the wall he spake of beasts, also of fowls and creeping things, and of fishes.

The same field of knowledge is still open. Nature still spreads open her ample volume to him who will look with careful eye upon her curious page, as well now as in the days of the illustrious Solomon; and wisdom and understanding may still be gleaned by the industrious mind from the works of creation, which, like the Patriarch's vision of the ladder, still reaches from earth to heaven, where alone all wisdom is perfected. By these steps the children of men may be led from the creature, to fix their minds on the great, the wise, the merciful Creator; and thus may they be taught to

"Look through nature up to nature's God."

INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS

TO MY

YOUNG READERS.

THERE are most probably many among you, my dear little friends, who have experienced the most lively emotions of pleasure from the possession of some innocent and beloved pet; who have bestowed the warmest caresses on a darling white rabbit or turtledove; or have amused yourselves by watching the gamesome frolics of a cosset-lamb, or shared the merry tricks of some lively kitten or playful squirrel; whose eye has anxiously regarded the drooping wings and depressed crest of some favourite bird, or sighed over your fruitless endeavours to

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supply the care of the parent-bird to some half-fledged nestlings that you have rescued from more immediate destruction, or to rear some tender, wild rabbit, or tiny leveret, that has been cast upon your protection. If the labours of the bee, or the ant, or the spider, have ever engaged your attention; or you have marked with curious eye the changes of the silkworm or caterpillar, through all its various metamorphosis-if any of these things have ever been objects of your curiosity or tender solicitude, you will not be entirely uninterested in the subject of the present little volume, in whose pages I purpose to offer a few practical hints on the management of domestic animals, derived from my own observation and experience; pointing out whatever I consider beneficial either to adopt or avoid, in the treatment of such creatures as may form the subject of my little book.

When a child, my father indulged me

and my sisters and brother with keeping a variety of live stock, but always with this proviso that they should be kindly and carefully treated. The first instance of cruelty or of wilful neglect, was to be punished by immediately depriving us of our ill-treated little favourite; considering us as unworthy of having the care of any creature who might thus be made a sufferer from our carelessness. Nor would he allow us to call a servant from his duty to attend on our rabbits, hares, pigeons, &c, unless indeed illness or extreme wet weather precluded our personal attendance on them. Moreover, he made us accountable for any injury done by any member of our quadruped family, through want of due carefulness on our part in securing them; and also gave us to understand, that any expense necessary for providing for the maintenance and convenience of our live stock, must be forthcoming from our own private pocket-money; which money, I must in

form you, we were obliged to obtain by our own industry, and was the well-earned reward of our labours in the garden, or extra diligence in performing sundry little tasks of work for mamma or the elders of the family.

These regulations, which may seem somewhat hard to such of my young readers as have been accustomed to unlimited indulgence from their parents, and to have all their childish wishes, if not too unreasonable, gratified without their care or toil, were, nevertheless, not without their beneficial effects on our minds; and they were patiently and cheerfully submitted to by myself and my sisters, Jane and Susanna, and my youngest brother Tom, whom we took in as a sort of under partner in the concern. And though we devoted many an hour that would otherwise have been employed in play, to seeking food for our rabbits, when vegetables were scarce in the garden; and though oftentimes our fingers