form the seed, that gavest it its fecundity. This earth, upon whose bosom rested the malediction introduced by sin, now blessed by the Creator, brings forth abundantly fruits and innumerable vegetable treasures.

It is thou, O Lord! that fertilizest the bosom of the earth; and it is thou that waterest the ploughed fields. It is thou who enamelest the verdant plains, the hills and valleys, the groves, the forests: these all derive their beauty from thee. At thy command the benevolent dews arise, bringing with them fruitfulness and plenty.

The barren waste thou renderest fruitful by genial rains, and the cold and watery soils thou revivest by the beams of thy glowing sun. Thou dost wisely dispense the times and seasons so as to render them most advantageous to man: in the midst of all the vicissitudes of heat and of cold, of rain and of drought, we see the vegetable world still growing and increasing for our support.

Thou coverest our fields with rich and smiling harvests, which bend and wave before thy refreshing breezes: thou causest the luscious grapes to clothe the surface of the highest mountains. It is thou who clothest our meadows with sweet scented clover; and from thy creative power spring the rippling stream and pure transparent fountain.

From thee our lofty trees derive their being: at thy command they flourish, and the nutritious sap circulates through all their branches; twigs, leaves, blossoms, and fruits decorate their majestic summits, at once showing forth thy bounty

and the delight thou hast in the good and pleasure of thy creatures. Come, then, let us give praise to our Creator, to our great Benefactor: let us bless his name, and celebrate his gifts with rapture. Great is the Lord our God: all his works are holy and marvellous! Come, let us exalt his power. The Lord is good, and it is fit the just should proclaim his praise.

JUNE 20.

CATERPILLARS.

THESE insects, which are considered as such nuisances by all lovers of gardens, and so disgusting by all delicate persons, claim, nevertheless, much of our attention. Caterpillars we generally find upon our trees, and they are so disagreeable to us that we seldom find them but we kill them; and hence arises our indifference respecting their nature and the carelessness with which we pass them by; and yet much amusement, much instruction may be derived from them by an attentive observer of the works of God. Let us, at least, make the trial: perhaps we shall find our curiosity excited, and we shall in future be less anxious to crush them under our feet, at least till we have examined their wonderful structure, and raised our hearts to the Creator of all things.

Three hundred species and upwards of caterpillars have been already discovered, and this number is daily increasing: their shape, their colour, their form, their inclinations, and their

manner of life all differ; but in one respect they all resemble each other-their bodies are composed of rings, which, by extending or drawing nearer together, enable the insect to move from one place to another. Nature has given them two sorts of feet, each having its peculiar uses: the six fore legs are formed like hooks; these enable them to grasp their food and to hold fast: the hinder feet are flat, and armed with little sharp nails: with the fore feet they draw to them leaves and other food, and keep their position firm while they advance the back feet: when they are upon a leaf or twig, they can attach themselves strongly by their hind feet, and raise their bodies perpendicularly, turning them to the right and to the left to look for some favourite food. However convenient the bodies of caterpillars may be for their mode of life, it is very remarkable that their state is but temporary, that their limbs subsist but for a time, and that, in a very short time, this crawling worm will spin itself a tomb, in which it will remain for a certain time, apparently without life or motion, until, bursting from its grave, it soars in the air, claiming our admiration for its beauty of form and of colours.

This circumstance alone is sufficient to excite all our attention-this wonderful transition from a worm, sometimes hairy, sometimes smooth, and frequently hideous, to a creature light and airy, wantoning from flower to flower, and reveling in all the sweets of spring and summer.

Will not this description lessen your aversion, and reconcile you to these insects? Perhaps

you will still ask—“But, after all, what is the use of caterpillars? and should we not gain by their extinction?"-No, certainly; for it is very certain the world would not be so perfect as it is, and the birds would then be deprived of much of their food. As, therefore, caterpillars were destined as the food of birds, it is but just the vegetable world should be assigned to them as a subsistence, over which they have equal claims with ourselves. It is true that these insects are occasionally exceedingly voracious, and therefore commit great havoc upon our fruits, &c.; but the lessons of humility we should acquire from their devastations should impress upon our minds the fragility of all our earthly possessions: besides, if we could not discern the reasons why the Almighty has created these beings, we should have no right to pronounce them useless; we should, on the contrary, acknowledge our own ignorance, and give God the glory which is so justly his due.

JUNE 21.

COMMENCEMENT OF SUMMER.

TO-DAY summer commences. The greater part of my Readers have frequently witnessed the changes which this day makes throughout all nature; but do they know how it happens that the sun remains so long above the horizon, and why to-day is the longest day in the year? and why, from this day forth until the middle of

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December, both the length of days and the heat gradually diminish? All these changes arise from the annual motion of the earth round the sun. When this glorious orb enters the sign of Cancer, the earth is so situated that the whole of its northern part is turned towards the sun, because the Almighty has inclined its axis three and twenty degrees and a half towards the north, and that it invariably preserves this position: upon this position and the parallelism of the axis of the earth, which is invariable, depends the periodical change of the four seasons. us stop here, my dear Reader, and consider the goodness and wisdom displayed by the Almighty in thus regulating the position of the earth's axis: if our globe were perpendicular, it would be a melancholy habitation both for plants and animals-the increase and decrease of the days as well as the change of seasons could not take place; and how pitiable would be the condition of those who inhabit the northern parts! The air which we should then breathe would be always as cold as it now is in March or November; and, with the exception of a few mosses and grasses, we should lose all our vegetable treasures: in a word, the greater part of the universe would become a desert.

Nature has now nearly accomplished her annual labours in our climate; she has already lost some portion of her variety: the vines, the meadows, the forests still retain their verdant hue; but it is far less brilliant: the tender flowers which enamel the herbage, now silvered by