MAY VII.

Spring renews the Face of the Earth.

How great a change has taken place throughout nature! The earth, which has reposed during the winter, resumes its fertility, and all the creation rejoices. A few weeks since, every thing was desolate, and wore the aspect of sterility; the valleys now so beautiful were buried in snow, and the mountains, whose blue summits pierce the clouds, were shrouded in thick mist. In those verdant avenues where now dwells the nightingale, were only seen withered branches and leafless trunks. The rivers and streams which now flow murmuring along their channels, were arrested in their course, and rendered motionless by ice. The little choristers, whose loud notes swell upon the breeze, were torpid in their retreats, or had retired to other climes. A mournful silence reigned in the fields, the groves were still, and far as the eye could reach solitude met the aching view. But when the first zephyrs of spring played upon the earth, nature felt their refreshing influence, and arose from her stupor; joy and gaiety were awakened, and laughing pleasure banished every care.

The sun-beams penetrate, the sweet flowers spring up, the trees again look young, the budding beauties and the freshness of the verdure gladden the heart, and its joy is perfected in feeling the happiness of all around. Who can behold such a picture without emotion, or see it without thinking of the ineffable Being that produced it? The Lord breathes upon the earth, and the valleys smile; he watereth them with his dew, and they are fertile. His presence ripeneth the harvests, and fills our hearts with joy. His blessing is upon the furrows, and the parching earth drinks of the refreshing rain, which softens it, and the seeds spring forth. The year is crowned with blessings,

and the breath of God maketh the ground fruitful; under his steps flowers and fruits spring up, and all fruitfulness and abundance belong unto him. The pastures are watered with soft showers, and the hills are adorned with a beautiful verdure. The fields are covered with flocks, and the young corn rejoices the valleys. All nature rises in one general song of praise and thanksgiving to her bountiful Parent.

In the revolution effected by the mild influence of the spring, I seem to see the representation of that salutary change which the soul feels when it yields to the operations of the divine spirit of God. Before this it had no real beauty; its faculties, perverted and depraved, were incapable of producing the precious fruits of piety, till the saving grace of God was felt in the heart, when it resembled the earth cheered by the vernal sun. Ignorance disappeared, the passions were controlled, and vice shrunk back ashamed; the heart glowed with virtue, and the mind was impressed with humility, and a firm reliance upon the blessed doctrines of truth.

MAY VIII.

Germination of Seeds.

MANY changes in the vegetable kingdom are now taking place under our immediate notice, whilst others are operating in secret, concealed from our observation. The grain which had been previously deposited in the earth swells, and the plant at length sprouts and gradually shoots up. As this is the beginning of all the beauties which spring and summer offer us in the vegetable kingdom, it merits some attention. Seeds are composed of different parts, according to the variety of species, the principal of which parts is the germ. Each germ has two parts; the one simple, which be

comes the root, and the other laminated, which becomes the stem of the plant. The substance of most seeds is composed of two pieces called lobes, which contain a farinaceous matter, and serve as seminal leaves to the plants. Mosses have the most simple seed, consisting only of the germ, without pellicle and without lobes. To make seeds germinate, air and a certain degree of heat and moisture are necessary. The augmented heat, and the difference observable in the taste and smell, seem to denote a degree of fermentation; and the farinaceous substance becomes fitted to nourish the tender germ. It has been ascertained by experiments made with coloured fluids, that this substance imbibes a moisture, which, in conjunction with the air and heat, forms a proper nourishment till the plant has acquired strength enough to make use of the juices furnished by the root. The lobes, exhausted of their farinaceous matter, gradually dry, and fall off of themselves in a few weeks, when the plant has no further need of their assistance.

Certain herbs which grow on the mountains are of a particular nature; their duration being very short, it often happens that the seed has not time to ripen; and that the species may not be lost, the bud which contains the germ is formed upon the top of the plant, puts forth leaves, falls, and takes root. When the delicate plant shoots up from the earth, it would run too great a risk if it were immediately exposed to the air and influence of the sun. Its parts therefore remain folded close to each other, nearly the same as when in the seed. But as the root grows strong and branches out, it furnishes the superior vessels with an abundance of juice, by means of which all the organs are developed. At first the plant is nearly gelatinous; but it soon acquires more firmness, and continually increases in size. This short account of the germination of seeds suffices to show us how many preparations and means nature uses to produce a

single plant. When therefore we see a seed that we have placed in the earth sprout, we shall no longer consider it as beneath our notice, but shall rather be disposed to regard it as one of those wonders of nature which have excited the observation and attention of some of the greatest of men.

MAY IX.

Of the Chick in the Egg.

WE are under considerable obligations to those naturalists who have made laborious researches and investigations into the nature of generation, and the propagation of animals, by which much light has been thrown upon a very difficult subject. Nothing contributes more to the glory of God than observations which point out the wisdom manifested in the production of the animal creation. The less we are able to comprehend the works of nature, the more eagerly should we seize every opportunity that offers of inquiring into them.

The hen has scarcely sat upon the eggs twelve hours, when some lineaments of the head and body of the chick may be discerned in the embryo; at the end of the second day the heart begins to beat, though no blood can be seen. In forty-eight hours we may distinguish two vesicles with blood, the pulsation of which is evident; one of them is the left ventricle, the other the root of the great artery; soon after one of the auricles of the heart is perceptible; in which pulsation may be remarked as well as in the ventricle. About the seventieth hour the wings may be distinguished, and on the head two globules for the brain, one for the beak, and two others for the front and hind part of the head. Towards the end of the fourth day, the two auricles, now distinctly visible, approach.

nearer the heart than they did before. About the fifth day the liver may be perceived; at the end of one hundred and thirty-eight hours, the lungs and stomach become visible; and in a few hours more the intestines, veins, and upper jaw. On the seventh day the brain begins to assume a more consistent form. One hundred and ninety hours after incubation, the beak opens, and flesh appears on the breast. In two hundred and ten, the ribs are formed, and the gall-bladder is visible. The bile, in a few hours more, is seen of a green colour; and if the chick be separated from its coverings, it may be seen to move. Towards the two hundred and fortieth hour, the feathers begin to shoot, and about the same time the skull becomes cartilaginous; in twenty-four hours more the eyes appear; at the two hundred and eightyeighth, the ribs are perfected; and at the three hundred and thirty-first, the spleen approaches the stomach, and the lungs the breast. On the eighteenth day of incubation, the first faint piping of the chick is heard. It then continually increases in size and in strength till it emerges from its prison.

By so many different gradations does the adorable wisdom of God conduct these creatures into life; all their progressive evolutions are arranged with order, and each one is effected by its own particular cause. If the liver is always formed on the fifth day, it is from the preceding state of the chick. No part of its body could appear sooner or later without some injury to the embryo, and each of its members appears at the most convenient time.

The wise and invariable order in the production of this little body, is evidently the work of supernal power; and we shall be more convinced of it if we consider the manner in which the chick is formed from the parts which compose the egg. How admirable is that principle of life the source of a new being contained in the egg, all the parts of the animal being invisible till they become developed by