MAY XVII.

THE TULIP.

The tulip is one of the finest formed and most beautiful of flowers; the fineness of its shape, and the brilliancy of its colours, make it the queen of the garden. And if we consider that each year millions of them blow, all differing in form and beauty, our admiration increases, and we are compelled to acknowledge that so much beauty and elegance cannot be the effect of blind chance, but must have some great First Cause which has produced them in its wisdom and beneficence, the existence of which is sufficiently proved by the tulip in full flower.

Though tulips are now produced from roots, there was a time when they did not exist; and whence was derived the first bulb, and that primitive arrangement of which all subsequent revolutions are only the development, but from some intelligent cause which we call the Creator? As much power and wisdom are displayed in the structure of a single tulip from which ten others shall proceed, as in the creation of ten at once. Whenever we see a bed of tulips, then, let us not rest satisfied with admiring their beauty; let us also admire in them that wisdom which has formed them with such perfection.

Though the beauties of the tulip are thus so eminently conspicuous, they lose some of their value when we consider they are only to please the sight, for not being odoriferous they cannot gratify the smell; and when we contrast them with the pink, which to beauty of form adds the most exquisite perfume, we forget immediately the richness of the tulip. And this is the case with those vain people, who, endowed with personal charms, set them off with every additional ornament their vanity can suggest; whilst they neglect, and suffer to remain uncultivated, the powers of the understanding and the virtues of the heart, which alone can render them acceptable to their Maker, and amiable to their fellow-creatures. The beauty of the tulip fades, and the pride of person is laid low but the beauties of the mind remain to cheer, to delight, and to instruct, when the graces of form are no more: and the virtues of the heart will flourish, when the elegance of shape and the vigour of body are decayed.

The simple annals of plants furnish us with this useful observation, that the more beautiful a flower is the sooner it fades. We shall soon see no more of the tulip than a dry and dead stalk; its beauty and life only last a few short weeks, when its charms are destroyed, its leaves wither, its colours fade, and all that remains of what so lately struck us with its beauties is a sapless stem. Thus we learn from the tulip the little dependence that is to be placed on external advantages; we witness the frailty of beauty, and the short duration of life. For like the flower of the field man groweth up and flourisheth, and then speedily withereth away; his days are few and full of troubles.

And may we so live, that when the awful period arrives, the good and the virtuous may regret our loss, and the afflicted and fatherless mourn for our dissolution.

MAY XVIII.

REFLECTIONS ON GRASS.

Though the flowers which the care and industry of man cultivates in the gardens are extremely beautiful, we should know little of the vegetable kingdom if we confined our attention to the contemplation of flower-beds. Every field is equally the wonderful scene of the works of God, and equally claims our attention. Can any thing be more astonishing than the great quantity of grass which grows in one meadow? To be convinced of the prodigious number of blades of grass, we need only attempt to reckon them as they are growing in any given space, and we shall soon be satisfied of their superior fertility over all plants and herbs. All this for the subsistence of various species of animals, of which fields and meadows may very properly be considered as the granaries.

Another great advantage to be considered in grass is the little care it requires in its cultivation; and that it will grow and perpetuate itself independent of the labours of man. Since the Almighty Word of God said, 'Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, whose seed is in itself,' our fields have been uninterruptedly fertile, and we have known no deficiency of grass. Its colour is also the most grateful; for who could have borne the dazzling lustre of white, or the brilliant glare of red? If the universal colour had been more dark or obscure, how gloomy and dismal would have been the face of nature! But the ever-bountiful Creator has neither injured our sight with colours which our eyes could not support, nor pained it by obscure gloom; on the contrary, he has clothed the fields in colours that strengthen the sight, and please by their diversity: for such is the difference of shade, that scarcely two blades of grass can be found of exactly the same shade of green. By this arrangement of the vegetable kingdom God has not provided less for our pleasure than for our advantage, the proofs of which every where present themselves to our observation: and may we never pass them with indifference or disregard, but may our reason ever be employed in tracing out the perfection of wisdom, and the consummation of goodness, in all the works of nature!

MAY XIX.

SENTIMENTS EXCITED BY THE CONTEMPLATION OF THE HEAVENS.

What Being can have formed the superb vault of heaven? Who has given motion to those immense globes of light, whose continuance is perpetual, and velocity inexpressible? Who has commanded the vast masses of inert matter to assume so many and various forms? Whence are derived the connection, harmony, and beauty, of the whole; and who has determined their proportions, and set limits to their number? Who has prescribed to the planets laws which, during the lapse of ages, remained undiscovered till the sublime genius of a Newton unfolded them? Who has defined the vast circles in which the various stars roll in endless spheres? And who first commanded them to move, and continue their course in uninterrupted progression? All these questions lead us to thee, our adorable Creator! Self-existing, infinite Being! to thy intelligence and supernatural power all these heavenly bodies owe their existence, their laws, arrangement, force, and influence !

What sublime ideas the contemplation of these grand objects raises in our souls! If the space where so many millions of worlds are revolving cannot be measured by our understanding; if we are lost in astonishment at the magnitude of the spheres; if the edifice of the universe, which the Almighty has formed, be so immense that all our ideas are confounded in its contemplation; what must Thou be, O God, and what understanding can comprehend thee? If the heavens and all their hosts are so majestically grand and beautiful that the eye is never satiated with their splendour, nor the mind satisfied with the contemplation of their wonders, what must Thou be, O God, of whose glory these are but faint shadows and feeble images? What must be the infinity of Thy powers and the extent of Thy wisdom, when Thou seest at one glance all the immense space of Heaven, with its revolving worlds; and when thou penetratest into the nature and properties of every existing being! Thou who hast formed these admirable plans, who hast calculated every thing, and weighed all in thy balance; who hast established the laws of the universe, and proposed to Thyself the most sublime ends: in the contemplation of Thee I am lost in sublimity, and prostrate myself before the throne of Thy glory, unable to behold Thy refulgence!

MAY XX.

FECUNDITY OF PLANTS.

The magnificence of the terrestrial part of creation is never more conspicuous than when observed in the astonishing fertility of plants.

A single plant produces millions of others. One tobacco plant produces forty thousand three hundred and twenty grains of seed; and if from this we calculate the produce of four years, we shall find that there may be produced two millions six hundred and forty-two thousand nine hundred and eight billions, two hundred and ninety-three thousand three hundred and sixty-five millions, seven hundred and sixty thousand grains of seed. An elm of twelve years' growth often has upwards of one hundred thousand grains of seed; and what a prodigious number must spring from these in the course of a few years! Suppose it has not more than one hundred thousand buds, and that the shoot of each year contains only five, there would be every year five hundred thousand plants which may be considered as new. If we add what is produced by the extension of the root by grafts, &c. we shall be astonished how the earth finds means to support the numerous family of plants.

We must also recollect the innumerable multitude of animals that receive their nourishment from the vegetable kingdom; they annually make so great a consumption of plants, that if nature had not endowed vegetables with very extraordinary prolific powers, we should soon have reason to be apprehensive of their total destruction. Sometimes indeed the very animals that devour them are instrumental in their propagation birds, for instance, in eating the fruit, often swallow the kernels, which they afterward deposite in the earth without any injury; and whilst pecking certain fruits, they often scatter the seeds to a considerable distance; and this dispersion is requisite, that one species of plant may not occupy a whole field. For this purpose also, certain seeds are furnished with a sort of wings, that they may be more readily dispersed by the wind.

Plants are much more prolific than animals; of which we shall be fully convinced by comparing them together. Plants annually produce many new ones, and sometimes continue to do so for centuries; whilst the largest animals, as the elephant, the mare, &c. only produce one, or at most two, yearly; and are often entirely barren. Small quadrupeds, as the dog, the cat, the rat, &c. though much more fruitful, by no means equal the fecundity of trees. Fish and insects approach nearer to it; the tench deposits about ten thousand eggs, the carp twenty thousand, and the cod a million. But if we compare this fecundity with that of the wild rose, of the mustardtree, and the fern, we shall find that these and many other plants multiply much more than fish or insects; besides, they are propagated by many different ways, whilst most animals are confined to one mode of multiplying their species. A tree may produce as many new trees as it has branches and leaves.

From these considerations we may learn how wisely God has regulated the continuation of the vegetable and animal species. If the multiplication of vegetables were less considerable, many animals must perish for want; our fields, meadows, and gardens would be entirely desert, or enlivened with a very few plants scattered up and down; and had the Creator thought fit that the animals which live

upon vegetables should become more numerous than the plants, the vegetable kingdom would be exhausted, and many species of animals would perish. But from the wise relations subsisting between the two kingdoms, the inhabitants of each multiply in a just proportion, and no species is destroyed. Thus, pleasure and abundance every where surround us. For man, the Creator has given to vegetables their fecundity; and for his nourishment, pleasure, and health, such a multitude of plants are produced, that their number cannot be expressed; and thus affords an image of the immensity and omnipotence of God, who through all the kingdoms of nature opens his hand and satisfies the desire of every living creature.

MAY XXI.

DESCRIPTION OF THE BEAUTIES OF SPRING

Nothing is more worthy of admiration than the revolutions effected throughout all nature by the influence of the spring. As autumn declines, every valley, every meadow, and every grove, presents us with an image of death: and in winter nature is entirely divested of beauty; every animal is sorrowful, the inhabitants of the groves hide themselves and are silent; the earth becomes desert, and all nature seems to suffer a state of torpor and insensibility. However, at this very time she is working in secret, though we are ignorant of the happy principle which is preparing her renovation. Life returns to animate afresh the benumbed body, and every thing prepares for a similar restoration. In trees alone, what a multitude of changes take place. At first the sap, which during the winter had entirely abandoned the trunk and branches, slowly rises in the small vessels by means which we cannot discover: it soon penetrates the buds, which disclose a thousand wonders; the leaves with their beautiful green; the branches which are to shoot between the unfolded leaves, with new buds attached to them, and full of invisible leaves; the multitude of flow. ers, with the sweet exhalations which scent the air; in these blossoms fruit, and in those fruits the seeds of an infinite number of other trees.

The brightness of the sun rejoices the soul, and the activity of nature in the plants which surround us is highly pleasing. Every field delights with its beauties and pleases with its grateful fragrance, and every bird pours forth its varied melody. How cheerful are the notes of the linnet as it flutters from branch to branch, as if to attract our regard! The lark joyfully soars aloft, and hails the day and the coming spring with her melodious strains. The cattle express the vigour and joy which animate them; and the fish in the rivers, which during winter were torpid and lay at the bottom of the water, now rise to the surface, and express their vivacity by a thousand playful sallies.