the autumn, and preserve them for the winter in hollow trees.

These provident cares of animals cannot be the result of reflection, for that supposes much more intelligence than they are capable of. They only think of the present, and of what affects their senses either agreeably or disagreeably; and if it happens that the present has any reference to the future, it is without design on their part, and without their having any knowledge of what they do. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine how foresight and reflection should enter into the instinct of these animals, since they have no idea of the vicissitude of the seasons and the nature of win. ter; and having no conception of the measure of time, they neither know when winter will arrive, nor how long it will continue. It would be equally absurd to attribute to them reason, ideas of the future, or any reflection upon the means of existence during the severity of the season, since they always act without any variation, and each species constantly follows the same method as its predecessors, without any instruction. When the bees, then, do not cease to collect wax and honey till they have filled their magazines, or until the season no longer permits them to work, it is not because they foresee that a time will come when they can collect no more: such a degree of foresight ought not to be attributed to them. They are instigated by nature to col lect wax and honey, to work during the fine seasons, and by the time winter arrives they have generally filled their magazines. These, as well as all other animals, act without reflection or design, almost mechanically, although they seem to follow the wisest rules that could have been dietated. Being, therefore, destitute of reason, that wise economy, and those apparent acts of foresight and reflection, which we observe in them, must be produced by a superior intelligence, which has thought and taken care for them, and whose views they fulfil without knowing it. And herein consists a part of the prerogatives which men enjoy over brutes. We can recal the past, and imagine the future, act from reflection, and form plans, determine from motives, and choose what is suitable. How important it is, then, that we should make a right use of these prerogatives! Informed as we are of the great revolutions that await us, and being able to anticipate the winter of our lives, how incum

bent it is upon us to prepare a rich stock of knowledge and virtue, which, as we decline in the vale of years, shall smooth our path into eternity, and gild our last moments with the rays of joy and of peace!

DECEMBER XV.

Advantages of Winter.

In con

IT is advantageous frequently to reflect upon the blessings which God grants to us in this rigorous season. sequence of the cold and frost, many noxious vapours are retained in the superior regions of the atmosphere, by which means the air is rendered more pure. Far from being prejudicial to the health of man, they often improve it, and counteract that debility which a continued heat would produce. If all the vapours and exhalations which are collected in the atmosphere were to descend in the form of rain, the earth would become too soft and wet, the roads would be impassible, and our bodies would be subjected to various diseases. In hot countries, and in those where there is much wet during the winter, dangerous and severe diseases are much more frequent than in other places. Travellers inform us that in Greenland, where mountains of ice are very common, and where in winter the days are scarcely four or five hours long, the air is very salubrious, pure, and light; and that, except some complaints in the chest and eyes, occasioned partly by the nature of the food, the diseases most common in Europe are rarely met with. And it is also certain, that the constitution of the human body varies according to the climate in which it is placed; so that the inhabitants of the northern countries enjoy a constitution adapted to the excessive cold that prevails there, and they are generally very robust and hardy. Even as man, though he loves to be in action, and that labour is necessary to him, is yet glad to have his toil interrupted by the recurrence of each evening, to taste the sweets of sleep, and to pass into a state altogether opposite to that in which he was when awake; so also does our nature accommodate itself to the vicissitudes of the seasons, and we are pleased with them, because they contribute to our happiness and well-being.

At present our fields and gardens are covered with snow, which is necessary to preserve them from being injured by the cold, to secure the seeds from the impetuosity of the winds, and to prevent their being destroyed. The fields, after having during the fine weather produced all the fruits upon which we live in the winter, require some repose. And in this we have great cause to acknowledge the wisdom and goodness of God; for if he had not provided for our support, and if to obtain our nourishment we were obliged to cultivate the earth in this rigorous season, our complaints might have some foundation; but he has began by filling our magazines, which are sufficient to supply all our wants, and permit us to enjoy a degree of repose suitable to the

seasons.

How tender are the cares of Providence for us during the winter! He has given to men that industry of which they have so much need to fortify themselves against the attacks of cold and frost. Their inventive mind has made them find the means for procuring for themselves an artificial heat, by means of which they can enjoy in their own apart. ments a degree of warmth equal to that of summer. The

'of Providence are not less evident in the annual production of wood, and its astonishing multiplication, than in the fertility of our fields. Besides, we have many animals at our command, which are very useful in enabling us to support the severity of the season. The colder the country, the more useful are those animals whose furs are designed to keep us warm. And is it not evident that Divine wisdom has foreseen the wants incident to different climates, when he has placed in them animals that could live nowhere else?

Winter does not materially interrupt trade or commerce. For though the rivers may have lost their fluidity, their sur face, solid as a rock, is converted into a high-road, where carriages may pass in safety. Though we are obliged to suspend the labours of the field, there are various other ways in which we may be usefully employed; and we are never condemned to a state of idleness and inaction. The repose of nature invites us to look for resources in our own minds; and though our imagination cannot now be warmed with the beauties of nature in their spring and summer robes, our mind, no longer attracted by external charms, will be at

leisure to look back, and dwell upon the images it has for merly perceived and made its own; or it may from the present change in nature be led to reflect upon the instability of all earthly things, and prepare to enter into that eternity to which it is hastening, and devote itself with full sincerity to the service of that Supreme Being who never changes, but is ever the same, merciful, just, and omnipo

tent.

DECEMBER XVI.

The Elements.

WHETHER we consider the universe collectively, or examine its different parts in particular, we shall

ways find

sufficient cause to admire the wisdom and goodness of the Creator. It is true that we have a very imperfect knowledge of things, and that in most instances we can scarcely advance beyond conjecture and probability; but this is enough to make us acknowledge, on the one hand, the grandeur of God, and, on the other, the weakness of our reason. Perhaps all the elements are of the same nature, and may be reduced to a single essence, so combined as to form but one whole. As it would be very difficult for us to consider the elements as a whole, it is necessary to divide them, and separately consider the primitive constituent parts of bodies.

How various and admirable are the properties of the air which we every moment respire! How great is the force with which it divides and dissolves all kinds of substances, at the same time imbibing their different qualities! Innumerable vapours and exhalations, thousands of various odours, volatile salts, alkalies and acids, oils and inflam mable spirits, that all mix and unite with it, sometimes rendering it noxious, though generally salubrious and beneficial. These foreign particles contained in the air, its elasticity, the property that it has of becoming rarefied or condensed, and of regaining its natural state, produce those agitations in the atmosphere, those meteors that disperse the noxious vapours, purify the air, and favour the vegetation of plants. And though the effects of the air are sometimes severe, they are, nevertheless, necessary to prevent the earth being converted into a desert. There are in this element, as in all

the works of God, impenetrable mysteries. Who, for instance, can explain how the particles of air, being so subtile as entirely to escape our sight, are yet the means by which òbjects become visible to us? How wonderful is the equilibrium that obtains between the external air and that which is within our bodies! A balance upon which our health and even life depends! And how admirable is it, that the same element should be the medium by which sound, odours, and light are transmitted!

Water has some conformity with air, and its properties and effects are not less various and admirable. All the abundance and salubrity of the air, all the riches of the earth, and the heat of the fire, could not prevent our perishing if we wanted water. Of how many changes and combinations is it not susceptible! Who has given it the property of dilating, dividing, and rarefying to such a degree as to enable it to ascend in the atmosphere to the height of a league, float there, and form itself into fogs and clouds? Who has given it the power of penetrating into plants, of again passing out by their insensible pores, and of diffusing itself over our fields and valleys in the form of dew? How astonishing is the property it has of sometimes becoming lighter than air, though a given quantity of water is nine hundred times heavier than a similar quantity of air; of attaching itself to all kinds of bodies, of dissolving the most compact substances, and of even uniting with fire!

Of all the elements, we know the least of the nature of fire. It is too subtile for our eyes; though its virtues, properties, and effects, are sufficiently obvious. Whether the essence of fire consists only in motion, or in the fermentation of inflammable particles, or, what several experiments would seem to authorize us to suspect, that it is a simple matter, differing in its nature from all other corporeal things; it is certain that its prodigious abundance, its utility and wonderful effects, deserve all our attention. There is no body so cold that does not possess particles capable of ignition. The presence of fire is universal; it exists in the air which we respire, in the water that we drink, and in the earth upon which we live. It enters into the composition of all bodies; it passes through the minutest pores, unites itself closely to them, and moves with them from one place to another; and however covered and refined, it does not fail to discover