than any other subjects, but they are more inviting. We live in nature, and we are part of nature; for every thing connected with our mortal being is dependent upon natural causes. It is, therefore, next to impossible, for even the most dull and illiterate of the human race, to keep the thoughts of nature entirely absent from his mind. Those, too, who have learned to observe and to think, even though slightly, find much of their meditation and pleasure in natural subjects; and we invariably find, that, in favour with the intelligent part of the community, books on such subjects are second only to those which are necessary for pointing out the way of salvation.

Now it is not possible to devote much time to nature, without having the thoughts turned to the God of nature; and under these circumstances, if the student of nature is not informed respecting the character and attributes of the God of revelation, and the doctrine of salvation through the cross of Christ, he stands in much peril of falling into a certain species of idolatry, which is both pernicious and difficult to be got rid of. Sublime and delightful as the study of nature is when pursued aright, it is not in itself capable of furnishing any knowledge of the true God as revealed in his word. It does, however, as has been said, necessarily and strongly impress the mind with feelings of a God; and if there is no guidance of the truth, that God can be thought of only after the manner of men, and is in reality as much an idol of man's making, as if molten in brass, or chiselled in stone.

We have judged it expedient to offer these few

remarks as prefatory to a brief notice of the leading appearances of the Spring, with their causes and effects; their influence upon man, and the demonstrations which they afford of the wisdom and goodness of the Creator. We have done so, not with a view of formally explaining the doctrines of the Christian religion, but simply of showing, that one who is ignorant of that religion is in no fit condition for studying nature; and having done so we proceed to the details of our subject.

CHAPTER II.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SPRING.

THE earth is so extensive, the surface of it so varied, and all the changeable parts of nature in a state of such continual change, that it is impossible to give any general account of a season, that will apply to that season at almost any two places, on any two days, or for any two years. This is a difficulty which meets us in the study of every department of nature. All the parts are so linked together, and each of them receives so much of its character from the others, that we cannot take them apart, study each by itself, and make our knowledge of it a complete and definite treatise, as we can do in the case of human inventions and human works. But this difficulty, so far from being a disappointment, is fraught with encouragement and with wisdom. It is encouraging to feel convinced that any one department of nature will remain as fresh, new, and inviting to us in the fiftieth year of our study as in the first. It is instructive in the highest degree, to feel at every glance and every thought, that creation is one system, the workmanship of one God.

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OBSERVE, AND THINK.

If we look upon natural productions and natural appearances, merely in their individual characters, we can neither feel this encouragement nor profit by this instruction. For this reason, the connexion of substance with substance, and event with event, is the portion of the history of nature which leads to general wisdom, and which is, therefore, useful to all men, without any reference to their stations or employments in life. If we do not attend to this, it is all in vain, for the purposes of enlightenment, that the lines of our life are cast in even the most pleasant places of the earth. The fairest prospects and the most lovely productions may be constantly before our eyes, and yet we may not see one of them as rational beings, who are accountable to God for all his goodness, ought to see them. It is the same with every other sense of the body; all the wild notes of nature may fall in succession upon the external ear, and yet the ear of the understanding may be perfectly deaf to them. So the sweetest perfumes of nature may be wafted to the nostril on the purest and most refreshing breezes, and yet they may leave no more impression than the wing of a butterfly leaves on the summer air.

That this is the condition of but too many, a very little observation may teach any one; and yet this indifference is so completely destructive of our very best enjoyments, that it should be our constant and our strenuous aim to avoid it. Whenever we have acquired this means of avoidance, so as to be able to make the mind accompany the senses, we have mastered the grand point of education; and to help the young and

the ignorant in this, ought to be an object in every book, and every means of instruction. But nature, the creation around us, in its charms and its changes, is the general subject of every body's observation, and therefore we are especially bound to take good heed, that the mind of the reader should be aroused and carried along in all that is written upon natural subjects. To the more isolated facts, the senses of the most unlettered peasant are as new as those of the most profound philosopher, only the mind of the former takes no hold on them, and their memory perishes like that of the beasts. If, indeed, we could suppose a total stillness of the mind, a state in which there were no thought produced by the impression on the sense, the party would be reduced to the constitution of a mere animal. It is not merely our temporal pleasure, our rational enjoyment of this wonderful world; for it perils our eternal condition more than the unthinking are aware. "God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit;" but if the spirit is not called forth in all matters in which the body is exercised, we can have no certainty that it is awake and interested in devotion itself; and if this is not done, the mere words of the lip, whatever be their strain or their amount, are but as 66 a sounding brass, or as a tinkling cymbal."

And we have the highest and holiest example and authority, for blending the study of nature with that of religious knowledge; making "the law," not the moral law, as given from Sinai only, but every law of God as revealed in creation, "a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ." Take up the gospels, read them with that