The life of your friend, my dear Bonftetten, now hung upon a very flender thread. Exhaufted as I had been, it was more than probable that my fleep would continue till after fun-fet, and in that cafe I must inevitably have fallen a facrifice to the night-frofts, which even in this feafon had covered a fmall lake, that I paffed upon these heights with a very thick coat of ice. For the hand of man to fnatch me from this benumbed and torpid ftate, was as little to be expected as if I had been in a wilderness, upon an uninhabited island, and I fhall always confider the accident to which I owe my deliverance, as one of the most extraordinary cafualties that ever happened to a mortal. A bird of prey, which probably had a neft fomewhere near, was the fole means of giving me back to life and the fociety of mankind; with a loud feream he swept fo closely by me, that notwithstanding my death-like torpor I awoke with the noife. His voice, which I could ftill hear when he was at a great diftance, feemed to be that of an eagle; and I was afterwards affured by the chamois-hunters, that the nests of the ftone eagle are found in abundance among thefe rocks. The great owl, called in France grand-ducke, is also an inhabitant of these parts, and hides in the clefts and cavities, but it does not feem probable that he was my deliverer, fince he is not accuffomed to come abroad by day-light. My half-dreaming fituation, when I was first roufed, rendered me incapable of obferving the creature with any degree of accuracy, and by the time that my recollection was perfectly returned, he had foared to fuch a distance as to preclude the poffibility of my diftinguishing his form clearly. It was fix o'clock when I awoke, and my ftrength being now recruited, I was refolved once more to exert every poffible effort for effecting my efcape. I laboured ftill for about an hour with inexpreffible diffi culty through fnow and clefts, when at length I reached the bed of a mountain torrent, as yet empty of water, and and only in fome places filled up with fnow. My spirits, which before had every moment been more and more depreffed, were now on a fudden as highly elevated. I hailed the joyful harbinger of my deliverance, and entered the channel in full confidence, that fince in milder weather it conveyed the water to the plains below, it would now convey me thither. I wound very flowly down between towering maffes of rock, which were alternately more fmooth or rugged according as the ftream rushed over them with increased or diminished force, till at length I once more heard the bells of the herds, and the fongs of the herdfmen. Never did the notes of the fweeteft mufic ftrike with fuch a charm on my ear, as did now these harth tones, fince they removed in an instant every lingering doubt femaining within me of my reftoration to mankind. A fmoke which I foon after obferved afcending from amidst a forest of pines, ferved as my guide for the reft of the way, and about eight o'clock in the evening. I came to a Sennhütte at a confiderable distance from that whence I had departed in the morning. The herdimen fancied at first that they beheld an apparition, so disfigured were all my features and fo wan my countenance: nor was this furprifing, after fourteen hours fpent in fuch a toilfome expedition, without any thing to fupport me except a fmall quantity of bread and wine. The honeft mountaineers made a circle round me to hear my story, and evinced a fympathy for my fufferings, and an anxiety to relieve them, which affected me deeply. As I pointed out the way by which I came down, they fhewed the most expreffive figns of altonifhment, and affured me that the country above bears a very ill character from the frightful precipices with which it abounds, and that it is never vifited by the chamois-hunters before Auguft, and even then not frequently. Such, Such, my dear Bonftetten, is the faithful and unembellished narrative of my last Alpine excurfion. REFLECTIONS UPON THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF THE DEITY. I cannot go Where univerfal love fmiles not around. THAT THOMSON. HAT there is "A mighty hand that ever bufy wheels the filent fpheres," is the acknowledged belief of men of virtue and of reflection, in every age and in every country. It is a conviction stamped by the hand of nature upon the heart, and it is the result of investigation and enquiry. The untutored favage feels it, and the more we fcrutinize the footsteps of the Deity, which are impreffed on all the works of creation, the more alfo fhall we confefs and rejoice in it. If there be a GOD, fuch as we fuppofe him to be; independent, felf-exiftent, the first cause of all things, and the fource and fountain from which they flowed, he muft, of neceffity, be infinitely perfect (i. e.) infinitely powerful, infinitely wife, infinitely good. On any other fuppofition our ideas of him are inconfiftent and contradictory to themselves. Now if the Divine Being be infinitely wife, his penetration fees at once what regulations in his government will be moft conducive to the best ends, viz.; his own honour and the happiness of his creatures. If he is infinitely good, he must delight in this benevolent object, and if he is infinitely powerful, he cannot but compel the proceffion of things to purfue that path which his wifdom and his benevolence prescribe. The knowledge of his attributes leads us then, neceffarily, to the conclufion, that his benevolence prefcribes-that his wifdom approves-that his power power enforces that order of things which fhall most redound to the good of his creatures. To fet afide this firm perfuafion of the mind, is to fap the foundations of moral principle, to introduce confufion into a fyftem of order, and diffipate the furest rays of confolation which illuminate the abodes of men. But not to infift upon fpeculations of this fort, let us turn our attention for a few moments to the more palpable, the more pleafing manifeftations of that univerfal love which fmiles around us. And when we contemplate this theatre on which we are now acting our feveral parts, the beauties of which are no lefs ftriking than its structure is admirable, we fhall fcarcely withhold our aftonishment, that any one, difmiffing the dictates of common fenfe, fhould, for a moment, believe that this planet is not the workmanship of Infinite Mercy, Infinite Wisdom, Infinite Power. In the fweet ferenity of a cloudlefs evening, when I lift my aftonished eyes towards that glorious vault which canopies the earth-when I contemplate the fublime picture which the firmament prefents, ftudded with innumerable ftars, fhining with fplendour which mocks the diamond; when I mark the order, the regularity in which they move around their common centre, each pursuing its path without variation-without failure-without interference with the reft, furely the bright luftre of these heavenly hofts, the admirable difcipline of their movements, the undisturbed regularity of their changes, each rifing at its appointed hour, at its appointed hour withdrawing again; furely all these things bespeak an ordering and arrangement infinitely fuperior to the wild, unreined, unintentional movements of chance. To reafon's ear they bear the intimation of a wife and powerful agent, "For ever finging as they shine, From the fublime arch of heaven let us next direct bur reflections to the earth, which is extended like an elegant carpet beneath our feet; and what infinitely varied evidence of the divine agent rifes to our notice, in the ten thousand thousand wonders of creation which vegetate around us! In the innumerable objects which demand our attention-in the plants-in the flowers— in the fruits-in the trees-in the animals-in the infects with which her bofom teems, what can we see but the "traces of a God?" Trees loaded with fruit, mountains waving with corn, meadows embroidered with flowers; what can we think of this beautiful variety, this charming diverfity, fo eminently adapted to the fupport, the comfort, the happiness of fenfitive life? Thefe beautiful effects, purfuing each other in everlafting harmony, chaunt in unifon with the mufic of the fpheres; they are no lefs demonftrative of that infinite power which "Orders all things wifely and well!" Laftly. Let us repair to the fhores of the mighty deep; now calm-now tranquil as the bofom of innocence, as the unalterable peace of that God who feparated it from the dry land, and now raging in tempeft like the fury which will eventually overwhelm the proud oppreffor! What additional reasons fhall we here meet to adore the Providence which bridles its fury with the fand, and not only fays to its proud waves, here fhall your billows be ftayed, but turns its faithlefs bofom to the comfort of man; and from it, as from an inexhaustible fund, pours into our laps whatever is neceffary to the elegant enjoyment of life! Let arrogance affect then to be wifer than the modest child of reason; and in the diftributions now noticed, pretend to perceive nothing but diforder and confufion. But for me, and I may add, for all whofe minds are open to the appeal of argument and experience, we must fee the heavens, the earth, and the feas thrown into difcord-the glorious luminaries of the fky extinguished the day and the night divided no more; we muft fee the order of |