plants, and the combination of the different substances which the rivers and torrents carry with them into the ocean. When it is calm, and not a breeze skims the surface, it sometimes glitters as with the most brilliant stars; and the track of a ship cleaving the waves is often luminous, seeming like a river of fire.

A well-known property of the sea is the ebbing and flowing of the tides*.

The creatures which inhabit the sea are well calculated to excite our surprise and admiration; we there discover a new world, and the number of beings which compose it is prodigious. Aquatic animals are not so numerous in their species as the land animals; but they surpass them in size and longevity. The elephant and ostrich yield in bulk to the whale, the largest fish of the ocean, its length being often from sixty to seventy feet; it lives as long as the oak, and no land animal can vie with it in length of life. If we may rely upon certain accounts, there are creatures in the ocean far exceeding the size of the whale; as the animal called kraken, said to exist in the northern seas, and whose circumference is half a German league. Who can number the different species of animals which people the seas? Or who can determine their form, structure, size, and properties? How infinitely great is that God who has created the sea will be the conclusion of all who investigate the subject!

It is not without the wisest reasons that the Creator has made the ocean and the seas to occupy two thirds of the whole globe. The seas were not only to form great reservoirs of water, but by means of their evaporation to be the sources of rain, snow, and various meteors. What wisdom is displayed in the connexion which the seas have with each other, and in their continual motion! And it is not less wonderful that

* See reflection of Feb. 7, vol. 1.

the bottom of the ocean is nearly of the same nature as the surface of the earth. There are found in the sea, rocks, caverns, plains, springs, plants, and animals; and the islands are only the summits of a long chain of mountains. When we consider that the seas form a part of the globe the least investigated, we are disposed to believe that they contain many more wonders, which neither the senses nor the understanding of man have yet been able to penetrate, but which all testify the adorable wisdom and power of the Most High. To him then who has established the monuments of his grandeur and the sceptre of his glory in the ocean as upon the earth, be ascribed all admiration and praise!

JULY XXIII.

Different Shades observable in Flowers.

WITH a heart beating with joyful emotions I look round and see all the beauties of the creation. How lovely are the tints! How pleasing their combination! How admirable the diversity of shades! Here the colours are exquisitely touched with the lightest pencil; there they arrest the eye by their brilliancy and deeper glow. The ground-colour is always such as to show the picture stretched upon it to the most advantage; whilst the green surrounding the flower, or the shade of the leaves, gives life to the whole.

In thus distributing and diversifying the colours, nature has procured us the most agreeable sensations. How great and numberless are the works of God; how wisely arranged! We cannot sufficiently admire the grandeur of his designs, the magnitude of his views, nor the wisdom he employs in their execution. It is only with labour and incessant toil that men

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can accomplish any single work; and after many fruitless efforts, at length sometimes succeed so as to imitate some one of nature's works. But the Supreme Power, the immortal God, in a single moment has given life to millions of beings, and has created them in perfection according to their different states and degrees. The more we examine the works of art, the more will their imperfections appear; while for near six thousand years the works of nature, formed by the infinite hand of God, have been contemplated with increasing delight, without a single error being discovered in the plan, or any thing suggested that could render the execution more perfect. The more we investigate the works of God, the more their beauty delights, and their perfection pleases; whilst our love and veneration for their Divine Author in

creases.

Flowers are particularly pleasing by their simplicity. One single element, under the forming hand of nature, assumes all this beautiful variety. The moisture of the earth and air insinuates itself into the vessels of plants, and filtres through a series of transparent tubes; and this is the cause of all the beauties which we observe in the vegetable kingdom. If each colour had its particular cause, the surprise of the beholder might not be so great: but we contemplate with delight, and are never weary of admiring as the effect of supernal wisdom, a work, which, so diversified in its parts, is nevertheless perfectly simple as to its cause; by which we see a number of effects de pending upon a single spring, always acting in the

same manner.

Whilst viewing with rapture the beautiful variety of colouring displayed in flowers, we must necessarily feel the value of that reason which we enjoy as beings endowed with immortality, without which in vain would the charms of nature unfold to our senses. With the light of reason we are able to know and distinguish the numberless beauties of flowers, to

appreciate the infinitely-varied blending of their tints, and all the delightful scenery of the meadows, valleys, forests, and mountains; making them contribute to our pleasures, and finding in each evident traces of an Almighty God. Father of light and mercy! Parent of good! What can we render unto thee, or how can we sufficiently thank thee, for that choice and pure gift of reason which elevates our souls from earth to heaven, and raises us from the nature of brutes unto the dignity of angels!

JULY XXIV.

Summer Heat.

Ar this season of the year we generally experience the greatest degree of heat; though the sun, having now entered into the sign Leo, daily removes farther from us. When we were nearer to him the heat was temperate; and now that we are farther off it is at its greatest degree of fervency. The reason of this is from the peculiar arrangement of our globe. The sun was lately nearer to us; but as his rays had not sufficient force to penetrate deep into the earth, we only felt a temperate degree of heat: but in the space of some weeks, the earth, and the bodies which cover it, are so much heated, that even the least influence of the sun produces more effect than at the beginning of summer, when it acted upon cold bodies.

Some people murmur at this arrangement of nature, and complain of the intenseness of the heat, which renders them incapable of bearing much fatigue; but to repine at an arrangement founded upon the immutable laws of nature, and consequently an inevitable effect of certain causes, is failing in gratitude to our Heavenly Father, by censuring his govern

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ment, which never fails in the end to promote the general welfare of the world. And to repine because one day is hot and another cold, one wet and another dry, bespeaks a weak head and a bad heart. If these heats were not sometimes to occur, how could the fruits which are to nourish men during the winter arrive at maturity? Thus all our murmurings at the decrees of Providence, who always out of evil worketh good, are the offspring of folly and of ingratitude. Though the inhabitants of the western part of Africa, and particularly of Cape Verd and the island of Goree, are exposed during the whole year to the most intense heat, their bodies are so organised that they can endure it without suffering in their health; and the winds continually blowing over the country temper and cool the air.

And has the Creator been less bountiful to us? Is it not from his tender cares that the summer nights cool the air, and produce a delightful freshness? A single night revives the languishing plants, gives new vigour to the enfeebled animals, and enables us to sustain the fatigues of the day with alacrity. Even the storms which cause so much fear are in the hands of God the means of purifying the air, and refreshing the creation. And we have a variety of deliciously cooling fruits, that tend to preserve our health at this season. Let us then no longer complain of the sun's heat, nor of the sufferings that we endure; but consider them as a part of the divine plan, and as being alleviated by a thousand means that ought to excite our gratitude and adoration.