanced state of 
 society, a being as different, in his mental attainments, 
 from the wandering savage, as the lordly elephant, in his 
 physical powers, is from the blind worm of the earth. 
 The human mind is mighty and various in its faculties ; 
 but before these become available to any great extent, 
 they must be excited by external objects, trained and 
 
280 MAN IN WINTER. 
 
 moulded by discipline, and enlightened by the accumu- 
 lated wisdom of ages ; and to perform these important 
 functions, the circumstances and condition of external 
 nature are admirably suited. 
 
 This observation applies universally, and might be il- 
 lustrated in a thousand different ways ; but take the case 
 immediately before us, the necessity of protection from 
 the vicissitudes of the seasons. In what state do we find 
 civilized man ? Think of the comforts and conveniences 
 which he has accumulated around him, for the purpose 
 in view. This naturally naked and helpless creature, 
 makes the whole creation, both animate and inanimate, 
 contribute to his defence from the wintry blast, and from 
 the summer's heat. The hemp, the flax, the cotton 
 plant, and the inner bark of various trees, yield their 
 vegetable stores ; the sheep gives its fleece ; the silk- 
 worm its web ; the cow her hide ; the goose and the 
 eider-duck their down ; the beaver, the ermine, and the 
 bear, their fur, that his want of natural clothing may be 
 supplied ; and that, by adapting his covering to the cli- 
 mate, he may either brave the rigors of a polar sky, or 
 support, without material inconvenience, the fierce rays 
 of a tropical sun. 
 
 Again, attend to his place of residence. What con- 
 veniences ! what comforts ! what luxuries ! Within 
 his own limited locality, Providence has given him every 
 thing necessary for the supply of his wants. Every 
 where there is to be found stone, and lime, and wood, 
 and iron, or some useful substitutes. Of these, the cot- 
 tage, the hall, and the palace, are all equally constructed. 
 There is, elaborated by his industry from materials readily 
 within his reach, glass, to admit the light and exclude the 
 chilly blast ; there are coals, or billets, or peat, for fire 
 to warm ; there are downy beds for necessary rest ; and, 
 if ambition or voluptuousness looks further, the East 
 brings its perfumes and its gems ; the West and the 
 South their precious metals and their ornamental furni- 
 ture ; the North its oil, to afford artificial day ; all cli- 
 mates and all countries contribute, of their abundance 
 and their varieties, to supply the cravings of a constantly 
 
PROVISIONS FOR HIS COMFORT. 281 
 
 increasing and never-satisfied appetite for accumulation 
 and enjoyment. 
 
 And so it is, that the very privations and disadvantages, 
 with which man comes into the world, become the means 
 by which the desire of acquiring and improving is stimu- 
 lated, till he not only equals the lower animals in those 
 gifts, naturally withheld from him, with which Provi- 
 dence had endowed them, but rises far beyond them ; 
 and, by means of his mental qualities, deservedly earns 
 for himself the title, which his bodily faculties could 
 never have merited, of being emphatically lord of this 
 nether sphere. 
 
 TENTH WEEK FRIDAY. 
 
 II. MAN IN WINTER. PROVISIONS FOR HIS COMFORT. 
 
 IT is most interesting to look into the various features 
 of that providential administration, by which, under a 
 very peculiar and surprising discipline, the progress of 
 society is advanced, and man rises in the scale of moral 
 and intelligent beings. In the wants of his natural state, 
 as regards the season of winter, we yesterday saw how a 
 stimulus is employed, which, combined, doubtless, with 
 other incentives, induces him to seek, first, necessaries, 
 then conveniences, then comforts and luxuries, till he 
 draws around him the resources of the world, and, by 
 the ever-expanding views of an aspiring mind, calls pro- 
 gressively into action those mental powers, both in him- 
 self and his fellows, which might otherwise have lain 
 dormant. 
 
 If, from this view of the exercise given to genius and 
 talent, in counteracting the privations of winter, we turn 
 to the provisions which have been bountifully made, in 
 external nature, for affording scope to these faculties, we 
 shall find additional cause of devout admiration. 
 24* 
 
282 MAN IN WINTER. 
 
 The first thing worthy of remark, in this department 
 of the subject, is, that, speaking generally, the materials 
 by which exposure to the inclemency of the season may 
 be obviated, lie apparent and abundant in those climates 
 where such inconveniences are liable to be felt. In pro- 
 portion as we penetrate into the colder regions, animals 
 are found in greater plenty, whose coats of soft and 
 downy fur, furnished beneficently by their Creator for 
 their own protection, when transferred to the human 
 body, defy the wintry storms. If we approach still 
 nearer the polar circle, we discover a provision which 
 renders even these regions of gloom and intense cold, 
 habitable during the severest part of the year. The 
 enormous tenants of the icy seas, which surround these 
 inhospitable coasts, not only furnish the inhabitants with 
 food ; but, being enveloped in immense loads of fat, yield 
 to them all that is needful, both for light and heat, in 
 their dark and chilly winter months. Nay, the very snow, 
 which clothes Nature as in a winding-sheet, and seems 
 to augur nothing but desolation and death, is converted, 
 by the ingenuity of man, into a comfortable habitation, 
 and thus becomes a preserver of life, and a means of en- 
 joyment. 
 
 Then, again, if we speak of fuel, how bountiful is 
 Providence in supplying those exhaustless forests of pine 
 in the northern regions of Europe, and those immense 
 fields of coal in Britain, and other similar climates, by 
 which frost is charmed away from the dwellings of the 
 inhabitants ! Can we believe it to be without a beneficent 
 design, that such amazing magazines of combustible mat- 
 ter should be deposited within our temperate zones ? 
 And does it not add to the wonder of this provision, that 
 coal is known to be a vegetable production of a climate 
 altogether different from that in which it is found, a 
 climate probably not inferior in warmth, and in the power 
 of nourishing vegetation, to the most favored of our 
 tropical regions ?* When, and under what circumstances, 
 
 * The high temperature of the localities in which the vegetation was 
 produced that has given rise to our coal fields, is inferred from the 
 gigantic size of the ferns, mosses, and other plants, still discovered in 
 the formation. 
 
PROVISIONS FOR HIS COMFORT. 283 
 
 did that profusion of gigantic trees and plants cover the 
 face of the earth, and luxuriate in the sunshine and the 
 shower of a blessed climate, which, under the name of 
 Surturbrand, has erected the platform on which northern 
 Iceland rears its burning mountain, and spreads its rug- 
 ged hills and plains ; and in Britain, the land of manu- 
 factures, and America, that new country, buoyant with 
 youthful enterprise, has laid up those amazing stores of 
 fuel, which many centuries of human toil and industry, 
 can scarcely be said to diminish ? A mystery hangs over 
 the subject, which the geologist, with all his zeal and 
 acuteness, shall probably in vain attempt to penetrate ; 
 but it is enough for our present purpose to know the fact. 
 By whatever natural catastrophe these ancient woods and 
 forests were submerged, there they are, collected in the 
 most convenient localities, at once for furnishing the 
 means of comfort during the rigors of an ungenial winter, 
 and for affording facilities to the increase of human power, 
 in the cultivation and improvement of the arts of life.* 
 Is it too much to say, that here is the hand of a Paternal 
 Providence ? 
 
 * Dr. Buckland, after stating that iron is frequently associated with 
 coal in the subordinate beds of the transition series, concludes a chapter 
 on this subject, with the following interesting observations. " The 
 important uses of coal and iron in administering to the supply of our 
 daily wants, give to every individual amongst us, in almost every mo- 
 ment of our lives, a personal concern, of which but few are conscious, 
 in the geological events of these very distant eras. We are all brought 
 into immediate connexion with the vegetation which clothed the ancient 
 earth, before one half of its actual surface had yet been formed. The 
 trees of the primeval forests have not, like modern trees, undergone 
 decay, yielding back their elements to the soil and atmosphere, by which 
 they have been nourished, but, treasured up in subterranean storehouses, 
 have been transformed into enduring beds of coal, which, in these later 
 ages, have become to man the sources of heat, and light, and wealth. 
 My fire now burns with fuel, and my lamp is shining with the light of 
 gas, derived from coal that has been buried for countless ages in the 
 deep and dark recesses of the earth. We prepare our food, and main- 
 tain our forges and furnaces and the power of our steam-engines, with 
 the remains of plants of ancient forms and extinct species, which were 
 swept from the earth ere the formation of the transition strata was com- 
 pleted. Our instruments of cutlery, the tools of our mechanics, and the 
 countless machines which we construct, by the infinitely-varied applica- 
 tions of iron, are derived from ore, for the most part coeval with, or 
 
 
284 MAN IN WINTER. 
 
 Fuel implies the use of fire, and this leads us to look 
 at some of the properties of that wonderful element, 
 which, on the hearth and in the lamp, contributes so 
 materially to the comforts of winter. This is the very 
 same element, which, by its subtile and all-pervading 
 powers, gives light and warmth to the world, and the 
 effects of which, the poet of the Seasons so beautifully 
 describes, in speaking of the adorable power and good- 
 ness of the Creator, when he says, that His mighty hand 
 
 " Works in the secret deep ; shoots, steaming, thence 
 The fair profusion that o'erspreads the spring ; 
 Flings from the sun direct the flaming day ; 
 Feeds every creature ; hurls the tempest forth ; 
 And, as on earth the grateful change revolves, 
 With transport touches all the springs of life." 
 
 In the treatise on Heat, published in the ' Library of 
 Useful Knowledge,' there are the following introductory 
 observations, which describe, in a popular manner, some 
 of the most obvious effects of this remarkable agent. 
 "In all our excursions over the surface of the globe, in- 
 numerable objects excite our admiration, and contribute 
 to our delight. But whether our gratitude is awakened 
 by the verdure of the earth, the lustre of the waters, or 
 the freshness of the air, it is to the beneficial agency of 
 heat (under Providence) that we are indebted for them 
 all. Without the presence and effects of heat, the earth 
 would be an impenetrable rock, incapable of supporting 
 animal or vegetable life ; the waters would be for ever 
 deprived of their fluidity and motion, and the air of its 
 elasticity and its utility together. 
 
 " Heat animates, invigorates, and beautifies all Nature. 
 Its influence is absolutely necessary, to enable plants to 
 grow, put forth their flowers, and perfect their fruits. 
 It is closely connected with the powers of life, since ani- 
 
 more ancient than, the fuel, by the aid of which we reduce it to its me- 
 tallic state, and apply it to innumerable uses in the economy of human 
 life. Thus from the wreck of forests which waved upon the surface 
 of the primeval lands, and from ferruginous mud that was lodged at the 
 bottom of the primeval waters, we derive our chief supplies of coal and 
 iron, those two fundamental elements of art and industry which con- 
 tribute, more than any other mineral production of the earth, to increase 
 the riches, and multiply the comforts, and ameliorate the condition of 
 mankind." Auckland's B. T., vol. i. pp. 66, 67. 
 
PROVISIONS FOR HIS COMFORT. 285 
 
 mated beings lose their vitality when heat is withdrawn. 
 Such is the universal influence of this powerful agent in 
 the kingdoms of Nature ; nor is this influence diminished 
 in the provinces of art. It is with the aid of heat that 
 rocks are rent, and the hidden treasures of the earth 
 obtained. Matter is modified ten thousand ways by its 
 agency, and rendered subservient to the uses of man, 
 furnishing him with useful and appropriate instruments, 
 warm and ornamental clothing, wholesome and delicious 
 food, needful and effectual shelter." 
 
 Heat is the principle of fire, under whatever modifica- 
 tion it may appear ; and nothing can be more worthy of 
 admiration, than the fact, that an element of such tremen- 
 dous power, whose operations are on so vast a scale, 
 and whose mastery is so fearful, should yet be capable 
 of being subjected to the service of man, in the most 
 menial offices, and, in that capacity, should become so 
 mild and tractable. What human mind, in the wildest 
 flights of its fancy, could, previous to experience, have 
 conceived the existence of an agent, which appals nature 
 with its angry roar, and, rending the clouds, darts in 
 livid bolts from heaven to earth, or uprears mountains 
 in its throes, and, opening the solid crust of the globe, 
 overwhelms whole regions with torrents of melted rock, 
 poured forth like water ; or, more amazing still, which 
 displays its might and glory, in shedding the effulgence 
 of day over the smiling earth, and regulating the changes 
 of the seasons, and calling the wonders of vegetation 
 from the solid land, while it causes the liquid seas to 
 flow, which performs all these wonders, and a thousand 
 more, and yet is so entirely under the control of man, 
 and so subservient to his use, that it remains meekly 
 glimmering amidst smouldering ashes in the grate, ready, 
 at his command, to cheer and enlighten his winter even- 
 ings, by blazing from a taper, or to employ its obsequi- 
 ous powers, for whatever purpose of culinary prepara- 
 tion, or of genial warmth, his necessities or enjoyments 
 may require. What amazing power and wisdom is here, 
 tempered, not less wonderfully, with all the tender con- 
 descension of Paternal kindness ! 
 
286 MAN IN WINTER. 
 
 TENTH WEEK SATURDAY. 
 
 III. MAN IN WINTER. ADAPTATION OF HIS CONSTITUTION 
 
 TO THE SEASON. 
 
 BESIDES the adaptation of external nature to the pro- 
 tection of man from the severities of winter, we have 
 another proof of beneficent intention in the adaptation of 
 the human constitution itself to the endurance of these 
 severities. All animals are more or less endowed with 
 this power of accommodation, yet none so much as those 
 which are destined to be the companions and the aids of 
 man ; and man himself, assisted by the contrivances 
 which his intellectual powers suggest, stands, in this re- 
 spect, preeminent above them all. It was consistent with 
 the beneficent intentions of the Creator, that the only ra- 
 tional race of beings on our globe, should be dispersed 
 over every climate, and should carry intelligence and 
 mental enjoyment, and a heart capable of feeling and 
 acknowledging the Almighty Benefactor, into every cor- 
 ner of the earth. We accordingly find, that the human 
 frame can exist, not only under the vertical sun of the 
 tropics, but under the chilling blasts and wide-spread 
 snows of the polar regions. 
 
 It may be difficult for the physiologist to discover in 
 what this power of accommodation lies ; but, that it does 
 actually exist, in a remarkable degree, the slightest ac- 
 quaintance with the history and condition of the human 
 race demonstrates. Every climate, indeed, and almost 
 every country, exhibits some peculiarity in the consti- 
 tution, and even in the external appearance, of the in- 
 habitants, which indicates this power. The wellknown 
 varieties in the color of the skin, with its different shades 
 of white, yellow, red, brown, and black, is an example 
 of this. The color of the eyes, and of the hair, and the 
 shape of the nose, the cheek-bones, and the lips, are 
 
ADAPTATION TO THE SEASON. 287 
 
 other familiar instances of a distinction of races in con- 
 nexion with food and climate, as well as other local cir- 
 cumstances. I mention these as mere indications, for I 
 do not know how far, or in what respects, any of them 
 contribute to the accommodation in question. But the 
 profuse perspiration of the Negro, under the heat of the 
 tropics, and the stunted growth, and thick-set form of the 
 Laplander, and native of Greenland, where food is scanty, 
 and the cold intense, are less equivocal marks of wise 
 and benevolent design. The perspiration diminishes the 
 heat of the one, while the concentrated frame of the other 
 preserves the animal warmth ; and, while it probably in- 
 creases the bodily strength, and thus gives additional 
 power both of exertion and endurance, affords the faculty 
 of existence on a diminished quantity of food. The state 
 of the Negro is well known, and therefore need not be 
 dwelt on ; but, as the condition of the inhabitants of the 
 polar regions is less familiar to the public, and comes 
 more immediately under our present subject, it may be 
 proper to show how far the view we have taken of their 
 bodily constitution corresponds with their known habits 
 and powers. Goldsmith, following Buffon, gives a most 
 unamiable account of the personal appearance of the in- 
 habitants of these inhospitable countries, including, under 
 one description, the Laplanders, the Esquimaux Indians, 
 the Samaoid Tartars, the natives of Nova Zembla, the 
 Borandians, the Greenlanders, and the Kamtschatkans. 
 His description of their habits, however, shows, them 
 to be powerful, active, and patient of fatigue, cold, and 
 hunger, to a remarkable degree. Speaking of the Lap- 
 landers, he says, " They make use of skates, which are 
 made of fir, of nearly three feet long, and a half broad. 
 With these, they skate on the icy snow, and with such a 
 velocity, that they very easily overtake the swiftest ani- 
 mals. With these skates, they descend the steepest 
 mountains, and scale the most craggy precipices ; and, 
 in such exercises, the women are not less skilful than the 
 men. They have also the use of the bow and arrow, 
 which seems to be a contrivance common to all barba- 
 rous nations ; and which, however, at first required no 
 
288 MAN IN WINTER. 
 
 small skill to invent. They launch a javelin also with 
 great force, and some say that they can hit a mark no 
 larger than a crown, at thirty yards' distance, and with 
 such force as would pierce a man through." 
 
 In reference to the whole race of the inhabitants of the 
 extreme north, this author observes, that, u in propor- 
 tion as we approach the pole, the size of the natives ap- 
 pears to diminish, growing less and less as we advance 
 higher, till we come to those latitudes that are destitute 
 of all inhabitants whatever ; and then he adds the follow- 
 ing interesting and characteristic account. 
 
 " The wretched natives of these climates seem fitted 
 by Nature to endure the rigors of their situation. As 
 their food is but scanty and precarious, their patience in 
 hunger is amazing. A man, who has eaten nothing for 
 four days, can manage his little canoe in the most furious 
 waves, and calmly subsist in the midst of a tempest that 
 would quickly dash a European boat to pieces. Their 
 strength is not less amazing than their patience. A wo- 
 man among them, will carry a piece of timber or a stone, 
 nearly double the weight of what a European can lift." 
 
 This general statement, which is intended to apply to 
 several distinct tribes, is probably pretty accurate, so far 
 as it goes, though perhaps somewhat overcharged. Re- 
 cent voyages and travels have made us better acquainted 
 with the people of those regions, and some interesting 
 facts, both with regard to the character of the inhabitants, 
 and their mode of life, have come to light, as well as 
 with regard to the peculiarities of soil and climate, and the 
 nature of animal and vegetable productions, of which, in 
 a few subsequent papers, we shall avail ourselves. Mean- 
 while, the reader cannot fail to be struck with the pecu- 
 liar arrangements by which the most rigorous climates are 
 accommodated to the subsistence of man ; or to perceive 
 in these arrangements, the most distinct traces of an In- 
 telligent Designer. It is true that, in the extremes both 
 of heat and cold, there seems to be something unfriendly 
 to the developement of the mental powers ; but still it is 
 cheering and instructive to see every where provision 
 made for that rational being, whom, of all his sublunary 
 
PROVIDENCE OF GOD. 289 
 
 works, the Creator has endowed with faculties capable 
 of discerning Himself, and offering up the thanksgivings 
 of creation. 
 
 ELEVENTH WEEK SUNDAY. 
 
 THE UNCEASING AND UNIVERSAL PROVIDENCE OF GOD. 
 
 THERE are many associations connected with this 
 season of the year, which lead the religious mind to look 
 back on past events, as well as forward to the future, in 
 reference to the operations of that Divine Being, in whom 
 we live and move. In contemplating these, we see a 
 thousand things which, even to our diminutive understand- 
 ings, appear to be insignificant, and a thousand more 
 which seem to have happened contrary to reasonable 
 expectations. Such considerations induce us to inquire 
 if it be indeed true, that a God of infinite perfection pre- 
 sides over these events, and occupies Himself with the 
 minute concerns of the little world we inhabit. The in- 
 quiry is at all times interesting. 
 
 It has already been remarked, that the perfections of the 
 Godhead are manifested not only in the large and mag- 
 nificent scale of operations, to which the view of the 
 starry heavens introduces us ; but just as clearly and 
 convincingly in the smaller, and, to our limited appre- 
 hensions, less important, arrangements of our terrestrial 
 globe. Numerous evidences of this truth have come 
 under our notice, in the compensations, adjustments, and 
 contrivances, by which the general welfare of living be- 
 ings is provided for, even in the bleak season of winter, 
 and under circumstances apparently the most unfavorable. 
 Nor is it in created objects themselves, alone, but in their 
 daily history also, that the same character is to be per- 
 ceived ; for the God who made, continues to preserve 
 His creatures ; and the same Hand, which wheels the 
 I. 25 vii. 
 
290 PROVIDENCE OF GOD. 
 
 planets in their orbits, and orders and arranges their daily 
 positions, and their mutual attractions, is as divinely oc- 
 cupied in preserving the various races of His terrestrial 
 offspring, and in directing the daily occurrences by which 
 their individual experience is distinguished. 
 
 That the Almighty watches over each of the beings 
 He has made, and appoints its situation and its history 
 in all their varied vicissitudes, seems to follow from the 
 fact, that He at first saw fit to create it ; for, to imagine 
 that God should have formed any creature, without hav- 
 ing previously arranged the uses to which it should be 
 put, the place it should occupy in the economy of crea- 
 tion, and the mode by which it should contribute to the 
 advancement of His glory, is just to suppose Him such 
 a one as ourselves, ignorant and unsteady, fluctuating 
 in His designs, and capricious in His conduct. Nor does 
 the meanness of any of the creatures affect the question. 
 The fact, that it has been esteemed worthy to be made, 
 establishes the other fact, that, so long as it exists, its 
 movements and its history must be ordered and superin- 
 tended by God ; and that the least noticed and most 
 ordinary occurrences connected with it, are under His 
 control. It requires, for this minute care and superin- 
 tendence, no greater condescension, than for its original 
 formation ; and, if it.be granted, that God is not degraded 
 by the latter, it is inconsistent to imagine any degradation 
 to attach to the former. 
 
 To every argument, therefore, used to support an op- 
 posite conclusion, it were enough to reply, that, as it is 
 God's to create, so it is His to uphold ; and, though to 
 some of the creatures have been assigned a nobler place, 
 and a higher destiny, than to others, the meanest, as well 
 as the most exalted, must receive from God whatever 
 care is necessary to enable them to fulfil the designs for 
 which they were created. The seraph has his place 
 assigned amid the glories of the celestial palace, where he 
 is for ever and ever hymning the praises of his Creator. 
 The pebble of the brook, whether it lies perpetually un- 
 noticed among the stones in which it was originally im- 
 bedded, or serves, in the hand of one under the Divine 
 
PROVIDENCE OF GOD, 291 
 
 guidance, like that used by the stripling David, to smite 
 an enemy of God in the forehead, has been made, and 
 has had its place assigned, by the same infinite Jehovah. 
 Both are equally the property of God, and each, in its 
 own allotted place, is equally well suited for the ends for 
 which it was intended. Both, therefore, are under the 
 care of God, and each will be so ordered and guided, as 
 to promote His eternal designs. That view of God's 
 providence, which, affecting to place Him above the con- 
 templation or the care of His creatures, however small 
 or insignificant they may appear to us, divests Him of 
 the glory attending the daily preservation of so many mi- 
 nute wonders, can only be adopted by one whose ideas 
 of value are formed on the gross supposition, that bulk 
 constitutes importance, and whose intellect is incapable 
 of grasping the fact, that to the mind of God, whatever 
 we can perceive of the vast and magnificent in creation, 
 is but, after all, a point, requiring for its maintenance no 
 greater trouble or care at His hands, than the little fly, 
 which dances in the sunbeam, or the inanimate clod, 
 which we tread beneath our feet. 
 
 From this doctrine may be deduced a sufficiently ob- 
 vious, and no less important lesson a lesson of faith and 
 dependence on that God, by whom all things are arranged 
 and governed. If even the tiniest insect is thus under 
 His care, how much reason have we to feel satisfied that 
 He will care for us. Such was the instruction deduced 
 by our blessed Lord, from the same subject : " Behold, 
 the fowls of the air : for they sow not, neither do they 
 reap, nor gather into barns ; yet your heavenly Father 
 feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they ? 
 Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow ; they toil 
 not, neither do they spin : and yet I say unto you, that 
 even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one 
 of these. If God so clothe the grass of the field, which 
 to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall He 
 not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith ?" 
 
 The providential care manifested towards us by our 
 Creator, is shown not only in the greater and more im- 
 portant events, but in every circumstance by which our 
 
292 PROVIDENCE OF GOD. 
 
 lot is varied, however minute, or however trivial ; in 
 the casual meeting of a friend, which seems to lead to 
 nothing, as well as in the circumstances immediately con- 
 nected with our birth, our conversion, our marriage, or 
 our death. This will be the more readily granted, when 
 it is perceived, that the distinction between trifling and 
 important events cannot be accurately made by us, and 
 that those which would generally be classed among the 
 former, are very frequently the fruitful parents of the most 
 momentous occurrences. 
 
 Does not the history of every one of us testify to the 
 influence of the very smallest and most unheeded of the 
 occurrences by which it has been marked ? Has not the 
 falling of a leaf, or the waving of a branch moved by the 
 gentle breath of heaven, suggested a thought, or led to a 
 resolution fraught with important consequences to our 
 future lives ? And who can tell the thousand thousand 
 links, minute and unremembered, that have every one 
 been necessary, in its own place, to bring about the end 
 which has at length occurred, the strange coincidences, 
 the apparently accidental events, the meetings, the sur- 
 prises, the conversations, the reflections, the very moods 
 of mind which have entered into the composition of the 
 final act, and which, had any one of them been different, 
 even though that one had been the least noticed among 
 the preparatory steps, must have led to a different result. 
 
 And, then, as to the importance of the chief events in 
 the life of the humblest citizen, who can tell what an in- 
 fluence these may indirectly exercise over the happiness 
 of his neighborhood, or the fate of his country, or the 
 destiny of the world ? Had Hampden's spirit never been 
 excited by the injustice of his rulers, who can tell what 
 form of tyranny might now have been swaying the sceptre 
 of Britain ? and had Britain, at that era, slept on in her 
 chains, instead of shaking off the yoke of her oppressors, 
 who can say whether any nation in the world would at 
 this moment have been free ? 
 
 Thus constant, thus minute, is the providential care of 
 God. As He is wise, let us look to Him for the ultimate 
 adjustment of whatever appears to our short-sighted vision 
 
INHABITANTS OF THE POLAR REGIONS. 293 
 
 either distorted or unworthy of His character. As He 
 is good, let us entertain the confidence, that they who 
 serve Him in the gospel of His dear Son, shall be brought 
 through all the vicissitudes of their earthly history to the 
 eternal mansions at last, and that, dark as the experience 
 of His saints may be, He will cause all things to work 
 together for their real good. G. J. C. D. 
 
 ELEVENTH WEEK MONDAY. 
 
 I. ON THE INHABITANTS OF THE POLAR REGIONS. 
 
 WE are naturally led, from the contemplation of man 
 in winter, to view him placed, by the hand of Providence, 
 amid the horrors of the Frozen Zone, where summer 
 hardly ever penetrates, even in its least striking charac- 
 teristics ; where the solar heat is barely sufficient to dis- 
 solve, for a few months, the snow on the lower grounds, 
 or the southern slopes, and to awaken the vegetable world 
 to so languid a life, that even the hardier tribes of herbiv- 
 orous animals find but a meager subsistence. It would 
 be difficult to conjecture any inducement which could 
 have led originally to the voluntary occupation by man 
 of so inhospitable and sterile an abode ; and we are almost 
 constrained to rest on the idea, that, in the accomplish- 
 ment of the Divine intention of peopling the globe, the 
 Supreme Governor has urged mankind, by some myste- 
 rious impulse, independent of his natural inclinations. 
 Furnished with a power of accommodation to all climates, 
 and aided and prompted, no doubt, by circumstances, 
 man has often unconsciously fulfilled the first command 
 of his Creator, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish 
 the earth." Issuing from the Plain of Shinar, to every 
 point of the compass, the human race, after filling up 
 the fertile regions of the Asiatic continent, radiated thence 
 towards all the quarters of the globe ; till, after the lapse 
 25* 
 
294 INHABITANTS OF 
 
 of ages, they brought the most inhospitable regions, and 
 most distant islands, under their dominion. In this process 
 of dispersion, even the wastes of Siberia, and the snowy 
 deserts of Boothia Felix, received a portion of the human 
 family. God, by whom they were conducted, and who 
 had implanted within them an indomitable perseverance, 
 and an amazing versatility of mind, had also prepared 
 for them, even there, the means of subsistence ; and, 
 though hardships were to be encountered, and difficulties 
 to be overcome, of which the inhabitants of more favored 
 climes were ignorant, there was spread for them, in the 
 various kingdoms of Nature, a provision ample enough 
 to satisfy all their real wants. 
 
 In illustrating this subject, I shall turn my attention, 
 exclusively, to the state and character of those nations 
 who are known by the general name of Esquimaux, and 
 who dwell in the most northerly regions hitherto explored, 
 I mean the higher latitudes of the continent of America. 
 Consulting those enterprising adventurers who have, in 
 later years, penetrated the frozen seas, or wintered among 
 the snows and storms of this extreme portion of the world, 
 we shall thus be brought to understand how ample are 
 the resources of Providence, even in the very coldest 
 portions of the world ; and, much more, how rich must 
 be the provision made by the Creator in countries where 
 the frost is less intense, and the rigors of the climate less 
 severe. We shall find that objects, which, in temper- 
 ate latitudes like ours, are regarded as useless or trouble- 
 some, are there capable of being turned to the most valu- 
 able account ; that the snow, for example, which, to the 
 delicate foot of the luxurious European, is cold, and 
 damp, and disagreeable, grows in importance as we travel 
 towards this ultimate corner of the earth. In the back 
 woods of Canada, during the grim reign of winter, it af- 
 fords the only means of transporting the produce of the 
 land ; and, what is very remarkable, forms a hard and 
 easy path, for this purpose, at the very season when the 
 convenience of the agriculturist demands it. But, in the 
 native country of the Esquimaux, we shall find its value 
 greatly enhanced, affording shelter and warmth, as well 
 
THE POLAR REGIONS. 295 
 
 as facilities of easy transit. It is true, we shall not dis- 
 cover, in these wild and miserable districts, accommoda- 
 tions either so choice or so convenient as in temperate 
 regions : Nor will our general argument thereby be weak- 
 ened. God, who has arranged the various conditions of 
 the different orders of His creatures, has kindly bestowed 
 upon some, advantages which He has seen meet to with- 
 hold from others ; and, while we perceive that this is but 
 consistent with the general system of His providence 
 throughout our degenerate world, it is enough for us to 
 know, that, even amid the blackness and horrors of an 
 Arctic winter, we can find ample reason to adore that 
 goodness, which, under circumstances apparently hope- 
 less, has provided a sufficiency for the sustenance of a 
 considerable portion of His rational creatures. 
 
 The grand necessities of that remote people, then, 
 may be considered under the several heads of Food, 
 Clothing, Dwellings, Fire, and Light. 
 
 1. The daily food of the Esquimaux, as may well be 
 supposed, is not directly derived from the soil. The 
 land, perhaps in itself sterile, and at all events incapable, 
 from the seventy of the climate, of yielding a remunerat- 
 ing return for its cultivation, lies undisturbed by the hand 
 of man, in all its original barrenness. Its spontaneous 
 productions are few and of small value. 
 
 On the melting of the snow, the surface of the earth is 
 found clothed with a stunted herbage, consisting chiefly 
 of short coarse grass, affording a sufficient meal to the 
 tribes of animals, which, during the winter months, had 
 migrated to less sterile countries, but offering little to 
 satisfy the cravings of the human appetite, and still less 
 to provoke the indulgence of a luxurious taste. A few 
 of the vegetable productions, indeed, are occasionally 
 employed by the natives ; but they are neither depended 
 on as necessaries of life, nor cultivated for domestic pur- 
 poses. Under these circumstances, the hardy natives 
 are driven to the resources afforded by the animal pro- 
 ductions with which, happily, their country abounds. Of 
 these we may mention several of the more remarkable. 
 The smaller species of rein-deer which, in summer, are 
 
296 INHABITANTS OF THE POLAR REGIONS. 
 
 found in considerable numbers over the most northerly 
 districts of America, and even among the islands of the 
 Arctic Ocean, where they arrive in spring by crossing 
 the yet unbroken ice, offer them a delicious banquet. 
 These animals are tracked through the snow with that 
 zeal and perseverance which generally characterize the 
 hunting excursions of a barbarous people ; and, notwith- 
 standing their proverbial fleetness, fall victims, in great 
 numbers, to the sure aim of the Esquimaux archers. 
 The musk-ox is an animal peculiar to very cold and in- 
 hospitable latitudes ; and though, being sometimes of a 
 savage temper, he needs to be approached with caution, 
 is constantly pursued, as affording a principal article of 
 food. At certain seasons, indeed, its flesh possesses a 
 very strong and unpleasant flavor of that odorous produc- 
 tion from which its name is derived ; but, in general, it 
 is highly palatable, and has often been eaten with relish 
 by Europeans, who describe it as very similar in taste to 
 beef. To these may be added the hare, the wolf, and 
 the fox ; the two last of which are caught in ingenious 
 traps, baited with fish, or any sort of animal garbage, and 
 are readily attracted to the neighborhood of the snare, by 
 setting fire to a little rancid oil or refuse fat. The flesh 
 of the fox, strange as it may appear, is not only much 
 esteemed by the Esquimaux, but even by European trav- 
 ellers, who, when fresh provisions were scarce, have often 
 partaken of it with relish. In addition to these quadru- 
 peds, it need hardly be remarked, that the Esquimaux 
 are furnished, by the hand of their bountiful Creator, 
 with an immense and most valuable supply of fish. The 
 enormous whale and the delicious salmon, the walrus and 
 the seal, are all made tributary to their daily necessities. 
 They have exerted their ingenuity in the preparation of 
 the staves, the spears, and other instruments employed 
 in their capture ; and these, though far indeed from the 
 perfection exhibited in the tackle of a European, manifest 
 a greater share of the inventive faculties than we could 
 easily have believed to belong to so rude and ungainly a 
 people. 
 
 The immense quantity of fish taken and preserved by 
 
FOOD AND CLOTHING. 297 
 
 them, every season, for the supply of their winter neces- 
 sities, almost exceeds our belief. But the contemplation 
 of the exuberant abundance which their stores supply, 
 while it leads to the conclusion, that no portion of the 
 globe is so wild or inhospitable as to be destitute of 
 proofs of the care and rich bounty of our heavenly Fa- 
 ther, awakens within us a sentiment of adoration, as well 
 as of astonishment. " The earth is full of His goodness." 
 
 ELEVENTH WEEK TUESDAY. 
 
 II. ON THE INHABITANTS OF THE POLAR REGIONS. FOOD 
 AND CLOTHING. 
 
 IT is generally admitted by physiologists, that the ac- 
 tivity of the human body, in the generation of internal 
 heat, though dependent, in a great degree, on the origi- 
 nal constitution, is powerfully affected by the quality, as 
 well as the quantity, of the food consumed. It would 
 moreover appear, that, to excite the heating powers of 
 the living principle in man, there is nothing found by ex- 
 perience so valuable as an oily diet. In temperate re- 
 gions, this fact is recognised by medical men, in cases 
 of protracted rheumatism, in which the regular use of 
 the oil extracted from the liver of the cod, is found highly 
 beneficial in bracing the system to resist the effects of 
 external cold, and enabling it, by an increased action, to 
 banish the gnawing pains of that distressing complaint. 
 Any one can tell how much, on exposure to the cold of 
 a winter day in our own climate, hunger increases the 
 chilly sensations of the body, and how much comfort a 
 sufficiency of animal food is calculated to afford. A 
 meager diet is best adapted to a warm climate or season, 
 agreeing well with the relaxed state of the body under an 
 equinoctial sun, or the parching heats of summer ; but af- 
 fording no defence against the bitter effects of a severe 
 
293 INHABITANTS OF THE POLAR REGIONS. 
 
 frost. I believe it has been frequently remarked by per- 
 sons familiar with the Polar Seas, that sailors of a full 
 habit of body, a sanguine temperament, and a florid com- 
 plexion, if in good health, are the least affected by the 
 feeling of severe cold ; and these are just the men most 
 generally addicted to eating considerable portions of ani- 
 mal food. A thin and bilious person, on the other hand, 
 who eats sparingly, and loathes a large proportion of fat 
 or oily substances, finds it painful to be long exposed to 
 the chilling influence of a northern sky. How remark- 
 able an example of Providential care, then, does it ap- 
 pear, that, in those very regions where the internal heat 
 of the body needs most to be excited, an inexhaustible 
 supply exists, of the very description of food best suited 
 to the purpose ; and that, where the warmth of a summer 
 sun never summons from the chilled and benumbed earth 
 a vegetable provision for the calls of the human appetite, 
 there should be found what is far better the oils and 
 the fat with which the Arctic province of the animal king- 
 dom so peculiarly abounds. Nor must it be forgotten, 
 that with this abundance there also exists a relish, on the 
 part of the inhabitants, for substances, the mere odor of 
 which, in the chamber where they are to be partaken of, 
 is sufficient to expel with disgust a native of this country. 
 The incredible quantity of this description of food, ran- 
 cid as it is, which an Esquimaux is capable of devouring 
 . at a meal, has astonished the Europeans by whom it has 
 been witnessed. Twenty pounds of salmon, for instance, 
 is stated as no uncommon quantity to be devoured by an 
 individual at a single meal. Excess, indeed, is followed, 
 among them, as well as in more civilized nations, with its 
 own punishment ; but there can be no doubt, that the 
 cold of these regions is materially deprived of its painful 
 effects on the human frame by eating as largely as Nature 
 will easily permit ; so that the tendency to make a full 
 meal, which is universally exhibited among them, and is 
 no doubt a part of their constitution, must be looked upon 
 as a collateral provision of the same wise overruling 
 Power, liable, indeed, to abuse, but, when rightly regu- 
 lated, calculated to promote the welfare of this remote 
 people. 
 
FOOD AND CLOTHING. 299 
 
 2. The clothing of the Arctic tribes, and especially 
 of the Esquimaux, is almost entirely composed of furs. 
 Providence, which has kindly adapted the coats of the 
 lower animals in these regions, to the rigors of their cli- 
 mate, has thus, at the same time, brought within the 
 reach of man the means of a warm exterior defence from 
 the cold to which he is exposed. 
 
 Neither the flannels of more civilized countries, nor 
 the skins of more southern climates, are at all to be com- 
 pared to the valuable clothing with which, by the same 
 exertion and ingenuity which are requisite to procure 
 their food, they are furnished, among the hills and islands 
 of their icy home. The long hair, which gives to the 
 white bear and musk-ox their shaggy aspect ; the rough 
 coat of the rein-deer, the hare, and the fox, cover a close 
 warm downy inner garment of fur, rendered thicker by 
 the first severe onset of winter, which effectually pre- 
 serves the animal, for which it was originally provided, 
 from the intensity of the northern storms ; and, when 
 snatched from its first owner by the lord of the lower 
 world, affords to him a similar protection. Clothed in a 
 double garment of deer-skin, encircling the body, and 
 reaching in front from the chin to the middle of the thigh, 
 and behind to the calf of the leg, with sleeves so long as 
 to cover the points of the fingers ; with the hair of the 
 inner garment, as a warm exciting covering, next the 
 body, and that of the outer one, from its roughness, ex- 
 tremely unfavorable to the radiation of heat, in the reverse 
 direction ; his limbs protected by two pairs of boots, 
 and, above these, trowsers of the skin of the seal or of 
 the deer, an Esquimaux can endure, without danger or 
 inconvenience, a degree of cold, to which we, in this 
 temperate zone, are utter strangers. Nor are we to ima- 
 gine that the piercing climate, which has imposed the 
 necessity for such defences, has had any effect in souring 
 the dispositions or lessening the enjoyments of this singu- 
 lar race. On the contrary, they have generally been 
 found remarkable for their good-humor and easy temper. 
 Their very dresses, frequently ornamented with fringes 
 of leather, or tassels of bone, bear testimony that the 
 
300 INHABITANTS OF THE POLAR REGIONS. 
 
 hardships of their lot have neither cramped their taste, 
 nor stifled their natural love of ornament. With an air 
 of freedom and of personal comfort that can hardly be 
 believed, while he enjoys the protection I have just de- 
 scribed, the hardy native courageously braves an inten- 
 sity of frost sufficient to congeal mercury. He proceeds 
 on his journey, or pursues his prey, with a hilarity and 
 keenness which testify, that the Being who has placed 
 him among the horrors of his icy abode, has also afford- 
 ed him ample means of defence and enjoyment. 
 
 G. J. C. D. 
 
 ELEVENTH WEEK WEDNESDAY . 
 
 III. ON THE INHABITANTS OF THE POLAR REGIONS. DWEL- 
 LINGS AND FIRE. 
 
 3. IN all climates, but more especially in the extreme 
 north, it is a matter of indispensable importance to the 
 inhabitants, to provide for themselves shelter from the 
 inclemency of the weather. The lengthened journeys 
 which these tribes are compelled by their necessities to 
 undertake, the frequency of their removals, and the ob- 
 literating effects of falling snow, all tend to render it at 
 once inconvenient and useless for them, even were it 
 practicable, to erect permanent dwelling-places. Had 
 they wood, stone, and mortar at command, these mate- 
 rials would be to them of little avail. The villages of 
 to-day, deserted to-morrow, and next day buried many 
 feet beneath the snowy covering which enveloped, for 
 so large a proportion of the year, the surface of their 
 country, would, ere their return, be altogether useless, 
 even if they were sure, at the end of several months, to 
 find the spot on which they stood. But we need not say 
 that such appliances as these are not within their reach. 
 The wreck left by the southern wave, when it washes 
 
DWELLINGS AND FIRE. 301 
 
 their shores, may sometimes, indeed, provide them with 
 a tree, a mast, or a spar ; but these materials are too 
 eagerly coveted, and too valuable for constructing the 
 smaller articles required by them, to leave any sufficient 
 proportion for such purposes as building ; while, of the 
 architectural uses of stone and lime, they seem to be al- 
 together ignorant. 
 
 But for all these wants, they are furnished, by the pro- 
 tecting providence of God, with an ample and highly 
 appropriate substitute, however strange it may appear to 
 the inhabitants of temperate regions. The snow which 
 covers the soil for by far the greater portion of the year, 
 offers them the refuge which their necessities require. 
 Migrating, as they do, from time to time, in search 
 of food, at the close of each day's journey, they erect 
 their temporary dwellings, at little expense either of 
 materials or workmanship ; and, when they reach the 
 station which they propose to occupy for a few- months, 
 even then their mode of building is of the simplest sort. 
 It is thus described by Sir John Ross : " Having as- 
 certained, by the rod used in examining seal-holes, 
 whether the snow is sufficiently deep and solid, they level 
 the intended spot by a wooden shovel, leaving beneath 
 a solid mass of snow, not less than three feet thick* . 
 Commencing, then, in the centre of the intended circle, 
 which is ten feet or more in diameter, different wedge- 
 shaped blocks are cut out, about two feet long, and a 
 foot thick, at the outer part ; then trimming them accu- 
 rately by the knife, they proceed upward, until the 
 courses, gradually inclining inwards, terminate in a per- 
 fect dome. The door, being cut out from the inside, 
 before it is quite closed, serves to supply the upper ma- 
 terials. In the mean time, the women are employed in 
 stuffing the joints with snow, and the boys in construct- 
 ing kennels for the dogs." In the interior, the only 
 furniture that is to be seen, consists of a sofa of snow, 
 occupying nearly a third of the breadth of the area, about 
 two feet and a half high, level at the top, and covered 
 with various skins, forming the general bed or sleeping- 
 place. The hut is lighted by a window of ice nicely 
 i. 26 vn. 
 
302 INHABITANTS OP THE POLAR REGIONS. 
 
 inserted in the building, and secured by frozen snow ; and 
 the entrance is by a passage, long, narrow, and crooked, 
 the outer aperture of which is planned, and from time to 
 time altered, so as to secure the inmates from the pre- 
 vailing winds of the season. The stores are laid up in 
 smaller huts constructed to receive them ; and they, and 
 the kennels for the dogs, which invariably accompany the 
 tribes, are formed of the same material. 
 
 It will naturally be conjectured, that such dwellings as 
 have now been described, must be extremely cold, and 
 liable, on any accession of artificial heat, to be rendered 
 altogether uninhabitable, by the perpetual distillation of 
 water from the icy walls. But there are several consid- 
 erations which must be taken into the account, to enable 
 us to judge of the suitableness of these habitations for the 
 hardy race who occupy them. It must be noticed, in the 
 first place, as a most important provision for their com- 
 fort, that snow is a very imperfect conductor of heat. 
 The severe cold of the external air, therefore, makes but 
 a small impression on the temperature of a chamber situ- 
 ated beneath a snow wall of considerable thickness. 
 Then, from its extreme whiteness, it is, comparatively 
 speaking, little liable to be dissolved by the heat of a 
 lamp or fire, being much more ready to reflect caloric 
 than to absorb it. These facts, however, striking as they 
 are, it is clear, could not prevent the most annoying ef- 
 fects, were a strong heat constantly kept up within their 
 circumscribed apartments. But here we find another 
 important provision. The bodily frame, in all latitudes, 
 speedily becomes inured, by habit, to the climate to which 
 it is exposed, and the standard of temperature requisite 
 for comfort accordingly rises or falls, as we live nearer the 
 equator or the poles. While the African shivers under 
 the summer warmth of the temperate zone, a degree of 
 heat scarcely sufficient to raise the mercury to the freez- 
 ing point affords to the patient Esquimaux, in his snowy 
 hut, quite enough of warmth to make him comfortable ; 
 and, even if the temperature should, at times, be raised 
 so high as to promote a rapid distillation from the walls, 
 his ideas of luxury do not render this a very serious in- 
 
DWELLINGS AND FIRE. 303 
 
 convenience. When we remember that it is not luxury 
 which these rude tribes value, but simply shelter, we 
 shall be less surprised with their contentment, especially 
 when we learn that their clothing affords them sufficient 
 security against the wetting influence even of melted 
 snow. They experience quite as much of comfort as 
 they desire, in finding themselves, during sleep, snug in 
 their bags of fur, though the spot on which they lie be 
 neither very dry nor very soft ; for this defence, provid- 
 ed for them by the care of their Divine Preserver, an- 
 swers to them all the ends for which it is needed. 
 
 4. In a region such as this, of frost and snow, of storm 
 and tempest, it will easily be believed that the inhabit- 
 ants are very dependant on fire, as a means of sustaining 
 life ; and the question will at once suggest itself, Whence 
 can they derive fuel ? Coals are unknown to them ; 
 and wood, we have seen, is much too valuable to be used 
 for such a purpose. But they are not left destitute. 
 Their little chambers are illuminated, during the whole 
 course of their lengthened winter, by the cheerful, warm, 
 and useful blaze of the lamp, which is replenished by 
 oil from the seals yearly destroyed, in immense multi- 
 tudes, by the native hunters. We have seen how valua- 
 ble to the natives of these arctic regions, is the oily 
 nature of their diet. Here, however, we find that Provi- 
 dence had another end in view in affording to the inhab- 
 itants of these countries so large a supply of fat and oil 
 as that which is obtained from several of the cetaceous 
 tribes which frequent their stormy seas. Nor is this an 
 end less essential to the preservation of human life. 
 There, where no other fuel could be had, and where, 
 without fire, the race of men must soon have become ex- 
 tinct, were fixed these living reservoirs of combustible 
 fluid, which it only needed the exercise of reason, of per- 
 severance, and of ingenuity, to bring within the power of 
 the human family ; by which a provision has been made 
 for their wants, infinitely better suited to the circumstan- 
 ces of their lot, in their inhospitable deserts, than any 
 other description of fuel that could be named. Coals 
 would have required the assistance of large beasts of bur- 
 
304 FROST. PROVISION FOR CAUSING 
 
 den, and the convenience of roads to remove them from 
 the pits to the places where they were to be consumed, 
 and the very nature of the climate rendered both of these 
 equally impossible to be obtained. Wood, even suppos- 
 ing it could have been had, would have been almost as 
 inconvenient ; but the seals are generally to be met with 
 readily, and killed with ease, affording, for a moderate 
 degree of labor and of ingenuity, not only an ample ban- 
 quet, but a very considerable quantity of the best oil, to 
 feed the flame on which their food, their drink, and their 
 comfort mainly depend. How can we contemplate such 
 facts as these, without admiring the goodness and the care 
 of that God who has so liberally furnished the means of 
 subsistence, even in this wild, desolate, and barren coun- 
 try ! G. J. C. D. 
 
 ELEVENTH WEEK THURSDAY. 
 
 I. FROST. PROVISION FOR CAUSING ICE TO FLOAT ON THE 
 
 SURFACE. 
 
 WITHOUT heat, everything would be solid ; the true 
 way, therefore, of viewing liquids, is to consider them as 
 solids in a melted state. Bodies melt at different tem- 
 peratures, according to their capacity of receiving heat, 
 and to the nature of the action which this subtile princi- 
 ple produces on their particles. Thus, it requires one 
 degree of intensity to melt stone, another to melt iron, 
 another to melt lead, and another still to melt ice. In 
 this view, ice may be considered as the natural state of 
 the element, and water to be nothing else than ice ren- 
 dered liquid, like other substances, by heat. When the 
 short continuance of the sun above the horizon in winter, 
 and his oblique rays, have greatly diminished the force 
 of his influence, he is no longer able to preserve water 
 in a liquid state, and then the process of crystallization 
 
ICE TO FLOAT ON THE SURFACE. 305 
 
 takes place, and ice is formed. But there is a remarka- 
 ble difference between ice and other solid bodies, in the 
 laws regulating its passage from a liquid to a crystallized 
 state, which manifests beneficent intention. 
 
 Take water in its common state, and observe what oc- 
 curs in reference to heat. It is the property of water, 
 in common with other liquids, to communicate heat not 
 so much by conduction, as it is called, that is, by trans- 
 mitting the temperature from particle to particle, as 
 by a motion among the particles themselves. Liquids, 
 like solids, expand by heat and contract by cold. When 
 heat, therefore, is applied to the bottom of a vessel, the 
 expansion diminishes the specific gravity of the particles 
 affected by it, and they rise to the surface, giving place 
 to the colder and heavier particles, which again are heated 
 in their turn, and ascend ; and thus the process proceeds, 
 till the whole liquid is of equal temperature. In cooling, 
 the opposite process takes place ; the particles, as they 
 become colder at the surface, subside, while others, of 
 higher temperature, supply their place, and this inter- 
 change and mixture goes on, till the whole body of the 
 liquid becomes as cold as the surface. This remarkable 
 property we have already noticed in speaking of the effect 
 of the waters of the ocean in mitigating the temperature 
 of different climates. Let us now see what would be the 
 consequence if the same laws were to hold without limita- 
 tion or exception. The cooled particles constantly de- 
 scending, in virtue of their relative specific gravity, 
 would, when the freezing point was reached, suddenly 
 convert lakes and rivers, and the bed of the ocean itself, 
 into a solid mass of ice, the congelation beginning at the 
 bottom, and quickly spreading upward. Nor, when our 
 deep waters were once frozen, would there be any natu- 
 ral means in existence by which they could be thawed to 
 the bottom, because the heated particles, being the light- 
 est, would constantly float at the top, and the warmth 
 could only be diffused, as it is in solids, by the slower 
 and less equable means of conduction. The experiment 
 has been made, and water has been caused to boil by the 
 26* 
 
306 FROST. PROVISION FOR CAUSING 
 
 application of heat to a vessel partly filled with ice, with- 
 out thawing the congealed cake below. 
 
 Now, this would be attended with many disadvantages. 
 The utility of our seas and lakes, in our own and similar 
 latitudes, would be destroyed as means of commerce and 
 of subsistence ; and that element which, by its equal and 
 mild temperature, contributes so essentially to the salu- 
 brity of all climates, from the tropics to the polar re- 
 gions, would serve only to chill the atmosphere, and ren- 
 der even our temperate climates inhospitable. 
 
 Let us, then, attend to the modification of the law by 
 which this inconvenience is provided against. Water 
 continues to contract by the application of cold, till it 
 approaches the freezing point ; but here a most remarka- 
 ble deviation takes place. When it has cooled down to 
 forty degrees, instead of continuing to contract, it sudden- 
 ly begins to expand, and it proceeds in this new course, 
 till, at thirty-two degrees, it becomes ice. The fluid 
 is, therefore, at its greatest density, when its temperature 
 is just eight degrees above the freezing point ; and hence 
 the bottoms of our seas and lakes will be generally found, 
 in winter, not to exceed that extent of coldness.* The 
 coldest water, as it approaches the freezing point, rises 
 to the surface. There the ice is formed, exposed to the 
 first return of a more genial temperature, and ready to 
 dissolve with the earliest influences of a warmer sun. 
 
 Another remarkable circumstance, which secures the 
 floating of ice on the surface of the water, is, that in the 
 very act of freezing, a further expansion takes place. 
 By this operation, the specific gravity of ice becomes 
 less than that of water under any circumstances, and it 
 is thus prevented from sinking to the bottom. Did no 
 expansion take place in the process of congelation, ice 
 would continue to float only so long as the water, on the 
 surface of which it was formed, remained below the tem- 
 perature of forty degrees. If the temperature happened 
 
 * It seems unnecessary to notice some remarkable facts which have 
 lately attracted public attention, that appear somewhat to modify this 
 conclusion, ice having been found formed at the bottom of some deep 
 lakes. 
 
ICE TO FLOAT ON THE SURFACE. 307 
 
 to be raised above this point, it would immediately sink, 
 and be overwhelmed, giving rise to various inconvenien- 
 ces, though not of so formidable a nature as those already 
 alluded to. 
 
 It is not easy for the most skeptical to avoid the con- 
 clusion, that the marked and salutary deviation in this 
 case, from the law by which matter is expanded by heat 
 and contracted by cold, is an arrangement of an intelli- 
 gent and beneficent Creator. The general rule is fol- 
 lowed down to the point where it ceases to be beneficial ; 
 and then, by a sudden and surprising change, the very 
 opposite rule takes place, by which disastrous effects are 
 prevented, and various important advantages are secured. 
 Where could we look for a clearer or more satisfactory 
 proof of wise contrivance ? 
 
 "We do not know," says Whewell, "how far these 
 laws of expansion are connected with, and depend on, 
 more remote and general properties of this fluid, or of 
 all fluids. But we have no reason to believe, that, by 
 whatever means they operate, they are not laws selected 
 from among other laws which might exist, as, in fact, 
 for other fluids, other laws do exist. We have all the 
 evidence which the most remarkable furtherance of im- 
 portant purposes can give us, that they are selected, and 
 selected with a beneficial design." 
 
 ELEVENTH WEEK FRIDAY. 
 
 II. FROST. THE EXPANSIVE AND NON-CONDUCTING POWER 
 
 OF ICE. 
 
 OUR attention was yesterday directed to some of the 
 peculiar provisions, by which the freezing of water is so 
 modified as to prevent the fatal effects that would ensue, 
 were the general law of expansion and contraction which 
 regulates heated bodies, to operate without being arrested 
 
308 FROST. EXPANSIVE AND 
 
 and altered. But there are one or two other beneficial 
 operations of frost in our climate, which must not be 
 passed without notice. 
 
 The expansive power of water, when passing into ice, 
 has already been stated. This power operates with great 
 force, as has been ascertained by experiment. A famil- 
 iar instance occurs in the bursting of bottles filled with 
 water or other liquids, when corked up and exposed to 
 its influence. The same power affects the soil, when 
 saturated with moisture, heaving up and separating the 
 particles of earth and gravel. This sometimes acts dis- 
 advantageously, by throwing out the plants of young 
 wheat, and by loosening the materials of which our roads 
 are composed ; but it amply repays these partial incon- 
 veniences, by its pulverizing effects on tenacious soils. 
 Stiff loams, as they are called, that is, lands chiefly com- 
 posed of an unctuous clay, though abounding in the vege- 
 tative principle, are yet naturally in an unfit state for suc- 
 cessful cultivation. Their tenacity prevents the absorption 
 and removal of the superfluous moisture during rainy 
 seasons, and in drought renders the soil so indurated, as 
 to obstruct the free growth of the roots of plants, and 
 the secretion of sap. Now the agriculturist knows how 
 to obviate these disadvantages, by the exposure of this 
 kind of soil to the influence of frost. He ploughs up his 
 land into furrows ; and, by thus presenting it to the freez- 
 ing process, finds that the water mingled with the soil, as 
 it expands in being converted into ice, separates, with 
 irresistible force, the adhesive particles of the clay ; and, 
 when again contracted, and rendered liquid by thawing, 
 leaves the earth finely pulverized, and brought into a state 
 well fitted for giving forth its prolific qualities in the 
 ensuing year. 
 
 Another beneficial property of frost, in the form of ice 
 as well as of snow, is the power it possesses of confining 
 the cold to the surface of the earth. The ice binds up 
 the soil, and, being a slow conductor, prevents the seve- 
 rity of the season from injuriously affecting the fibres 
 and roots of the plants which Nature has, in general, 
 buried to a sufficient depth for their preservation, with 
 
NON-CONDUCTING POWER OF ICE. 309 
 
 the aid of this wise provision. Even when the ice reaches 
 and envelopes the roots, it seldom materially injures 
 them, because it does not easily descend below the freez- 
 ing point, which is much higher than the usual tempera- 
 ture of the air in northern winters. 
 
 Here, again, we find cause of pious admiration. We 
 do not expect a world of perfection ; but the contrary. 
 All climates have their inconveniences and evils : such 
 is the condition of our world ; but then these disadvanta- 
 ges are always, in a wonderful manner, guarded, limited, 
 and mitigated. They proceed to a certain point ; but 
 there a Paternal Hand interposes ; and the sentence is 
 pronounced as distinctly as if it were proclaimed with 
 an audible voice, "Hitherto shalt thou come, and no 
 further." The obvious intention is discipline, and not 
 destruction. In tropical climates, for example, the heat 
 of a vertical sun, as we have seen, is not permitted to 
 accumulate, by perpetual action on one point, as it would 
 thus become intolerable. That great source of light and 
 warmth is made continually to traverse from tropic to 
 tropic ; and when his direct rays would strike too fiercely 
 in his passage there, the clouds collect with their shade, 
 the rising winds fan the air, the cooling and fertilizing 
 rains descend, and thus he moves along, in his tempered 
 glory, showering blessings from his wings at the moment 
 when he threatened to scorch and destroy. And a simi- 
 lar arrangement is observable with reference to the oppo- 
 site extreme of intense cold. The wintry blast seems 
 calculated utterly to exterminate both the vegetable and 
 animal creation ; but by a series of deeply excogitated 
 contrivances, the calamity is averted, and life and vigor 
 are preserved in the vegetable world, while comfort and 
 enjoyment are communicated to every thing that lives. 
 
 How curious and edifying is the analogy between the 
 works of creation and the operations of Divine grace, 
 between the revelations of the book of Nature and of the 
 book of Inspiration. When the curse fell on man, it was 
 mitigated by the promise, that " The seed of the woman 
 should bruise the head of the serpent ;" when the earth 
 was forbidden to yield him food, except as the fruit of 
 
310 FROST. AMUSEMENTS 
 
 painful toil, that very toil was converted into a source of 
 pleasure and improvement. 
 
 Here is compensation ; but grace goes far beyond the 
 analogy of nature, for it promises heaven for earth, the 
 absolute and unalloyed blessedness of immortality, for 
 the turmoils and stinted enjoyments of this mortal life. 
 When the terrestrial paradise was closed against man for 
 ever, his eye was directed, across a rugged and gloomy 
 wilderness, and through a swelling flood, to that bright 
 spot in the distant horizon,where u the wicked cease from 
 troubling, and the weary are at rest;" where a Father's 
 hand wipes the tear from every eye ; and where u joy 
 unspeakable and full of glory" eternally reigns. 
 
 ELEVENTH WEEK SATURDAY. 
 
 
 
 III. FROST. AMUSEMENTS CONNECTED WITH IT. 
 
 A GROUP of schoolboys on the surface of a frozen 
 pond or lake, is a most animated and interesting specta- 
 cle. There is so much evidence of real enjoyment in 
 the motions, the accents, and the countenances of the 
 various individuals who compose it, whether they glide 
 along the ice on skates, or by means of the more humble 
 instrumentality of wooden shoes, fenced with iron, or of 
 a staff, armed with a pike, that a spectator, accustomed 
 to reflection, cannot fail to recognise, in the happiness 
 which prevails around him, an evidence of a benevolent 
 Creator. 
 
 It might, perhaps, appear ludicrous, were I to assert 
 that ice is formed smooth and hard, for the purpose of 
 affording means of healthy and exhilarating sport to the 
 young; and I might be reminded, that this is just the 
 form which the crystallizing process takes in other in- 
 stances, and the natural result of its laws. Be it so : but 
 still it is impossible to deny, that the youthful mind is 
 
CONNECTED WITH IT. 311 
 
 so framed as to take pleasure in the exercises which the 
 smooth and level surface of the ice affords ; and surely 
 we do not go beyond the bounds of legitimate inference, 
 when we assert, that this is one of the benevolent con- 
 trivances by which the rigors of winter are softened, 
 whether the adaptation lie in the polished surface of the 
 frozen plain, or in the buoyancy of the youthful mind, 
 or in both. This observation may be greatly extended ; 
 for there is scarcely any object with which we are sur- 
 rounded, that is not, to the well-constituted mind, a 
 source of enjoyment. In the young this is more con- 
 spicuous, because the pleasurable feeling lies nearer the 
 surface, and is more easily excited, and expressed more 
 emphatically, by outward signs. But it would be a great 
 mistake to measure the relative enjoyments of childhood 
 and manhood by their external expression, or to suppose 
 that Nature, even in its most familiar aspects, does not 
 present as many objects of interest, and of agreeable sen- 
 sation, to those who are in the meridian of life, or even 
 verging towards the shades of evening, as to those who 
 flutter in the morning sunshine. 
 
 If the ice afford the schoolboy the joy of gliding swift- 
 ly on its smooth expanse, it is not niggardly of its amuse- 
 ments to the more sedate minds of the mature in age. 
 To every northern country, some amusement on the ice 
 is familiar ; and, among these, that of curling may be 
 mentioned as the game peculiarly prized in many districts 
 of Scotland ; and also, if I mistake not, in the Nether- 
 lands ; from which latter country it seems to have been 
 originally derived. The amiable Grahame, in his Brit- 
 ish Georgics, gives a graphic description of this amuse- 
 ment, an extract from which will not be unacceptable. 
 
 *' Now rival parishes and shrievedoms, keep, 
 On upland lochs, the long-expected tryst,, 
 To play their yearly bonspeil. Aged men, 
 Smit with the eagerness of youth, are there, 
 While love of conquest lights their beamless eyes, 
 New nerves their arms, and makes them young once more." 
 
 "Keen, keener still, as life itself were staked, 
 Kindles the friendly strife : one points the line 
 
312 FROST. 
 
 To him who, poising, aims and aims again ; 
 Another runs, and sweeps where nothing lies. 
 Success, alternately, from side to side, 
 Changes ; and quick the hours unnoted fly, 
 Till light begins to fail, and deep below, 
 The player, as he stoops to lift his coit, 
 Sees, half incredulous, the rising moon. 
 And now the final, the decisive spell 
 Begins ; near and more near the sounding stones, 
 Some winding in, some bearing straight along, 
 Crowd justling all around the mark ; while one 
 Just slightly touching, victory depends 
 Upon the final aim : low swings the stone, 
 Then, with full force, careering furious on, 
 Rattling it strikes aside both friend and foe, 
 Maintains its course, and takes the victor's place." 
 
 These are but single instances of the means of enjoy- 
 ment, which brighten the gloom of winter. The benevo- 
 lent Parent of Nature enables the human mind to find a 
 source of pleasure, as I have said, almost in every thing. 
 Who has not felt his heart expand with an undefinable 
 delight, when he has beheld the fantastic forms into which, 
 during severe weather, the frozen spray or drippings of 
 a cascade throw themselves, and when he has given loose 
 reins to his fancy, in tracing crystal grottos, and temples, 
 and spires, in the endless, but always elegant varieties of 
 the architecture which the wizard Frost had reared ? The 
 very icicles dependent from the eaves of the houses, as 
 they glance in the morning sun, are not beheld without a 
 pleasing emotion ; and a higher gratification to the taste 
 is afforded in contemplating the white expanse of the 
 snow as it spreads its bright and colorless carpet over 
 the fields, and lies thick on the bending hedges and trees, 
 while, at the horizon, the cold marble outline of the dis- 
 tant hills, swelling in the softened light, is finely contrast- 
 ed with the dark blue of the serene and cloudless sky. 
 Mr. Abbott, a pleasing and amiable American writer, 
 has touched, very beautifully, on the ''thousand ingenious 
 contrivances," as he calls them, which u God has planned 
 and executed to make men happy," and he alludes, among 
 other things, to the enjoyments of winter, in a few sen- 
 tences, which will form an appropriate conclusion to this 
 paper. 
 
WINTER NOT MONOTONOUS. 313 
 
 u You can give no reason," says he, u why the heart 
 of a child is filled with such joyous glee, when the first 
 snow-flakes descend. There is no very special beauty 
 in the sight ; and there are no very-well-defined hopes 
 of slides or rides, to awaken such joy. At fifty, the glad- 
 ness is not expressed so unequivocally ; but yet, when 
 the gravest philosopher rides through a wood, whose 
 boughs are loaded with the snow, and whose tops bend over 
 with the burden, and looks upon the footsteps of the rab- 
 bit, who has leaped along over the ground, he feels the 
 same pleasure, though he indicates it by riding on in 
 silent musing, instead of uttering exclamations of delight. 
 Can you explain this pleasure ? Is there any describable 
 pleasure in a great expanse of white ? Is the form of the 
 trees, or the beauty of their foliage, improved by their 
 snowy mantle ? No ! The explanation is, that God, who 
 formed the laws of nature, formed also the human heart ; 
 and has so adapted the one to the other, as to promote, 
 in every variety of mode, the enjoyment of the beings he 
 has made. There is no end to the kinds of enjoyment 
 which God has thus opened to us every where. They 
 are too numerous to be named ; and no intellectual phi- 
 losopher has ever undertaken the hopeless task of arrang- 
 ing them."* 
 
 TWELFTH WEEK SUNDAY. 
 
 WINTER NOT MONOTONOUS. BOUNDLESS VARIETY OF NA- 
 TURE. 
 
 THE winter landscape has been accused of monotony ; 
 and certainly all nature has at this season a less animated 
 and varied aspect than at any other. Unless when sprin- 
 kled over with hoar-frost, or covered with a cold mantle 
 of snow, the surface of the earth is of a bleak and faded 
 
 *The Way to Do Good, p. 68. 
 I. 27 vii. 
 
314 WINTER NOT MONOTONOUS. 
 
 hue. The woods have long lost the variegated foliage, 
 that had previously ceased to be their ornament ; and the 
 branches of the trees, with their "naked shoots, barren 
 as lances," present one uniform appearance of death and 
 decay. The howling of the long-continued storm, and 
 the few faint bird-notes heard at intervals in the thickets 
 or hedges, are monotonously mournful. The devastation 
 of the earth, and the sounds that seem to bewail it, are 
 general and unvaried. A few hardy plants and flowers, 
 indeed, begin to swell their buds and expand their petals ; 
 but the thick cerements which envelope the one class, 
 and the pale and sombre hue of the other, equally pro- 
 claim to the querulous mind the ungenial climate. 
 
 Such, at a cursory glance, appear to be the aspect and 
 tone of our winter scenery. But the keenly observant 
 eye discovers, even at this desolate season, and in the 
 midst of seeming monotony, that endless variety which 
 characterizes every province of creation. On close in- 
 spection, indeed, all we behold is varied. Whatever be 
 the season, and wherever lie the scene of our observa- 
 tion, though many things are apparently similar, yet none 
 are exactly or really so. At certain times and places, 
 the mutual resemblances between all the common objects 
 of sense, all that solicits the eye or the ear in the land- 
 scape, may be so numerous and striking, as to produce a 
 feeling of monotony ; groups of mournful sights and 
 sounds may, in the dead of the year, successively impress 
 us with a sense of melancholy, and incline us to set a 
 limit to the usual prodigality of Nature ; but yet true wis- 
 dom, aided by quick and active observation, easily draws 
 the dull veil of uniformity aside, and reveals to the admir- 
 ing eye, boundless diversity, even in the ravaged and 
 gloomy scenery of winter. 
 
 Are the woods so uniformly dead, as, on a first survey, 
 they appear ? The oak, the ash, the beech, and most 
 of our forest trees have lost their varied foliage ; but, with 
 the exception of the larch, the numerous varieties of the 
 fir and the pine, retain their leaves, and variegate the dis- 
 robed grove with their unfading verdure. In the wood- 
 land copse, or lonely dell, the beautiful holly still glad- 
 
WINTER NOT MONOTONOUS. 315 
 
 dens the eye with its shining and dark-green leaves. Nor 
 are our shrubberies without their living green. The lau- 
 rel and the bay defy the blasts of winter, and continue 
 to shelter and beautify our dwellings. The flowers have 
 not all vanished. One of the fairest, and seemingly one 
 of the most delicate of them all, the Christmas rose, 
 spots the garden or shrubbery with its bloom, unhurt by 
 the chilling influences of the season. Before the severi- 
 ty of winter is over, the snowdrop emerges from the re- 
 viving turf, the lovely and venturous herald of a coming 
 host. Thus, in the period of frost, and snow, and vege- 
 table death, the beauty of flowers is not unknown ; but 
 rather what survives or braves the desolating storm, is 
 doubly enhanced to our eyes by the surrounding dreari- 
 ness and decay. 
 
 And are the atmospherical phenomena of this season 
 monotonous or uninteresting ? Independently of the 
 striking contrast they present to those of summer and 
 autumn, they are of themselves grandly diversified . The 
 dark and rainy storm careers over the face of the earth, 
 till the flooded rivers overflow their banks, and the forest 
 roars like a tempestuous sea. The hoar-frost spangles 
 the ground with a white and brilliant incrustation, or the 
 snow, falling softly, covers the wide expanse of mountain, 
 and wood, and plain, with a mantle of dazzling purity. 
 Then the dark branches of the trees, bending under a 
 load of white and feathery flakes, have a picturesque as- 
 pect, and seem to rejoice in the substitute for their lost 
 foliage. And how fantastically beautiful are the effects 
 of frost ! Water is transmuted into solid forms, of a 
 thousand different shapes. The lake, and even the river 
 itself, becomes a crystal floor, and the drops of the 
 house-eaves collect into rows of icicles of varying di- 
 mensions, differently reflecting and refracting the rays of 
 the mid-day sun. The earth is bound in magical fetters, 
 and rings beneath the tread. The air is pure and keen, 
 yet not insufferably cold. Calm and clear frosty days, 
 succeeded by nights that unveil the full glory of the star- 
 ry firmament, are intermingled with magnificent tem- 
 pests, that sweep over the land and sea, and make the 
 
316 BOUNDLESS VARIETY OF NATURE. 
 
 grandest music to the ear that is attuned to the harmonies 
 of Nature. 
 
 Variety seems to be a universal attribute of creation. 
 It is stamped upon the heavens, the earth, and the sea. 
 The stars are all glorious ; but u one star differeth from 
 another star in glory," The sun eclipses them all ; and 
 the moon reigns among them like their queen. The 
 earth is covered with numberless mountains and hills, 
 thick as waves on the ocean, and more wonderfully di- 
 versified. From the tiny hillock to the cloud-piercing 
 peak, no two eminences are wholly alike in shape, or 
 size, or in any single quality. What valley or plain, 
 what tree, or flower, or leaf, or blade of grass, is, in all 
 points, similar to another ? Search the whole world, 
 and you will find no pair of any of these created things 
 exact counterparts to each other, in regard to weight, 
 color, structure, figure, or any other essential or acci- 
 dental property. The animal world is as endlessly diver- 
 sified. Not only is the distinction between the various 
 genera and species wide and impassable, but between the 
 individuals of each species, no perfect similarity exists. 
 Twins are commonly most like each other ; but yet they 
 who know them intimately, are at no loss to distinguish 
 between them. Even when we take two parts, however 
 apparently alike, or two individuals of the same species, 
 we find the same diversity. The variety observable in 
 the human countenance has long been a matter of remark 
 and admiration. The general features are the same in 
 all ; but their color, their relative size, and numerous 
 other particularities, are curiously different. Hence we 
 can at once recognise an individual among a thousand, 
 even when they are of the same stature and complexion 
 with himself. 
 
 The diversity of color is truly astonishing, and is the 
 source of much beauty and enjoyment. Though the 
 primary colors are only seven, yet these are so mixed 
 and blended over all nature, as to delight the eye with 
 thousands of different hues, of all degrees of depth and 
 brilliancy. Let us look at a bed of blowing summer 
 flowers, and behold the ravishing wonders of color. 
 
BOUNDLESS VARIETY OF NATURE. 317 
 
 The unstained silvery whiteness of the lily, the deep 
 crimson of the rose, the dark and velvety blue of the vi- 
 olet, the bright yellow of the wallflower and the marigold, 
 are but specimens of the rich and gorgeous hues that 
 delight us with a sense of beauty and variety. The 
 fields and lawns, with their bright green, spotted with 
 white clover and crimson-tipped daisies ; the meadows, 
 with their butter-cups, and all their peculiar flowers ; 
 the woods, with their fresh spring verdure, and their flam- 
 ing autumnal robes ; and the mountains, at one time bath- 
 ed in a deep azure, at another shining with golden sunlight, 
 all exhibit the marvellously varied touches of that pencil 
 which none but the Omnipotent can wield. 
 
 This universal variety is not merely a display of In- 
 finite Skill, but is equally beautiful, pleasing, and useful. 
 It adds immensely to our enjoyment of nature, and great- 
 ly enhances our idea of God's creative attributes. It 
 furnishes us with the means of discrimination, without 
 which the earth would be to us a scene of confusion. 
 Were there only one color, and were every mountain, 
 for example, of the same shape, or every shrub and tree 
 of the same size, how dull and monotonous would be 
 every landscape ! And, if every human face were ex- 
 actly alike, how should we be able to distinguish a friend 
 from an enemy, a neighbor from a stranger, a country- 
 man from a foreigner ? Or, to take an example still 
 more impressive, were the powers and passions of every 
 individual mind in every respect similar, that diversity of 
 character and pursuit which constitutes the mainspring 
 of society and civilization, would not be found. In all 
 this, there is adaptation and wise design. 
 
 Thus, amidst apparent uniformity, the necessary vari- 
 ety every where obtains. Nor does this variety ever run 
 to excess. Utter dissimilarity is as rare as complete re- 
 semblance. All things are beautifully and usefully vari- 
 ed ; but they also all wear the distinguishing mark of the 
 same Great Artist, and can all be arranged into classes, 
 the individuals of which bear to one another the most cu- 
 rious and intimate resemblances. There is in nature a 
 uniformity that is as beneficial as variety itself. The 
 27* 
 
318 BOUNDLESS VARIETY OF NATURE. 
 
 leaves, flowers, and fruits of a tree or shrub, though as- 
 tonishingly varied in their figure and appearance, are yet 
 all so much alike, that they can easily be referred to their 
 parent species. Of all the animals of a kind, each has its 
 peculiarities ; but every individual can at once be recog- 
 nised by the naturalist's practised eye. Thus has the 
 Author of all things so blended variety and uniformity to- 
 gether, as to delight, yet not bewilder us, with exhaust- 
 less novelty ; to enable us to class His works into great 
 groups of genera and species, and thereby to exercise 
 our powers of reason and observation, in tracing the deli- 
 cate resemblances and disagreements that meet us in all 
 our inquiries. In the classification of these resemblances 
 and disagreements, philosophy is mainly employed ; and 
 but for them, the active and inquiring mind of man would 
 find no motive for the exertion of its loftier powers. 
 We live and move in a world of inanimate substances, 
 infinitely diversified in form, color, and chemical proper- 
 ties, and intermingled with organic structures that ascend 
 from the extreme of simplicity to all that is wonderful 
 and complex in contrivance, and that possess almost every 
 conceivable diversity in their essential qualities as well 
 as their modes of existence ; and to bring order out of 
 this seeming confusion ; to observe, to generalize, and 
 to classify ; to note the limitless variety of created 
 things, and yet to discover the Divine harmony that per- 
 vades them all, is the noble province of the philosopher, 
 and even of the humblest lover of Nature, who would 
 enjoy aright the objects of his love, and adore with due 
 intelligence the great Author and End of all. 
 
 O Lord ! every quality of Thy works is the result of 
 Infinite Wisdom. The grand diversities of the seasons, 
 with all their distinguishing characteristics, the beauti- 
 ful harmony, and unlimited variety of nature, alike 
 evince Thy goodness, and demand the cheerful gratitude 
 of man. J. B. 
 
FROST. 319 
 
 TWELFTH WEEK MONDAY. 
 
 IV. FROST. EFFECTS OF IT IN THE NORTHERN REGIONS. 
 
 IN passing from our own temperate climate, to higher 
 latitudes, the rigors of winter are exhibited in a more 
 unmitigated form, and the injurious effects of cold be- 
 come more apparent. A slight sketch of the state of 
 these regions, in relation to the phenomena of frost, may 
 not be uninteresting. 
 
 Many of our readers are rendered familiar with the 
 appearances of nature in the northern regions, by a pe- 
 rusal of the writings of our modern voyagers. From 
 these, some facts have already been selected, relative to 
 the state of the vegetable and animal worlds, in the 
 countries they visited ; but, in the description of the in- 
 fluence of frost in that dreary climate, I prefer having 
 recourse to an author less generally known. Captain 
 Middleton gives a graphic and minute account of the 
 effects of cold in the neighborhood of Hudson's Bay, 
 during winter, which is applicable, but with considerable 
 aggravation, to the state of places still nearer the pole, 
 where a dreary uniformity reigns. I shall abridge this 
 narrative, so as to afford a condensed view of the subject, 
 in its most striking features. 
 
 The ground was frozen, even in summer, to the great- 
 est depth that had been penetrated, which, however, was 
 not more than ten or twelve feet. No unfrozen spring 
 of water could be found ; and the lakes and rivers be- 
 came, in winter, one solid cake of ice, fixed to the ground, 
 when they did not exceed the depth of twelve feet. In 
 large lakes and rivers, the ice was sometimes broken by 
 <c imprisoned vapors," and the rocks and trees, and even 
 the joists and rafters of their buildings were not unfre- 
 quently burst with a noise as loud as the firing of a broad- 
 side by a man-of-war. If beer or water was left by the 
 
320 FROST. 
 
 bedside, in cans, or bottles, or even in copper pots, in 
 a severe night, they were sure to be split in pieces be- 
 fore morning, by the expansive power of the ice in 
 freezing. The air was filled with innumerable particles 
 of ice, very sharp and angular, and plainly perceptible to 
 the naked eye. All inland waters were frozen fast by 
 the beginning of October, and continued so till the be- 
 ginning of May. Coronas and parhelia, that is, halos 
 and mock suns, were frequently observed. The aurora 
 borealis was seen almost nightly. It shone with a sur- 
 prising brightness, darkening all the stars and planets, 
 and covering the whole hemisphere with a beautiful tremu- 
 lous lustre. Seaward, the immense icebergs which 
 crowded the scene, added greatly to the interest of the 
 prospect. Some of these immense aggregations of ice 
 are said to have been immersed a hundred fathoms* be- 
 low the water, while they towered nearly a hundred feet 
 above its surface, and extended in circumference to three 
 or four miles. 
 
 The following amusing account is given of the clothing 
 with which Captain Middleton and his companions de- 
 fended themselves from the intense cold. " For our 
 winter dress, we make use of three pairs of socks, of 
 coarse blanketing or frieze, for the feet, with a pair of 
 deer-skin shoes over them ; two pairs of thick English 
 stockings, and a pair of cloth stockings upon them ; 
 breeches lined with flannel ; two or three English jack- 
 ets, and a fur or leathern gown over them ; a large bea- 
 ver cap, double, to come over the face and shoulders ; 
 and a cloth of blanketing over the chin ; with yarn gloves, 
 and a large pair of beaver mittens, hanging down from the 
 shoulders before, to put our hands in, which reach up as 
 high as our elbows." 
 
 I shall conclude this description of the rigors of a 
 northern climate, with the interesting account given of 
 a ground-swell in the ice, on the northern coast of Lab- 
 rador, in Dr. Brown's ' History of the Propagation of 
 Christianity.' A party of Moravian missionaries were 
 
 * This is probably an exaggeration. 
 
ITS EFFECTS IN NORTHERN REGIONS. 321 
 
 engaged in passing across an arm of the sea, on sledges 
 drawn by dogs. The first alarm was given by some 
 passing Esquimaux, and afterwards by their ow T n atten- 
 dants ; but the approach of danger was at first scarcely 
 perceptible, except on lying down, and applying the ear 
 close to the ice, when a hollow grating noise was heard 
 ascending from the abyss. By and by the wind rose to 
 a storm, and the swell had increased so much, that its 
 effects on the ice were extraordinary, and really alarm- 
 ing. u The sledges, instead of gliding smoothly along, 
 as on an even surface, sometimes ran with violence after 
 the dogs, and sometimes seemed with difficulty to ascend 
 a rising hill. Noises, too, were now distinctly heard, in 
 many directions, like the report of cannon, from the 
 bursting of the ice at a distance. Alarmed by these 
 frightful phenomena, our travellers drove with all haste 
 towards the shore ; and, as they approached it, the pros- 
 pect before them was tremendous. The ice, having burst 
 loose from the rocks, was tossed to and fro, and broken 
 in a thousand pieces against precipices, with a dreadful 
 noise ; which, added to the raging of the sea, the roar- 
 ing of the wind, and the driving of the snow, so com- 
 pletely overpowered them, as almost to deprive them of 
 the use both of their eyes and ears. To make the land 
 was now the only resource that remained ; but it was 
 with the utmost difficulty that the frightened dogs could 
 be driven forward ; and, as the whole body of the ice 
 frequently sank below the summits of the rocks, and then 
 rose above them, the only time for landing was the mo- 
 ment it gained the level of the coast a circumstance 
 which rendered the attempt extremely nice and hazard- 
 ous. Both sledges, however, succeeded in gaining the 
 shore, though not without great difficulty. Scarcely had 
 they reached it, when that part of the ice from which 
 they had just escaped, burst asunder, and the water, 
 rushing up from beneath, instantly precipitated it into 
 the ocean. In a moment, as if by a signal, the whole 
 mass of ice, for several miles along the coast, and ex- 
 tending as far as the eye could reach, began to break 
 and to be overwhelmed by the waves. The spectacle 
 
322 FROST. 
 
 was awfully grand. The immense fields of ice, rising 
 out of the ocean, clashing against one another, and then 
 plunging into the deep with a violence which no language 
 can describe, and a noise like the discharge of a thousand 
 cannon, was a sight which must have struck the most un- 
 reflecting mind with solemn awe. The brethren were 
 overwhelmed with amazement at their miraculous escape ; 
 and even the pagan Esquimaux expressed gratitude to 
 God for their deliverance."* 
 
 TWELFTH WEEK TUESDAY. 
 
 V. FROST. ITS AGENCY IN MOUNTAINOUS REGIONS. 
 
 I HAVE already mentioned, that water suddenly ex- 
 pands in the process of freezing ; now the force with 
 which the expansion takes place is immense, as has been 
 proved by various experiments. The barrel of a gun, 
 and even the body of the strongest cannon, when filled 
 to the muzzle with water, and tightly screwed up, have 
 been found to burst under this process in a hard frost ; 
 and, indeed, there does not appear to be any known 
 power in the material world strong enough to resist it. 
 This property seems to be one of the most active agents 
 in breaking down rocks and diminishing the height of 
 mountain ranges, particularly in regions distant from the 
 equator. The water which penetrates the fissures of the 
 rocks during the early part of the winter, is converted 
 into ice, and, by the sudden expansion which then takes 
 place, rends the solid rocks asunder, with a noise which 
 is heard at the distance of many miles ; and, where the 
 surface happens to be precipitous, and the equilibrium is 
 destroyed, the detached masses, on the melting of the 
 ice, by the return of spring, fall over with a tremendous 
 
 * Brown's History of the Propagation of Christianity among the Hea- 
 then, vol. ii. p. 51. 
 
ITS AGENCY IN MOUNTAINOUS REGIONS. 323 
 
 crash, and, in the fearful avalanche, sometimes over- 
 whelm whole villages and fields, carrying sudden and 
 inevitable destruction to their inhabitants. 
 
 Most distressing occurrences from this cause take place 
 every year in those lofty and rugged districts where Na- 
 ture has formed so strong a barrier against the encroach- 
 ments of hostile armies, and where freedom so long 
 maintained her throne, and religion her purity and inde- 
 pendence, in the midst of enslaved and degraded king- 
 doms. In the narrow valleys of the Swiss Cantons, and 
 along the ravines formed by those tributary streams which 
 supply the ample currents of the Rhine and the Rhone, 
 winter has terrors altogether unknown to the inhabitants 
 of less Alpine territories. Sometimes an avalanche blocks 
 up the channel between two mountains, till the accumu- 
 lated waters of weeks or months force for themselves a pas- 
 sage, and, rushing forward with a tremendous flood, carry 
 far-spread inundation and death over the smiling and well- 
 peopled valleys below. In other places, year after year, 
 on the breaking up of the winter storms, rocks and stones, 
 rolling down the sides of the mountains, gradually but 
 surely overwhelm whole districts, which the industry of 
 man had rendered fertile, and cause them to be abandoned 
 to the eagle, the marmot, and the chamois. These en- 
 croachments are fearful, while others, of a description 
 scarcely less formidable, occur in different situations 
 of the same interesting ranges. Not unfrequently, the 
 majestic glacier, undermined by some mountain stream, 
 or rendered unstable by the accumulating snows and frosts 
 of ages, gives way in an instant, and, toppling over from 
 its giddy height, tumbles headlong to the lower grounds ; 
 not only bearing extensive destruction in its fall, but chil- 
 ling, for many years, the climate of all the surrounding 
 district with its wintry breath. 
 
 Such calamitous events remind us, that we live in a 
 world, among the conditions of which are desolation and 
 suffering ; and they carry our thoughts upward to that 
 happy land where there is no death, no calamity, no 
 change ; where trials are past, and tears are wiped away ; 
 and where the dark valley, and the narrow path, have 
 
324 FROST. 
 
 ended in a boundless and glowing paradise of eternal 
 sunshine and unfading bloom. 
 
 In one point of view, the events I have adverted to, 
 are of importance in the controversy with him who dreams 
 of the eternity of matter, and an eternal succession of 
 uncreated beings. The process of decay which is so 
 actively going on in our mountain ranges, is an undeniable 
 proof of the comparatively recent formation of these 
 rugged elevations, and, by a necessary consequence, of 
 the present surface of the globe, of which they form so 
 extensive and so essential a feature. It is impossible 
 that they could have existed from eternity, or even for 
 any period to which the power of calculation cannot 
 easily extend. Had the earth endured without disrup- 
 tion for a million of years, for example, long ere now the 
 power of frost, and other causes of decay, would have 
 crumbled to dust the hardest projecting rocks, levelled 
 the highest mountains, and reduced the whole surface 
 of the globe to a marshy and unwholesome plain. Our 
 world has neither existed from eternity, nor is it formed 
 for eternal existence. While the frost rends asunder 
 matter subjected to its influence, the air decomposes it, 
 the storm scatters it, the rain washes it away, rivers and 
 overwhelming torrents carry it to the valleys and the 
 ocean ; the formation of downs, the fall of forests, and 
 the decay of vegetation, are continually altering the rela- 
 tive depth of the low grounds by their accumulations. 
 " Ages on ages might indeed pass away before these 
 agents could produce their extreme effects, yet that their 
 action is neither inconsiderable nor very slow, innumera- 
 ble observations have rendered incontestable."* 
 
 Now, long before the earth had arrived at the point to 
 which it is so evidently tending, the fall of the moun- 
 tains would render it a comfortless and noxious habitation. 
 Our springs and rivers would be absorbed and disappear 
 in fetid swamps ; the winds and rains, on which moun- 
 tainous districts produce such salutary effects, would 
 cease to be equably dispersed ; in one extensive region, 
 
 * Bushnan's Study of Nature. 
 
FOLIATIONS ON WINDOW-GLASS. 325 
 
 the stagnant atmosphere, loaded with poisonous vapors, 
 would spread pestilence and death ; and in another, 
 winds, blowing continually and violently from one point 
 of the compass, would shed a blight over both the vegeta- 
 ble and animal world. The wide-spread and desolate 
 Steppes of Russia, in short, where nothing is seen on 
 every side but a cheerless and level waste, and where, 
 from horizon to horizon, a deathlike silence reigns, 
 would be but a faint picture of the miserable scene, 
 which a decayed world would present to its last sickly 
 and dying inhabitants. 
 
 But the earth is not destined to arrive at this state of 
 feeble and decrepit age. Thousands of centuries before 
 that period would arrive, its task will be accomplished, 
 and its race run ; for the irreversible decree of the Creator 
 is, that, at no distant period, u the heavens, being on fire, 
 shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent 
 heat;" " the earth also, and the works that are therein, 
 shall be burnt up." Yet how cheering is the promise 
 with which that decree is accompanied, that there shall 
 be the creation or developement of " new heavens, and 
 a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness ;" and how 
 appropriate is the exhortation of the apostle, " Where- 
 fore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be 
 diligent, that ye may be found of Him in peace, with- 
 out spot and blameless." 
 
 TWELFTH WEEK WEDNESDAY. 
 
 VI. HOAR-FROST. FOLIATIONS ON WINDOW-GLASS. 
 
 THERE are some beautiful appearances which frost 
 frequently Assumes, to cheer us, as it were, and give an 
 agreeable exercise to our taste, in the absence of that 
 loveliness, which the hand of an indulgent Creator sheds 
 so profusely over our fields and gardens, in the genial 
 i. 28 vn. 
 
326 HOAR-FROST. 
 
 months of spring and summer. I have already noticed 
 the fantastic forms which ice assumes at a waterfall, and 
 the pleasure which arises in the mind, on contemplating 
 the loaded woods, and the undulating surface of the earth, 
 after a fall of snow. Nature is almost always either 
 grand or elegant ; and, when it is otherwise, the very 
 contrast is a source of enjoyment. In other words, the 
 mind is so constituted as to derive pleasure from all the 
 aspects of the external world. But there are some things 
 better adapted than others to afford gratification to the 
 taste ; and, when I mention hoar-frost, a thousand agree- 
 able recollections will arise in every mind. This appear- 
 ance is occasioned by the freezing of the mist or dew,* 
 and seems to be the result of a process similar to that 
 by which snow is formed in the higher regions of the 
 atmosphere. There is this difference, however, that the 
 snow is formed from the rain-drops or humid clouds 
 suspended in the air, without any solid nucleus to which 
 they can adhere ; while the hoar-frost is usually elabor- 
 ated on the blades of grass, or branches of trees, or other 
 substances with which the moist particles come in con- 
 tact. It is a wellknown law, that water does not readily 
 freeze, unless it have some solid substance on which it 
 can form. It is on this account that, in a pond or lake, 
 we always see the first appearance of ice either along its 
 margin, or shooting out in long beautiful feathers from 
 some random stick or stone projecting on its smooth sur- 
 face. In obedience to the same law, the watery particles 
 floating in the air, after being exhaled from the surface 
 of the earth, although they are at, or even below, the 
 freezing point, retain their fluid state when the frost is 
 
 * The phenomena of dew, and of hoar-frost, when it arises from dew, 
 are owing to the radiation of caloric from the surface of the earth, with- 
 out any interchange from the sky. " The caloric radiated during the 
 night," says Mrs. Somerville, " by substances on the surface of the 
 earth, into a clear expanse of sky, is lost, and no return is made from 
 the blue vault, so that their temperature sinks below that of the air, 
 whence they abstract a part of that caloric which holds the atmospheric 
 humidity in solution, and a deposition of dew takes place. If the ra- 
 diation be great, the dew is frozen, and becomes hoar-frost, which is 
 the ice of dew." 
 
FOLIATIONS ON WINDOW-GLASS. 327 
 
 not very intense, till they meet with something solid, 
 when they instantly become crystallized, and are depos- 
 ited on the trees, the hedges, and the spreading mead- 
 ows, in those elegant forms which so far excel the frost- 
 work of art. This happens frequently in an atmosphere 
 entirely clear ; and indeed a cloudless sky is essential to 
 that rapid evaporation from the earth's surface, which 
 gives rise to an abundant dew ; but we often observe the 
 hoar-frost also produced by a dense haze, which broods 
 over the surface of the low grounds, during the night, 
 in the form of a sluggish cloud, and which is dissipated 
 by the first rays of the rising sun. In this latter case, 
 the snowy incrustation is thicker and more general, and 
 the effect is like enchantment. The scene which, at 
 nightfall on the preceding evening, was bleak and cheer- 
 less, is all at once converted into fairy land. Every 
 vegetable substance, from the blades of grass which lay 
 drooping in the naked fields, to the polished leaves of 
 the evergreen and gnarled branches of the lofty for- 
 est oak, is suddenly fringed or clothed with a garniture 
 of purest down, whose beauty surpasses the poet's dream, 
 and is scarcely less substantial or less fleeting. 
 
 Another most beautiful effect of frost, which, however, 
 is only rarely observed in the climate of England, where 
 the alternation from comparative warmth to intense cold 
 is not so sudden as in some other countries, is finely de- 
 scribed in the following wellknown passage of a poetical 
 letter from Copenhagen, by Mr. Phillips. 
 
 " Ere yet the clouds let fall the treasured snow, 
 Or winds began through hazy skies to blow, 
 At evening, a keen eastern breeze arose, 
 And the descending rain, unsullied, froze. 
 Soon as the silent shades of night withdrew, 
 The ruddy morn disclosed at once to view 
 The face of Nature in a rich disguise, 
 And brightened every object to my eyes : 
 For every shrub, and every blade of grass, 
 And every pointed thorn, seemed wrought in glass ; 
 In pearls and rubies rich the hawthorns show, 
 While through the ice the crimson berries glow ; 
 The thick-sprung reeds, which watery marshes yield, 
 Seem polished lances in a hostile field. 
 
328 HOAR-FROST. 
 
 The stag, in limped currents, with surprise, 
 
 Sees crystal branches on his forehead rise. 
 
 The spreading oak, the beech, and towering pine, 
 
 Glazed over, in the freezing ether shine. 
 
 The frighted birds the rattling branches shun, 
 
 That wave and glitter in the distant sun. 
 
 When, if a sudden gust of wind arise, 
 
 The brittle forest into atoms flies ; 
 
 The crackling wood beneath the tempest bends, 
 
 And in a spangled shower the prospect ends.* 
 
 Nor must I omit to mention yet another pleasing pro- 
 duction of frost, in the elegant and varied foliations which 
 are formed on the glass of windows. This appearance 
 takes place most remarkably in cases where the air with- 
 in the room happens to have been much impregnated 
 with moisture, either from the human breath, when 
 several individuals have been collected, or from any 
 other cause. The coldness of the glass causes the float- 
 ing vapor to be condensed on its surface, where it shoots 
 out, as it freezes, into those flowery crystals, which ex- 
 cite our admiration. The precise cause of this phenome- 
 non may be obscure, like every other phenomenon of 
 congelation ; but the effect is at once curious and pleas- 
 ing ; while, if we trace it up to that law, of which it is 
 only an example, it will acquire a higher importance, and 
 be found to be connected with a principle of vast magni- 
 tude in the world of unorganized matter ; for the crys- 
 tallizing process (and freezing is nothing else) seems to 
 
 * [An inhabitant of New England will at once recognise the fidelity of 
 this picture; for, though rarely to be observed in England, it is frequently 
 to be seen here. And it is one of the most splendid sights which our 
 climate presents to us. A shower falls, and, under a change of atmos- 
 phere, freezes wherever it falls. If this takes place at night, we wake 
 up to a fairy scene in the morning. The fields, the roads, the houses, 
 the steeples, the trees, are all cased in crystal, and, when the sun rises, 
 reflect the early sunbeams with a refulgence which seems more than 
 earthly, and throws all human splendor into shade. Then the ever- 
 greens are plumes of emerald ; the bare twigs, to their extremes! tips, are 
 blazing diamonds ; the meanest things are richly jewelled. We have mu- 
 sic, too, in the woods, a sweet tinkling music, as the breeze or the warm 
 rays of the sun pass through the branches, causing them to drop their 
 jewels on the hard and polished ground. All is animated and sparkling 
 motion ; but in a few hours, for it is too magnificent to last long, it all 
 melts, is broken, and passes away. AM. ED.] 
 
FROST. 329 
 
 form the link between the unorganic and organic sub- 
 stances ; by the regular structure of its productions, mys- 
 teriously uniting crude matter with the vegetable and 
 animal creations. 
 
 The pious Sturm, in speaking of this phenomenon, views 
 it in alight different, indeed, but not less important, while 
 his reflection equally applies to the other appearances of 
 frost, which we have been examining. " Can an object 
 be considered as little," says he, "when it furnishes 
 matter for useful reflection ? For my own part, I do 
 not disdain to read, even on the frozen glass, a truth 
 which may have a great influence on my happiness. 
 Behold the flowers which the frost has portrayed on the 
 glass ! They are beautifully and artificially varied ; nev- 
 ertheless, one ray of the noonday sun effaces them. 
 Thus the imagination paints every thing beautiful to us ; 
 but every thing which it represents as attractive in the 
 possession of the goods of this world, is but a beautiful 
 image which shall disappear in the light of reason. The 
 importance of this lesson of wisdom was worth the trouble 
 of stopping for a while, at the little phenomenon which 
 furnishes it." 
 
 TWELFTH WEEK THURSDAY. 
 
 VII. FROST. BENEFICENT CONTRIVANCES RELATIVE TO SNOW. 
 
 As the influence of cold is felt in the air, as well as on 
 the surface of the earth, and indeed becomes more in- 
 tense, in proportion to the elevation, it must affect the 
 moisture which floats in the atmosphere. The rain-drops 
 must freeze, and, when frozen, must be precipitated to 
 the ground. Now, were this process to take place in 
 the same manner as it occurs on the face of a lake or 
 pond, and were the water in the clouds to be converted 
 into solid lumps of ice, the most unhappy consequences 
 28* 
 
330 FROST. 
 
 would ensue, as may be inferred from the damage occa- 
 sioned by a hail-storm, an occurrence which sometimes, 
 but rarely, happens, as if to call our attention to the be- 
 neficent provision by which this calamity is usually ob- 
 viated. The fruits of the earth would be destroyed ; or, 
 if the season of fruits was past, at least the branches and 
 embryo buds of plants and trees would be shattered ; 
 birds on the wing, or on the perch, would be struck to 
 the ground, stunned and dying ; the more tender quad- 
 rupeds would receive their death-blow ; and even the 
 hardy races of animals, and man himself, would not 
 escape material injury. None of these consequences, 
 however, actually take place, because the frozen rain- 
 drops descend, not in the form of ice, or even usually in 
 the less destructive form of hail, but on the downy wings 
 of virgin snow. 
 
 Let us consider, then, the properties of snow, and we 
 shall not fail to admire the wisdom of the provision. The 
 vapor floating in the atmosphere is arrested by the cold, 
 and is frozen ; but, instead of running together, as might 
 be expected, into solid masses, it unites with the nitrous 
 particles, also to be found mingled with the air, and, 
 forming a compound crystal, shoots out into beautiful 
 feathery flakes. Whoever will take the trouble to exam- 
 ine one of these flakes with the aid of a microscope, 
 cannot fail to admire the elegance and skill of its struc- 
 ture. He will observe many little sparkling crosses or 
 darts radiating from a point, and branching off and meet- 
 ing in all directions, so as to form hexagonal lines of 
 much beauty, wrought apparently with the nicest art, and 
 wonderfully fitted for passing, with a buoyant and flick- 
 ering motion, through the air, so as to drop, without dis- 
 turbance, on the ground, spreading a coat of dazzling 
 whiteness, profusely, but gently, over bush and brake, 
 lawn and mountain. It has been found by experiment, 
 says Sturm, that " snow is twenty-four times lighter than 
 water, and that it fills up ten or twelve times more space, 
 at the moment of falling, than the water produced from 
 it when melted." This is an admirable contrivance, to 
 prevent, or at least to modify, what would otherwise 
 prove a great evil. 
 
CONTRIVANCES RELATIVE TO SNOW. 331 
 
 Another useful property of snow has been noticed by 
 many writers, and is verified by yearly experience. 
 Being a very imperfect conductor of heat, it does not 
 readily descend below the freezing point, and thus tem- 
 pers the rigor of the season. Under its white covering, 
 the earth remains of a moderate and equal temperature, 
 and the bulbs and roots of plants are preserved from the 
 ungenial influence of a severe sky. In consequence of 
 the same slowness in the conduction of heat, the Arctic 
 traveller can sleep, without much inconvenience, on his 
 bed of snow, which is warm compared with the at- 
 mosphere he breathes ; and, for the same reason, the 
 snow-formed hut affords the Esquimaux no unpleasant 
 abode.* 
 
 Nor must we forget to remark, with reference to the 
 effects of snow on the soil, that the nitrous particles 
 which it contains, are said to be of a fertilizing quality, 
 and, as it gradually melts, these particles penetrate the 
 earth, being carried to the roots of the plants, mingled 
 with the water into which it is converted. Assuming 
 the accuracy of this latter observation, we shall find 
 abundant cause for admiring an arrangement, which, in 
 various ways, converts an apparent curse into a blessing, 
 changing that which seems to be an aggravation of this 
 inclement season, and a source of sterility, into a pro- 
 tection from the cold, and a means of future fruitfulness. 
 
 But there is yet another arrangement, in reference to 
 this subject, which must not be overlooked. When the 
 weather changes, which it sometimes does very suddenly, 
 the greatest inconveniences, and even calamities, would 
 ensue, were the effect of this change to operate, as might, 
 without experience, be expected, in producing an instan- 
 taneous conversion of the snow into water. If the frost 
 were as quickly expelled from water as from the air, the 
 moment that the temperature rose above thirty-two de- 
 grees, the snow would become liquid as by magic, the 
 ice would vanish like a dream from river and lake, and 
 the rigid earth would, on the higher grounds, be in an 
 
 * Whewell'a Bridgewater Treatise, p. 90. 
 
332 FROST. 
 
 instant converted into a swamp, and in the valleys would 
 be overflowed, and swept away by mountain torrents. 
 A very peculiar and remarkable property prevents these 
 disastrous effects. In the act of dissolving, the water 
 absorbs a quantity of heat, and retains it in a latent state ; 
 and, on this account, the melting process cannot take 
 place till a sufficient quantity has been absorbed. This 
 necessarily causes the process to be slow ; and days, and 
 even weeks may pass away, after the thaw has begun, 
 before the ice entirely disappears from our ponds, or the 
 snow from our hills. The advantageous consequences 
 of this retardation, are too obvious to require further illus- 
 tration ; but it is of importance to remark, that it is 
 effected, not as a result of an ordinary and general law, 
 but rather by what has been justly called the apparent 
 violation of a law. A sudden stand, as it were, is made 
 in the progress of the change. The alteration of tem- 
 perature, instead of producing its ordinary effects, be- 
 comes, all at once, apparently feeble and languid in its 
 operations ; the heat, as it is applied, disappears, and its 
 dissolving power is restrained within such bounds, as to 
 render the process comparatively innoxious. 
 
 A similar effect is produced in the boiling of water. 
 At the boiling point, as well as at the thawing point, a 
 sudden stoppage takes place, and the heat applied be- 
 comes latent, so as to preserve the water at that point, 
 till it is gradually carried off in the form of steam. It 
 is this property which renders water so useful in the va- 
 rious operations of the kitchen and the manufactory. If 
 the whole volume of the water we employ were to be 
 instantly converted into steam, when it arrived at the 
 boiling point, which would certainly be the case, were 
 it not for the peculiar property of which we are speaking, 
 how much would be detracted from the usefulness of 
 this most useful element ! 
 
 Here, then, we have a wonderful modification of a 
 general law, the beneficial nature of which is as manifest 
 as the property itself is remarkable. Can we do other- 
 wise than attribute it to the contrivance of an intelligent 
 Creator ? 
 
LANDSCAPE COVERED WITH SNOW. 333 
 
 The striking appearance of a landscape covered with 
 new-fallen snow, and the effects produced on the lower 
 animals by its fall, are thus graphically described by the 
 poet of the Seasons : 
 
 " The cherished fields 
 Put on their winter robe of purest white. 
 'T is brightness all ; save where the new snow melts 
 Along the mazy current. Low the woods 
 Bow their hoar heads ; and, ere the languid sun, 
 Faint from the west, emits his evening ray, 
 Earth's universal face, deep hid and chill, 
 Is one wild-dazzling waste, that buries wide 
 The works of man. Drooping, the laborer-ox 
 Stands covered o'er with snow, and then demands 
 The fruit of all his toils. The fowls of heaven, 
 Tamed by the cruel season, crowd around 
 The winnowing store, and claim the little boon 
 Which Providence assigns them. One alone, 
 The red-breast, sacred to the household gods, 
 Wisely regardful of the embroiling sky, 
 In joyless fields and thorny thickets leaves 
 His shivering mates, and pays to trusted man 
 His annual visit. Half afraid, he first 
 Against the window beats ; then brisk alights 
 On the warm hearth ; then, hopping o'er the floor, 
 Eyes all the smiling family askance, 
 And picks, and starts, and wonders where he is ; 
 Till, more familiar grown, the table crumbs 
 Attract his slender feet. The foodless wilds 
 Pour forth their brown inhabitants. The hare, 
 Though timorous of heart, and hard beset 
 By death in various forms, dark snares, and dogs, 
 And more unpitying men, the garden seeks, 
 Urged on by fearless want. The bleating kind 
 Eye the bleak heaven, and next the glistening earth, 
 With looks of dumb despair ; then, sad, dispersed, 
 Dig for the withered herb through heaps of snow." 
 
334 SAGACITY AND FIDELITY 
 
 TWELFTH WEEK FRIDAY. 
 
 SAGACITY AND FIDELITY OF THE DOG IN SNOW. 
 
 I WELL remember with what delight I listened to an 
 interesting conversation, which, while yet a schoolboy, I 
 enjoyed an opportunity of hearing in my father's manse,* 
 between the poet Burns, and another poet, my near 
 relation, the amiable Blacklock. The subject was the 
 fidelity of the dog. Burns took up the question with all 
 the ardor and kindly feeling with which the conversation 
 of that extraordinary man was so remarkably imbued. 
 It was a subject well suited to call forth his powers, and, 
 when handled by such a man, not less suited to interest 
 the youthful fancy. . The anecdotes by which it was il- 
 lustrated, have long escaped my memory ; but there was 
 one sentiment expressed by Burns, with his own char- 
 acteristic enthusiasm, which, as it threw anew light into 
 my mind, I shall never forget. " Man," said he, a is 
 the god of the dog. He knows no other ; he can un- 
 derstand no other : And see how he worships him ! 
 With what reverence he crouches at his feet, with w r hat 
 love he fawns upon him, with what dependence he looks 
 up to him, and with what cheerful alacrity he obeys him ! 
 His whole soul is wrapped up in his god ; all the pow- 
 ers and faculties of his nature are devoted to his service , 
 and these powers and faculties are ennobled by the inter- 
 course. Divines tell us that it ought just to be so with 
 the Christian ; but the dog puts the Christian to shame." 
 
 The truth of these remarks, which forcibly struck me 
 at the time, has since been verified in my own experi- 
 ence ; and often have events occurred which, while they 
 reminded me that "man is the god of the dog," have 
 forced from me the humiliating confession, that " the dog 
 puts the Christian to shame." 
 
 * Lochrutton in Galloway. 
 
OF THE DOG IN SNOW. 335 
 
 The dog was certainly created to be a companion and 
 assistant to the human race. It is well observed by 
 Goldsmith, that the generality of animals have greater 
 agility, greater swiftness, and more formidable arms, from 
 Nature, than man ; their senses, and particularly that of 
 smelling, are often far more perfect. This is the case 
 with the dog ; the having gained, therefore, a new as- 
 sistant, in this sagacious and quick-scented animal, was 
 the gaining of new powers, of which man stood in need. 
 There are various important services rendered to man by 
 the dog, which may be more properly noticed afterwards. 
 At present, I shall confine myself to a few instances, 
 in which he contributes, by his docility, his sagacity, and 
 his attachment, to lessen the dangers of the winter storm, 
 or to mitigate, by his useful labors, the rigors of an un- 
 genial climate. 
 
 I begin by abridging Captain Parry's account of the 
 manner in which dogs are employed by the Esquimaux, 
 in conveying them from place to clace in sledges over 
 the ice or frozen snow ; premising that does of this 
 species are somewhat smaller in size than those of New- 
 foundland, and bear a strong resemblance to the wolf of 
 their native country, and that they have very firm bone 
 in their fore-legs, with great strength in their loins, two 
 essential qualities for the purpose of draught. When 
 drawing a sledge, the dogs have a simple harness of deer 
 or seal-skin going round the neck by one bight or loop, 
 and another for each of the fore-legs, with a single thong 
 leading over the back, and attached to the sledge as a 
 trace. Though they appear at first sight to be huddled 
 together without regard to regularity, there is, in fact, 
 considerable attention paid to their arrangement, partic- 
 ularly in the selection of a dog of peculiar spirit and sa- 
 gacity, who is allowed, by a longer trace, to precede the 
 rest as a leader, and to whom, in turning to the right or 
 left, the driver usually addresses himself. This choice 
 is made without regard to age or sex, and the rest of the 
 dogs take precedence according to their training or sa- 
 gacity, the least effective being placed nearest the sledge. 
 The leader is usually from eighteen to twenty feet from 
 
336 SAGACITY AND FIDELITY 
 
 the forepart of the sledge, and the hindmost dog about 
 half that distance ; so that, when ten or twelve are run- 
 ning together, several are nearly abreast of each other. 
 The driver sits quite low, on the forepart of the sledge, 
 with his feet overhanging the snow on one side, and hav- 
 ing in his hand a whip, of which the handle is eighteen 
 inches, and the lash more than as many more feet in 
 length. The men acquire from their youth considerable 
 expertness in the use of the whip, the lash of which is 
 left to trail along the ground by the side of the sledge, and 
 with which they can inflict a very severe blow on any 
 dog at pleasure. The dogs are kept in training entirely 
 by the fear of the whip ; but in directing the sledge 
 it acts no very essential part, the driver for this purpose 
 using certain words, as wagoners do with us, to make 
 the dogs turn to the right or left. To these a good lead- 
 er, when admonished by name, attends with admirable 
 precision, at the same time looking behind over his shoul- 
 der with great earnestness, as if listening to the directions 
 of the driver. With u good sleighing," that is, on good 
 roads, six or seven dogs will draw from eight to ten hun- 
 dred weight, at the rate of seven or eight miles an hour, 
 for several hours together. With a smaller load, they 
 will run ten miles an hour, and are, in fact, almost un- 
 manageable. To the women, who nurse them when ill, 
 and treat them with greater kindness than the men, they 
 are affectionate in the highest degree. From the men 
 they receive little, except blows and rough treatment ; 
 still they are faithful and enduring. 
 
 Another dog, of a kind not dissimilar to that of the 
 Esquimaux, performs to man, in a different region, a ser- 
 vice of a different kind, for which still greater sagacity 
 is necessary. I allude to the Alpine spaniel, which is 
 employed by the monks of the convent of the great St. 
 Bernard, on their errands of humanity. This convent 
 is situated near the top of that high mountain, not far 
 from the region of perpetual snow, where the traveller 
 is often suddenly overtaken with the most severe weather, 
 and is liable to a thousand accidents. The sun becomes 
 suddenly darkened ; the wind howls ; the snow comes 
 
OF THE DOG IN SNOW. 337 
 
 in twirls through the air, and drifts up his path ; the fa- 
 tal avalanche falls from the impending cliff, and sweeps 
 trees and rocks into the valley, along with the helpless 
 passengers, or buries them deep beneath its thundering 
 mass. The pious and generous monks devote themselves 
 in this region of horrors, to offices of humanity ; and in 
 their truly Christian task they are admirably assisted by 
 a noble breed of dogs, whom they have trained, and keep 
 in their establishment, for the purpose of rescuing trav- 
 ellers from destruction. Benumbed with cold, weary in 
 the search of a lost track, his senses yielding to the stu- 
 pifying influence of frost, which betrays the exhausted 
 sufferer into a deep sleep, the unhappy man sinks upon 
 the ground, and the snow-drift covers him from human 
 sight. It is then that the keen scent and the exquisite 
 docility of these admirable dogs are called into action. 
 Though the perishing man lie ten, or even twenty feet 
 below the snow, the delicacy of smell with which they 
 can trace him, offers a chance of escape. They scratch 
 away the snow with their feet, and they set up a contin- 
 ued hoarse and solemn bark, which brings the monks and 
 laborers to their assistance. To provide for the chance, 
 that, without human help, the dogs may succeed in dis- 
 covering the unfortunate traveller, one of them has a 
 flask of spirits round his neck, to which the fainting man 
 may apply for support, and another carries, strapped on 
 his back, a cloak to cover him. These wonderful exer- 
 tions are often successful. One of those noble creatures 
 was decorated with a medal, in commemoration of his 
 having saved the lives of twenty -two persons, who bul 
 for his sagacity must have perished. He, himself, how- 
 ever, met an untimely fate, in 1816, in an attempt to con- 
 vey a poor Piedmontese courier to his anxious family. 
 The traveller, with two guides and this remarkable ani- 
 mal, were descending the mountain, and some members 
 of his family were toiling upward in search of him, when 
 two avalanches overwhelmed them all in one common 
 destruction.* 
 
 * Foot note to Goldsmith's * Animated Nature,' Brown's edition, 
 vol. ii. p. 207. 
 
 I. 29 VII. 
 
338 SAGACITY AND FIDELITY 
 
 The shepherd's dog of Britain is not less susceptible 
 of training than the Alpine spaniel, and its affection for 
 its master often wonderfully supplies the place of teach- 
 ing, and inspires it with a wisdom little short of human. 
 Instances in illustration of this are familiar to the inhabit- 
 ants of mountainous districts, and the following exam- 
 ples, taken from Brown's Supplement to Goldsmith's 
 Animated Nature, cannot fail to interest the reader. 
 
 " A farmer, near Brechin, having gone, during a severe 
 snow-storm in 1798, to visit his sheep, while employed 
 in driving them from the shelter which they had taken 
 beneath some precipitous rocks, called Ugly-Face, was, 
 with his dog, buried in an avalanche of snow, which fell 
 from these rocks. He was unable to extricate himself, 
 and fell asleep in his desolate situation ; but his dog 
 worked his way out, ran to his house, and by significant 
 gestures, procured the assistance of some of the inmates, 
 who, following the dog, were led to the spot where he 
 was overwhelmed with snow. They began to dig, and 
 by nightfall found the farmer in an erect position, quite 
 benumbed, but life not extinguished, and being rolled in 
 warm blankets, he soon recovered. 
 
 " About the year 1796, a farmer, at Holling, in Kent, 
 was returning late from Maidstone market, in a state of 
 intoxication. He went astray from the road, about half 
 a mile from Willow- Walk, and becoming completely be- 
 numbed, he fell among the snow, in one of the coldest 
 nights ever known. Turning on his back, he was soon 
 overpowered with sleep, in such circumstances the usual 
 concomitant of cold. His dog, that had followed closely 
 after him, now scratched away the snow from about him, 
 so as to form a protecting wall round his person, and 
 then lay down on his master's breast, for which its shaggy 
 coat proved a seasonable protection from the inclemency 
 of the night, and the snow which continued to fall. On 
 the following morning, a person having gone out with 
 the expectation of falling in with some wild fowl, had his 
 notice attracted by the uncommon appearance, and, on 
 coming up, the dog encouraged him, by the most signifi- 
 cant gestures, to approach. He wiped the icy incrusta- 
 
OF THE DOG IN SNOW. 339 
 
 tions from the face of the farmer, whom he then recog- 
 nised, and had him conveyed to the nearest house in the 
 village, where animation was soon restored." 
 
 The last instance which I give of .this kind of sagacity, 
 is abridged from the same work, and shows still more 
 remarkable proofs of persevering attachment. Eric 
 Runtson, an Iceland fisherman, left his home early on a 
 December morning, to visit a friend, accompanied only 
 by his faithful dog, Castor. When he had proceeded 
 about five miles, he fell into a deep chasm, and alighted, 
 unhurt, on a shelving part of the rock, about sixty feet 
 below the surface. Castor ran about in all directions, 
 howling piteously. He even several times made as if he 
 would leap down, but was prevented by his master scold- 
 ing him. He then whined, and looked from the brink 
 into the chasm, as if anxious to receive his master's com- 
 mands. After spending the whole day in fruitless en- 
 deavors to reach and extricate his master, a sudden thought 
 seemed to seize him, and he darted oft in the direction 
 of home, which he reached about eleven o'clock. The 
 inmates were asleep, but, by scratching violently at the 
 door, he gained admittance. At first, the family appre- 
 hended nothing, but that he had left his master, and re- 
 turned ; but, by his refusing food, and constantly contin- 
 uing to scratch Eric's younger brother, Jon, with his 
 paw, and then to run to the door, and look back with eager 
 and anxious yells, he at last succeeded in exciting their 
 alarm ; and, when Jon and another man dressed and fol- 
 lowed him, he began to bark and caper about with evi- 
 dent joy. At one time, the tempestuous weather led 
 them to think of retracing their steps ; but Castor, on 
 their turning back, expressed the utmost dissatisfaction, 
 and, by pulling them by the clothes, induced them to 
 proceed. He conducted them to the chasm where poor 
 Eric was entombed, and, beginning to scratch, signified, 
 by the most expressive howl, that his master was below. 
 Eric answered to Jon's call ; and, a rope being procured, 
 he was safely drawn up, when Castor rushed to his mas- 
 ter, and received his caresses with all the marks of ex- 
 ternal triumph and joy. 
 
340 SAGACITY OF THE DOG IN SNOW. 
 
 Sir Walter Scott, in a poem written on a traveller 
 who, some years ago, was killed by falling over a preci- 
 pice on Helvellyn, and whose faithful dog watched many 
 days by his lifeless corpse, thus feelingly describes the 
 attachment of that interesting animal : 
 
 " Dark green was that spot 'mid the brown mountain heather, 
 Where the pilgrim of Nature lay stretched in decay, 
 
 Like the corpse of an outcast abandoned to weather, 
 Till the mountain winds wasted the tenantless clay : 
 
 Nor yet quite deserted, though lonely extended, 
 
 For faithful in death his dumb favorite attended, 
 
 The much loved remains of her master defended, 
 And chased the hill-fox and the raven away. 
 
 " How long didst thou think that his silence was slumber ? 
 
 When the wind waved his garments how oft didst thou start ? 
 How many long days and long nights didst thou number ? 
 
 Ere he faded before thee, the friend of thy heart ! 
 Say, oh ! was it meet that, no requiem read o'er him, 
 No mother to weep, and no friend to deplore him, 
 And thou, little guardian, alone stretched before him, 
 
 Unhonor'd, the pilgrim from life should depart ?"* 
 
 The more we know of this wonderful species, the 
 greater reason shall we find to praise that beneficent 
 Being, who gave the dog to man as his companion and 
 friend, and the greater indignation shall we feel against 
 the worse than brutal human beings, who, abusing the 
 devotion of this most affectionate and docile creature, 
 give to their half human attendants no return of kindness ; 
 but treat them with cruelty, and compensate their good 
 offices with blows. 
 
 * [Wordsworth has also beautifully versified this touching event, in 
 some stanzas, entitled, c Fidelity.' AM. ED.] 
 
GEOLOGY. 341 
 
 TWELFTH WEEK SATURDAY. 
 
 I. GEOLOGY. ITS PHENOMENA CONSISTENT WITH THE MOSAIC 
 
 ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION. 
 
 THE existence of mountains, which, in the volume on 
 Spring, will be shown to be a most beneficent arrange- 
 ment, modern geology has proved to be owing to a gen- 
 eral disruption of the original crust of the earth. On its 
 first formation, the surface of our globe must have been 
 a plain, or, at least, very nearly approaching to it. The 
 rocks and minerals of which it is now composed, are, on 
 good grounds, believed to have been originally in a liquid 
 state ; and, whether fire or water were the agents em- 
 ployed, or if, what is more probable, both of them were 
 employed, either separately or together, the strata of the 
 earth must, by the law of gravitation, have been formed 
 horizontally, and the surface must then have been level. 
 This introduces us to a most curious and interesting 
 subject ; and I intend to devote a few papers to a rapid 
 view of the discoveries of the geologist ; but before en- 
 tering on this alluring field, it seems proper to advert to 
 the attack which has been made by infidel writers on the 
 Mosaic account of the creation ; that this matter being 
 put on its proper footing, we may be enabled to proceed 
 with safety and freedom. 
 
 These writers allege, that there are incontrovertible 
 proofs of the existence of the world before the era as- 
 signed to the Mosaic creation ; and that all geological 
 appearances concur in bearing evidence, that many ex- 
 istences, both organized and unorganized, instead of be- 
 ing created in six days, have been successively produced 
 and remodelled in the course of many hundreds, perhaps 
 thousands, of ages. 
 
 Now, granting all this to be distinctly established, 
 for I do not think it necessary to dispute the general view 
 29* 
 
342 GEOLOGY. PHENOMENA CONSISTENT 
 
 thus stated, much less am I inclined to call in question 
 the facts by which it is supported, there are two ways 
 by which these appearances have been attempted to be 
 reconciled to the Mosaic account. The first, and ordi- 
 nary way, is, by supposing that the six days, mentioned 
 by Moses as the period in which Creative power was 
 exerted, may be interpreted to mean so many ages of 
 indefinite extent. And in support of this opinion,there are 
 not wanting plausible arguments. The word day is as- 
 suredly often taken in Scripture to signify an age or an 
 era; thus, we read of u an acceptable day," and u aday 
 of vengeance," and, still more distinctly, of " the latter 
 day," u the day of judgement," and u the day of salva- 
 tion," all which expressions are evidently meant to indi- 
 cate, not a natural day of twenty-four hours, but a pecu- 
 liar period in the actings of God's providence. Again, 
 it has been argued, that the various works assigned to 
 each day, when taken for an era, correspond, with won- 
 derful exactness, to the geological indications ; the chaos, 
 when all the elements were in a mixed and turbid state ; 
 the separation of the principle of light ; the subsidence 
 of the waters, and the appearance of dry ground ; the 
 creation of the vegetable kingdom ; then of the inhabit- 
 ants of the sea ; then of the inhabitants of the land ; and, 
 last of all, of man, seem to follow in the precise order 
 of succession which the various periods marked by the 
 labors of the geologist appear very clearly to sanction. 
 All this might appear to be satisfactory, were it not that 
 the sacred writer seems anxiously to preclude the possi- 
 bility of such an explanation, by ending the account of 
 each day's operation in these words, " And the evening 
 and the morning were the first (the second, the third, 
 &c.) day," a mode of expression which seems very 
 emphatically to confine the duration of the work, in each 
 instance, to a natural day, or a revolution of the earth on 
 its axis, although this, doubtless, may then have been 
 much more tardy than it is at present. 
 
 This method of getting quit of the difficulty, seeming, 
 therefore, to be untenable, we are bound to receive the 
 Mosaic account of the creation in the natural and un- 
 
WITH MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF CREATION. 343 
 
 strained sense of the words, as a true representation of 
 the succession of visible appearances on each of the six 
 days of this first week of time, as connected with the 
 system in which man was brought into existence ; but 
 the inquiry is still open, whether or not the materials, 
 of which our present world is composed, might have 
 been made use of by the Eternal Creator, at a period, 
 or during a succession of periods, previous to that of the 
 creation recorded by Moses. 
 
 In looking at the account contained in the first chapter 
 of Genesis, with this inquiry in our minds, what do we 
 see ? First of all we have an affirmation, in general terms, 
 that God is the Creator of all things : for, I think it will 
 be readily conceded, that nothing more than this is meant 
 by the expression, u In the beginning God created the 
 heavens and the earth." Then follows a declaration, 
 that immediately before the commencement of the Mosaic 
 creation, the materials of which the new world was to 
 be composed were already in existence, but in a chaotic 
 state, "the earth was without form and void, and dark- 
 ness was upon the face of the deep." Nothing is said 
 of the preceding state of this chaos ; because the business 
 of the sacred historian lay entirely with the world as it 
 now exists ; but, undoubtedly, there is here no assertion 
 which precludes the previous use of the materials, on 
 which the Almighty was now beginning to operate ; on 
 the contrary, the very existence of these materials, if it 
 does not imply, at least renders plausible, the supposi- 
 tion, that they may at some still earlier period have been 
 employed in some other manifestations of the Divine per- 
 fections. 
 
 Now, if we are permitted to take this view, all the 
 objections of the geologist, arising from the appearances 
 which indicate the existence of organized and living be- 
 ings long before the era of man, vanish at once. Should 
 it be found, that for many thousands, or even millions of 
 years, the matter of the earth was in existence before the 
 creation of the human race, and that it had been made 
 use of by Him whose being is from eternity, as the hab- 
 itation of other modes of vegetable and animal life, in 
 
344 GEOLOGY. 
 
 many successive epochs, and with a constant progression 
 towards higher powers and more perfect forms, such 
 facts, so far from invalidating the Mosaic account, seem 
 perfectly consistent with the analogy of revealed religion, 
 which is itself progressive, and the belief of them is even 
 favored by the manner in which the account of what must 
 then be considered as the latest creation is introduced. 
 
 This is the view, then, which I am disposed to take, 
 though I am quite aware that some highly ingenious at- 
 tempts have been made to reconcile all geological appear- 
 ances, to the opinion, that the materials of the world did 
 not exist previous to the Mosaic account, the soundness 
 of which I am not disposed at present to dispute. In 
 any case, the evidence of Scripture, which rests on sep- 
 arate grounds, and is unimpeachable, must be received 
 as paramount. Let every human system, however plau- 
 sible, perish, which contradicts the word of eternal 
 truth.* 
 
 * After this and the succeeding papers on Geology were written, and 
 while the first edition of this work was going through the press, Dr. 
 Buckland published his highly interesting and valuable Bridgewater 
 Treatise. It is a great satisfaction to me to observe, that this intelligent 
 author has adopted the same view with myself as to the mode of recon- 
 ciling the Mosaic account with the discoveries of Geology, a view 
 which he states himself to have long entertained, and to have previously 
 given to the world in his Inaugural Lecture, in 1820. He also quotes 
 some other authors as agreeing with him in this method of reconciliation, 
 such as Dr. Chalmers, Bishop Gleig, a writer in the Christian Observer, 
 &c. My own opinion, which was formed independently of these writ- 
 ers, I can now advance with greater confidence. Dr. Buckland enters 
 into some details of the six days of creation, supported by critical notices 
 on the Hebrew text, by the Regius Professor of Hebrew in Oxford, 
 (Pusey,) which are very satisfactory. It is shown that the Hebrew 
 word (bara) which we translate " created," does not necessarily signi- 
 fy formed out of nothing, though it is a stronger word than asah, made : 
 and it is also stated, that when in the fourth commandment it is declared, 
 that " in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all 
 that in them is ;" the word employed is not bara, but asah, from which 
 it expresses nothing more than " a new arrangement of materials which 
 existed before." Indeed, if we are strictly to interpret the word "create," 
 as signifying made out of nothing, it cannot apply to the work of any 
 of the six days, which consisted in the act of forming out of materials 
 already in existence. 
 
OPERATIONS OF PROVIDENCE. 345 
 
 THIRTEENTH WEEK SUNDAY. 
 
 ON THE DIFFICULTY OF COMPREHENDING THE OPERATIONS OF 
 PROVIDENCE. 
 
 WE have been contemplating the perfections of the 
 Creator, as exhibited in His works. Let us pause a little 
 on this day, set apart for devotional exercises, and turn 
 to the consideration of the same perfections, as exhibited 
 in His moral government. 
 
 One of the first things that strikes the mind in adverting 
 to this subject, is the difficulty of comprehending God's 
 dealings with His rational creatures. We immediately 
 discover, that u His ways are not as our ways, nor His 
 thoughts as our thoughts." A peculiar mystery hangs 
 over his operations, when we examine them by the unas- 
 sisted light of reason ; and this mystery is greatly modi- 
 fied, although it is not altogether removed, when revela- 
 tion adds its clearer light. This every inquiring mind 
 must have felt, in considering the various questions con- 
 nected with the existence of moral evil. Let us look, 
 then, at the sources of this mystery, and we shall find 
 them all resolving themselves into this one fact, The 
 infinite transcendency of the Divine perfections. 
 
 The wise and good among men frequently act on prin- 
 ciples which are not obvious to their inferiors, who are 
 not capable of entering into their exalted views. Can it 
 be matter of surprise, then, that the feeble and grovelling 
 race of Adam should be found incapable of entering into 
 the counsels of Him who is infinitely wise, and infinitely 
 good ? As in His own nature, He is incomprehensible, 
 so in the operations of His providence, He may be, and, 
 indeed, He frequently must be, influenced by motives 
 far above our conception. " As the heavens are higher 
 than the earth, so are His ways higher than our ways, 
 and His thoughts than our thoughts." He acts from the 
 
346 DIFFICULTY OF COMPREHENDING 
 
 infinite, eternal, and unchangeable impulse of His own 
 mind. The highest angels are infinitely beneath Him. 
 Even they cannot fathom the depth of His councils. No 
 wonder, then, that we should often be confounded in 
 our attempts to scan His character, and comprehend His 
 views. 
 
 We shall be better able to understand the extent of 
 the difficulty, if we enter into particulars, and consider 
 some of the ways in which the providence of God ope- 
 rates on His rational creatures. God is omniscient. He 
 knows our frame, and " understands our thoughts afar 
 off." He forms no superficial or unjust judgement of our 
 character and motives, as we short-sighted mortals do in 
 regard to our fellow-men. He knows, for instance, 
 whether our actions proceed from selfish or benevolent 
 motives ; whether a sense of duty or a love of human 
 approbation lies at the bottom of our conduct ; whether 
 worldly possessions improve or correct our hearts. He, 
 therefore, knows, what we cannot distinctly know, the 
 kind of discipline we require to train us for heaven ; and 
 He accommodates the operations of His providence to 
 this knowledge. He comforts us with hope, or encour- 
 ages us with success, or blesses us with enjoyment, and 
 causes His "candle to shine on our head," just to the 
 extent to which He sees these earthly blessings will be 
 really useful to us. And, on the other hand, He morti- 
 fies us with disappointment, or humbles us with disgrace, 
 or chastens us with poverty, or warns us by sickness, or 
 causes the loss of all that was nearest and dearest to our 
 hearts, that He may thus call us to serious reflection, 
 and break the ties which bind us to the earth, and lead us 
 to place our treasure, and fix our affections, in heaven. 
 And all this, He frequently does, without our being able 
 to understand His reasons, because we are ignorant both 
 of our own character and wants, and of the character 
 and wants of others. 
 
 Nor is this all. God is acquainted with the ultimate 
 consequences of all events. He traces every thing to 
 its most remote effects. It is not merely the advantage 
 of a day, or a month, or a year, that He regards. He 
 
THE OPERATIONS OF PROVIDENCE. 347 
 
 looks forward to the most distant futurity, and, with uner- 
 ring certainty, calculates the precise bearing of every 
 present event on ages yet to come. It is an awful con- 
 sideration, that there is not an action of our lives, nor a 
 word which we utter, nor even a thought which passes 
 through our hearts, that may not be pregnant with import- 
 ant consequences, with consequences which may not 
 only deeply affect ourselves, but others ; which may be 
 productive of good or evil, not merely in our own imme- 
 diate circle, but, sometimes, even to the community 
 among whom we dwell, and the age in which we live. 
 Nor does the influence necessarily stop here, it may ex- 
 tend to distant posterity. These consequences we can- 
 not see, but God estimates them all. Every word, every 
 look of ours, the all-seeing Eye follows through all its 
 effects on the character of our children, and friends, and 
 neighbors ; and thence, again, on the sentiments and con- 
 duct of others influenced by them ; and, further still, on 
 those of their children, and their children's children, to 
 the latest generations. How infinitely is this beyond the 
 grasp of the human mind ! 
 
 Again, the Eternal not only knows the effects, but the 
 relations and comparative value of all things. Men view 
 events under a perverted aspect, judging of their im- 
 portance more by their nearness or their distance, than 
 by their intrinsic worth. Through the false medium of 
 passion or of prejudice, we are apt to magnify or con- 
 tract the dimensions of objects, and to form an opinion 
 of them altogether different from the reality. We shall 
 be more sensible of this, if we reflect, for a moment, on 
 the different sentiments with which we regard death, when 
 we hope that this event is distant, and when we perceive 
 or imagine it to be near ; or, indeed, if we consider the 
 general tendency of the mind to form a foolish attach- 
 ment to temporal things, in preference to those things 
 that are eternal. 
 
 But none of these prejudices and prepossessions ob- 
 struct or deceive the vision of the Almighty. Those 
 things which occupy the attention of our worldly minds, 
 He sees in all their emptiness and frivolity ; the heavenly 
 
348 THE OPERATIONS OF PROVIDENCE. 
 
 treasures which we regard with such indifference, He 
 views in their infinite magnitude and importance ; and all 
 these, with unerring wisdom, He adjusts (independent of 
 the vain wishes of men) so as to promote the greatest 
 good. Here is another obvious source of inadequate com- 
 prehension on our part. 
 
 We must further remember, that these unsearchable 
 operations are not confined to the welfare of individuals. 
 They embrace the interests of nations, of the earth, 
 of the universe ! While there is not a living being in 
 creation to whom the paternal care of the Creator does 
 not extend, He views the world as a whole, and so reg- 
 ulates every part, as either to promote the happiness of 
 all, or to visit them with retributive justice. What a 
 wonderful conception is this ! From the worm to man, 
 from man to the archangel, all are linked together in the 
 counsels of God ; and, while there is not one of all these 
 creatures whom He does not care for, as if there were 
 no other being to occupy his attention, all are governed 
 as one great family, of which each member has its own 
 department, and in which one great design is constantly 
 kept in view, the perfection and happiness of the 
 whole. 
 
 Nor must we forget, that the schemes of the Self-ex- 
 istent are not bounded by time, but embrace eternity. 
 In the present world, the moral government of God is 
 only begun. That may appear imperfect and disordered, 
 of which we only see apart, when, if the whole were dis- 
 played and understood, every minute particular, and the 
 united result of the whole, would be found to be the per- 
 fection of wisdom. 
 
 He who has seen a powerful and complicated system 
 of machinery in operation, of which he was only permit- 
 ted to examine a small part, may form some idea of the 
 effect of so partial a view of the operations of Providence. 
 He saw an apparently confused and unwieldy mechanism, 
 of which he neither understood the principle nor the use. 
 Wheels on wheels, moving in seeming disorder, valves 
 opening and shutting, levers straining, beams revolv- 
 ing, while fire and water combined their mysterious 
 
GEOLOGY. 349 
 
 powers. He perceived, in short, an immense expense 
 of labor and ingenuity, and all for what ? He could not 
 tell : He observed amazing powers in operation ; he heard 
 a grating and astounding noise, and that was all. But 
 were he admitted into the upper apartments, where the 
 effect of all these operations is displayed, what a different 
 opinion would he form ! How would he admire the tal- 
 ents which could so control the powers of Nature, as to 
 give man a force immensely superior to his own, and add 
 to the resources, and insure the prosperity, not of indi- 
 viduals only, but of the whole empire ! 
 
 And so it is with the operations of Providence. Here 
 we see but a part, and that a very small part, of the ma- 
 chinery by which He conducts the moral government of 
 the world. Even if we could understand all the relations 
 of temporal things, we could not understand their bear- 
 ings on eternity. Some glimpses, indeed, Revelation 
 has afforded us into that upper apartment, where the whole 
 scheme is consummated, and where the ways of God are 
 vindicated to His creatures ; but how imperfect and how 
 inadequate ! Let us look forward with eagerness and 
 hope to the approaching period, when the veil shall be 
 removed from our eyes, and "we shall know even as we 
 are known." 
 
 THIRTEENTH WEEK MONDAY. 
 
 II. GEOLOGY. SUCCESSIVE PERIODS OF DEPOSIT. 
 
 ASSUMING the existence of matter from an indefinite 
 period before the commencement of the Mosaic creation, 
 let us attend to the opinions which have been adopted by 
 modern geologists, from views founded on the knowledge 
 they have acquired of the crust of the earth. 
 
 It should seem, according to these inquiries, that there 
 are three well-marked periods in the primitive history of 
 i. 30 vn. 
 
350 GEOLOGY. 
 
 our globe, during which the most extensive changes have 
 taken place on its surface, and fresh deposits have been 
 made. The order of time in which these changes have 
 been effected, can be fixed, as is supposed, with consid- 
 erable precision. We are first informed, that there was 
 what may be called the Primitive era, or period of gran- 
 ite, when this species of rock, with other stony substances, 
 and the wide-spread ocean from which, in the process of 
 ages, extensive deposits of sand were made, seem to have 
 covered the whole face of the earth, forming a cheerless 
 and gloomy waste, destitute of organized existences, and 
 void of life. This epoch is said to have been followed 
 by another period of long duration, in which some violent 
 convulsions have taken place, and active powers have 
 been at work, effecting extensive changes, without appear- 
 ing, during its continuance, to have settled down into a 
 permanent state ; hence called the Transition period. It is 
 during this period, that the first rudiments of vegetable 
 and animal existences seem to have taken their origin, as 
 the lowest kind of organized beings are found embedded 
 in its deposits. 
 
 j u Beginning with the animal kingdom," says Dr. Buck- 
 land, u we find the four great existing divisions of Fer- 
 tebrata, Mollusca, Articulala, and Radiata, to have been 
 coeval with the commencement of organic life upon our 
 globe. No higher condition of Vertebrata has yet been 
 discovered in the transition formation than that of fishes." 
 " The Mollusca, in the transition series, afford examples 
 of several families, and many genera, which seem at that 
 time to have been universally diffused over all parts of 
 the world." " The earliest examples of Articulated ani- 
 mals are those afforded by the extinct family of Trilo- 
 bites." These seem to have perished at the end of this 
 series. u The Radiated animals are among the most 
 frequent organic remains in the transition strata. They 
 present numerous forms of great beauty." Of the vege- 
 table kingdom in this earliest period of organized exist- 
 ences, Dr. Buckland says, "In the inferior regions of 
 this series, plants are few in number, and principally ma- 
 rine ; but in its superior regions, the remains of land plants 
 are accumulated in prodigious quantities." They form, 
 
SUCCESSIVE PERIODS OF DEPOSIT. 351 
 
 in their destruction, a great part of our present coal fields, 
 and many strata of the carboniferous order contain sub- 
 ordinate beds of a rich argillaceous iron ore. t4 A for- 
 mation," adds our author, " that is at once the vehicle 
 of two such valuable mineral productions as coal and iron, 
 assumes a place of the first importance among the sources 
 of benefit to mankind ; and this benefit is the direct re- 
 sult of physical changes which affected the earth at those 
 remote periods of time, when the first forms of vegetable 
 life appeared upon its surface." 
 
 Resting on the transition rocks, and therefore believed 
 immediately to succeed them in the era of their deposi- 
 tion, come the rocks of what has been called the Second- 
 ary epoch, during which, along with a distinct and peculiar 
 vegetation, animals have existed, chiefly the inhabitants 
 of the waters, or saurian reptiles, of gigantic forms, partly 
 marine, partly amphibious, and partly terrestrial ; and, 
 at the same period also, have lived mammalia of the mar- 
 supial order, and some testudinata and feathered tribes ; 
 as, not only their petrified remains, but, what is still more 
 remarkable, the marks of their footsteps on sandstone, 
 have recently been found to testify. Dr. Buckland, in 
 speaking of fossil Testudinata, says, u The remains of 
 land tortoises have been more rarely observed in a fossil 
 state. Cuvier mentions but two examples, and these in 
 very recent formations, at Aix, and in the Isle of France. 
 Scotland has recently afforded evidence of the existence 
 of more than one species of these terrestrial reptiles, 
 during the period of the new red or variegated sandstone 
 formation. The nature of this evidence is almost unique 
 in the history of organic remains." In a foot note, he 
 states that a discovery of fossil footmarks, similar to that 
 made at Corncocklemuir, which was communicated by 
 me, in 1828, to the Edinburgh Royal Society,* has re- 
 cently been made in Saxony, at the village of Hessberg, 
 near Hildburghausen, in several quarries of gray quartz- 
 ose sandstone, alternating with beds of red sandstone, 
 nearly of the same age with that of Dumfriesshire, of 
 which notices have been given by Dr. Hohnbaum, Pro- 
 
 * [See vol. xi. of their Transactions. AM. ED.] 
 
352 GEOLOGY. 
 
 fessor Caup, and Dr. Sickler. In another place, he also 
 mentions footmarks of several extinct species of birds, 
 having lately been found by Professor Hitchcock, in the 
 new red sandstone of the valley of the Connecticut, one of 
 them of a species of enormous dimensions, which took a 
 stride of six feet. 
 
 [Professor Hitchcock's account of his discoveries was 
 presented to the public through the American Journal of 
 Science and the Arts, and may be found in vol. xxix., 
 article Ornithichnology ; a word derived from the Greek, 
 signifying stony birdtracks. The Professor gives an in- 
 teresting description of the footmarks, accompanied with 
 illustrative drawings, among which is one representing the 
 foot of the gigantic bird just alluded to. 
 
 Of this, he says, u In one specimen, the claw is at least 
 two inches long, and even then a part of it appears to be 
 missing. The whole length of the foot, consequently, is 
 sixteen or seventeen inches ! Length of the successive 
 steps, between four and six feet ! Indeed, I suspect, from 
 the numerous examples which I have seen of tracks at 
 the distance of four feet, that this was the ordinary step 
 of the bird when walking ; while it was able to lengthen 
 it to six feet, when moving rapidly." 
 
 In speaking of another species, he observes, " The 
 best specimen that I possess, exhibits, at a few inches 
 behind the heel, a depression nearly an inch deep, and 
 several inches across ; the anterior slopes to which, in 
 the rear, appear as if large bristles had been impressed 
 upon the mud. The impression extends backwards from 
 the heel, at least eight or nine inches ; so that the whole 
 length of the track is not less than two feet ! The rock 
 on which this species of track appears, is composed of 
 a fine blue mud, such as is now common in ponds and 
 estuaries ; and where the bird trod upon it, in some cases, 
 it seems the mud was crowded upwards, forming a ridge 
 around the track in front, several inches in height. In- 
 deed, I hesitate not to say, that the impression made on 
 the mud appears to have been almost as deep, indicating 
 a pressure almost as great, as if an elephant had passed 
 over it. I could not persuade myself, until the evidence 
 
SUCCESSIVE PERIODS OF DEPOSIT. 353 
 
 became perfectly irresistible, that I was examining merely 
 the track of a bird." 
 
 " As to their real size," he continues, " we may for 
 ever be left to conjectures. But I am not sure that a 
 practised comparative anatomist could not determine the 
 size of a bird, having the size of the foot, and the length 
 of the step given. I shall not attempt the problem any 
 further than to state one fact, by way of comparison. The 
 African ostrich, the largest of known birds, has a foot 
 only ten inches long, reckoning from the back part of the 
 heel to the extremity of the claw ; the length of the leg, 
 from the hip joint to the ground, is four feet one inch ; 
 and yet it sometimes weighs eighty or one hundred 
 pounds, and, in walking, its head is as high as that of a 
 man on horseback ; or from seven to nine feet. May 
 we not infer that some of these ancient birds, must have 
 been almost twice as high and heavy as the ostrich ? 
 From a few trials, I do not believe that the legs of a bird, 
 (including the thigh,) w r hose ordinary step was four feet, 
 could have been much less than six feet,"and"I should 
 say his head must have been elevated from twelve to fif- 
 teen feet above the ground !" 
 
 u Such," says the Professor, "must have been the 
 feathered tenants, that once occupied the now delightful 
 valley of the Connecticut. At that time, we have every 
 reason to believe that valley to have been an estuary ; for 
 the organic remains of the new red sandstone, are chiefly 
 marine. And to show that other organic beings, that 
 were contemporaries with these huge birds, were their 
 compeers in size, I would mention a seafern, found in 
 the new red sandstone of West Springfield, that has been 
 uncovered, without reaching its limits, eighteen feet in 
 length, and four feet in width ! Indeed, the colossal bulk 
 of these birds, is in perfect accordance with the early his- 
 tory of organic life in every part of our globe. The 
 much higher temperature that then prevailed, seems to 
 have been favorable to a giantlike developement of every 
 form of life. The most interesting aspect, in which the 
 facts that have been stated present themselves to the ge- 
 ologist, is, as to the evidence they afford of the very early 
 30* 
 
354 GEOLOGY. 
 
 existence of birds, among the inhabitants of our globe. 
 Heretofore, there has been no proof of their existence, 
 until within a comparatively recent period. But it now 
 appears that they were among the earliest of the vertebral 
 animals that were placed on the globe. The discovery 
 of some monument, that reveals the history of a people, 
 a few hundred years earlier than had before been known, 
 affords a high gratification to the antiquary. But in these 
 simple footmarks, the existence, and some of the habits, 
 of an interesting class of animals is proved, at a period 
 so remote, that the entire population of the globe has 
 since been changed, at least once or twice, and probably 
 several times more. The number of years that have 
 since elapsed, we cannot even conjecture, for, in respect 
 to all the races of animals and plants that have occupied 
 the globe, previous to the existing tribes, the Scriptures 
 are silent, giving us to understand merely that a period 
 of indefinite duration intervened, between ' the beginning' 
 and the creation of man ; and geological monuments, al- 
 though they clearly point out successive epochs in the 
 natural history of the globe, yet furnish us with few chro- 
 nological dates." 
 
 Our limits will not allow of our making any further ex- 
 tracts from this long and valuable paper. We would refer 
 those desirous of pursuing the investigation to the original 
 document, and also to additional communications on the 
 subject, to be found in subsequent volumes of the same 
 periodical. AM. EDITOR.] 
 
 On the subject of these discoveries, with particular 
 allusion to that in Corncocklemuir, I)r. Buckland has the 
 following elegant observations. " The historian or the 
 antiquary may have traversed the fields of ancient or of 
 modern battles, and may have pursued the line of march 
 of triumphant conquerors, whose armies trampled down 
 the most mighty kingdoms of the world. The winds 
 and storms have utterly obliterated the ephemeral impres- 
 sions of their course. Not a track remains of a single 
 foot or a single hoof, of all the countless millions of men 
 and beasts, whose progress spread desolation over the 
 earth. But the reptiles that crawled upon the half-fin- 
 
SUCCESSIVE PERIODS OF DEPOSIT. 355 
 
 ished surface of our infant planet, have left memorials 
 of their passage enduring and indelible. No history has 
 recorded their creation or destruction ; their very bones 
 are found no more among the fossil relics of a former 
 world. Centuries and thousands of years may have 
 rolled away, between the time in which these footsteps 
 were impressed by tortoises upon the sands of their na- 
 tive Scotland, and the hour when they are again laid 
 bare, and exposed to our curious and admiring eyes. 
 Yet we behold them stamped upon the rock, distinct as 
 the track of the passing animal upon the recent snow ; 
 as if to show that thousands of years are but as nothing 
 amidst eternity ; and, as it were, in mockery of the 
 fleeting perishable course of the mightiest potentates 
 among mankind." 
 
 To the secondary period, again, is believed to have 
 succeeded another epoch, during which, rocks, of what 
 is called the Tertiary formation, have been deposited, and 
 animals, as well as plants, of a larger and more perfect 
 kind, and approaching nearer to those of our own era, 
 have existed. 
 
 The Tertiary epoch has recently been divided into 
 four periods, founded on the proportions which their 
 fossil shells bear to marine shells of existing species. 
 During the first period, these productions exhibit but a 
 small resemblance to our present orders ; but this resem- 
 blance increases through each successive period, till the 
 greater proportion of the fossil species come to bear a 
 distinctly marked affinity to present existences. A 
 similar remark may be made with regard to the inhabit- 
 ants of the land. By far the greater proportion of the 
 genera which existed during the earliest period of this 
 epoch, are now extinct, while the terrestrial animals of 
 the latest period have very generally antitypes in the 
 living species of our own era. "It appears," says Dr. 
 Buckland, "that, at this epoch, the whole surface of 
 Europe was densely peopled by various orders of Mam- 
 malia; that the numbers of the herbivora were maintained 
 in due proportion by the controlling influence of carniv- 
 ora j and that the individuals of every species were con- 
 
356 GEOLOGY. 
 
 structed in a manner fitting each to its own enjoyment of 
 the pleasures of existence, and placing it in due and use- 
 ful relations to the animal and vegetable kingdoms by 
 which it was surrounded." He then concludes his ob- 
 servations on the tertiary series with the following just 
 and striking remarks. "Every comparative anatomist is 
 familiar with the beautiful examples of mechanical con- 
 trivance and compensations which adapt existing species 
 of herbivora and carnivora^ to their own peculiar place 
 and state of life. Such contrivances began not with 
 living species. The geologist demonstrates their prior 
 existence in the extinct forms of the same genera, which 
 he discovers beneath the surface of the earth ; and he 
 claims for the Author of these fossil forms, under which 
 the first types of such mechanisms were embodied, the 
 same high attributes of wisdom and goodness, the dem- 
 onstration of which, exalts and sanctifies the labors of 
 science, in her investigations of the organizations of the 
 living world." 
 
 This latter period is believed to have immediately pre- 
 ceded the Mosaic creation, and to have ended in some 
 universal catastrophe, which entirely broke up and de- 
 ranged the whole face of the earth, destroying all vege- 
 table and animal life, and reducing the whole materials of 
 the globe to that state of chaos which the sacred historian 
 so briefly, but emphatically describes, when he says, that 
 " the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was 
 upon the face of the deep." 
 
 It would be inconsistent with my plan to enter, with 
 any minuteness, into a detail of the arguments by which 
 geologists maintain the truth of these views ; but I may 
 mention, in a single sentence, that the rocks, called pri- 
 mary, obtain this name, because, though they frequently 
 are found to have burst through all the other strata of 
 which the crust of the earth is composed, and even to 
 overtop them all, forming our most elevated mountain 
 ranges, yet they uniformly dip deeper down below the 
 earth's surface than all the rest, and form the substratum 
 on which the others recline. Immediately above these, 
 lies the transition deposit, then the secondary, and then 
 
SUCCESSIVE PERIODS OF DEPOSIT. 357 
 
 the tertiary formations. The obvious conclusion is, that, 
 if we may at all suppose successive periods of deposit, 
 these periods must have occurred in the order we have 
 described ; and the existence of peculiar forms of organ- 
 ized beings, connected respectively with these periods, 
 while it strangely excites curiosity, and gives a very deep 
 and mysterious interest to the subject, by opening, as 
 it were, a glimpse into former worlds, cannot readily be 
 accounted for in any other way than by the hypothesis of 
 successive epochs and successive creations. If, indeed, 
 the plants and animals of one formation were found inter- 
 mingled with those of another, there might be some ground 
 for hesitation. But this is not the case ; and, what is 
 particularly worthy of remark, it appears that the whole 
 individuals of the organized beings, which existed during 
 those primeval periods, had been destroyed before the 
 era of the Mosaic creation, none of such species being in 
 existence at the present day. 
 
 What a surprising, and at the same time consistent, 
 view does this present of the operations of the Eternal 
 Mind. We have been accustomed to think of the Self- 
 existent Being as only beginning to exert his creative 
 energies, within the last six thousand years, when our 
 globe was brought out of a state of chaos, and the human 
 race was formed. But it is natural for the inquiring mind 
 to ask, if it be indeed true that an eternity had passed 
 before the Almighty displayed His perfections by calling 
 worlds into existence, and exercising over them that 
 paternal care which is so conspicuous and so endearing in 
 the present state of things. This inquiry we may not be 
 able satisfactorily to answer ; but it is undoubtedly a step 
 towards the solution of the question, to discover, that the 
 materials of which the present earth is composed, have 
 been employed by the Creator, in previous periods, of 
 unknown but vast duration, in the formation of other 
 worlds, of which other beings, strangers to the existing 
 earth, were denizens ; and we seem to acquire a more 
 sublime idea of the Divine perfections, when we think 
 of those primeval times, " in which plants and flowers, 
 now totally unknown, adorned the face of nature, and 
 
358 GEOLOGY. SUCCESSIVE PERIODS OF 
 
 rose to luxuriance under warmer suns ; in which animals 
 of different forms and species, roamed the woods and 
 forests ; and in which the ocean rolled its billows, and 
 the finny tribes found food and enjoyment, where now 
 fertile fields wave with grain, and the lofty trees of the 
 forest throw their boughs toward heaven, and man and 
 beast tread the solid ground."* 
 
 THIRTEENTH WEEK TUESDAY. 
 
 III. GEOLOGY. SUCCESSIVE PERIODS OF ORGANIZED EX- 
 ISTENCES. 
 
 IF the view of our modern geologists, which I have 
 adopted, be correct, there is something exceedingly inter- 
 esting, and certainly, as I have already observed, not in- 
 consistent with the character of the Creator, as we read 
 it inscribed on His works, in the gradual developement of 
 the powers of Nature, and in the adaptation of living be- 
 ings to the progress of that developement. u In the be- 
 ginning," the earth was, according to this hypothesis, 
 created a mass of inert matter, perhaps in a liquid state 
 from excessive heat, but crystallizing as it cooled, till the 
 whole crust of the globe was comprised in the two great 
 divisions of sea and crystallized rocks, surrounded with 
 an atmosphere. This was its primitive state ; and under 
 these circumstances, neither vegetables nor animals could 
 exist ; but, being intended for the habitation of living be- 
 ings, the powers inherent in matter were employed in 
 breaking down, abrading, and disuniting the harder sub- 
 stances, so as to form soil fit for the maintenance of vege- 
 table produce ; and thus, in process of time, it passed 
 into the transition state. No sooner was the globe, to 
 this extent, prepared, than vegetables were created by 
 
 * Study of Nature, p. 202. 
 
ORGANIZED EXISTENCES. 359 
 
 the Almighty Hand ; and food being thus produced for 
 living creatures, these also were called into being, with 
 faculties and endowments admirably fitted for the earth, as 
 it then was. 
 
 Still the process of decomposition and crumbling down 
 went on, till the world became fitted for a new change. 
 A catastrophe, therefore, took place, by which all organ- 
 ized existences were destroyed and submerged ; and, by 
 a most wonderful provision, these were laid up in store- 
 houses, as it were, below the surface, for the future use 
 of the rational creatures which were, in the succession of 
 ages, to be created, being meanwhile, by pressure and 
 disintegration, converted, the marine productions into lime, 
 and the produce of the land into coal. And now, a new 
 operation of creative wisdom takes place. More nour- 
 ishing qualities have been infused into the waters of the 
 sea, and the surface of the earth has acquired more fer- 
 tile powers, by which the whole globe is fitted for the 
 maintenance of higher species of plants and animals. 
 They are accordingly produced. A more noble and 
 luxuriant vegetation clothes the face of the earth. Liv- 
 ing creatures of gigantic proportions swim in the ocean, 
 or frequent the vast swamps and marshes which compose 
 its shores, or feed among the mighty palms and ferns which 
 spring up on the elevated grounds. But the wonderful 
 plan formed in the Eternal Mind is not yet completed. 
 Another period elapses, in which further, changes have 
 been going on, and continued preparations have been mak- 
 ing. At length new epochs arrive, and new catastrophes 
 take place. Again and again the surface of the globe is 
 broken up ; its vegetable and animal productions are again 
 and again entombed, to add to the stores of the higher 
 race destined to appear in a new era and a renovated 
 world. 
 
 Last of all, the time arrives, when the globe is fitted 
 for a race of rational creatures. " The earth is without 
 form, and void." The elements are commixed ; and 
 thickest darkness broods over the profound abyss. God 
 speaks ; it is light,, and the clouds ascend. He speaks 
 again ; the solid foundations of the world are disturbed ; 
 
360 GEOLOGY. SUCCESSIVE PERIODS OF 
 
 an irresistible force heaves the ancient granite from its 
 bed, causing it to shake off the superincumbent strata 
 which ages had formed, and to throw aloft its rugged 
 peaks, till they threaten to penetrate the sky. The 
 waters subside, and are gathered together. An effectual 
 separation is thus made between the seas and the dry land, 
 and a new character is given to the earth's surface, which 
 fits it for its coming destiny.* Once more the Creator 
 utters his voice. " The earth brings forth grass, the herb 
 yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit. " Yet again 
 the command is issued, and the clearing atmosphere gives 
 free admittance to the direct rays of the sun, moon, and 
 stars. f Thus is the world once more prepared, as the 
 
 * " It is marvellous that mankind should have gone on for so many 
 centuries in ignorance of the fact, which is now so fully demonstrated, 
 that no small part of the present surface of the earth is derived from the 
 remains of animals, that constituted the population of the ancient seas. 
 Many extensive plains and massive mountains form, as it were, the great 
 charnel-houses of preceding generations, in which the petrified exuviae 
 of extinct races of animals and vegetables are piled into stupendous mon- 
 uments of the operations of life and death, during almost immeasurable 
 periods of past time." " * At the sight of a spectacle,' says Cuvier, ' so 
 imposing, so terrible as that of the wreck of animal life, forming almost 
 the entire soil on which we tread, it is difficult to restrain the imagina- 
 tion from hazarding some conjectures as to the causes by which such 
 great effects have been produced.' " Buckland^s Bridgewater Trea- 
 tise, p. 112. 
 
 t Speaking of the 14th, and four succeeding verses of the first chapter 
 of Genesis, Dr. Buckland, in agreement with what is stated in the text, 
 thus argues : ** What is herein stated of the celestial luminaries, seems 
 to be spoken solely with reference to our planet, and more especially to 
 the human race, then about to be placed upon it. We are not told that 
 the substance of the sun and moon were first called into existence upon 
 the fourth day. The text may equally imply that these bodies were 
 then prepared, and appointed to certain offices of high importance to 
 mankind : * to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day, and 
 over the night ; ' ' to be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for 
 years.' The fact of the creation had been stated before in the first 
 verse. The stars also are mentioned, (Gen. i. 16,) in three words only, 
 almost parenthetically, as if for the sole purpose of announcing that they 
 also were made by the same Power as those luminaries which are more 
 important to us the sun and the moon. The interpretation here pro- 
 posed seems, moreover, to solve the difficulty which would otherwise 
 attend the statement of the appearance of light on the first day, while 
 the sun and moon and stars were not made to appear until the fourth. 
 If we suppose all the heavenly bodies and the earth to have been created 
 
ORGANIZED EXISTENCES. 361 
 
 residence of living beings ; and they are created. The 
 broad-spread sea and swelling earth teem with animation; 
 and, last of all, Man is formed in the image of God. His 
 Creator " breathes into his nostrils the breath of life, and 
 he becomes a living soul ;" the lord of this nether sphere 
 stands confessed. 
 
 Such is the progress which, according to modem geol- 
 ogy, corrected by the lights of Scripture, has formed the 
 earliest history of creation. The system, perhaps, de- 
 serves no higher name than that of a theory ; but it is a 
 beautiful and consistent theory, which accounts for many 
 facts, and is contradicted, so far as I know, by none. It 
 is exceedingly gratifying to human genius to have thus 
 found the means of penetrating beyond the darkness of 
 ancient chaos, and the confusion of mingled elements ; and 
 it is not less instructive than gratifying, to be able to trace, 
 even in these mysterious primeval times, the designing 
 hand of Infinite Wisdom and Goodness ; to see the very 
 same character impressed on the works of the Creator, in 
 such incalculably remote periods, which we mark with so 
 much delight in the history of the world, since that latest 
 epoch, in which the human race was formed, the chief of 
 His terrestrial works ; and in which subordinate organ- 
 ized beings, in a scale descending by almost imperceptible 
 links, till they become confounded with inanimate matter, 
 were associated with them. 
 
 One objection I anticipate. Why, it may naturally be 
 asked, this progression and long delay ? Why was that 
 Infinite Power not put forth at once, which was to form 
 the world in its highest state of perfection ? Could not 
 the same Almighty power, which, according to this the- 
 ory, formed the earth an inert mass, and left the devel- 
 
 at the indefinitely distant time designated by the word * beginning,' and 
 that the darkness described on the evening of the first day, was a 
 temporary darkness, produced by an accumulation of dense vapors 
 ' upon the face of the deep,' an incipient dispersion of these vapors may 
 have readmitted light to the earth, upon the first day, while the exciting 
 cause of light was still obscured ; and the further purification of the at- 
 mosphere, upon the fourth day, may have caused the sun and moon and 
 stars to reappear in the firmament of heaven, to assume their new rela- 
 tions to the newly modified earth, and to the human race." 
 
 i. 31 vn. 
 
362 GEOLOGY. 
 
 opement of its productive qualities to a succession of ages, 
 have called it into being, in all its glory, by a single word ? 
 Undoubtedly it could ; and the reason of a different mode 
 of operation may be inscrutable by the human mind. But 
 who does not see that such progression is in accordance 
 with the usual analogy of the Divine operations ; and that 
 the very same objection might be urged against the pro- 
 gress of society in the arts and in civilization ; against the 
 gradual unfolding of the eternal decrees in the history of 
 revealed religion ; against the slow growth of an oak ; or 
 against the tardy expansion of the human powers through 
 the various stages of infancy, youth, and manhood. Time 
 is, even with man, but a relative term. In the counsels 
 of Him, with whom c a thousand years are but as one 
 day," it dwindles to a point. 
 
 THIRTEENTH WEEK WEDNESDAY. 
 
 IV. GEOLOGY. STATE-OF THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD. 
 
 THE arrangements on the surface of the earth, in its 
 antediluvian state, were, doubtless, in many respects, 
 different from what they are at present. I do not allude 
 to its state as it came first from the hands of its Creator, 
 when all things bore the recent impress of a Divine Hand, 
 when Paradise bloomed, and the gentle air breathed 
 balm, and, on the young vegetable and animal world, the 
 blessing of a benignant Heaven shed peace, grandeur, and 
 loveliness ; but I speak of it after the Deity had fitted it 
 for the habitation of a fallen and guilty race, who were to 
 earn their subsistence amidst toil and care, strangers and 
 pilgrims on their native earth, and under training, by a 
 course of discipline, for new states of existence in another 
 sphere. 
 
 Of the actual condition of the antediluvian world, we 
 have scarcely any recorded materials from which we can 
 
STATE OF THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD. 363 
 
 draw correct geological conclusions. We are informed, 
 however, that the life of man extended to a period of 
 tenfold greater duration than it does at present, which 
 indicates a much greater salubrity of the atmosphere ; 
 and it is remarkable, that the organic remains of that 
 first period of the human history, correspond with this 
 indication. The state of the air and of the seasons, which 
 was so healthful for man, may readily be supposed to 
 have been equally favorable to the nourishment of other 
 organized existences ; and if we are to look for proofs 
 from geology, to confirm the assertion of the sacred vol- 
 ume on this point, we must seek for it in a greater luxu- 
 riance in the growth of plants and animals. Man, himself, 
 who seems not to have arrived at the period of puberty 
 before sixty or seventy years of age, was probably of 
 superior stature, a conjecture which is confirmed by the 
 existence of giants, as we are expressly assured, both 
 before the flood, and for some time after it. However 
 this may be, it is remarkable, that we have undoubted 
 proofs, from antediluvian remains, that many of the organ- 
 ized existences of that period were of much greater di- 
 mensions than are now to be found, either in the vegetable 
 or animal kingdoms. Tropical plants seem to have spread 
 over our temperate regions in great luxuriance of vegeta- 
 tion, and among animals there are found, in these regions, 
 some of immense proportions, whose species are now 
 extinct, or, if still existing, as in the case of the tapir, 
 are greatly diminished in size. From these facts, we 
 have evidence that the antediluvian climate was peculiarly 
 genial, and therefore we need not be surprised to find 
 that it was far more favorable to human life, than the at- 
 mosphere in which we at present exist.* 
 
 * In this view of the superior salubrity of the antediluvian climate, 
 the author is directly opposed to the speculations of Bishop Sherlock, 
 who imagines that the curse pronounced on the ground rested upon it, 
 " in all its rigor, only till the flood, up to which period it rendered 
 the work and toil necessary to raise from the ground a sufficient sup- 
 port for life, a grievous and irksome burden ;" but that, after this ca- 
 tastrophe, that part of the curse which referred to the soil was removed, 
 and the world was, in this respect, restored to its primeval beauty and 
 fertility. This strange notion rests for its support on two texts of Scrip- 
 
364 GEOLOGY. 
 
 In another respect, too, the aspect of the antediluvian 
 world must have been considerably different from its 
 present state. Since that early period, a deluge has 
 swept over its surface with tremendous force, levelling 
 hills, filling up valleys, scooping out ravines, altering 
 the bed of the ocean, and blotting out, perhaps, whole 
 continents from the map of the world, while it raised oth- 
 ers in their place. By the action of this great catastro- 
 phe, very large additions must have been made to the 
 productive soil of the earth, from the effects of detrition ; 
 but even then the soil appears to have been abundant, at 
 least in many and extensive portions of the globe ; and, 
 whatever changes have been made, of which we shall 
 speak more particularly in another paper, the general 
 character of the terraqueous globe, and its inhabitants, 
 must have been, with the exceptions already hinted at, 
 
 ture, the first of which is the reason given by Lamech for naming his 
 firstborn son Noah, which means comfort, viz. " This same shall com- 
 fort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground 
 which the Lord hath cursed," (Gen. v. 29.) Those who have noted 
 the custom which prevailed from the earliest times, of recording a rea- 
 son for the naming of children at or soon after their birth, will scarcely 
 see in this passage any thing more than the delight and pious gratitude 
 of a father, for the gift of a son who should assist him in his agricultural 
 labors. The Bible is full of similar birthday sayings ; thus Eve called 
 her firstborn son Cain, which signifies gotten, for she said, " I have 
 gotten a man from the Lord ;" and when, after the murder of Abel, she 
 had another son, she called him Seth, which signifies appointed. " For 
 God," said she, " hath appointed me another seed, instead of Abel, 
 whom Cain slew." Many other instances might be mentioned. 
 
 The other text, on which Sherlock builds his theory, can scarcely be 
 considered of greater weight. It is the promise contained in the two 
 last verses of the eighth chapter of Genesis. *' I will not again curse 
 the ground any more for man's sake, neither will I again smite any more 
 every thing living as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seed- 
 time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day 
 and night, shall not cease." The Bishop argues that these words inti- 
 mate the removal of the curse, and the restoration of a greater stability 
 of the seasons ; but surely this is an unwarranted stretch of the mean- 
 ing of a text which simply declares that no such calamity as the flood 
 shall ever again visit the earth. The vigor of the human constitution 
 in the antediluvian ages, which is distinctly asserted, is alone sufficient 
 to overturn the Bishop's theory ; and the same thing seems to follow 
 from the fact, that the gift of animal food was not added to that of vege- 
 tables, till after the flood, an indication of the superior fertility and 
 abundance, in the earliest ages, of plants fit for human subsistence. 
 
STATE OF THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD. 365 
 
 nearly the same as at present. There was not only an 
 abundant vegetation on its suface, but there were metals 
 (brass and iron) which the labor of man could reach, and 
 his ingenuity could convert to his use. Fire must have 
 been employed in smelting and manufacturing these met- 
 als ; and, from the slight hints which the sacred historian 
 affords, it would appear, that the domestic arrangements 
 of families could not have greatly differed from our own. 
 This may suffice as a rapid introduction to the changes 
 which I shall next have occasion to notice those which 
 were occasioned by the universal Deluge. Meanwhile, 
 what a wonderful period have we been surveying ! a 
 new world of organized beings has been created, and has 
 perished. It came fair and perfect from the hands of its 
 Creator. Throughout its whole bounds, there was no 
 evil, no deformity, no death. The eye of the Almighty, 
 as He beheld His work, "saw that it was good." But 
 the adversary and destroyer came. By a mysterious 
 providence, he was permitted to prevail. Moral evil was 
 introduced into the rational creation, and a new order of 
 things arose. Man waxed more and more rebellious, till 
 the whole world was filled with violence, and the meas- 
 ure of his iniquity being full, the sentence came forth 
 from the Creator, u Behold ! I, even I, do bring a 
 flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, where- 
 in is the breath of life, from under heaven ; and every 
 thing that is in the earth shall die." How mysterious 
 was the forbearance which permitted the rebellion, but 
 how just was the judgement which punished it ! 
 
 31* 
 
366 GEOLOGY. 
 
 THIRTEENTH WEEK THURSDAY. 
 
 V. GEOLOGY. INDICATIONS OF THE ACTION OF THE DELUGE 
 
 AT THE PERIOD ASSIGNED TO IT IN SCRIPTURE. 
 
 I AM now to consider the geological indications of that 
 universal Deluge, by which a new epoch was formed in 
 the history of the world, and by which, while the in- 
 creasing wickedness of the human race, then existing, 
 was visited by the Divine Governor with a signal dis- 
 play of His displeasure, a new order of things was pre- 
 pared. 
 
 The account which the sacred historian gives of this 
 awful event, is, that "the fountains of the great deep 
 were broken up, and the windows of heaven were open- 
 ed. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty 
 nights. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the 
 earth ; and all the high hills, that were under the whole 
 heaven,were covered. And all flesh died that moved upon 
 the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and 
 of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, 
 and every man : and Noah only remained alive, and they 
 that were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed 
 upon the earth an nundred and fifty days." It appears 
 further from the Divine record, that in the sixth month 
 from the commencement of the catastrophe, the waters 
 began to subside ; and that, at the end of a year, the seas 
 were collected, or rapidly collecting, into their present 
 channels, and the earth had become so dry, at least in 
 the higher grounds, as to be again fit for the habitation 
 of living creatures. 
 
 It has been too justly alleged, that there is a tendency 
 to skepticism in the minds of scientific men; that, wheth- 
 er it be from a pride of understanding, which induces 
 them to look down with contempt on the opinions of the 
 vulgar, or from a consciousness of enlarged ideas, which 
 
INDICATIONS OF THE DELUGE. 367 
 
 inclines them to distrust, as contracted or superstitious, 
 the views they have acquired in the nursery and in their 
 elementary schools of instruction, they frequently feel a 
 pleasure in adopting views, and maintaining principles, 
 at variance with revealed truth. At all events, the Mo- 
 saic account of the deluge, as well as of the creation, was 
 certainly received with incredulity by those individuals 
 who, about the beginning of the present century, took the 
 lead in geological investigations ; and I am by no means 
 sure, that this reproach does not still attach to many who 
 affect the name of philosophical inquirers. Brydone 
 endeavored to throw doubt on the Scriptural account, 
 by an allegation, (which was completely overturned, how- 
 ever, by subsequent discoveries,) regarding the time 
 requisite for converting lava into Vegetable soil, which 
 would have given an antiquity to the earth's present sur- 
 face, far beyond the period of the flood ; and Bailly 
 used, for the same purpose, and with similar success, the 
 false and vainglorious chronology of the Hindoos. 
 
 Happily, however, a philosopher of a different stamp 
 has arisen, who, rigidly questioning Nature, without ref- 
 erence to any preconceived opinion, and without regard, 
 I believe, even to the authority of Scripture, has come 
 to the conclusion, that the appearances on the surface of 
 the earth, indicate the origin of its present state, as hav- 
 ing taken its date at a period corresponding, with won- 
 derful exactness, to the Mosaic account. The words in 
 which M. Cuvier states this satisfactory opinion, are suf- 
 ficiently pointed and precise. " I conclude, 7 ' he ob- 
 serves, " with MM. Deluc and Dolomieu, that, -if there 
 be any fact well established in geology, it is this, that the 
 surface of our globe has suffered a great and sudden rev- 
 olution, the period of which cannot be dated further back 
 than five thousand or six thousand years. This revolu- 
 tion has, on the one hand, engulphed, and caused to dis- 
 appear, the countries formerly inhabited by men, and the 
 animal species at present best known ; and, on the other, 
 has laid bare the bottom of the last ocean, thus convert- 
 ing its channel into the now habitable earth."* 
 
 * That the Supreme Being, not only in the ordinary course of His 
 
368 GEOLOGY. 
 
 A rapid statement of the principles on which Cuvier 
 founds his reasoning, may suffice to show, that it does 
 not rest on mere theoretical views, but is based on incon- 
 trovertible facts. 
 
 It is well known, that great and constant changes 
 are going on in the surface of the earth, by the decom- 
 posing power of the atmosphere, by the effects of rain 
 and of frost, by the decay of vegetation, by the fall of 
 forests, by the shifting and accumulation of sand drifted 
 with the wind, and by the continual course and occasion- 
 al overflowing of rivers and mountain torrents. The ef- 
 fects of these .agents are indeed slow, but they are con- 
 stantly progressive. They prove, as I have previously 
 stated, that the present condition of the world has not 
 been eternal, because, in the revolution of countless 
 ages, the earth would, by such means, be necessarily re- 
 duced to a level ; or rather, the whole land, being carried 
 into the sea, would be submerged and overflowed by the 
 water. Now, the rate at which these changes proceed, 
 may be subjected to calculation ; and this is what Cuvier 
 has actually effected. He examined the progress of ac- 
 cumulations at the mouths of rivers, at the bottoms of 
 lakes, and in valleys ; he formed an estimate of the rate 
 at which rocks and mountains crumble, and sand, drifted 
 from the sea, where it is formed, spreads into downs, and 
 
 providence, but even when He interferes to execute judgement, gener- 
 ally makes use of second causes, seems to be admitted. In the case 
 of the Deluge, He probably did not deviate beyond what is stated in the 
 Sacred Volume, from this usual mode of operation, and human cu- 
 riosity has led to the inquiry by what natural powers the flood was ef- 
 fected. That there are agents in Nature quite sufficient, in point of force 
 and extent, to produce the effects described, cannot be doubted. The 
 most obvious of these is thus stated by Dr. Fitton, in his * Geological 
 Sketch of the Vicinity of Hastings.' "The evidence in proof of great 
 and frequent movements of the land itself, both by protrusion and subsi- 
 dence, and of the connexion of these movements with the operation 
 of volcanoes, is so various and so strong, derived from so many quarters 
 on the surface of the globe, and every day so much extended by recent 
 inquiry, as almost to demonstrate that these have been the causes by 
 which those great revolutions were effected : and, although the action 
 of the inward forces which protrude the land, has varied greatly in dif- 
 ferent countries, and at different periods, they are now, and ever have 
 been, incessantly at work in operating present change, and preparing the 
 way for future alteration in the exterior of the globe." Pages 85, 86. 
 
369 
 
 encroaches on the vegetable soil ; and he considered the 
 amount of detrition which takes place in ravines, and in 
 the bottom and banks of rivers. All these causes of 
 change he investigated with his own characteristic acute- 
 ness ; and he and his associates, in carrying back their 
 calculations, found that they all united in pointing to a 
 period when they commenced their united operations, 
 which, as he states, u cannot be dated further back than 
 five thousand or six thousand years." In other words, 
 it appears as the result of these investigations, that the 
 present surface of the earth cannot have been more than 
 that number of years in existence. 
 
 It w T ould seem, from what this philosopher states, 
 when he gives a more specific account of his investiga- 
 tions, that, in naming these round numbers, he carries his 
 concessions to the most extreme verge of possibility; and 
 that his own settled opinion is, that the Mosaic account, 
 which fixes the era of the flood at the distance of little 
 more than four thousand years from the present time, is 
 borne out with remarkable accuracy. In another part, 
 afterwards quoted, he expressly says, " Geology ap- 
 prizes us, that, of the various revolutions which have 
 agitated our globe, the last evidently corresponds to the 
 period which is assigned to the Deluge ;" and he dis- 
 tinctly states four thousand years as the period indicated by 
 the alluvial deposits. 
 
 We shall, to-morrow, give an example or two of the 
 manner in which Cuvier conducted his inquiries on this 
 important and most interesting subject. 
 
 THIRTEENTH WEEK FRIDAY. 
 
 VI. GEOLOGY. CUVIER'S CALCULATION RESPECTING THE 
 
 DELUGE. 
 
 IT is so desirable to remove skeptical doubts, as to 
 the actual occurrence of the Deluge, that we cannot leave 
 
370 GEOLOGY. CUVIER'S CALCULATION 
 
 this subject without stating a few further geological facts, 
 which show the coincidence of actual observation with 
 the declaration of Scripture. As an example of the 
 manner in which the inquiries respecting the date at 
 which the present surface of the earth was formed, have 
 been conducted by Cuvier, and other geologists who 
 adopt his views, it may be interesting to quote the fol- 
 lowing passage from that distinguished philosopher's 
 'Theory of the Earth.' 
 
 u M. de Raney, a learned member of the Institute, 
 inspector-general of bridges and roads, has communicated 
 to me some observations, which are of the greatest im- 
 portance, as explaining those changes that have taken 
 place along the shores of the Adriatic. Having been 
 directed by government to investigate the remedies that 
 might be applied to the devastations occasioned by the 
 floods of the Po, he ascertained that this river, since the 
 period that it was shut up by dykes, has so greatly raised 
 the level of its bottom, that the surface of its waters is 
 now higher than the roofs of the houses in Ferrara. At 
 the same time, its alluvial depositions have advanced so 
 rapidly into the sea, that, by comparing old charts with 
 the present state, the shore is found to have gained more 
 than six thousand fathoms since 1604, giving an average 
 of a hundred and sixty or a hundred and eighty, and, in 
 some places, two hundred feet yearly. The Adige and 
 the Po are, at the present day, higher than the whole 
 tract of land that lies between them ; and it is only by 
 opening new channels for them in the low grounds which 
 they have formerly deposited, that the disasters which 
 they now threaten may be averted. 
 
 u The same causes have produced the same effects 
 along the branches of the Rhine and the Meuse ; and 
 thus the richest districts of Holland have continually the 
 frightful view of their rivers held up by embankments, at 
 a height of from twenty to thirty feet above the level of 
 the land." 
 
 We have here a curious example of the kind and 
 amount of detrition by which, in the course of years, the 
 higher grounds are worn down to fill up valleys, and to 
 
RESPECTING THE DELUGE. 371 
 
 extend into the sea, and facts of a similar kind are every 
 where familiar to the geological inquirer. 
 
 Mr. Fairholme, in his 'Geology of Scripture,' gives 
 a striking account of the manner in which a fresh water 
 lake has been encroached on by the land in the course 
 of a century, which illustrates the same kind of natural 
 action as that above-mentioned, on which Cuvier founds 
 his calculations, although, in the instance given, that ac- 
 tion was assisted by the interference of art. Speaking 
 of the Kander, a mountain torrent of no great size in the 
 Canton of Berne, he says, that in consequence of the 
 mischief done by the overflowing of that river, to a great 
 extent of valuable meadow land, in its course to join the 
 Aar, ten miles below the Thun, which was its natural 
 course, a spirited plan was, about the beginning of the last 
 century, proposed and adopted for cutting a subterrane- 
 ous passage for the river through a ridge, at a place 
 where it approached the lake. The descent was rapid, 
 and the torrent in a few years enlarged its course, till at 
 length the whole superstructure gave way and fell in. 
 The effects of this, soon became apparent in the lake. 
 An immense quantity of gravel and stones was carried 
 in by the current, and lodged in its bed ; and by this 
 means a new formation took place at the mouth of the 
 river, which, in 1829, being little more than a century, 
 had u produced a secondary bed of mixed materials, of 
 fully three hundred acres, and at least one hundred feet 
 in depth."* 
 
 This remarkable formation took place under peculiar 
 circumstances ; but all rivers are actively employed in 
 effecting similar changes, to an extent of which those 
 who have not attended to the subject are little aware. 
 Major Rennel and Major Colebrooke calculate that the 
 waters of the Ganges contain, in the season of flood, one 
 part in four of mud, on which Mr. Lyell remarks, " We 
 are somewhat staggered by the results to which we must 
 arrive, if we compare the proportion of mud as given by 
 Rennel, with his computation of the quantity of water 
 
 * p. 124. 
 
372 GEOLOGY. CUVIER'S CALCULATION 
 
 discharged, which latter is probably very correct. If it 
 be true that the Ganges, in the flood season, contains one 
 part in four of mud, we shall then be obliged to suppose 
 that there passes down, every four days, a quantity of 
 mud equal in volume to the water which is discharged 
 in the course of twenty-four hours. If the mud be as- 
 sumed to be equal to one half the specific gravity of 
 granite, (it would, however, be more,) the weight of mat- 
 ter daily carried down in the flood season would be about 
 equal to seventy-four times the weight of the great pyra- 
 mid of Egypt. Even if it could be proved that the turbid 
 waters of the Ganges contain one part in a hundred of 
 mud, which is possible, and which is affirmed to be the 
 case in regard to the Rhine, we should be brought to the 
 extraordinary conclusion, that there passes down, every 
 day, into the Bay of Bengal, a mass, more than equal in 
 weight and bulk to the great pyramid." 
 
 I quote these examples to show that the process by 
 which the earth encroaches on the sea, and becomes re- 
 duced in the elevation of its surface, is in many instances 
 astonishingly rapid ; but it is not on these extreme cases 
 that Cuvier founds his calculation, but on an average of 
 ordinary cases. He takes his observations partly from 
 the Deltas of the Nile and the Rhone, and partly from 
 the depositions along the shores of the sea of Azoph, and 
 the Black Sea ; and he also considers the growth of peat 
 mosses, the extent of mountain slips, and the progress of 
 downs ; and, by collecting the results of these diversified 
 operations, he finds them, as I have already intimated, 
 all concurring in one conclusion, which serves, by a new 
 test, to verify the Scriptural account of the era of the 
 deluge, and its universal operation. 
 
 But it may be more satisfactory to give the words of 
 Baron Cuvier himself. " Thus, while the traditions of 
 all nations have preserved the remembrance of a great 
 catastrophe, the deluge, which changed the earth's sur- 
 face, and destroyed nearly the whole of the human spe- 
 cies, geology apprizes us, that, of the various revolutions 
 which have agitated our globe, the last evidently corre- 
 sponds to the period which is assigned to the Deluge. We 
 
RESPECTING THE DELUGE. 373 
 
 say, that by means of geological considerations alone, it 
 is possible to determine the date of this great event with 
 some degree of precision. 
 
 " There are certain formations, which must have com- 
 menced immediately after the last catastrophe, and which, 
 from that period, have been continued, up to the present 
 day, with great regularity. Such are the deposits of 
 detritus observed at the mouths of rivers, the masses 
 of rubbish which exist at the foot of mountains, and are 
 formed of the fragments that fall from their summits and 
 sides. These deposits receive a yearly increase, which 
 it is possible to measure. Nothing, therefore, is more 
 easy than to calculate the time which it has taken them 
 to acquire their present dimensions. This calculation 
 has been made with reference to the debris of mountains ; 
 and, in all cases, has indicated a period of about four 
 thousand years. The same result has been obtained 
 from the other alluvial deposits. In short, whatever has 
 been the natural phenomenon that has been interrogated, 
 it has always been found to give evidence in accordance 
 with that of tradition. The traditions themselves ex- 
 hibit the most astonishing conformity. The Hebrew 
 text of Genesis places the Deluge in the year 2349 be- 
 fore Christ. The Indians make the fourth age of the 
 world, that in which we now live, to commence in the 
 year 3012. The Chinese place it about the year 2384. 
 Confucius, in fact, represents the first king Yeo, as oc- 
 cupied in drawing off the waters of the ocean, which had 
 risen to the tops of the mountains, and in repairing the 
 damage which they had occasioned." 
 
 This result, so pleasing to the religious mind, has been 
 attempted to be evaded by some ingenious writers, who, 
 with considerable plausibility, have supported views al- 
 together at variance with Revelation, endeavoring to 
 account for all the changes which have taken place both 
 in the animate and inanimate creation, by a regular and 
 uninterrupted succession of natural causes, continued for 
 a vast but undefined period, amounting perhaps to mil- 
 lions of years ; but, with whatever ability these views 
 have been supported, the straining of facts to which such 
 i. 32 vii. 
 
374 GEOLOGY. EFFECTS OF THE DELUGE ON 
 
 writers are obliged to resort for the purpose of support- 
 ing a very untenable theory, is too apparent not to display 
 the weakness of their cause. It is impossible, by any 
 ingenuity, to mystify the fact that "mountains decay 
 with years," and that there is a general tendency in 
 Nature to reduce all things to a level ; which, in a period 
 infinitely short of eternity, would reduce the sea to a 
 muddy puddle, and the land to a swampy and pestilential 
 marsh. 
 
 THIRTEENTH WEEK SATURDAY. 
 
 VII. GEOLOGY. EFFECTS OF THE DELUGE ON THE PRESENT 
 
 SURFACE OF THE EARTH. 
 
 THE geological marks of a universal deluge are very 
 clearly indicated, not merely by the facts we have been 
 already considering, but also by appearances of a differ- 
 ent kind. Marine shells are every where found, even on 
 the loftiest mountains. These give evidence, either that 
 the ocean has shifted its bed, or that it has swept over 
 the earth as Moses has described ; or, what is perhaps 
 most probable from other indications, that both of these 
 causes have been combined. 
 
 But there are proofs of the flood still more unequivo- 
 cal. There are deposits every where, which geologists 
 have justly considered diluvial, and which, from their 
 position on elevated ground or gentle slopes, are easily 
 distinguished from the accumulations of lakes and rivers. 
 "In the whole course of my geological travels," says 
 Dr. Buckland, "from Cornwall to Caithness, from 
 Calais to the Carpathians, in Ireland or in Italy, I have 
 scarcely ever gone a mile, without finding a perpetual 
 succession of deposits of gravel, sand, or loam, in situa- 
 tions which cannot be referred to the action of modern 
 torrents, rivers, or lakes, or any other existing causes. 
 
THE PRESENT SURFACE OF THE EARTH. 375 
 
 And with respect to the still more striking diluvial phe- 
 nomena of drifted masses of rocks, the greater part of 
 the northern hemisphere, from Moscow to the Mississippi, 
 is described by various geological travellers, as strewed, 
 on its hills as well as valleys, with blocks of granite, and 
 other rocks of enormous magnitude, which have been 
 drifted (mostly in a direction from north to south) a 
 distance, sometimes of many hundred miles, from their 
 native beds, across mountains and valleys, lakes and seas, 
 by force of water, which must have possessed a velocity 
 to which nothing that occurs in the actual state of the 
 globe affords the slightest parallel." 
 
 The state of the earth's surface here described, must 
 be familiar to every one who has any taste for observa- 
 tion. What we call soil is nothing else $ian rocks rub- 
 bed down by detrition, or decomposed by the action of 
 the atmosphere, and afterwards mixed with the decayed 
 vegetable and animal substances to which it has given 
 nourishment ; and it is striking to observe with what be- 
 neficence the action of natural causes has been made to 
 clothe the earth with a covering so admirably adapted for 
 the purposes of organic life. The agency of the Deluge 
 in the whole operation is very apparent. First has rushed 
 over the earth a wave of amazing force, bearing along 
 with it in its resistless current every thing which existed 
 on the surface of the globe as it then was, destroying, 
 submerging, and dispersing, man and beast, with all the 
 labors of human art ; tearing up and floating away, or 
 burying deep, tree and shrub, plant and flower ; throwing 
 wide over all climates the seeds of every vegetable pro- 
 duction, to form the germs of a new vegetation in an al- 
 tered world ; moving from their primeval foundations the 
 peaks of the ancient mountains, and hurrying them, bro- 
 ken, scattered, and rounded into stones and bowlders, to 
 distant regions, and over a wide extent ; scooping out 
 ravines, and raising waving hills of gravel and clay in the 
 lower grounds ; and, as it swept over the level tracts, de- 
 positing part of the more heavy materials with which it 
 was loaded. After this mighty torrent, occasioned by the 
 sudden disruption of the solid crust of the globe, had be- 
 
376 GEOLOGY. EFFECTS OF THE DELUGE ON 
 
 gun to subside, the turbid waters, in their slower motion, 
 had proceeded to deposit the lighter burden with which 
 they were fraught. The mud of this agitated and shore- 
 less ocean, mingled with rounded stones of various size, 
 had been gradually precipitated, and had formed a sedi- 
 ment of various depth, which was to serve as the vegeta- 
 ble soil of the future land ; and this awful agent, having 
 now fulfilled the high behest of the Almighty, had gradu- 
 ally retired to those regions of the surface which were 
 nearest the centre, obeying the universal law of gravita- 
 tion, by which liquids find their own level. 
 
 That the actual state of the earth's surface corresponds 
 very remarkably with this account of the manner in which 
 a universal flood would naturally act, every one must, 
 on the slightest survey, be sensible. But a more minute 
 and careful examination strikingly confirms this general 
 view. No one can look with a judicious eye on any ex- 
 tensive section of the upper deposits on the earth's sur- 
 face, without being sensible of this. Sir James Hall 
 turned the attention of geologists to the curious fact, that 
 on the surface of sandstone, among the soil and debris 
 which cover this early deposit, large bowlders, sometimes 
 of the same kind of rock, and frequently also of rock of 
 a kind altogether foreign to the locality, are very often 
 to be found ; and that, where this is the case, the upper 
 stratum of the rock is marked with grooves or scratches, 
 generally lying in a southwest direction, and evidently 
 attributable to the impression of these bowlders, hurried 
 along by the currents during the action of the flood. The 
 Craigleith Quarry, in the neighborhood of Edinburgh, 
 which is remarkable as containing a very fine example of 
 a fossil tree in the very heart of the secondary deposit, is 
 a wellknown example of this. The intelligent manager 
 of this extensive work, has traced these grooves over the 
 whole surface of the quarry, wherever the diluvial soil has 
 been removed ;* and the same phenomenon is familiar to 
 every person who is conversant with similar excavations. 
 In the quarry of Corncocklemuir, for instance, where the 
 footsteps of primeval animals have been discovered, it is 
 
 * Geology of Scripture, p. 345. 
 
THE PRESENT SURFACE OF THE EARTH. 377 
 
 evident that the whole upper surface of the strata has 
 been forcibly torn off before the diluvial soil was depos- 
 ited ; and among that soil are found large portions of the 
 sandstone detached from the living rock. 
 
 Dr. Buckland doubts whether these proofs of a flood 
 of immense force sweeping over the surface of the earth, 
 should be referred to the Mosaic deluge, or to that which 
 submerged the world immediately before the creation of 
 man.' " It has been justly argued," says he, "against 
 the attempt to identify these two great historical and nat- 
 ural phenomena, that, as the rise and fall of the waters 
 of the Mosaic deluge are described to have been gradual, 
 and of short duration, they would have produced com- 
 paratively little change on the surface of the country 
 they overflowed. The large preponderance of extinct 
 species among the animals we find in caves, and in su- 
 perficial deposits of diluvium, and the non-discovery of 
 human bones along with them, afford strong reason for 
 referring these species to a period anterior to the creation 
 of man. This important point, however, cannot be con- 
 sidered as completely settled till more detailed investiga- 
 tion of the newest members of the Pliocene and of the 
 diluvial and alluvial formations shall have taken place." 
 
 It is well to speak with caution when a sufficient num- 
 ber of facts have not been collected ; but, for my own 
 part, I see little force in the objections here stated. No 
 deluge, which rose in a few weeks over the tops of the 
 highest mountains, and enveloped the whole habitable 
 globe, could possibly be tranquil. The discovery of 
 extinct species may be accounted for by the extermina- 
 tion of such animals as the Creator saw would no longer 
 be suitable to the new condition of the earth when it 
 emerged from the waters ; and the non-discovery of hu- 
 man bones in the places yet examined, by no means pre- 
 cludes the probability of finding them in the extensive 
 regions of the East, yet unexplored, where it is universally 
 believed the human race had their origin. Geologists jump 
 too quickly at conclusions. How small a tract of the 
 crust of the earth has yet been examined, and even that 
 small tract how imperfectly ! 
 32* 
 
378 GEOLOGY. EFFECTS OF THE DELUGE. 
 
 If it should appear, however, that the organized exist- 
 ences of what Mr. Lyell calls the Pliocene period of the 
 tertiary formation, are sometimes, or even frequently, 
 mingled with those which were destroyed and submerged 
 at the Deluge, this is just what might be expected, on 
 the supposition that the Pliocene period ended in a sim- 
 ilar catastrophe. At the period of the Mosaic creation, 
 these existences, both animal and vegetable, would, of 
 course, be mingled with the diluvium which formed the 
 surface of the new earth ; and when the fountains of the 
 great deep were again broken up at the Deluge, that di- 
 luvium would be disturbed, overturned, and mixed, so 
 as to enclose the remains of antediluvian organization in 
 the same masses with those of the latest period of the im- 
 mediately-preceding formation. 
 
 In considering the whole subject of the Deluge, in- 
 cluding not only its physical appearances, unfolded by 
 geological research, but its moral cause, as declared by 
 the inspired volume, we cannot too much admire the 
 Divine wisdom and goodness which has caused such a 
 tremendous judgement to end in an arrangement so bene- 
 ficial. The beautiful scenery of the earth, with its val- 
 leys and hills, covered with a green carpet of grass, and 
 adorned with flowers, or waving with lofty forests, or 
 gracefully interspersed with the smooth expanse of lakes, 
 reflecting surrounding nature on their peaceful bosom, 
 or with streams rolling their ever-flowing tide to the 
 ocean ; while the distant horizon melts away into blue 
 mountains, whose tops reach the clouds, all this is the 
 result of that dreadful convulsion which offended justice 
 inflicted as a deserved punishment on accumulated and 
 increasing guilt ; but which a paternal hand controlled, 
 and an all-wise Providence converted, to purposes of 
 mercy and love. 
 
 There is something unspeakably gracious in the prom- 
 ise made to Noah, when he and his family issued from 
 the ark, and set their foot for the first time on a sub- 
 merged, but renovated world. " I do set my bow in 
 the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between 
 Me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I 
 
THE DELUGE A DIVINE JUDGEMENT. 379 
 
 bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen 
 in the cloud : and I will remember my covenant which 
 is between Me and you, and every living creature of all 
 flesh ; and the waters shall no more become a flood to 
 destroy all flesh." " While the earth remaineth, seed- 
 time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and 
 winter, and day and night, shall not cease." 
 
 With what a fine vein of poetic feeling has a celebrated 
 poet alluded to this sublime and paternal declaration, in 
 his address to the Rainbow : 
 
 " When, o'er the green undeluged earth, 
 
 Heaven's covenant thou didst shine, 
 How came the world's gray fathers forth 
 To watch thy sacred sign ! 
 
 " And, while its yellow lustre smiled 
 
 O'er mountains yet untrod, 
 Each mother held aloft her child, 
 To bless the bow of God. 
 
 ****** 
 
 " How glorious is thy girdle cast 
 
 O'er mountain, tower, and town, 
 Or mirror'd in the ocean vast, 
 A thousand fathoms down. 
 
 " As fresh, in yon horizon dark, 
 
 As young thy beauties seem, 
 As when the eagle from the ark 
 
 First sported in thy beam. 
 " For, faithful to its sacred page, 
 
 Heaven still rebuilds thy span, 
 Nor lets the type grow pale with age, 
 That first spoke peace to man !" 
 
 CAMPBELL. 
 
 FOURTEENTH WEEK SUNDAY. 
 
 THE DELUGE A DIVINE JUDGEMENT. 
 
 THE account which the Bible gives us of the history 
 of the antediluvian world, and of the causes which led 
 to that awful interference of the great Creator, which 
 
380 THE DELUGE A DIVINE JUDGEMENT. 
 
 brought it to a sudden and violent end, may be stated in 
 few words. There were two distinct races of the human 
 family, the one, acute, ingenious, and worldly, gave 
 themselves entirely to the cultivation of those pursuits 
 and pleasures, which begin and end on this side of the 
 grave ; the other were animated by that Hope, of which 
 it has been beautifully said, that she u lights her torch at 
 Nature's funeral pile ;" and made it the noblest aim of 
 their lives, to walk worthy of their immortal destiny, and 
 to prepare for the exalted employments and enlarged hap- 
 piness of celestial natures. 
 
 In the slight glimpse afforded us of these two races, we 
 find a striking example of a peculiarity in the human char- 
 acter, which our Saviour has noticed, and which has 
 characterized man in every age, that the children of 
 this world are wiser in their generation than the children 
 of light. Among those who are designated by Moses 
 as the "children of men," we see much worldly wisdom. 
 We find their peculiar character indicated in these 
 short incidental notices, they built cities ; they posses- 
 sed flocks and herds ; they invented musical instruments; 
 they dug into the bowels of the earth and became 
 artificers in brass and iron : in short, they founded 
 the arts of civilized life, and made large advances in its 
 comforts and luxuries. Among the pious race of Seth, 
 who were distinguished from the irreligious family by the 
 honorable title of " Sons of God," we hear little of 
 worldly accomplishments, though they doubtless studied 
 the works of creation, that in them they might discern 
 and adore the Creator's perfections, and were not neglect- 
 ful of whatever might contribute to the comfort of social 
 and domestic life, or enlarge the understanding, or im- 
 prove the heart ; but, what is of much greater importance, 
 and indicates a far nobler character, in the descendants 
 of that family, we find Enoch, who walked with God, and 
 was not, for God took him, and Noah, who was just and 
 perfect in his generations. 
 
 But the contagion of iniquity is fearful. In all ages, 
 there is a predisposition towards it in the heart of every 
 man, and probably its influence was greatly aggravated in 
 
THE DELUGE A DIVINE JUDGEMENT. 381 
 
 the primeval epoch, by a life extending to many centuries, 
 and by the peculiar vigor of the bodily powers. What- 
 ever force there may be in this latter observation, it is 
 certain, that as soon as the pious race, merging their horror 
 of irreligion in their admiration of human talent, began to 
 cultivate a familiar intercourse with the infidel race, their 
 characters from that instant began to decline; and, frequent 
 intermarriages having taken place among them which hast- 
 ened the disease, corruption became universal and invet- 
 erate, and the earth was filled with violence. At length 
 the measure of their iniquity became full. The world, 
 as it then was, had fulfilled its purpose, and the family of 
 Adam had proved themselves incapable, under the cir- 
 cumstances in which they were then placed, of honorably 
 fulfilling the relations of life, or of preparing for the en- 
 joyments of a better world. A new constitution of things 
 was to succeed, in which human life was to be curtailed, 
 the world was to be rendered less exuberant in its vege- 
 table productions, some of the largest animals, probably, 
 were to be exterminated, and other corresponding changes 
 were to be made in further developement of the Divine 
 decrees. A new step, in short, was to be taken towards 
 the accomplishment of the primeval promise, that " the 
 seed of the woman should bruise the head of the serpent." 
 The antediluvian world was therefore to be destroyed, 
 and means having been taken for the preservation of all 
 living species intended to people the new earth, from man 
 to the minutest insect, u the fountains of the great deep 
 were broken up, and the windows of heaven were open- 
 ed ;" by some amazing convulsion, in which the agency 
 of natural causes was probably employed, an irresistible 
 and overwhelming flood poured over the face of the 
 whole earth, and, amidst the jarring of commingled ele- 
 ments, the work of destruction was accomplished. This 
 awful event is thus graphically described by Mr. Sharon 
 Turner, in the concluding sentence of his able work on 
 the History of the Creation, &c. " We can but faintly 
 conceive the appalling scene. Mankind were surprised, 
 in the midst of their usual festivities and employments, 
 by the sudden alarm of portentous danger, rapidly rush- 
 
382 THE DELUGE A DIVINE JUDGEMENT. 
 
 ing on them from the blackening and howling sky. The 
 sun was seen no more, midnight darkness usurped the 
 day, lightnings dreadfully illuminated, thunder rolled 
 with unceasing fury, all that was natural, ceased ; and, 
 in its stead, whirlwind and desolation, earth rending, 
 cities falling, the roar of tumultuous waters, shrieks 
 and groans of human despair, overwhelming ruin, 
 universal silence, and the awful quiet of executed and 
 subsiding retribution !" 
 
 In the history of these first ages, a most instructive les- 
 son is taught us with regard to the nature and consequen- 
 ces of mere human talent, destitute of Divine illumina- 
 tion. Wedded to earth, the infidel branch of the human 
 family sought an earthly reward, and obtained it. They 
 " found out many inventions ;" they increased in wealth, 
 and surrounded themselves with conveniences and luxu- 
 ries. In the eager course of selfishness, the boundaries 
 of knowledge were extended, desire was enlarged, the 
 faculties sharpened, and the taste refined. But in this 
 worldly progress what became of morality, and where 
 was the place of religion ? alas ! they had fled. The 
 pursuits of the world are essentially grovelling ; they 
 debase, harden, and contract the heart. Sensuality bru- 
 tifies it ; passion inflames it ; evil communications cor- 
 rupt it. Avarice is grasping, pride is arrogant, ambi- 
 tion, bloody. Even science, itself, when pursued in a 
 worldly spirit, is full of snares ; in its self-sufficiency it 
 usurps the sceptre of heaven, and banishes God from the 
 throne of the universe. 
 
 The awful catastrophe of the Deluge presents the Al- 
 mighty before our minds in the tremendous light of an 
 avenging and unrelenting Judge ; and, in contemplating it, 
 we seem to lose sight of the gracious attributes by which 
 the Universal Parent is endeared to the hearts of His chil- 
 dren. But, when we divest the event of those adventi- 
 tious qualities which the excited imagination throws around 
 it, and view it in the pure light of truth, we perceive 
 that, after all, except as regards time and manner, there 
 was nothing more dreadful than what happens in the ordi- 
 nary course of Providence. All who live are destined by 
 
THE DELUGE A DIVINE JUDGEMENT. 383 
 
 the condition of their nature to die, some in infancy, 
 some in the opening blossom of youth, some in the full 
 vigor of matured faculties, and some in hoary age. 
 And what greater calamity than this invaded the animal 
 creation when the flood swept them away ? They died, 
 indeed, together, and the mode of their dissolution was 
 violent and unusual. But was there not, even in these 
 very circumstances, much to alleviate the calamity ? 
 What varieties of protracted suffering were avoided ! 
 How many pangs of heart-rending sympathy were spar- 
 ed ! There were no torturing diseases, no restless 
 nights, no tedious watchings, no orphan children, 
 no sorrowing parents, no widowed wives, no bereaved 
 husbands. To perish by flood ! It is one of the easiest 
 of deaths. To die together ! It is a consummation which 
 affection desires. 
 
 But beyond death ! This is the awful thought. Mys- 
 terious and appalling dispensation ! Scene of horror and 
 despair ! Yet, in this respect, the Deluge was not differ- 
 ent in its consequences from a common deathbed. The 
 crisis was sudden, indeed ; but if the world was taken by 
 surprise, it was not for want of ample warning. During 
 the eventful period in which the ark was building, a pe- 
 riod of a hundred and twenty years, Noah was "a 
 preacher of righteousness," and the " long suffering of 
 God waited." This intimates to us the opportunity 
 which, even to the very last, was afforded for penitence, 
 and shows to what extent the conscience was seared, and 
 how irretrievable was the moral and religious character 
 of the world. And what a warning does it afford to us ! 
 The world will never indeed be again overwhelmed by a 
 flood ; but every individual of the human family, gen- 
 eration after generation, will go down to the dust from 
 which he was taken, and his soul will be required of him 
 for final judgement. We know not when this event will 
 occur to any individual ; but we are daily warned that the 
 time is at hand ; and ought we not to have " our loins 
 girded about and our lamps burning?" 
 
 Nor must it be forgotten that the period is approaching 
 when the world shall be destroyed, not indeed by water, 
 
384 THE DELUGE A DIVINE JUDGEMENT. 
 
 but by fire ; and that the latter catastrophe will come as 
 suddenly and as little expected as the former. 
 
 " As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the 
 days of the Son of Man. They did eat, they drank, they 
 married wives, they were given in marriage, 'until the 
 day that Noe entered into the ark ; and the flood came 
 and destroyed them all." How happy will those be who 
 shall have taken shelter from such calamities under the 
 everlasting wings, and to whom, in whatever form the 
 king of terrors advances, he shall prove a messenger of 
 immortal glory. 
 
 END OF c WINTER.' 
 
A GLOSSARY 
 
 OF THE LATIN, FRENCH, AND OTHER NOT-EASILY-UNDER- 
 STOOD WORDS AND PHRASES. 
 
 Acme, the height, or extreme point. 
 
 Actinia, the scientific name for the various species of sea-flowers. 
 
 Aerated, mixed with air. 
 
 Alluvial, relating to alluvium. 
 
 Alluvium, earth deposited by recent overflows of water. Diluvium, 
 earth deposited by ancient overflows of water. 
 
 Alpine, mountainous ; a term derived from the mountains called the 
 Alps, and often applied to other elevated regions. 
 
 Annelida, a class of worms. 
 
 A priori, in the first instance. 
 
 Aorta, the main artery of the body, leading from the heart. 
 
 Articulata, the class of articulated or jointed animals. 
 
 Arum, a class of plants having dart-shaped leaves, (the name in He- 
 brew signifying dart,) as the wild turnip. 
 
 Asterias, the scientific name of the various species of star-fish. 
 
 Axil, or axilla, (pi. axils or axillce,) the angle between a leaf acd 
 the stem, on the upper side. 
 
 Blanche, to make white. 
 
 Bonspeil, good sport. 
 
 Breadwinner, applied, in Scotland, to the head of a family, or the one 
 who provides food for them. 
 
 Cambium, a mucilaginous fluid formed from the proper juices of 
 plants, (these being themselves formed from the sap,) and employed 
 directly in vegetable nutrition and growth. It may be considered 
 as analogous to the chyle in animals. 
 
 Camera Obscura, literally, a darkened chamber ; the name of an 
 optical instrument, by which the images of external objects, receiv- 
 ed through a double convex glass, are shown distinctly, and in their 
 proper colors, on the wall of, or on a table in, a darkened room. 
 
 Capsule, that kind of hollow seed-vessel, which becomes dry and 
 opens when ripe. 
 
 Caribou, an animal of the deer kind. 
 
 Carnivora, flesh-eaters. 
 
 Caseous, curd-like, cheese-like, having the qualities of cheese. 
 
 Caste, (pi. castes,) a division made in Hindostan, and other parts of 
 India, between different tribes. No Hindoo will intermarry or eat 
 with any person not of his own caste. 
 
 Castor and Pollux, twin brothers, who were companions of Jason, in 
 the Argonautic expedition in search of the Golden Fleece. In this 
 
 i. 33 vn. 
 
386 GLOSSARY. 
 
 expedition, during a violent storm, two lights, like flames of fire, 
 were seen to play round their heads, and the tempest immediately 
 ceasing, it was superstitiously supposed that they had power to quell 
 storms ; from which circumstance, these ignes fatui, or wild-fires, 
 which are very common in storms at sea, have received the name 
 of Castor and Pollux. From the love of these two brothers for 
 each other, they were said to have been transported to the heavens, 
 and changed into the constellation thence named Gemini, or the 
 twins. 
 
 Cereal, relating to corn. Cereal plants are the several kinds of grain. 
 
 Chelonia, the scientific name of the animals of the tortoise kind. 
 
 Chives, the stamens of a plant ; also a sort of small onion. 
 
 Chrysalis, (pi. chrysalids and chrysalides,) the state into which an 
 insect passes from the caterpillar or reptile form, previously to its 
 becoming a butterfly, or moth, &c. 
 
 Chyle, a white juice, formed from the chyme, and consisting of the 
 finer and more nutritious parts of the food. It is afterwards convert- 
 ed into blood. 
 
 Chyme, the result of the first process which food undergoes in the 
 stomach, previously to its being converted into chyle. 
 
 Class, Order, Genus, Species, Family, &c. In Natural History, an- 
 imals, plants, minerals, &c., are arranged in different divisions, for 
 convenience in systematizing them. The objects are first arranged 
 in Classes, each Class is divided into Orders, each Order into Gen- 
 era, each Genus into Species, and each Species sometimes into 
 Subspecies. The term Family is sometimes used instead of Genus, 
 and objects are often arranged in Families. 
 
 Cocoon, the oval ball or case of silk spun by the silkworm, for a cover- 
 ing while it lies in the chrysalis state. 
 
 Cointisies, robes. 
 
 Coit, a quoit, a thing thrown at a mark. 
 
 Congeners, animals belonging to the same natural order. 
 
 Conferva, a tribe of delicate tubular plants, inhabiting fresh water. 
 
 Crustacea, the class of animals covered with a crustlike shell, as the 
 crab or lobster. 
 
 Crustaceans, the animals of the foregoing class. 
 
 Curling, a pastime on the ice, peculiar to some parts of Scotland and 
 Holland. In the former country, it is also called golf. The sport 
 consists in striking a ball or stone from one party to another, ar- 
 ranged on opposite sides of a line drawn midway between them ; 
 each party endeavoring to prevent the ball or stone, when struck by 
 the other side, from crossing the line. 
 
 Dead-light, an imaginary light superstitiously supposed to be some- 
 times seen, as a token of the death of some person ; an evil omen. 
 
 Denouement, unwinding, explanation, discovery. 
 
 Diluvium, see Alluvium. 
 
 Drift-way, a passage cut in the earth, to connect two shafts of a mine, 
 or under the bed of a river from side to side. 
 
 Drupe, a pulpy fruit containing a stone or nut, like the peach. 
 
 Eglantine, the sweetbrier rose. 
 
 JElf, a wandering spirit, a fairy, an evil spirit. 
 
GLOSSARY. 387 
 
 Elf-Candle, a light supposed to be held by an elf or fairy, and be- 
 tokening misfortune to the person who saw it ; a bad omen. 
 
 Embouchure, the mouth of a river. 
 
 Eocene, dawning, the earliest division of the tertiary formation of 
 geologists. 
 
 Ephemeron, (pi. Ephemera,} an insect of a day. 
 
 Et, and. 
 
 Exuvia, (pi. exuviae,) cast-off skin, or other covering. 
 
 Family, see Class. 
 
 Fecula, starch. 
 
 Ferae, the third order of mammalia, according to Linnaeus, including 
 animals of the cat kind. 
 
 Filiform, thread-like, slender. 
 
 Frond, the leaf of plants, of the class which includes the Fern spe- 
 cies. 
 
 Genus, (pi. Genera,} see Class. 
 
 Glires, gnawing animals, the fourth order of mammalia, according to 
 Linmeus. 
 
 Gramina, grasses. 
 
 Gypsum, sulphate of lime, or plaster of Paris. 
 
 Helix, (pi. Helices,) the Snail family. 
 
 Herbivora, grass-eaters. 
 
 Hucho, a species of salmon. 
 
 Huso, a species of sturgeon. 
 
 Ichthyophagites, fish-eaters. 
 
 Ignesfatui, plural of ignis fatuus, or wild-fire. 
 
 Imago, the perfect state of insects. 
 
 Inertia, inertness. 
 
 Insomnium, restless sleep. 
 
 Involucre, a covering ; a kind of general calyx, (or flower-cup,) 
 serving for many flowers, and usually situated at the base of an 
 umbel, or place where the flower-stalks diverge from one centre 
 like the sticks of an umbrella. 
 
 Involute, rolled inwards. 
 
 Isochronous, performed in equal times, or in the same space of time. 
 
 Larva, (pi. larvae,) the worm-state, or first form of insects after they 
 leave the egg. 
 
 Leaflet, a partial leaf, a constituent of a compound leaf. 
 
 Leguminous, pod-bearing. Leguminous plants are those whose seeds 
 are enclosed in pods, as peas, beans, tamarinds, &c. 
 
 Lepidoptera, the butterfly tribes. 
 
 Lichen, a species of moss. 
 
 Lignin, one of the constituents of wood, woody fibre. 
 
 Luminiferous, bearing, or giving, light. 
 
 Manse, the Scotch name for a parsonage-house. 
 
 Mausoleum, (pi. mausolea,) a tomb, so called from a stately sepulchre 
 erected by Artemisia, Queen of Caria, for her husband Mausolus ; 
 now applied to any elegant sepulchral monument. 
 
 Maximum, highest point. 
 
 Medine, a small Turkish coin. 
 
 Minimum, lowest point. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 Miocene, less recent, the division of the tertiary formation, between 
 the Eocene and Pliocene divisions. 
 
 Nebula, (pi. nebulae,) a rnist, or little cloud ; applied by astronomers 
 to luminous spots in the heavens, of a misty appearance, like that 
 which the milky way presents to the naked eye. 
 
 Order, see Class. 
 
 Operculum, a lid, or little door. 
 
 Papilla, (pi. papillce,) the orifice whence the spider secretes the sub- 
 stance of which its web is composed. 
 
 Passim, here and there, in various places. 
 
 Phenomenon, (pi. phenomena,) a natural appearance, generally of an 
 extraordinary kind. 
 
 Pirn, in weaving, the quill of the shuttle. 
 
 Planaria, a tribe of flat-shaped aquatic worms. 
 
 Plies, folds or plaits. 
 
 Pliocene, the third or latest division of the tertiary formation of 
 geologists. 
 
 Primates, the first order of mammalia, according to Linnaeus, includ- 
 ing man. 
 
 Protege, (pi. proteges,) one who is protected by another. 
 
 Pupa, (pi. pupee,) the same as Chrysalis, which see. 
 
 Redargued, refuted. 
 
 Residual, remaining after a part is taken. 
 
 Sanctum Sanctorum, the Holy of Holies, or most holy place, often 
 applied to the most important or holiest place in temples, churches, 
 fee. 
 
 Shrievedom, the territory within the jurisdiction of a sheriff. 
 
 Sisyphus, a person who is fabled to have been condemned to roll to 
 the top of a hill, a large stone, which, just as it had reached the 
 summit, rolled back to the foot of the hill, thus rendering his punish- 
 ment perpetual. 
 
 Somnambulism, sleep-walking. 
 
 Spadix, (pi. spadices,) an elongated receptacle of flowers. 
 
 Species, see Class. 
 
 Spell, a turn of work, applied also to games in which different persons 
 take their turns or spells. 
 
 Stamen, in weaving, the warp, the thread, any thing made of threads. 
 In botany, that part of a flower, on which the artificial classification 
 is founded, consisting of the filament or stalk, and the anther, which 
 contains the pollen, or fructifying powder. 
 
 Stimulus, (pi. stimuli,) a strong motive or excitement. 
 
 Tentacula, feelers. 
 
 Testacea, shell-fish. 
 
 Tree-hopper, a tree-toad. 
 
 Tryst, appointment, rendezvous. 
 
 Ultra-zodiacal, without or beyond the zodiac. 
 
 Usufructuaries, those who have the use or enjoyment of property for 
 a time, without having the title or property. 
 
 Vertebrata, the class of vertebrated animals. 
 
 Viaticum, provision made for a journey. 
 
 Vice versa, things being reversed, or the terms being changed. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 389 
 
 Vis inertia, the power of rest, or inertness. 
 
 TVarp, in weaving, the threads running lengthwise. 
 
 Wear, weir, or wier, a dam to raise the water in a river. 
 
 Weft, or woof, in weaving, the threads crossing the warp. 
 
 Zoophyte, a minute marine animal, which forms the corals and mad- 
 repores. These corals are the dwellings of the animals, which 
 received the name Zoophytes, (from two Greek words, signifying 
 animal and plant,) from the erroneous notion which formerly pre- 
 vailed, that they partook of the nature of animals and plants. 
 
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