goodness of God; and this duty is the more indispensable, because it is often neglected by inattentive, ignorant, and ungrateful people. It is true that God sometimes makes use of natural phenomena to punish the sins of man; but these particular instances do not disprove that he always proposes and has in view the general welfare of all; and of this, nature furnishes us with abundant examples and incontestable proofs. In this day's reflection we will confine our attention to a single phenomenon, which is particularly suited to convince us of the above proposition, and upon which our ideas ought to be very clear.

Are not the greater part of mankind accustomed from early infancy to pronounce the words thunder and lightning with terror? Such is our injustice, that we only think of the extremely rare cases in which storms are fatal to a very small part of the universe; whilst we shut our eyes to the great advantages which result from them to the totality of mankind. We are not able to enumerate all the benefits we derive from storms; but the few that we are acquainted with will suffice to fill our hearts with gratitude for our heavenly benefactor.

Let us present to our minds the idea of an atmosphere charged with noxious and pestilential vapours, which become more and more dense by the continual evaporation from earthly substances, of which many are putrescent and poisonous: this air we are under the necessity of breathing; the preservation or the destruction of our existence depends upon it; and thus the salubrity or insalubrity of the air dispenses life or death. Most of us have experienced a state of great oppression and languor during the stifling heat of summer; when our respiration is difficult, and we labour under great uneasiness and anxiety. Must it not then be considered as a great blessing of God, and deserving of our warmest gratitude, that a salutary storm arises and purifies the air of its noxious properties; kindles the sulphureous particles, and thus prevents their dangerous effects; cools the air, and by restoring its elasticity facilitates respiration.

Without an occasional storm the impure exhalations would be more and more increased and prejudicial; animals would perish by thousands, and an universal plague would desolate the earth. Which then is the most rational,

to rejoice or repine at the presence of storms? To murmur at the slight damage they sometimes occasion, or to bless the Almighty for the precious advantages they procure to the world? Besides, not only men and animals derive much benefit from the atmosphere being purified from its noxious vapours, but it is also highly advantageous to vegetables. Experience teaches us that the rain which falls during a thunder-storm is productive of the greatest fertility to the earth. The saline and sulphureous particles which fill the atmosphere during a storm are drawn down by the rain, and become an excellent source of nourishment to plants; to say nothing of the immense multitude of little worms, seeds, and insects, which are forced into the earth by the rain, and which by the assistance of a microscope may.be easily discovered in the drops of water.

Reflections like these may perhaps tend to moderate the excessive fear some people have of thunder, a fear which denotes the little confidence they place in God. Instead of suffering a storm to possess our minds with terrific and fearful ideas, let us rather accustom ourselves to consider it as an object of grandeur and sublimity; instead of regarding the accidents caused by thunder, let us only observe the necessity and great utility of storms; and, instead of praying the Almighty to withhold the tempest, let us beseech him to suffer it from time to time to descend upon the earth, or let us rather entirely rely upon the mercy and goodness of Him who rules over the universe in wisdom, and knows what is best for us. Every time the storm shall lower and the thunder peal, let us say from our hearts, in the fulness of our confidence: Almighty God! it is thou who commandest the elements, and directest the lightning ; we are in thy hands; thou alone canst save; thou alone canst destroy. At thy word the storm shall desolate our fields, or make them fruitful. Thou alone art great, and thy power is inexpressible: but we are thy weak and helpless children, and thou art to us a father of mercy and of love; and when thy voice is heard in thunder, and thy countenance seen in the winged lightning, it is still for our good. Blessed for ever be thy holy name; let all the ends of the earth raise one universal Hallelujah, the music of which shall be heard in heaven!

JULY XII.

Of the Earth, and its primitive Constitution. THE earth is so constituted as to be fit for the production and growth of herbs, plants, and trees. It is sufficiently compact for vegetables to grow in it, so firm that the wind does not blow them down; and yet it is so light and moveable that plants may put forth their roots in it, and attract humidity and nutritive juices. When even the surface of the earth is dry and parched, its lightness facilitates the rising of the juices in the capillary vessels to provide plants with their necessary support. Besides this, the earth is full of different kinds of juices, which tend to promote the growth of plants: and that every species of vegetables may flourish, we find there are different sorts of earth, which answer different purposes; such as potters' earth, argillaceous, calcareous, &c. Some are used to make bricks, others to construct buildings, and form earthenware and porcelain, and some are used to dye colours, and for medicine.*

The inequalities on the earth's surface are of great utility many plants and animals inhabit the mountains; and these lofty eminences also serve to break the violence of the winds, and produce a great variety of plants and wholesome fruits which would not thrive in the valleys or on the plains; they contain useful metals and fossils, and from them proceed the sources of many rivers produced by the melting of the snow, by rains, and different watery exhalations. The stones which are in the earth serve to build walls and make glass. The uses of metals are extremely various; we need only consider the many tools they furnish to our workmen and artists, the numerous utensils and the furniture that are made of them, and the many ornaments and conveniences we derive from them. We also obtain great advantages from the solidity and weight of these bodies.

The great utility of minerals is generally known. Volcanoes and earthquakes, however they may sometimes devastate a country, are useful and necessary; and we must im

The different earths at present known are ten: barytes, strontian, lime, magnesia, alumina, yttria, glucina, zirconia, agustina, and silica.E.

pute it to our ignorance if there are many things whose use we cannot discover. When we see certain phenomena in nature which are sometimes prejudicial, we should always remember that God only permits them to happen for the perfection and good of the whole; and rightly to judge of his works, we must not consider them partially, but take a wide and extensive survey of all the parts of a whole, and examine them both separately and combined. We shall then find that many things which we thought were injurious, are on the contrary of an incontestable utility; and others which appear superfluous, we should find to be necessary to the perfection of the whole, and their removal would occasion a chasm in the empire of nature. How many things are there which appear to us insignificant and of little worth, because from our ignorance we are not acquainted with their use and true worth? Give a magnet to a man unacquainted with its virtue, and he will disregard it entirely, or consider it with indifference; but inform him that by means of this little instrument the greatest quarter of the globe was discovered, and that men securely traverse the ocean with no other guide, his opinion will immediately change, and he will prize as much as he before contemned it. And this instance is applicable to thousands of cases, where we despise the means because we are ignorant of the end, where we disregard the object because we do not know its use. Lord! the earth is full of thy goodness; all is arranged with wisdom! May we consider it as our chief duty to apply ourselves more and more to know thee; and to pay thee that just tribute of gratitude and love which we owe thee for the various blessings we derive from the earth.

JULY XIII.

Phases of the Moon.

IT has been ascertained by attentive observation that the moon has a peculiar motion round the earth from west to east; for after having been between our earth and the sun, she retires from under that body, and continues to fall back towards the east, changing from day to day her place of. rising. In fifteen days she will have reached the most

eastern extremity of the horizon, at the time we see the sun set; she is then said to be in opposition: in the evening when the sun retires, she rises above our horizon; and sets in the morning as the sun rises. If she then continues to

traverse the circle which she has begun round the earth, and the half of which she has accomplished, she will visibly remove more from her point of opposition with the sun, and will gradually approach nearer to him; we shall then see her later than when in opposition, till by degrees she will only be seen a little before sun-rise. This revolution of the moon round the earth explains why she rises and sets at different times, and why her phases are so diverse and yet so regular. Nobody is ignorant that a globe illuminated by the sun, or by a torch, can only receive its light immediately upon one side. We are readily convinced that the moon is a sphere which receives its light from the sun; when therefore she is in conjunction, that is, placed between the sun and us, her illuminated half is turned towards him, and her dark part towards us; consequently, at that time she is invisible to us: she then rises and sets with the sun in the same regions of the sky, and is called new moon, or the conjunction. But when the moon retires from under the sun, and passes back towards the east, her dark side is not then entirely turned towards us: a small portion, a slight border, of the illuminated disk comes in view; and we see this luminous border upon the right, near the setting sun; and the horns of this crescent turn towards the left, cr facing the east. As the moon removes farther from the sun, she becomes more visible; and at the end of seven days, when arrived at a quarter of her course round the earth, she displays more and more of her illumined side, till at length we see the half of it. The luminous part is then turned towards the sun, and the dark part reflects no light upon us. This luminous part is exactly half the lunar sphere the half of this half is then a quarter of the whole sphere, and it is in reality this quarter which we see; and the moon is then said to be in her first quarter.

In proportion as the moon becomes more distant from the sun, and the earth advances between them, a greater surface of that part of the moon which is directed towards us becomes luminous. At the end of seven days, reckoning from the first quarter, she is nearly in opposition with the sun,