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superior to all others; but it has no beauty. It is scarcely like a flower. It is little, and of a grey colour, tinged with green, so that it can scarcely be distinguished from the leaves. Modest, without show or pretensions, it perfumes the whole garden, although it is not observed in the multitude: it is like a person who has much sense, and whom nature has compensated for the want of beauty by more solid endowments. The righteous man often does good in secret and in obscurity, and sheds around him the perfume of good works; but when we wish to be acquainted with this beneficent man, we find that there is nothing of distinction either in his person, condition, or rank. In the carnation, beauty and perfume are both united; and it is certainly the most perfect of all flowers. It almost equals the tulip in its colours, and it surpasses it in the multitude of its leaves, and the elegance of its form. This flower is the emblem of a person who possesses both sense and beauty, and knows how to conciliate the love and respect of his fellow-creatures. Let us now observe the rose: its colour, form, perfume, every thing in this flower charms us. But it appears to be the slightest and most frail of any, and soon loses the beauty which distinguishes it from other flowers. This is a useful lesson for those who shine only in beauty; and it ought to teach them not to be vain of their charms, or trust too much in them.

THE ants, as well as s the bees, may be considered as a little commonwealth, which has its peculiar government, laws, and police. They live in a sort of town, divided into several streets which lead to

different magazines. Their activity and industry, ia collecting and using the materials they require for their nest, is admirable. They all join in digging the earth together, and in carrying it home. They collect a great quantity of grass, straw, wood, &c, of which they make a heap. It appears at first sight very irregularly formed; but through all this apparent disorder much art may be discovered, when examined more attentively. Under the domes, or little hills which cover them, and which are always so formed as let the water run off, there are galleries which communicate with one another, and may be considered as the streets of this little city. But what is particularly admirable, is the care which the ants take of their eggs, and of the worms when they come out of the chrysalis when formed. They convey them carefully from one place to another. They feed their young, and remove with the tenderest solicitude every thing that might hurt them. They even attend to preserving a proper degree of warmth about them. Their painful labours in summer-time, when heaping up provisions, have scarcely any object but the support of their young, as they themselves require no food in winter, being asleep or insensible till spring. As soon as their young are out of the egg, they employ themselves in feeding them; and it still costs them more trouble, They generally have several houses, and they convey their young from one habitation, to some other which they wish to people. According as the weather is hot or cold, dry or rainy, they bring their chrysalids near the surface of the earth, or remove them from it. They bring them to the surface in mild weather, and even sometimes after rain lay them in a bright sun, or after a long drought in a gentle dew. But at the approach of night, rain, or cold, they take up their little ones in their paws, and carry them so low down in the earth, that it is sometimes necessary to dig above a foot deep in

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order to find them. There are several these insects: the wood-ants never lie but in forests never fiets or bushes, and do no harm to fields. There are two species of these, the red and the black. Some settle in the ground in dry soils, and generally fir-trees or

choose places where they find roots and generally birch, to make their habitations. Others live on old trunks of trees above-ground, high enough to be out of the reach of its moisture. They make themselves apartments in the cavities of the trun trunk, and cover them with straw or other things, to shelter them from snow or rain. The field-ants are also both black and red, as well as the others, but they are smaller. They settle either in the corn or the field. When the weather is dry, they bury themselves pretty deep; but as soon as it becomes rainy, they raise their habitations higher and higher, according as there is more or less damp; and when it abates, they never fail of returning to their subterraneous apartments. It is also to be observed, that the ants acquire wings; and that towards autumn they are seen to fly in swarms over ditches and other water. But are these mischievous insects worthy our attention, spoiling, as they do, our fields and meadows? By their subterraneous works they make the ground hollow, tear it y and prevent the plants and roots from growing. They are enemies to the bees and silk-worms; and are supposed to hurt the flowers, and particularly the young trees. It is said, they devour the buds and shoots; and that getting under the bark of trees, they gnaw them to the quick. For this reason, the ants are destroyed wherever they are found: If the ans gathered honey, though at the expence of a million of other creatures, they would be highly valued; but because their labours hurt some useful plants, we think ourselves authorised to destroy them. Suppose that in reality they do us some harm, are they therefore less worthy our attention? Do none dewed as dansw and ended Jadi Pasqyr

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serve our observation but such as are useful to us? Let us banish this prejudice. Even the ants may afford us instruction and amusement. The form of their limbs, their industry, their indefatigable labour, the police of their republic, their tender care of their young, and perhaps a number of other qualities, which we are not acquainted with, might convince us of the wisdom of that great Being who is their Creator as well as ours. 9013 29itivan od mining

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HAIL is drops of rain, which freezing in the air, fall in pieces of an oblong or angular form, It appears extraordinary, that, in the very warmest seasons of the year, vapours should freeze in the atmosphere. We may consider, that even in the greatest heats the upper region of the air is cold to a sensible degree, and full of snow. If it were not so, how could the highest mountains remain the whole summer covered with snow. In the hottest parts of America, it is so severely cold on the highest mountains, that there is continual danger of being frozen; and of course it would snow from this extreme cold in the upper region of the atmosphere in the very middle of summer, if the snow did not melt in falling before it reaches the ground. But when these particles of snow collect together, the drops begin to freeze; and as in falling they go rapidly through warmer regions of the air, it happens, that before this warmth can have penetrated through them, their cold increases, so

as to be entirely frozen. It might be imagined, that the cold, on the contrary, ought to abate in proportion as they pass through a warmer air. But what is the consequence in winter, when cold water, which has been exposed to the outward air, is brought into a very hot room? It freezes and becomes ice, which would not have happened if it had been put into a cold room. This is precisely the case in respect to the hail. When cold bodies pass suddenly into hot air, their cold increases to such a degree as to turn to ice. The volatile salts more or less dispersed through our atmosphere, contribute much to this. We must not therefore be surprised that storms are not always attended with hail, as it requires great abundance of saline vapours to occasion the sudden freezing of the drops of water. Though hail is more frequent in summer-time, it falls also. in other seasons: for, as in every part of the year the saline exhalations may ferment in the atmosphere, so it may hail in winter, autumn, or spring. The hailstones are sometimes round, at other times concave, and often angular. The difference we observe in the form and size of hailstones may procecd from many accidental causes; particularly the violent winds that cross one another, certainly contribute much towards it. A hailstone may also in its fall meet several other cold particles, which considerably increase its size; and often the small hailstones meet others, and in joining together form large ones. It is certain, that when the hail is very large, it does great mischief to the vintage and harvest, fruit, &c. If the violence of a hail-storm sometimes lays waste acres of land, this mischief, however great it may be, is nothing in comparison of the advantages which accrue from it. The hail evidently cools the air in the burning heats of summer; and it is very remarkable, that this apparent disorder never fails to produce fertility.

Here, then, we may see the goodness and wisdom