nouncing by their presence the arrival of spring, have yielded their place to the tulip and the rose. In the room of these we have seen others, till all the flowers have fulfilled their design. The same holds good with regard to man. One generation shews itself, and another disappears. Every year thousands of human bodies return to the dust from from whence they were taken; and of these evanescent bodies others more beautiful are formed. The salts and the oils of which they were composed dissolve in the earth; the more subtile particles are raised into the atmosphere by the sun's heat, and mixing there with other matters are dis. persed in different directions by the winds, and fall down in rain and dew, sometimes in one place, and sometimes in another; whilst the grosser particles mix with the earth. The grass which is nourished by them grows up into long blades; and it is thus that the flesh of men, transformed into grass, serves as aliment to the flocks, whose wholesome milk is again converted to our own subsistence.

These continual transformations, thus operating in nature, are so many certain proofs that the Creator has designed that nothing should perish or be useless. The dust of flowers, used in the fecundation of plants, is only a very small part of what each flower contains; and that the superabundant portion may not be lost, bees are created, which make use of it to form their honey. The earth daily presents us with new presents, and it would in the end be exhausted, if what it gives was not in some way or other returned again.

All organized bodies suffer decomposition, and are at last converted into earth. During this dissolution, their volatile parts rise into the air, and are dispersed in every direction. Thus the remains of animals are diffused through the air, as well as through the earth and the water. All these particles, so dispersed, unite together again in new organic bodies, which in their turn will undergo similar revolutions. And this circulation, and these continual metamorphoses, which commenced with the world, will only terminate with its dissolution.

The most remarkable transformation, or at least that which interests us the most, is that in which we are immediately concerned. We know that our body was not once composed, and will not be so in the end, of the same num

ber of parts as it is when in its greatest perfection. Our body, when in our mother's womb, was extremely small; it became much larger when we were brought into the world, and since then has increased to fifteen or twenty times the bulk it then had; consequently blood, flesh, and other matters, supplied by the vegetable or animal kingdom, and which formerly did not belong to our body, have been since assimilated to it, and are become parts of ourselves. The daily necessity of eating proves that there is a continual waste of the parts of which we are composed, and that this loss must be repaired by alimentary matter. Many parts insensibly evaporate; for since the experiments which a certain great physician made upon himself, it is ascertained, that of eight pounds of nourishment necessary to support a healthy man in one day, only the fiftieth part is converted into his own substance; all the rest passing off by perspiration and other excretions. Hence also it may be inferred, that in ten years there will not remain many of the same particles that now constitute our bodies. And at length, when they shall have passed through all their different changes, they will be converted into dust, till the blessed day of the resurrection, when they will undergo that happy and final revolution that will place them in a state of eternal rest.

NOVEMBER XXII.

The Greatness of God is perceptible in the

least Things.

He who loves to meditate upon the works of God will not only tract him in the immense spheres which compose the system of the universe, but also in the least bodies of insects, plants, and metals. He will find and adore the Divine wisdom in the spider's web, as he would in that power of attraction which preserves the planets in their orbs. These researches are facilitated by the use of the microscope, which discovers to us new worlds, where we may admire in miniature much that will excite our admiration ; and those who have not had opportunities of using these instruments will at least read with pleasure some account of microcopic objects.

Let us first consider the inanimate world. Let us observe the mosses and small herbs which nature produces in such abundance. How numerous are the subtile parts and delicate fibres contained in these plants! How diversified their form and appearance! How innumerable their species! Let us think upon the immense number of minute parts of which every body whatever is composed, and which may be separated from it. If a hexagonal body of an inch square contains a hundred millions of visible parts, who can calculate all the parts contained in a mountain? If a million globules of water can be suspended at the point of a needle, how many ought there to be in a spring, a well, a a river, a sea? If from a lighted taper there are emitted in the space of one second more particles of light than there are grains of sand on the whole earth, how many ignited particles ought there to pass from a large fire in the space of one hour? If a grain of sand contains several millions of particles of air, how many must there be in the human body? If we can divide a single grain of copper into millions of parts, without arriving at the elements of matter; if odoriferous bodies can exhale fragrant particles enough to perfume the air at a great distance, without the body losing any thing of its weight; the human mind would require an eternity merely to reckon the prodigious number of these particles.

If we now pass to the animal creation, our views will be infinitely extended. During the summer, the air swarms with living creatures: each drop of water is a little world, teeming with inhabitants; every leaf is a colony of insects; and every grain of sand serves as an abode to multitudes of animate beings. Every plant, seed, and flower, nourishes millions of creatures. Every person must have seen those innumerable swarms of gnats, flies, and insects, which collect together in a very small space: what prodigious hosts of them must then live, enjoy themselves, and multiply upon the surface of the earth, and in the immense extent of the atmosphere! How many myriads of insects, worms, and reptiles, must creep upon the earth, or be contained within its bosom! a number so great as to be known to God alone. How splendidly manifest is his power, when we think of the multitude of parts which form these little creatures, of whose very existence many men are en

tirely ignorant! Were we not assured of it by daily experience, could we imagine that there are animals which, being a million of times smaller than a grain of sand, have yet organs of nutrition, motion, and generation! There are shell-fish so minute, that, seen through a microscope, they scarcely appear so large as a grain of barley; and yet they are living animals, with secure habitations, whose different folds and cavities form so many chambers. How very small is a mite; and yet, almost imperceptible as it is, seen through a microscope, it is found to be a hairy animal, perfect in all its limbs, of a regular form, full of life and feeling, and provided with all the organs necessary to it! Though this animal nearly escapes our perception, it possesses a multitude of parts much smaller and what is still more wonderful, is, that the glasses which enable us to discover so many faults and imperfections in the most finished productions of men, only more plainly indicate the regularity and perfection of these minute creatures. How inconceivably fine and delicate are the threads of a spider! It has been calculated, that thirty-six thousand would not more than make the thickness of a thread of common sewing silk. Each of the six papillæ, whence the spider draws that glutinous liquor with which it forms its web, is composed of a thousand insensible pores, through which so many threads pass, so that each visible thread of the spider is composed of six thousand smaller ones.

Great as these wonders may appear, they are far short of those we should discover, were it possible to obtain glasses of greater magnifying powers; and even then we could never reach the limits of the creation, though our microscopes magnified objects many millions of times more than they now do. The more we contemplate the works of God, the more will the proofs of his power be multiplied. We are confounded by the two extremes of nature, the great and the small; and we scarcely know whether to admire the Creator most in the immense spheres which roll their orbs in the heavens, or in those minute productions which are almost imperceptible to our eyes.

Let us, then, henceforth regard the contemplation of the works of God as our most delightful employment. The trouble that we take in investigating them will be amply compensated by the pure and innocent pleasures which

they will procure us. We shall have an ardent desire awakened in our minds to arrive in those blessed regions, where we shall require neither microscope nor telescope to discover and to become acquainted with the wonders of God; where all his works will be presented to the eye in unveiled beauty, and where we shall distinguish in each object its relations, structure, and destination; where hymns of praise will be chanted by immortal spirits, in ce lebration of the Creator of the universe; and where all distinctions between great and little will be lost in one grand whole, that will fill our souls with joy, love, and admiration.

NOVEMBER XXIII.

Gradual Increase of the Cold.

THE cold begins now to increase perceptibly. With the past month, much of the autumnal warmth has departed. It is already colder, and the shorter the days become, the more will the earth lose its heat. This we daily experience, and it requires only a slight degree of attention to discover in this arrangement the wisdom and goodness of God.

This gradual increase of cold is necessary to prevent the indisposition, and perhaps the total destruction of our body. If the cold that we experience during the winter months came suddenly with the commencement of autumn, we should be benumbed, and the suddenness of the change might be fatal to us. As it is, we are very liable to catch cold in the cool summer evenings; how, then, would it be, if we suddenly passed from the burning heat of summer to the piercing cold of winter? How mercifully has the Creator provided for our health and our lives in thus granting us, in those months which immediately succeed the summer, a temperature that gradually prepares our bodies to bear more easily the increase of cold! What would become of those animals whose constitution cannot bear a great degree of cold, if winter suddenly came without any previous preparation? The greater part of birds and insects would perish in a single night, and with them their eggs and their young: whereas, by the gradual augmentation of the cold, they have time to make the necessary preparations for their