fitting it to spring from a half-formed soil, provided it, in its buoyant and thickly-coated shell, with a boat, in which it might be wafted by the winds, the waves, and the tides, to such distant localities. The ways of the Almighty are always wonderful; but there is something in these adaptations of different departments of Nature, to preserve the lives, extend the numbers, and promote the comforts of human beings, which fills the mind with amazement and devout adoration. TENTH WEEK-TUESDAY. MITIGATION OF SEASONS OCCASIONED BY CULTIVATION. It has Ir is exceedingly edifying to examine the nature of that discipline, by which Providence trains the human race, and the character and extent of those means, by which their moral and physical powers are stimulated, and the exercise of these powers is rewarded. been truly said, that "the hand of the diligent maketh rich." But this is not the only, nor indeed the chief, reward of a welldirected and properly-regulated industry; it also promotes the health, and improves the understanding, and thus stamps with the seal of truth the homely adage of poor Richard, which is in every body's mouth, "Early to bed, and early to rise, Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." The But even this is very far from being the whole of the blessing which Providence has annexed to habits of activity and attention to the various callings of life. advantages acquired by individuals are extended to society, and thus the necessaries of life become more abundant, and its comforts and conveniences are, both directly and indirectly, promoted in a thousand different ways. Nature itself seems to become more propitious under the ingenuity and laborious exertions of man, and to relax in her more rigid features, as society advances in civilization. In making these observations, I have chiefly in view some remarkable facts, in reference to climate, which seem to prove that it is affected, in an extraordinary degree, and in a very salutary manner, by the cultivation of the soil. Evaporation is a wellknown cause of cold, the conversion of water into vapor being necessarily attended by the absorption of much heat; and whatever promotes the one, must, at the same time, have a tendency to increase the other. Now, a great part of the Continent of Europe was anciently overrun with immense forests, which produced this effect, by their leaves and branches exposing a large surface to the action of the air; while, at the same time, they diminished the power of reflection, by intercepting the direct rays of the sun. Another and very extensive cause of excessive evaporation in uncultivated grounds, is the existence of swamps, and of large tracts of land overloaded with moisture. Cultivation has the effect of diminishing these sources of cold, by the clearing away of the woods, and the draining of the soil, both of which operations have actually been performed in Europe to a great extent; and the change, which has thus been produced, is greater than, independent of experience, could easily have been anticipated. Hume, in his Essay on the Populousness of Ancient Nations,' has investigated this subject with his usual acuteness, and has brought together some curious facts, which show that the European climate is now much milder than in early times. Italy, for example, has at present so warm a climate, that winter frosts are almost unknown. It was not so formerly. Horace speaks familiarly of the streets and neighborhood of Rome being frequently covered with snow and ice. In the year of the city 480, the winter was so severe, that the Tiber was frozen firmly over; the trees were destroyed by the intensity of the cold; and the ground was covered with snow for forty days. This was indeed an unusual occurrence; but Juvenal, in describing a superstitious woman, represents her as breaking the ice of the Tiber, that she might perform her ablutions ;* and he speaks of that river freezing over as a common event,—a circumstance which never happens in the present day. In other parts of Europe, a similar difference is indicated. Gaul was represented as a most inhospitable climate. Petronius proverbially speaks of something being colder than a Gallic winter. Aristotle says, that the climate of Gaul was so cold, that an ass could not live in it. Diodorus Siculus describes it in similar terms. He speaks of its extremely severe northern climate, where, in cloudy weather, snow falls instead of rain, and, in clear weather, the rivers are frozen so hard that large armies may pass, with all their baggage and loaded wagons. Strabo states, that the northern parts of Spain are thinly inhabited, on account of the great cold. Varro speaks of the inland countries of Europe, as invested with almost perpetual winter ; and Ovid mentions the Euxine as, in his day, frozen over every year. On comparing these accounts with the state of the European climate in modern times, we cannot fail to observe a most striking and general amelioration; and we need not hesitate in attributing the change to the effects of agricultural improvement. The climate of North America. is, from the same cause, becoming gradually less severe, and assimilating itself to that of Europe. Wherever the ground is extensively cleared of wood, and cultivated, the mildness and salubrity of the weather is materially increased. These remarks on the effects of cultivation, as producing a salutary influence on the climate during winter, lead us to notice a not less important change, effected by the same cause, in the other seasons of the year. When the earth is barren, the alternations of heat and cold, and of rain and drought, are very violent. A vigorous, but not prurient, vegetation has a wonderful tendency to correct these injurious excesses, and by diffusing the tem* Hybernum, fracta glacie, descendet in amnem, Ter matutino Tyberi mergetur.-SAT. vi. 523. [The superstitious fool her steps will bend And plunge her in the gelid current thrice.-DR. BADHAM.] perature and moisture more equally, to render such agents at once the means of additional fertility to the soil, and health to the human constitution. In adverting to this subject, it is impossible not to remark, as a peculiar proof of beneficent design in the Author of Nature, that, of all the vegetable productions, none tend so much to promote this beneficial result, as those which are cultivated for the food of man, and the domestic animals. "By the shade which they afford to the ground in the hot season," says an intelligent writer, "they check that evaporation, and prevent that excessive hardening of the surface, which, in an exposed wild, render the soil impervious and inert; while, on the other hand, the humidity, which they imbibe during the rainy season, is again given out, by continual and gradual evaporation, and they minister to the refreshment and productiveness of all around them."* To prove the unmitigated action of the elements, in regions destitute of cultivation, the same author refers to the present state of some parts of India, of Southern Africa, and of Australia, where, at one time, the earth is parched, and the beds of rivers become dry channels, or unconnected pools; while, at another, they suddenly pour onward to the sea, in a wide-spreading inundation, or roll their rapid floods in narrow but deepened channels; and, to show how powerfully these evils are modified by human industry, he mentions the remarkable change which, even within the memory of man, has taken place in those parts of Scotland where agriculture has, during the last hundred years, been rapidly improved. "It is within the experience of persons still living," says he, "to have noticed that the snow, which, in that country, began to fall in November, was not wholly gone till the month of April; while, in the middle of summer, the heat was so excessive, that agricultural laborers were obliged to suspend their toil during four or five hours in the middle of the day. At that time, the autumnal rains frequently descended with so much violence, that the crops, which had been retarded by the coldness of the spring, * Library of Entertaining Knowledge, vol. xv. Introduction. were prevented from ripening on the high grounds, were lodged and rotted on lands that were lower, and swept away, by the swelling of the streams over the holms and meadows.' Though the above account may, perhaps, be justly said to be somewhat overcharged, yet the mitigation of the Scottish climate, in all these particulars, is well known, and is wholly to be attributed to the progress of agricultural improvement. This has had a very salutary effect on the health of the inhabitants, as well as their means of subsistence, and may be fairly stated as a striking instance of the nature of those blessings which Providence has so bountifully, and in such a variety of ways, annexed to human industry. TENTH WEEK-WEDNESDAY. THE LABORS OF THE HUSBANDMAN WISELY DISTRIBUTED OVER THE YEAR. THE wonderful adaptation of organized existences, both animate and inanimate, to the seasons of the year and the cosmical arrangements of the globe, on which it has pleased Providence to place them, have already been noticed.* But there is one remark which has not yet been made, and which tends not only to illustrate our general argument, but to show that the more minutely we observe the features stamped upon the system of which these existences form a part, the more reason we have to admire the nice and well-considered adjustments which it invariably manifests. The particular to which I now allude, refers chiefly to the variety that exists in the proper seasons of germination, and in the periods necessary to the ripening process, in such of the vegetable productions as are useful to man, and are raised by his labor. By far the larger proportion of them require only one season to bring them * See Winter' Volume, Paper Adaptations of Organized Existences to Seasons and Climates.' |