dom and virtue. Have we not often known persons, neither distinguished by rank or exterior qualities, who have done the greatest services to church and state? Crooked and deformed people have often shewn more greatness of soul than others possessed of the most beautiful person and finest form. It is a lesson not to trust to appearances. Those we despise may often prove to be superior to ourselves.

When we hear the skilful harmony of the nightingale, does it not naturally lead us to the Creator, from whom she has this talent? What wisdom must there be in the formation of this bird, to make it capable of such sounds! Lungs so delicate as those of the nightingale, the motions of which are so violent, must be easily wounded, if they had not the singular advantage of being fastened to the back-bone by a number of little sinews. The orifice of the windpipe is very large, and that is certainly what most contributes to the variety of those sounds, which, in charming the ear, fill the soul with sweet and pious joy. Is it possible not to trace a divine wisdom and providence in this? and will not even the song of the nightingale lead us to glorify the Author of all nature? Lovely songstress! I will not leave thee till I have learned from thee the art of praising my Creator and thine. Pour, with thy song, gratitude and joy into the hearts of the many insensible mortals, who, in these cheerful days, contemplate the beauties of the creation with indifference.

JUNE XXIII.

THE PLEASURES WHICH SUMMER AFFORDS TO
OUR SENSES.

SUMMER has inexpressible charms, and gives us daily proofs of the infinite beneficence of our Creator. It is the happy season in which God pours out the treasures of his blessings in the greatest abundance on every living creature. Nature, after having revived us with the pleasures of spring, is continually employed, all the summer, in providing for us every thing to please our senses, to make our subsistence easy, to satisfy our wants, and awaken in our hearts just sentiments of gratitude. Before our eyes there grows, by virtue of the secret laws of nature, an innumerable quantity of fruit in the fields and gardens; fruits which, after having pleased the sight, may be gathered and preserved for our food. The flowers afford the most agreeable variety to our senses; we admire their rich dress, and the inexhaustible fertility of nature in the multiplicity of their species. What variety and beauty also in the plants, from the humble moss to the stately oak! Let us elimb the highest mountain, seek the cool shade of the woods, or descend into the valley, we shall every where find new beauties. A multitude of objects strike our eyes at once, all different from each other; but each in itself has charms enough to fix our attention. There we see innumerable flowers; here living creatures of different kinds. If we lift up our eyes, they are delighted with the blue sky; if we cast them on the ground, they are refreshed by the beautiful verdure with which it is clothed.

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Our ear is charmed with the cheerful notes of the winged songsters; the variety and simplicity of their melody fills the soul with the sweetest sensations. The murmuring of the brooks, and the silver waves of a fine flowing river, also please the ear and eye. It is to indulge our taste that the strawberries and other pleasant fruit ripen; while at the same time they cool the blood. Our barns and granaries are filled with the new productions of the fields and gardens, which afford us the most wholesome agreeable food. The smell is struck with the sweet perfume that exhales on every side. In a word, a thousand pleasing objects affect the senses, and raise our sensibility. Numerous flocks feed on the profusion of bountiful Nature, to procure us pleasant and wholesome milk and nourishing meats. Abundant rains moisten the -ground, and open to us new sources of blessings. Tufted trees and groves afford us a delightful shade. All that we see and hear, all that taste or smell can convey, increases our pleasures, and contributes to our happiness. But the creation is a still greater and more enchanting object for the mind than for the senses. In points, which the latter cannot reach, the mind discovers beauty, harmony, variety, and new pleasures.

人人人人

JUNE XXIV.

A SKETCH OF THE INWARD PARTS OF THE
HUMAN BODY.

THE more difficult it is to acquire a knowledge of the inside of the human body, the more necessary is it to make use of the information

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with which we are furnished by skilful anatomists. It is with this design that I am going to give a short description of those parts.

The construction of the heart, which is placed near the middle of the breast, and is the moving principle of the whole machine, is worthy of admiration. It consists of musculous fibres curiously interwoven. Two cavities, separated from each other by a partition, and which are called ventricles, are formed in the inside of this organ. As the heart continually dilates and contracts itself, and expels from the lungs the air which it receives through the nose and mouth, this is what occasions our breathing. The lungs are of a spongy substance, which, like the bellows, extend and contract, in order to draw the air in, and let it out again. They swell out on both sides, and fill almost the whole space of the breast, to refresh it with the air it draws in, and, at the same time, to prevent the blood from too much attenuation. The breast is lined with a fine membrane, called pleura. Under the lungs is placed the stomach, which receives and digests the food. It is shaped like a purse. On the right side is the liver, which covers one side of the stomach, and by its warmth assists the digestion. It separates the bile from the blood, which collects in a particular vesicle, and descends into the bowels. The irritation it occasions there facilitates the passage of the excrements. Opposite to the liver is the spleen. It is a soft bag which stretches easily. The blood is conveyed into it by arteries, and flows out of it through the veins. Behind the liver and spleen are the kidneys. There are two of them, one to the right, the other to the left. The use of them is to separate from the mass of blood the humours which overflow into the bladder. Under these parts are placed the entrails, joined to the mesentary. They complete the separation of the digested food, and serve to expel the grosser parts of it out of the body. The mesentary is a great membrane, which folds several times over, and forces the entrails to fold themselves in the same manner. There are a great quantity of little veins, as fine as a hair, upon the mesentary. They are called milk veins, because they contain a juice resembling milk. In the middle of the mesentary there is a large gland, where the milky veins meet, as in their centre. A skin, full of folds, of glands, and muscles, covers over all the entrails. That part of the body called the belly, and which begins at the stomach, is separated from the breast by the midriff. It has several openings to let the vessels pass which are to descend to the lower parts. The liver and spleen are fastened to it; and the shaking of it not only occasions laughter, but serves also to disengage the spleen from the humours which incommode it.

These are the principal parts of the breast and belly; independent of which there are several others which communicate with them. At the beginning of the neck is the windpipe and the weasand. The œsophagus is the channel through which the food passes to the stomach. Through the weasand the air penetrates to the lungs. Whilst the lungs are sending back the air through this channel, the voice forms itself, at the same time the breast throws off the superfluous humours. At the entrance of the weasand there is a little lid, which opens to give passage to whatever is to go out through that pipe. The lower orifice of the stomach is provided with such another cover, which opens when the food presses upon it, and then closes upon it, to prevent

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