the exception of the leech, the hedgehog, the cuttlefish, and a few others, all reptiles are blind. Insects, on the contrary, have generally more than two eyes: the spider and scorpion have eight. Many insects have thousands of eyes, ranged in two orbits: a fly has sixteen thousand, a beetle six thousand three hundred and sixty-two, and a butterfly thirty-four thousand six hundred and fifty eyes! Their number and position supply their deficiency of motion. Fishes have no aqueous humour: a projecting eye would be inconvenient to these animals: their cornea is therefore perfectly flat; but, to remedy this evil, the crystalline is perfectly spherical, whereas in birds it is lenticular.

With what infinite wisdom and goodness has the Almighty arranged the organs of sense in different animals! The eyes of man are placed in the front of the head, but so that he can embrace the impressions of all objects within the semicircle which he faces: in birds the eyes are so situated that they can glance nearly the whole circle of objects which surround them. The ear of man is placed most conveniently, as connected with his upright posture: in birds it is flat and open, that no impediment may arise to their gliding swiftly through the air.

If we were to pursue this subject further, we should still be far from comprehending the extent of the wisdom, knowledge, and natural economy which the Almighty has exhibited in this part of his works. Ardently as we desire a more extensive knowledge upon this subject, let us set bounds to our curiosity; and, instead

of yielding to impatience, let us apply the little knowledge we do possess to celebrate and glorify our common Creator. The more limited our acquaintance may be with God's works, the more careful we should be of treating them with indifference or contempt: let us consider them rather as a mirror reflecting the divine wisdom and power, which is omniscient in planning, and omnipotent in performing.

MAY 14.

SUCCESSION OF DIFFERENT FLOWERS.

EVERY plant appears upon earth at a stated period: the Creator has fixed the time when one shall unfold its leaves, another blossom, and a third fade. Long ago we observed the snowdrop peeping from beneath its bed of snow: at a period when the trees gave no symptoms of returning spring, she raised her modest head, and charmed us when every plant beside retained its wintry robe. The crocus slowly followed, accompanied by the humble fragrant violet and the brilliantly coloured auricula, with its velvet leaves. These and a few hardy mountain flowers first announce the approach of succeeding multitudes.

Daily we see somewhat new in the vegetable kingdom to arrest our attention; for nature is not prodigal, though liberal, and she displays her charms in sweet succession: every month brings forth some new plants. The tulip begins to unfold her leaves and flowers; the anemone

will next appear, and the ranunculus display her magnificent and velvet robes; the rose, the queen of flowers, breathing sweet odours, will shortly follow; and the whole tribe of pinks will unite their fragrant charms to hers.

Let us pause, and reflect upon the wisdom and benevolence of this arrangement. If all flowers flourished at the same time, we should be surfeited with sweets at one time, and languishing for them at another; besides, we should not have time to consider half their beauties: but now, every flower having its appointed season, we can amuse ourselves with inspecting them minutely and in succession: this wise order in which they appear not only procures us this pleasure, but it also may be said to compensate for the fragility of these beautiful productions of nature; for, now, as one flower fades another succeeds, so that our gardens for a certain number of months are always ornamented, and consequently afford us a succession of unalloyed pleasure.

With what benevolent care does the Almighty provide for the comforts and pleasures of mankind! Not contented with being profuse in his benefits, he also makes them durable: he literally strews our paths with flowers; they spring up under our feet on every side, and cheer and delight us on our pilgrimage through life.

The generations of man appear, too, in succession, like plants and flowers: every man enters the great stage of existence at an appointed time and in an appointed place. At the moment of one man's birth, another sinks into the

grave; while one is preparing to act his part, another quits the scene; whose turn it next may be is known only to the Eternal. Oh! may I, when called to my great account, resemble the rose, which sheds fragrance and delight around the circle in which it was planted! Neither let me grieve when the righteous sink to rest: God will replace them in his own good time.

MAY 15.

ZOOPHYTES.

ZOOPHYTES or animal plants are, in fact, insects, but which, from their exterior configuration, their immobility, and their reproduction by seeds or buds, very much resemble plants; they can even be multiplied by grafts and slips: their animal properties are only visible by their sensibility, and that voluntary motion which is observed in them. Zoophytes are attached by their roots to the bottom of the sea or water which they inhabit. Many grow on rocks and calcareous matter; others are found in shells resembling a horn, while very many are entirely soft and fleshy. They are solitary animals, and produce their young as buds shooting from their bodies: so long as these young animals remain attached to the parent stem they form but one animal, receiving nourishment from it; but so soon as it falls off it becomes in itself perfect, and in its turn produces fresh animals.

Who would have supposed that there were animals so much resembling plants as even to

produce their young as plants produce fresh plants? According to our ideas of animal life, could we have ever supposed that the brain, heart, and stomach, and all the intestines necessary for life could be reproduced? or that there were animals which, from one extremity to the other, should resemble a hollow tube, without heart, veins, arteries, &c. but which may be regarded as one continued intestinal canal? A man who, about a hundred years ago, had talked of an animal that could be grafted in a plum tree, or that could of itself propagate its kind, in the same way that a plant shoots forth its branches, would have been considered a madman; yet these facts have been proved beyond contradiction.

Natural history has gained much by this discovery, and our ideas of the almighty power of God have been greatly increased by it. Since this disclosure of a part of nature's mysterious proceedings, we have been further convinced of our own ignorance; and we should be careful how we set limits to any one of God's productions, since we see how impossible it is to discover where the animal world terminates, or where the vegetable world commences. The received difference between plants and animals is this-that the latter have sensation and the power of locomotion; but this difference almost ceases to be a distinction: the sensitive plant shrinks from the touch, and folds up its leaves; the oyster closes its shells at the approach of danger, and force is requisite to tear them asunder; yet neither of these two ob