But so deep a knowledge of nature being denied to our weak faculties, let us content ourselves with general arguments. In the first place, God shews us, by these singularities, the command he has over all nature. He is the supreme Lawgiver, who assigns to every being the law he is inviolably to observe. He, to whom every being is subject, has a right to prescribe such and such rules; but he has also the power to suspend his rules, and make what exceptions to them he pleases. Secondly, We find a great variety in nature, which affords us opportunities, not only to rejoice in the contemplation of it, but to admire the glory of the Creator. It is easy to conceive how much the exceptions to the general rules increase this variety, and consequently the pleasure of the observer, as well as the admiration for the Author of nature. Thirdly, Experience teaches us, that the objects we have daily before our eyes become familiar to us: and their impression, so often repeated, leaves us cold and insensible to them. The glorious sun of nature itself does not always interest us, because we have taken the habit of passing over things lightly which we see continually. Therefore every singularity, every extraordinary phenomenon, is a fresh inducement to contemplate the works of God, and serves to rouse us from our indolence. Fourthly and lastly, The singularities of the physical world, which, far from hurting the perfection of the whole, enter into the plan of Divine Wisdom, teach us, that the singularities of the moral world, and the fate of mankind, are equally under the direction of an allwise Being, who will so order all things that his holy name may be glorified evermore.

JULY 1.

FOREIGN PLANTS.

The

ALL our corn, and a great number of our vegetables, come from foreign countries, and generally from warmer climates than ours: most of them from Italy. Italy got them from Greece, and Greece had them from the East. When America was discovered, a great number of plants and flowers were found there, which were till then unknown, and which have since been transplanted into Europe with much success. English still take a great deal of trouble, at this time, to cultivate the North American plants in their country. Most of the different sorts of corn, of which men and animals make their best food, are grass plants; but, though our fields are now covered with them, they are foreign to us. Rye and wheat are indigenous in Little Tartary and Siberia, where they still grow without culture. As for barley and oats, we are ignorant indeed from whence they come; but it is certain they are not indigenous in our climate, or it would not be necessary to cultivate them. Rice is the produce of Ethiopia. Since the beginning of this century, it has been cultivated also in America; and they now send us from thence, every year, vessels entirely laden with those useful seeds.The buck-wheat comes originally from Asia: The Crusades made it known in Italy; from whence it came into Germany. Most of our herbage and vegetables also have a foreign origin. Borage comes from Syria, cresses from Crete, colliflower from Cyprus, and asparagus from Asia. We are indebted to Italy for the

chervil,

chervil. Aneth comes from Portugal and Spain, fennel from the Canary Islands, annise and parsley from Egypt. Garlic is the produce of the East. Shallots come from Siberia, and horse-raddish from China. We owe the kidney-beans to the East Indies, the gourds to Astracan, the lentils to France, the potatoes to Brazil. The Spaniards. found tobacco at Tobacco, a province of Jucatan in America. The ornaments of our gardens, the most beautiful flowers, are also foreign productions. Jessamine comes from the East Indies, the elder-tree from Persia, the tulip from Cappadocia, the daffodil from Italy, the lily from Syria, the tube-rose from Java and Ceylon, the carnation and pink from Italy, the aster from China, &c.

With what goodness does God thus provide for our happiness and enjoyment, by making even the most remote countries contribute towards it! But let us, at the same time, learn the constitution of the globe which we inhabit. There is an universal transmigration over all the earth: Men, animals, and vegetables, transplant themselves, and go from one region to another, and this transmigration will only end with our globe.

>.....

JULY II.

THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE CATER

PILLARS.

THE transformation of the caterpillars into butterflies is certainly one of the most wonderful phenomena in nature, and deserves our attention on many accounts. The manner in which the

G. 5

caterpillars

caterpillars prepare for their change is very extraordinary. They do not all at once become butterflies, but pass to it by a middle state. After having three or four times shed its coat, the caterpillar strips itself of its last skin, and becomes a substance which does not in any thing resemble a living creature. It is wrapt up in a bag called a chrysalis, or nympha, and which is somewhat like a child in swadling clothes.The caterpillar remains in that state, one, two, or three weeks, sometimes six months, till at last it comes out of this kind of sepulchre under the form of a butterfly. There are, properly speaking, two sorts of butterflies; the wings of the one are raised, and those of the other are flat; the former fly by day, the latter by night in general. The caterpillar of the night butterfly spins itself a bag, and shuts itself up, or buries itself in it, when the time for its transformation draws nigh. Those that are to be day butterflies hang themselves up in the open air, on a tree, a plant, a wall, or some such thing. For this purpose, they make themselves a small web with very fine thread, and then, turning themselves upside down, they suspend themselves so that their heads are a little turned towards the top. Some of these, and particularly those we call hairy caterpillars, remain in that state, hanging perpendicularly with their heads down. Others spin themselves a thread, which goes round the middle of their body, and is fastened at the two sides. It is in one or other of these two ways that they prepare themselves for their great change. Thus, both sorts of caterpillars bury themselves in a manner alive, and seem to wait patiently the end of their caterpillar state, as if they foresaw, that, after a short repose, they

were

were to receive a new existence, and would appear again under a brilliant form.

The death and resurrection of the righteous may well be compared to the transformation of the caterpillar into the butterfly. To a true Christian, death is but a sleep, a soft repose, after the pains and misery of this world; a mere moment, in which he is only deprived of motion and life, in order to appear again in glory, and to enter into a new and better existence. What is a caterpillar? A creeping worm, blind and despised, which, while it drags on its life, is exposed to numberless accidents and persecutions. Is the lot of man in this world much better? The caterpillar prepares, with great care, for its transformation, and that state of weakness and insensibility in which it is to fall for a short time. It is exactly the same with a good man. He prepares a long time before his death for this great change, and he waits with joy and tranquillity for the happy moment in which he is to enter into a better state. The sleep of the caterpillar does not last for ever; it is only the forerunner of a more perfect state. It crawls at first upon the ground; it then takes wing, and flies into the air. At first it was blind; it afterwards receives sight, and enjoys a thousand agreeable sensations unknown to it before. It formerly fed stupidly on gross. food; it now goes from flower to flower, living on honey and dew, and continually varying its enjoyments. In all this, we behold a lively image of the death and resurrection of the righteous man. His weak earthly body appears again in a glorious state of perfection after his resurrection. As a mortal, he was attached to the world, subject to passions, taken up with sensual and earthly objects; but, after his resurrec