open and shut at certain regular hours. Some shoot up, blossom, bear fruit, and drop their leaves, sooner than others. All plants are originally wild; that is, they grow without culture. The Creator assigned for plants a climate adapted to their nature and purposes, and where they should arrive at the greatest perfection. But those which are exotic may be naturalized with us, and made to succeed very well, provided care is taken to procure for them the degree of heat their nature requires. What particularly charms the eye is the variety of forms in plants. Let the most perfect of them be compared to those that are least so; or let even the different sorts of the same species be compared, and we cannot but admire the astonishing variety of models from which nature draws in the vegetable world. We step with wonder from the trifle to the sensitive plant, from the mushroom to the carnation, from the acorn to the lilac, from the nostoch to the rose-tree, from moss to the cherry-tree, from the morel to the oak, from the misletoe to the orange-tree, from the ivy to the fir. If we consider the numerous sorts of mushrooms, or the kind of plants which we call imperfect, we cannot but admire the fertility of nature in the preduction of those vegetables, which are so different in form from the others, that we can scarce rank them among plants. If we afterwards rise some steps up the chain of plants, we behold with pleasure the degrees of those with stalks, from the grass which grows between the stones, to that inestimable plant to which we owe our principal food. We, in the next place, observe the variety of creeping plants, from the tender bind-weed to the vine. We cannot too much admire the perfect harmony, as well as the variety of the works of nature. Every plant, from the hyssop which grows on walls to the cedar of Lebanon, have the same essential parts. A little herb is as complete a plant as the most beautiful rose, and the rose is not less so than the finest oak. All belong to the same source; all follow the same general laws of growth, propagation, and mutiplying, and yet each species is distinct from the other. Among so many millions of plants, there is not one which has not its distinct character, properties, and particular manner of taking nourishment, of growing, and continuing its species. What inexhaustible riches in their colours, forms, and proportion! Those are happy who are capable of observing this variety, and of tasting the many different beauties of the vegetable kingdom. What pleasure may not the mind experience in such a study! After having once enjoyed it, we should find so many charms in it, that we should readily give up all others, to devote ourselves entirely to this. Our souls, enraptured with sweet contemplations, would rise to thee, O God, who art the Father of all nature. Thy power which produced every plant, thy wisdom which so well planned them, thy goodness which appears in the infinite variety of them, furnish us with continual cause to bless and glorify our Creator. པ་་ར་་རར�...... AUGUST XXIII. REFLECTIONS ON THE ANIMAL CREATION. WE may consider the animal kingdom as a well governed state, in which there are a proper number of inhabitants, each in the place appoint ed ed for them. All have the faculties necessary for the employments designed them. They are induced by rewards and punishments to fulfil their destination, and are protected as much as they require from their several enemies. In this animal kingdom, the little and the weak, which compose the greatest part of it, are subject to the strong and the powerful; but the whole are subject to man, as to the representative of the Deity. Animals find in every part of the earth enough to employ them, and enough to feed on. They are accordingly dispersed throughout every where; and their nature, their organs, their several constitutions, are adapted to the different situations designed them. Their employments differ greatly. All tend either to increase their species, to maintain an equal balance between the animal and the vegetable kingdom, to provide proper food, or to defend themselves from their enemies. Let us observe, that every part of their bodies is suited to their offices, and to the nature of their souls. The Creator has given them an instinct to compensate for the want of reason: An instinct varied in a thousand ways, and according to their several wants; an instinct for motion, for food, to enable them to distinguish it with certainty, to find it out, to seize upon it, and to prepare it; instinct to build nests and proper habitations, to lay in provisions, to transform themselves; instinct for the increase of their kind; instinct to defend and secure themselves, &c. In each class of animals, there are some which live on prey, and individuals which superabound in other classes. Each species has its particular enemies, which keep up the proper balance, and prevent any from multiplying too much. The fruit and the carcases which corrupt are eaten up; the earth is not incommoded commoded by them, nor the air infected. Thus nature preserves its beauty, freshness, and purity. The beasts of prey have a make conformable to their design. They are endowed either with peculiar strength, agility, industry, or address. But in order to prevent them from destroying a whole species, they are confined within certain limits. They do not multiply so fast as other animals; and they often destroy one another, or their young are food for other creatures. Some sleep during winter, digest slowly, and feed on fruits of the earth, for want of other food. The weaker animals are provided with defence in proportion to their situation, and the dangers to which they are exposed. Their natural arms, their swiftness, their habitations, their scales or shells, their cunning, preserve them from destruction; and by these means the proper balance is always kept, as to the number in every species of the brute creation. Animals are in some measure constrained to acquit themselves of the part assigned them, because their happiness depends upon it. They find their well-being in following the rules prescribed by nature; as, on the contrary, they could not transgress them, without drawing all sorts of evil upon themselves. The animals which give milk are the largest, and consequently the least numerous, but they fulfil very important offices. Those of birds are also various. They eat the superfluous seeds; they devour carcases; they diminish the number of every sort of insects. Most amphibious creatures prey on other animals. The smallest animals are the most numerous, and in proportion more voracious than the larger. They make many vegetables fruitful, and serve for other useful purpoAll we behold so admirable in the animal ses. kingdom, kingdom, proves the existence of a Being who possesses the highest degree of wisdom and understanding. Who but he could have peopled this immense globe with so many different species of living creatures, providing for them every thing necessary? Who but he could give food to such an infinite multitude of creatures, according to their different tastes, and find them clothing, habitations, and whatever they require, to guard and defend themselves, with so much address and sagacity, so many instincts, and such industry? Who but he could have kept up the equal balance between so many different species and classes of animals? Who but he could appoint for each living creature the element suited to it; or form that amazing number of limbs, joints, bones, muscles, and nerves, joined together, and placed with so much art, harmony, and perfection, that each animal can perform its several motions, in the manner most convenient and best adapted to its way of life, and the different situations it is in? O Lord God Almighty! it is thou only who couldst do such things, and to thee belongeth all glory, praise, and thanksgiving. ར་ར་ར་ས........ AUGUST XXIV. DIVISION OF THE EARTH. ALL the known countries of the earth are divided into four principal parts, Europe, Asia, Africa, and America.-Europe is the smallest, for it is but 900 German miles in length, and 1500 wide. The Europeans, however, possess countries in the three other parts of the world, and |