Let us admire the divine goodness which has prepared for man those salutary and inexhaustible springs. Mineral waters may certainly answer many other purposes; but it cannot be doubted they were also produced for the preservation of the health of mankind. It is for man that the Lord has made these beneficent waters spring up. Let us then acknowledge his goodness, and be sensibly touched with it. Those particularly who experience their strengthening and salutary virtue, let their souls, penetrated with joy and gratitude, be lifted up to their heavenly Father. Let them glorify him, by imitating his example, and let their riches be sources of life and consolation to their fellow-creatures in necessity. JULY XV. THE CONTINUAL ACTIVITY OF NATURE IN WHOEVER wishes to know why nature is never idle through the course of the whole year, has only to reflect on the numberless advantages, which result from this constant activity. Vege-. tables were designed for the use of men and animals; both for food and pleasure to the former, as food only to the latter. The beneficent Creator, in order to bestow nourishment on man in the most pleasing manner, ordained that the plants, instead of coming all at once, should succeed each other. In reality, if they were produced at the same time, this purpose could not be fulfilled. . How could men find time to get in their crops and harvests, if every thing was ripe at the same time? How could all of them be preserved, as many are of very short duration, and soon lose their taste and qualities? What would then become of the pleasing sensations they afford to our sight and taste? What flavour would cherries and other summer fruit have, if we were to eat them in winter covered with snow and ice? Would not wine turn to vinegar, if the grapes were to ripen in the heats of summer? What would become of so many millions of animals, whose preservation the beneficent Creator watches over, as well as that of mankind? How could they live if all the produce of the earth came to maturity at the same time? There are an hundred sorts of insects who feed on flowers. How could they subsist if those lasted only one or two months? Could they gather enough to have always sufficient food? It is true, that most insects find none in winter; but then they fall into a sound sleep, and do not require any; which would not be the case in summer, as the heat would waken them. It is then certain, that if nature was, planned otherwise, men, as well as animals, would not only suffer by it, but even perish with hunger: and we may safely assert, that their support is one of the chief designs of Providence in the constant activity of the vegetable kingdom. If we next reflect on the pleasures of sight and taste, which God has pleased to grant to man, we shall find, that for this purpose also it was necessary that nature should be thus planned. It required, not only that the flowers should be displayed in full beauty, but that there should be some all the year for our continual enjoyment. In spring, when we go to the country, in order to contemplate the many productions which the Creator causes to spring up for our food, we behold the trees in full bloom. bloom. Towards summer, when farmers are chiefly taken up with the corn, a thousand beautiful flowers charm the sight. They appear successively, and replace each other the whole season, as long as man can enjoy this object. At last, when the cold winter arrives, and shuts us up in our houses, nature produces other vegetables, which are not indeed striking to the sight, but which have a thousand uses. All this proves, that the pleasures and comforts of mankind are purposes proposed by God in the plan of nature. Every thing is so ordained as to provide sufficient nourishment for men and animals, and also that the former should enjoy as many pleasures and comforts as possible. Consequently, some plants produce their blossoms and fruit in spring, others in summer, others in autumn or winter. Thus each has its allotted time, and appears precisely when most useful. Scarce have some done their service, when others appear in full beauty. We behold millions of plants, and they all follow the same law. Every thing created by God is according to the same wise and regular order, though our limited understandings may sometimes prevent us from discovering the use and purpose of them. Let us therefore bless our Creator, give him glory for all things; and let us acknowledge that in all the revolutions of the vegetable kingdom, God has our welfare in view. With what gratitude ought not this thought to inspire us? And what sweet satisfaction should we not feel every time we contemplate the beauties of nature! JULY 4 JULY XVI. THE BEAUTY AND USE OF MEADOWS AND FIELDS. THE sight of a large beautiful garden in summer gives us a lively pleasure which our apartments do not afford, of which we can form no idea. But even the pleasure we feel from the finest garden is not to be compared to that of walking in fields and meadows. The stately tulip, the elegant narcissus, the beautiful hyacinth, none please so much as the simple flowers which enamel the fertile valley. Whatever charms the flowers may have which are cultivated in our gardens, those in t fields are still more pleasing. There is beauty in the former, but in the latter there is both use and beauty. Mere useless beauty pleases for a moment only. Is it not true, that in those long gravel walks, so even and neat, those arbours and summer-houses, those parterres with pretty borders, those walls, those inclosures; is it not true that we feel confined, and as if oppressed in them? All those places where the view is confined, seem to set bounds to our liberty.-We seem in some degree to be more independent, and more at ease, in proportion as our walk enlarges and lengthens before us. In the country, in summer, Nature, fruitful and beautiful, varies every moment her appearance; whereas, in our ornamental gardens, we continually behold the same objects. Even their order and regularity prevent us from being long pleased with them. They have nothing new to offer us, and we tire of them. The eye, on the contrary, wanders with pleasure over objects continually di versified, versified, and extending as far as the sight can reach. It was in order to give us this enjoy. ment, that in most places the ground was formed smooth and even; but, to the end that we might also have pleasing distant prospects, our horizon is surrounded with rising hills. Nature has done still more: she has spared us the trouble of cultivating those flowery meads, or of watering them. An innumerable multitude of seeds are sown in them, which produce a verdure scarce ever interrupted, or which is at least easily renewed. This prodigious variety of plants with which a field is covered, is not for the sight only. They have each a seed, a blossom, qualities, and beauties, peculiar to themselves. It is true, that the same species of herbs is prodigiously multiplied in each field; but perhaps we do not make two steps without treading on an hundred different sorts, each of which has its peculiar use. To the pleasure fields afford us, our beneficent Creator has added considerable advantages. They produce plants. for our food, and a wonderful number of simples, which serve for medicine. But the greatest use the fields are of to us, is the feeding, without expence, those animals we can the least dispense with. The ox, as well those whose flesh we eat as those whose labour helps to plough our ground, requires no food but grass. The horse, whose services are innumerable, demands no other recompense for his toil, than the free use of the field, or a sufficient quantity of hay. The cow, whose milk is one of the great supports of our life, asks nothing more. The field is the most complete inheritance: It is even preferable to meadows, as its produce is certain, and requires neither sowing nor labour. It only costs the slight trouble of gathering |