particular, the firmness is very remarkable, when the actual quantity of fluid in the total bulk is considered. A fluid was the thing to be produced in all the instances mentioned; but that was to be rendered transportable and durable; and, by means, that, as our author observes, almost appear magical, it has been made to assume the form of a hard and resisting solid. There are some fruits which are naturally, or on account of their uses in the vegetable system, very transitory and perishable. If these had all ripened at the same period, as might have been expected, seeing that they all depend for their progress towards maturity on the advance of the seasons, we should have been overwhelmed with their numbers for one short period, and should, during all the rest of the year, have been destitute of this means of enjoyment. But a provident Creator has arranged otherwise. Like flowers, which are also formed for human enjoyment, they have been commanded to appear in succession, so that, as one vanishes, another is ready to supply its place. We experience this, even in our own short summer. It is more extensively the case in tropical climates, where these productions are far more numerous, and their uses, both to man and the lower animals, much greater. But there is another, and not less beneficent, provision with regard to fruits, which belongs more directly to our present subject, as connected with the autumnal season; I mean, that there are some kinds, so formed as to admit of being stored for future use. This is particularly the property of some kinds, which do not ripen till this late period of the vegetable year, a fact, itself indicating a providential arrangement, as providing a supply for the winter months. It is worthy of remark, that of those which are thus destined for future use, several do not ripen on the parent tree, a property which, while it presents a great chemical difficulty, was necessary, in accordance with physiological principles, to the preservation of the fruit, which, as soon as life becomes extinct, must rot. The stored apple is not less alive than its seeds. Its principle of vitality remains,—one of those inexplicable detachments, like the sap, from the general life; and it continues to act on the fluids which the vessel contains. Thus does it convert the malic acid into sugar ;* while, in the same manner, various other conversions are effected, not one of which extra-organic or common chemistry has been able to perform. There is a contrivance similar to this in some of the perishable or truly summer fruits of a hot climate, which must not be passed over. The lemon and the orange, ripen, like the apple, at a distant time, without the aid of the parent tree, without light and without heat; giving us, in the regions of snow, all that in this tree could have been derived from a tropical sun. An object so familiar is, as usual, little considered; but independently of this power of delay, of the extraordinary conversion of the citric acid into sugar, in this little and strange laboratory, and of an investment which, appointed for the defence of the interior, is, moreover, so contrived, that it shall furnish the greatest resistance when that is most needed, there is a beautiful mechanism, already alluded to in regard to other fruits, through which the enclosed fluid is preserved, under a great chemical difficulty. Had the rind enclosed nothing but a fluid, as the cocoa-nut does, it must, according to chemical principles, have fallen into fermentation, and been destroyed. But this is guarded against, and in the precise manner which science would have suggested. Each compartment is so small, that fermentation cannot take place, —a structure which was not necessary, as regards either the vegetable or the produce.† The Before concluding this article, I may allude, in a single sentence, to the power of preserving fruits by art. fig, the date, and the grape, are preserved with little aid from human industry; and the principle which secures these from decay, points out the means of preserving other fruits, naturally more perishable. The fundamental pro * [Malic acid is the acid peculiar to the apple and similar fruits. The word is formed from the Latin, malum, apple.-Aм. ED.] + Macculloch's Attributes of God, vol. iii.-' On the pleasures provided through the senses of odor and taste.' vision for this is laid in sugar. Incapable of change, itself, this remarkable, and almost universally diffused substance, preserves not merely the vegetable, but even the animal organizations from chemical destruction; and, where Nature has not added it to the fruits in sufficient quantity, art is enabled to supply it, with the same useful results, in modes which are as familiar as they are numer ous. FOURTH WEEK-SATURDAY. HUMAN FOOD.-DRINK. It is interesting to remark the difference in the mode. adopted by the Creator, between the provision for satisfying the cravings of thirst and of hunger. Both are necessary instincts, the one bearing reference to the supply of solid, and the other of liquid nourishment, to the animal frame. Both might have been afforded by similar means; but, if meat had been rendered as abundant as drink, one of the greatest incentives to exertion would have been wanting; and if, on the contrary, the supply of liquid had been only equal to that of solid food, the necessity which would thus have been imposed, of making a double provision for subsistence, would have probably been so overpowering, as materially to impede the propagation of mankind, and even to endanger the extinction of our race. While our meat, therefore, was wisely restricted, the supply of drink was rendered as abundant to human beings, as to the other orders of living creatures. Water was made a common beverage to man and beast, and thus as constant and accessible a gift of liquid food is afforded to him, as there is also of solid food to the cattle, in the grass which is so liberally spread over the face of the earth. The provision which has been made for the supply of this necessary, has already been adverted to,* and is very * See 'Spring,' Papers on Mountains, Rain, Springs, Rivers, &c. remarkable. All organized existences, vegetables, as well as animals, must drink. Vegetables are fixed to the soil, and therefore their drink must be carried to them. This is done in the very striking arrangements by which rain is caused to fall in gentle showers, and in due proportion. For this purpose, the immense reservoir of the mighty ocean is made to distil its waters into vapor, which floats in clouds, and is dispersed by every breeze, till, by another system of contrivances, it is condensed into drops, and falls softly on the expecting earth. For animals, another provision is made. The moisture, which falls on the surface of the earth, and especially on the mountains, is superabundant for the purposes of vegetation. Being intended also for the use of the living world, it is collected in reservoirs in the bosom of the elevated grounds, whence it gradually issues in springs; which, flowing in rivulets in all directions, is collected into rivers, and furnishes, in most regions, a copious supply of drink to which there is ready access; while the remainder returns to mingle with the vast expanse of waters, from whence it had been evaporated, till it again becomes subjected to a similar process. Such is the wise and beneficent arrangement in vast regions of the earth, and more particularly in those genial climates first inhabited by man; but there are countries, and indeed extensive districts, where great irregularities in this respect take place. In Egypt, for example, and in a large stripe of the globe under the same parallel of latitude, rain seldom falls at all, while, under the tropics, the supplies are partial and fitful. But there are, in these instances, compensations which very strikingly prove intelligence and beneficent design. In Egypt, and various other countries, periodical inundations supply the place of rain. In other quarters, where the free soil absorbs the moisture, strata of rock or of earth, at a certain depth, prevent it from being carried beyond the reach of human industry; and, in many cases, when man employs his skill in the search, he is rewarded by copious springs rising to the surface, and flowing far for the refreshment of the inhabitants. In all these instances a providential discipline is employed, similar to that which we have seen so ex tensively established with reference to solid food. The natural supply is denied, that human ingenuity may be called forth, exercised, and crowned with success. What is remarkable in such arrangement is this, that the deficiency of liquid food takes place, generally speaking, only in those districts where solid food is abundant. It seems as if the common Father, while He considered it too severe a trial to cause the necessity of employing man's ingenuity in providing both for meat and drink at once, saw proper, where the stimulus to exertion was removed by a spontaneous abundance of the one species of food, to supply that stimulus by a natural deficiency of the other. The kind of industry and skill to which the deficiency in question has given rise, is various, depending on the nature of the supply to be obtained; and here, too, there are some peculiar adaptations. If it is to be collected from the heavens in the periodical falls of rain, clay or other impervious materials are provided by Nature for retaining it in tanks, while means are afforded for its being purified by filtration, or preserved and rendered salutary, when converted, by admixture with other substances, into a liquor, not readily subject to decomposition. If it must be sought for at considerable depths, it either springs up to the surface, as I have said, in the form of what are called Artesian wells, or is forced to ascend by the very curious, but familiar and convenient apparatus of the pump, the principle of which depends on the pressure of the atmosphere, a natural property which was long but little understood, even after it had been applied to practice. It is remarkable to what extent, regions, otherwise barren and uninhabitable, are rendered fit habitations for human beings, by means such as these. The faculties of man are thus successfully exerted, and his ingenious toil rewarded. As the powers of the mind are expanded and the population of the world is increased, new encroachments are thus made on the desert places of the earth; the wilderness is caused to blossom as the rose, and the boundaries of man's abode are extended. There are yet other provisions made by the Creator, for supplying a |