merely supporting life, water and the most comnon roots would be sufficient. But with what liberality has the Creator furnished us with the greatest variety? He does not act towards us, like a penurious miser, who only gives to those who depend on him what is necessary to keep them from starving; but, like a generous host, he spares nothing to treat his guests, and to provide with profusion whatever can give them pleasure. Such is the munificence of God towards every living creature. There is scarce a shrub upon the earth, a plant, an herb, a piece of water, or a marsh, that does not serve for dwelling and food to some living creature. On a tree, for example, there are, besides fruit, leaves, bark, and wood. Each of these feeds an innumerable multitude of creatures. Caterpillars feed on leaves. Certain worms live on the bark. Others neglect the leaves and bark to lodge in the wood. Thus, through all nature, there is scarce any thing that is not useful to some living creature. What must therefore be the beneficence of that God, who forgets not any being made by his hand, nor disdains to watch over them and supply their wants? What is there more pleasant than light?" Truly the light is "sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes "to behold the sun." Its rays fill all the immense expanse of the heavens; and, as long as day lasts, the eye is surrounded on all sides by them. It partakes of this universal good, and enjoys the delightful and varied scene of the creation. Light discovers to us all the riches of the divine works. Without it, nature would be to us a desert, and its innumerable beauties would be for ever unknown to us.

With what goodness has God provided for the advantage of our senses? For example, he has chosen the mildest and properest colours to please and refresh the sight. Experience proves, that blue and green reflect the rays which least hurt the eye, and they are what we can longest bear. For that reason, divine goodness has clothed the sky with blue, and the earth with green, two colours which agree with our eyes. They are lively and gay enough to strike us agreeably, and yet mild enough not to fatigue or offend the sight. They have, however, variety of shades, enough to distinguish objects from one another, and prevent a too great uniformity. Besides plants of very different greens, the earth produces the most beautiful flowers, which not only delight our eyes with a thousand and a thousand different colours, but embalm the air also, and please our smell with the most delicious perfumes. Even the ear is not idle. It is charmed to hear the songs of the birds, who fill the air with their melodious notes.

With a heart full of gratitude and joy, I exalt thee, O God! and celebrate thy goodness. Lord, how great is thy mercy! How tender and gracious thy fatherly protection! None of thy creatures are hid from thee. Thou despisest none of them. All, without exception, are objects of thy providence; and thou watchest over them. Therefore shall thy beneficence be for ever the object of my meditations. My soul shall never cease to bless thee; and I will rejoice in the remembrance of thy goodness.

APRIL

APRIL XX.

PLEASING EFFECT OF THE HEAT OF

THE SUN.

AT the approach of spring, there are revolutions before our eyes, which must fill every attentive observer with astonishment. Nature gradually recovers the life she seemed to have lost in winter. The earth is clothed with verdure. The trees are covered with blossoms. On all sides are seen new generations of insects and other animals, coming out, rejoicing in their existence, and endowed with a thousand different instincts. Every thing is animated. Every thing revives. And this new life, which appears in the noblest parts of nature, is produced by the return of warmth, which awakens animals and plants, and puts their renewed strength in motion. We owe this admirable revolution to the sun, which is the source of life, sensation, and joy, as its salutary and enlivening rays are spread over all nature. The seeds feel its effect, and open in the bosom of the earth. It is from thence that the plants and vegetables shoot, spring up, and grow. Its approach revives and strengthens animals. Every living creature that has breath or feeling, vegetation also, feels the benign influence of that majestic globe. How would it be, if we were deprived of the light and heat of the sun? How melancholy would the face of the earth appear, if an uninhabitable desert? Into what a lifeless state would most creatures fall, and how wretched and languid would such existence be? What a source of joy and gladness would the heart of man be deprived of, if he could not enjoy the rays of the rising sun, or the

light of a serene day! Nothing could compensate for the loss of it. The mildest night, the gentlest artificial warmth, could not supply the place of that vivifying virtue which the light of the sun communicates to every being, and which has a salutary effect, very different from that of earthly fire. Men and animals know and feel it. A valetudinarian shut up warm in his room, with every possible assistance, will not gain as much strength in many weeks as he would do in a very short time from the warmth of the sun in the fine weather of spring. Plants forced in hot beds, never gain such a degree of strength and consistence, as those which grow in the sun. In the latter, every thing combines for the perfection of plants and animals; whereas, in artificial heat, we see nothing but the weak and languishing efforts of an ineffectual substitute. But would the sun exist, and could it communicate light and heat to us, if God, the Creator of all things, had not formed it, and given it the power of shedding over the whole earth its quickening virtue? It is from the Lord we receive all the blessings which are derived from the sun. It is he who created it, who rules its course, and who preserves its light and splendour. Each morn he causeth it to appear again; and in each season makes us feel its happy effects. Without him, there would be neither sun, nor light, nor heat, nor spring. Let us then raise our souls to him, to the Creator of the sun. Its beneficent warmth, its beautiful and clear light, leads to him, the Being of beings, the Source of every blessing, the Father of light.-The Pagans were too blind to acknowledge God as author of the sun. They stopped at the effects, without knowing the cause. But we know there would be no sun,

sun, if he did not exist; that it would neither give light nor heat, if not ordained by God. We know that vegetation, increase, growth, all the blessings which surround us, all our agreeable sensations, all that charms or delights us, proceed from him. The sun is but the instrument of his goodness, the minister of his will, the herald of his greatness.

APRIL XXI.

RELATION THAT ALL CREATURES HAVE WITH ONE ANOTHER.

THE prodigious number of creatures there are upon the earth is, in itself, well worthy our admiration; but what must still more strike us, is the proportion between all these, and the wise chain which links this infinite multitude of different beings in such a manner, that they form but one regular and perfect whole. The extent. of the animal creation is incomprehensible, and yet all of them find food sufficient. No species, however few there are of them, no individuals, however persecuted they may be, are ever extinct. It is true, that many serve as food to others, but the number of beasts of prey is not considerable. Most of them are solitary, and do not much multiply. Those even that are pretty numerous, are content with little food, and cannot obtain it without much art and trouble. Several of them have enemies which prevent them from multiplying too fast; or else the weak and timid animals supply in number what they want in strength, and escape their persecutors by all sorts of stratagem and cunning. It is also observable,