in the hands of nature: the only difference is that nature operates on a grand scale, we on a small plan. In nature clouds become one conducting surface, the earth or water the other. When the air at the surface of the earth is excited by heat and evaporation, if dense clouds pass over, some lower than others, the oxygen and hydrogen of the surface of the clouds concentrating, a double rush may take place, and the union of these two gases may create the usual light and explosion.

The commonly received coincidence between the electric fluid and lightning has been thus classed:-Buildings are often set on fire when struck by lightning; the electric fluid strikes pointed conductors more readily than flat surfaces. The flashes of lightning are often crooked and waving; so are also electric sparks or streams of this fluid. Lightning takes the best and readiest conductor; so does electricity. Lightning sometimes dissolves metals; so does electricity. Lightning strikes people blind, nay, even kills them; electricity will kill animals and deprive them of sight. The fire streaming with a hissing noise from the points of electrified bodies is also observable in thunder storms.

In a storm on Buet, one of the Alps, while the air was perfectly transparent and dry, clouds began to form in different parts: these, when thickened and united, embraced the summit of the Buet, and supported themselves against Mount Blanc and the summits of the neighbouring mountains: torrents of rain now fell, and violent lightning flashed for a considerable time between the adjacent conducting bodies.

On the mountains of Turin a cloud lately formed, which was perfectly black, and produced the darkness of night at noonday in all those places over which it passed at noonday: this mass was furrowed by lightning, which was quickly followed by rumbling thunder, then by torrents of rain and a prodigious quantity of ice, that laid waste the whole of the country over which it passed. Innumerable are the instances we could produce of these phenomena to show that thunder storms are produced by electrical fluid in the air, and that to it also may be traced whirlwinds and waterspouts.

With respect to velocity, the electric fluid and lightning are exactly alike. If, during a storm, you suspend a sword by silken cords, it becomes electrified; and, as we have seen above, all the effects that are produced by electricity take place during a thunder storm. Thus the natural phenomena is divested of all that appeared marvellous and ominous, and we ought therefore to apply our knowledge to banish from our minds that irrational terror which is so apt to overpower us on such occasions, and to look up with confidence to that God who performeth such wonderful things upon the earth. The hand of Providence renders the thunder storm beneficial to the earth, and it thence behoves us to pay our Maker that adoration and gratitude which all his works are so well calculated to produce on rational beings.

JUNE 27.

HERRINGS.

ABOUT this time of the year the herring fishing commences off the coasts of England and Scotland; and from these countries are exported large quantities of those fishes, which during great part of the year become food to the poor as well as the rich: let us therefore examine attentively those points which their natural history offers as most important.

An innumerable quantity of herrings live in the icy sea and near the arctic pole; but, at a certain time of the year, they quit their dwelling and repair in vast shoals to the coasts of England and Holland. The cause of this emigration has not yet been ascertained: some persons suppose that their prodigious increase compels them to take these long voyages, in order that they may find sufficient food for their support: perhaps their emigration may proceed from that instinctive feeling which teaches them to quit the frozen climes, at stated periods, to deposit their spawn in more temperate climates. At the beginning of the year they commence their voyage, and so early as March the western wing of this host of fishes may be seen off Iceland: herrings are there found, at this period of the year, in such abundance that they may be taken up in the shovels used for wetting the sails. The eastern wing advances towards the German Ocean: one portion of this body doubles North Cape, and, descending along the coast of Norway, enters the Baltic through the Sound.

Another branch descends towards the northern coast of Jutland, entering the Zuider Zee; and from thence enter the Baltic, in order to return to the place from whence they came. But the most numerous body is that which turns towards the Orkneys, where the Dutch expect and wait for them: about the eighth day the seas swarm with herrings; then they direct their course towards the Scottish and English shores, in the creeks and harbours of which they deposit their spawn. After quitting England, they probably return towards the north, and regain their own seas; at least we may suppose as much, since, after the lapse of a certain time, they totally disappear.

We may well be astonished when we consider the prodigious multitude of these fishes. A single female herring will deposit ten thousand eggs in the sea: this prodigious number, the product of one fish, renders credible the stated fact that the Dutch alone take annually about two hundred millions of herrings. This fishery provides food for a great number of persons, and adds twenty thousand crowns to the revenue of Holland.

It is but just that we should daily bless Providence for the wisdom displayed in this single instance, which impels, as it were, the fish into the nets of our fishermen. How numberless are the means provided for our support! The lakes, the rivers, the seas, are all tributaries of mankind: we are nourished by the creatures which inhabit them. It is for us that herrings perform their long voyages: the poor as well as the rich

find in this fish a wholesome and delicious food. Gratefully we should accept this gift at the hands of Providence, and bless him for all his mercies.

JUNE 28.

ECLIPSES OF THE SUN AND MOON.

It is shameful, in these enlightened times, that many persons, by no means in the inferior rank of society, should yet be in such profound ignorance with regard to the phenomena of eclipses. From hence arise many superstitions: if the causes were properly considered, the folly of shutting the wells, lest the water should be injured, and other absurd customs would be palpably condemned. Let us therefore reflect upon the causes of an eclipse, not only because it is curious in itself, but because it will furnish us with a fresh motive for glorifying God.

An eclipse of the sun proceeds from a most natural cause-the shadow which the moon throws upon the earth; and this can only take place when the moon is placed immediately, or nearly so, between the earth and the sun. In this case she conceals from us this glorious orb, and this is called a total eclipse; but when a part only is hidden it is termed a partial eclipse. We are not to suppose that the sun is actually darkened; it is but veiled to us: the sun retains all its brightness, but the rays cannot reach us, because they are intercepted by the moon. Hence it is that a solar eclipse is never visible to all parts of the world: if this were the case