forms of the fruit and seeds vary as much as those of the leaves and blossoms. There is scarce any form that is not distinguishable in one or other of them. All these parts of plants have their proper use and design: Let the smallest part of them be taken away, and the plant will lose some of its perfection, its beauty, growth, or increase. As extraordinary as it may appear, it is certainly true, that all those parts, without one single exception, are more or less necessary to the whole. Try the experiment, take the leaves from a tree, and it will soon wither and perish. It is the same with all the other plants. There is nothing superfluous amongst them; nothing that has not its use; nothing that does not evidently tend to the perfection of the whole. But, in discovering this connection, this harmony, this wonderful arrangement of the vegetable kingdom, in seeing that the whole is beautiful, and ordered from general laws, though differently applied, shall we not conclude that the Author of all those beau ties must necessarily have infinite wisdom? This consequence is as natural as that we draw, when, on hearing a person speak, we conclude that he must be near us. Let us then raise our souls to the Creator of all things: We shall every where find him. It is for that purpose he formed the plants so magnificently, and thus displays to us their use and beauty. Let the Divine Wisdom be ever present to us: It will appear in the smallest blade of grass, if we take trouble to examine it closely. Such reflections will make us more sensible of the pleasures of summer, and still more embellish it in our eyes. The more we accustom ourselves to reflect on the wisdom of God, the more satisfaction we shall have in contemplating nature: At At each flower we behold, we shall cry out with transport,-How great is our Creator! how admirable his wisdom! JUNE XIX. HYMN OF THANKSGIVING FOR THE WORKS TO thee, O Lord, from whom proceedeth every blessing, and who dispensest them so bountifully, to thee belongeth glory, honour, and thanksgiving. Thou hearest the cries of the young raven, and takest pleasure in the song of the lark: vouchsafe to listen also to my voice, and accept the tribute of praises due to thee. The least of the creatures formed by thy hand proclaims thy wisdom. The traces of thy goodness and power are seen from one end of the year to the other, and are continually renewing. Each blade of declares the greatness of grass God, and our own nothingness. With parental tenderness thou providest for our necessities, and givest to men and animals their proper food. From dawn to dawn thy blessings continually succeed each other; and even the wicked man feels the effect of thy goodness. O God! who is like unto thee! The earth is full of thy goodness and wisdom! Vouchsafe to teach me, 0 Lord! how to praise thee worthily. Incline my heart to love thee, and let me hereafter live only for him who heapeth such blessings upon me. It is in thy name, and in the hope of thy blessing, that the farmer sows his corn: It is thou who makest the seed fruitful. This earth, that for our our sins had a curse laid upon it, is blessed again by its Creator, and bringeth forth fruit plenteously. Thou waterest the furrows of the fields. Thou clothest the meadows the valley, and the plain, with flowers, with groves, with trees, and herbage. Thou orderest the cool and refreshing dew to moisten our gardens and fields, and to shed fertility and abundance upon them. The barren and dry soil thou waterest with gentle rains. The cold and wet places thou warmest with the rays of the sun. The weather and the seasons thou orderest wisely, and in the manner most beneficial to mankind; and, in the midst of all the vicissitudes of heat and cold, rain and drought, we still behold the food destined for us spring up, grow, and ripen, through thy goodness. Thou coverest our fields with rich harvests, and the wings of the wind support the waving corn. Thou adornest the tops of barren rocks with grapes. Thou dressest our pasture with clover; and, by thy command, the fountains and rivulets refresh the thirsty animals. Thou causest the tree to take root, and it prospers. Thou causest a quickening sap to circulate through its trunk, and givest it force to branch out with leaves and blossoms, while the abundance of fruit, under which the boughs bend, proves the pleasure thou hast in doing good. O! let us therefore glorify our Creator, our great Benefactor! Let us bless his holy name! Let us praise his mercies with transport! Great is the Lord our God! All his works are holy and wonderful! Let us exalt his almighty name! The Lord is good! It is meet that the righteous should publish his praise for ever and ever. JUNE XX. CATERPILLARS. THOUGH these insects are so disagreeable to the lovers of gardens, and so disgusting to overdelicate people, they nevertheless deserve our attention. Caterpillars generally live upon our trees, and we have such an aversion to them, that wherever we meet with them we destroy them. This is the reason we do not deign to honour them with a look, and still less to examine them attentively. And yet there is no doubt but these insects may very agreeably amuse an attentive observer of nature. Let us here try to prove it. Perhaps, by raising the curiosity of those who have hitherto neglected them, they may be induced not to trample them under foot, without at least first observing their wonderful formation, and taking from thence occasion to look up to the Creator. The number of species of caterpillars already known amounts to more than three hundred, and there are new ones daily discovering. Their shape, their colour, their form, their inclinations, and way of life, all differ in some respects; but this circumstance they have in common, that they are composed of rings, which, by moving to and fro, carry the body wherever they want to go. Nature has given them two sorts of feet, which have each their particular use. The six fore-feet are sorts of hooks, which they make use of in taking a fast hold and clinging to any thing. The soles of the hinder-feet are broad, and armed with little sharp nails. With the hooks they draw to them the leaves, the grass, and whatever they want for for food, and they fix the fore part of their body with them while they are drawing up the hind rings. The hinder feet serve to keep them firm, and to hold by whatever they are to rest upon. When they are on a branch or a leaf, they can seize on food at some distance; for, by hooking themselves on with the hind-feet, they stand up, and raise the fore part of their body, move it about, and poise it in the air on every side, get considerably upon the leaf, reach their food, and take it with their claws. However adapted the body of the caterpillar is to its several wants, it is remarkable that its state is but transient, that the limbs last but a certain time, and that this creeping worm becomes a chrysalis, without feet or motion, till it is metamorphosed into a creature classing with the inhabitants of the air. Were it for this reason only, the caterpillars would be worth our attention. Towards the end of summer, and often sooner, after having satiated themselves with verdure, and after having changed their coat several times, they cease to eat, and begin to build a house, in order to end their life in it, with the caterpillar state, and to be afterwards transformed into butterflies. The chrysalis is full of a sort of thick milk, which serves for food to the butterfly till it comes out. When it is entirely formed, and its parts. arrive at consistency, and that a gentle warmth invites it to quit its prison, it makes itself a passage through the end of the chrysalis that is largest, and at the same time the thinnest. The head (which has always been turned towards that end) disengages itself, the horns lengthen, the feet. and wings spread out, the butterfly takes wing and flies away. It preserves none of its former state. The caterpillar which changed into the chrysalis, F 3 |