"tentively to his voice, and the sound that goeth "out of his mouth. He directeth it under the "whole heaven, and his lightning unto the ends "of the earth." But if his dreadful lightnings terrify the universe, his beneficent hand abundantly provides for all his creatures. JULY IX. THE ANTS. be con THE ants, as well as the bees, may sidered as a little commonwealth, which has its peculiar government, laws, and police. They live in a sort of town, divided into several streets, which lead to different magazines. Their activity and industry, in collecting and using the materials they require for their nest, is admirable. They all join in digging the earth together, and in carrying it home. They collect a great quantity of grass, straw, wood, &c. of which they make a heap. It appears at first sight very irregularly formed; but through all this apparent disorder, much art be discovered when examined more atten may tively. Under the domes, or little hills which cover them, and which are always so formed as to let the water run off, there are galleries which communicate with one another, and may be considered as the streets of this little city. But what is particularly admirable, is the care which the ants take of their eggs, of the worms when they come out of the chrysalis when formed. They convey them carefully from one place to another. They feed their young, and remove,: with the tenderest solicitude, every thing that H 2 might might hurt them. They even attend to preser ving a proper degree of warmth about them. Their painful labours in summer-time, when heaping up provisions, have scarce any object but the support of their young, as they themselves require no food in winter, being asleep, or insensible, till spring. As soon as their young are out of the egg, they employ themselves in feeding them; and it still costs them more trouble. They generally have several houses, and they convey their young from one habitation to some other which they wish to people. According as the weather is hot or cold, dry or rainy, they bring their chrysalis near the surface of the earth, or remove them from it. They bring them to the surface in mild weather, and even sometimes after rain, lay them in a bright sun, or after a long drought, in a gentle dew. But at the approach of night, rain, or cold, they take up their little ones in their paws, and carry them so low down into the earth, that it is sometimes necessary to dig above a foot deep in order to find them. There are several sorts of these insects: The wood-ants never lie but in forests or bushes, and do no harm to fields. There are two species of these, the red and the black. Some settle in the ground in dry soils, and generally choose places where they find roots of fir-trees or birch, to make their habitations. Others live on old trunks of trees above ground, high enough to be out of the reach of its moisture. They make themselves apartments in the cavities of the trunk, and cover them with straw and other things, to shelter them from snow or rain. The field-ants are also both black and red as well as the others, but they are smaller. They settle either in the corn or the field. When the wea ther ther is dry, they bury themselves pretty deep; but as soon as it becomes rainy, they raise their habitations higher and higher, according as there is more or less damp; and when it abates, they never fail of returning to their subterraneous apartments. It is also to be observed, that the ants acquire wings; and that, towards autumn, they are seen to fly in swarms over ditches and other water. But, are these mischievous insects worthy our attention, spoiling, as they do, our fields and meadows! By their subterraneous works they make the ground hollow, tear it up, and prevent the plants and roots from growing. They are reproached more still They are enemies to the bees and silk-worms; and they are supposed to hurt the flowers, and particularly the young trees. It is said, they devour the buds and shoots; and that, getting under the bark of trees, they gnaw them to the quick. For this reason, the ants are destroyed wherever they are found. If the ants gathered honey, though at the expence of a million of other creatures, they would be highly valued, but, because their labours hurt some useful plants, we think ourselves authorised to destroy them. Suppose even that in reality they do us some harm, are they therefore less worthy our attention? Do none deserve our observation, but such as are useful to us? Let us banish this prejudice. Even the ants may afford us instruction and amusement. The form of their limbs, their industry, their indefatigable labour, the police of their republic, their tender care of their young, and perhaps a thousand other qualities, which we are not acquainted with, might convince us of the wisdom. of that great Being, who is their Creator as well as ours. For, of all the works of God, H 3. there there is not one which has not its use, and is not worthy of admiration, however useless, or even hurtful, it may appear at first sight. The supreme Creator, by whom all things exist, has created nothing without design, nothing that has not its use and purpose. The trees have not a leaf, our meadows have not a blade of grass, nor our flowers a fibre, that is useless. ར་ར་་་མན... JULY X. THE HAIL. HAIL is nothing but drops of rain, which, freezing in the air, fall in pieces of a spherical, oblong, or angular form. It appears extraordinary, that, in the very warmest seasons of the year, vapours should freeze in the atmosphere. We may consider that even in the greatest heats, the upper region of the air is cold to a sensible degree, and full of snow. If it was not so, how could the highest mountains remain the whole summer covered with snow. In the hottest parts of America, it is so severely cold on the highest mountains, that there is continual danger of being frozen; and of course, it would snow from this extreme cold in the upper region of the atmosphere in the very middle of summer, if the snow did not melt in falling before it reaches the ground. But when these particles of snow collect together, the drops begin to freeze; and, as in falling, they go rapidly through warmer regions of air, it happens, that before this warmth can have penetrated through them, their cold increases, so as to be entirel frozen. It might be be imagined, that the cold, on the contrary, ought to abate in proportion as they pass through a warmer air. But what is the consequence in winter, when cold water, which has been exposed to the outward air, is brought into a very hot room? It freezes and becomes ice, which would not have happened if it had been put into a cold room. This is precisely the case in respect to the hail. When cold bodies pass suddenly into hot air, their cold increases to such a degree, as to turn to ice. The volatile salts, more or less dispersed through our atmosphere, contribute much to this. We must not therefore be surprised that storms are not always attended with hail, as it requires great abundance of saline vapours to occasion the sudden freezing of the drops of water. Though hail is more frequent in summer time, it falls also in other seasons: For, as in every part of t the year the saline exhalations may ferment in the atmosphere, so it may hail in winter, autumn, or spring. The hailstones are sometimes round, at other times concave and hemispherical, often conic and angular. Their usual size is that of small shot or little bullets, seldom as large as nuts. It is asserted, however, that there have fallen some as large as the eggs of a goose. The difference we observe in the form and size of hailstones may proceed from many accidental causes. The winds, particularly violent winds that cross one another, certainly contribute much towards it. A hailstone may also in its fall meet several other cold particles, which considerably increase its size; and often the small hailstones meet others, and, in joining together, form into large ones. It is certain, that when the hail is very large, it does inexpressible mischief to the vintage and harvest, H 4 fruit, |