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ADVERTISEMENT.

IT has long been the opinion of the editor
of this volume, that the noblest employment of
the mind of man is the contemplating the works
of his Creator ; — these living testimonies of the
being and attributes of God have also ever ap-
peared to him infinitely superior to the best
arguments that the understanding of man has
been able to advance.

To lead, especially, the youthful mind, to
this happy turn of observation, has been his
object in the arrangement of these pages; and
he trusts that the familiar and comprehensive
delineations of Nature, which he has endea-
voured to give, will be found not only calcu-
lated for the improvement and extension of
knowledge, but shew to the reader, that in
every object in nature there are ample traces
of the wisdom, power, and bounty of the Cre-
ator, and convince him, that even the vilest
weed and the meanest insect offer incontestable
evidences of their Maker,

IV. ADVERTISEMENT.

Such being the object of the editor in ar-
ranging this work, he leaves it to a liberal and
enlightened public to appreciate his labours,
and by their patronage give circulation to what
he conceives may be beneficial in forming the
mind to piety and just views of things.

CHELSEA, October, 1820.

CONTENTS.

Air, weight of, - 163

elasticity and resistance of, 164

how cleansed, - 170

Alternate succession of day and night, benefits .

resulting therefrom, - 18?

Animals, their construction and properties, - 38

diversity of bulk, taste and habit of, 40

. prodigious numbers of, . ib.

instincts of, - 47

provision for keeping their numbers

within due limits, ib.

of the graminivorous kind, 4y

of the weasel kind, - 50

varieties of, - - 56

divisions into classes, orders, &c. ib.

Animal Flowers, - 125

Atmosphere, - 158,

— extent of, - - 164

-its use, 165

great thoroughfare to the feathery

creation, . - - 170

phenomena of, - - X72

Atmospheric phenomena, meteors, &c. uses of, 178

Beavers, their wonderful foresight, &c. - 52

Birds, their structure, appetites, &c. 63

— amazing strength of their wings, 65

A2

Vi. CONTENTS. *

Birds, admirable structure of their nests,

peculiarities as to food, make, Sec,

•••• • "— migration of,

various situations oi their nests, -

Bismuth,

Camels,*

Celestial appearances, - «-

Chick in the egg, description of,

Clay, its importance and usefulness,

Coal, Chalk, Cinnabar, &c.

Cod fish, incalculable number of,

Comets, their number, motion, &e.

purposes for which created,

Connecting links in nature,

Copper and Tin,

Corn, construction and vegetation of,

Crustaceous tribe, instinctive sagacity of,

Design of this work,

Dew. nature of, and benefits derived from,

Dog, affectionate tenderness of,

Shepherd's and Newfoundland,

Earth, form or shape of,

structure of the, --

spherity of the,

surface of, its inequalities, &c.

verdant colour of the,

two -fold motion of the, -

Earth worm, ...

Electric fluid and its effects,

CONTENTS. VII,

Electricity? a most powerful agent in nature, . 180

Emu, its great swiftness, 64

Fall ot the leaf, observations on, 270

Fishes, - 140

structure of, 142

. immense number of, - 145

construction of, 147

instincts of, - 150

sagacity of, in depositing their spawn, 131

migration of, - 152

• • — uses of, 153

• how they contribute to the comforts of man, 155

Fixed stars, their beauty and number, 209

why so called, - 212

their distance from the earth, 214

their uses, 215

Flowers, their exquisite structure, - 28

their variety and fragrance. - 29

purposes for which they were designed, 35

Fogs, Mists, Clouds, and Rain, salutary effects of, 181

Fruit, reflections on, 260

Frost and Snow, uses of, in the economy of nature, 182

Goats, their remarkable agility, &c. 50

Harvest moon described, - 191

Herbs, use and importance of, 32

Herrings, Cod fish, Mackerel &e. prolific powers of, 146

their immense numbers, - 155

observations on the natural history of, 261

Insects, most numerous of nature's productions, 81

• beauty and symmetry of some, - 8£

Vlll. CONTENTS.

Insects, peculiarities in this order of beings, - 84

their strength and agility, - 87

• — their wonderful transformations, ib.

their surprising instinct, - 89

their uses, 90

Instincts of the Monkey, the Cat, and the Hare, 52

the Lion, Bear, Porcupine, Horse &c. 53

Iron, its usefulness and importance, 8

Jewels and Gems, - 10

Kraken, its immense size, - 141

Lama of South America, - 50
Land Crab, its instinctive qualities, - 134
Lead, 8
Limpet, how protected, 128
Loadstone* its importance, - 118
Lobster, justly styled wondrous, - 127
young, its instinctive habits, 133

Man, intellectual pre-eminence of, - 3

Marble, Alabaster, Flint, &c. - 10

Metals, their nature and importance, 8.

Meteors, fiery, the use of, - 180

Meteors, watery, - 176

Mineral kingdom, treasures of the, 7

Mineral Salts, 9

Mineral and medicinal Waters, 20

Milky way described, 211

Moon, her phases, &c. - - 189

eclipses of, - 190

— her salutary influences enumerated, - 193

CONTENTS. IX.

Mother-of-pearl, mode of fishing for, 138

Motion, the soul of the universe, - 173

Mountains and Vallies, 16

their use, 18

Muscle, Cockle, Periwinkle, Nautilus, &c. 129

Natural objects, classification of, 1

Natural appearances in January, - 221

„ February, - 224

March, 232

April, 235

. May, - - 240

June, 244

July, - - 249

»„*,«_ — — August, • - £54

• September, - 257

, October, - 265

„ November, 268

December, 272

Northern and southern lights, how formed, 179

Ocean, its magnificence, - 98

murmur of the, its use, - 112

usefulness of the luminous appearances of, ib.

the uses of, ' - 115

the great vehicle of commerce, 116

benefits derived from this wonderful fluid, 118

Oran Outang, or wild Man of the Woods, - 50
Ostrich, Emu, and Cassowary, remarkable size of, 63
its swiftness, - 64

Pilchards, vast shoals of, - 155

Planets, their magnitudes and motions, - 199

Plains, wide and extended, their uses, - 21

X. CONTENTS.

Plants, sexual system of, 27

- sleep of, ib.

Quadrupeds, their conformation, - 48

-- their remarkable instincts, 51

-- their uses, 53

Quicksilver, its uses, &c. - 8

Rainbow, beauty of, - - 177

Religion, a sense of, the peculiar characteristic

of man, 4

Reptiles, their structure, &c. - 91
-- their motion, - -92

- their use, - 97

substances and sulphureous bodies', * 9

Sea, its vast extent and bounds, 99

— a source of fertility to the land, 103

— — a purifier and restorer of nature, - - 104
-- currents of the, 105

— contains the greatest quantity of salt in the
torrid zone, - - ib.

- saltness of, how beneficial, 109

— colour of, deception relative thereto, - 1 14

- vegetable productions found at the bottom of, 119

- vegetables, the use of, - 123
Sea-horse of the northern ocean, 50
Sea-tortoise, its instinctive sagacity, - - 132
Seasons, changes of the, and vicissitudes of day

and night, how produced, - 183, 185

--- beneficial effects in the changes of the, 186

Serpents, some peculiarities relative to, 93

-- their poison, &c. 94

i -- : - wonderful sagacity of, 96

CONTENTS. XL

Shell-fish, - 127

their uses, 137

Shrubs, - ^ - 31

Silver, Copper, Tin, &c. - 8

Solar System, - 198

Soldier crab, peculiarities of, 133

Spring, influence of, on man, ... 238

reflections on, 237

Springs and rivers, - 18

Stones and fossils, - 10

Sun, the, - 193

the great fountain of light and heat, - 194

— the fountain of cheerfulness, - 196
its magnitude and motion, 198

Tellina, Scallop, Razor shell-fish, &c. peculiari-
ties relative thereto, - - 136
Thunder storms, their nature and influence, 252
Tides, where greatest, - - 105
flux and reflux of, 107

Vegetables, variety of, 23

their use and importance, - 24

structure of, - ib.

sub-marine, striking peculiarities in, 122

Vegetable kingdom, properties and peculiarities of, 27

Volatiles, their use, - 75

Waterspouts, of two kinds, - 109

description of one in the atlantic

ocean, - - - 111

Whales, their immense size, - 140

• fidelity of to each other, - 155

Whirlpools, - 107

Xll. CONTENTS.

Wind, description of, 172

influence of on the ocean, - - 106

Winter in the polar regions, » 226

sowing time, - - 267

-— — ' — • beginning of, . - - 271

advantages of, - - - 257

Wonders of the north, - 229

THE

CHAPTER I.
INTROD VCTION.

EVERY page of the volume of Nature is fraught
with instruction. Not only do the canopy of the
heavens, and the luminous orbs which bedeck the
glowing hemisphere on a clear frosty evening, de-
clare the glory of the Supreme, but the whole of
created existences, however insignificant, simple, or
minute they may appear, plainly evince to the con-
templative mind the wisdom and power of the Crea-
tor; and shew that

All Nature is a glass reflecting God,

As by the Sea reflected is the Sun,

Too glorious to be gaz'd on in his sphere.

Natural objects, for the purpose of classification,
have been in general arranged under the three
grand divisions of animal, vegetable, and mineral,
each of which will admit of many lesser subdivisions,

2 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

about which we mean not here to treat. One ob-
servation, however, upon a general view of the
whole, as it cannot fail in time to present itself to
every person who engages in this study, may here
be introduced: it is, that however easy it may seem,
at the first glance, to discriminate the three classes
of objects from each other, yet every class of natural
objects will be found to approach so nearly in the
extreme of other classes, that it is a matter of diffi-
culty to say with precision where the one ends, and
the other begins. The whole are so closely con-
nected, like the links of a chain, that there is no
possibility of finding a disjunction in any part.
Among animated beings, bats are the connecting
link between beasts and birds: the numerous class
of amphibia conjoin beasts and fishes; and lizards
unite them with reptiles The humming-bird ap-
proaches the nature of insects, and the flying-fish
that of birds The polypus, the sea anemony, and
the sea pen, though of animal origin, have more the
habits of vegetables than of animals; while the
fly-trap, the sensitive plant, and some other vegeta-
ble productions, by their spontaneous movements,
or extreme sensibility, seem to participate more of
animal origin. Corals and corallines, from the dif-
ferent forms they assume, may be more easily mis-
taken for mineral or vegetable than animal produc-
tions, to which class they are now referred, by the
unanimous decision of naturalists. The trufle, though
a vegetable, assumes rather the appearance of a
mineral; and there is reason to believe that the

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

anomalous substance called peat is actually a
vegetable rather than an earthy or mineral sub-
stance, as it has been often supposed.

Nor is it with regard to corporeal forms only, and
peculiarities of organization, that this disjointed con-
nection subsists between the different objects which
inhabit the globe: the same concatenation is observ-
ed to take place respecting mind, beginning with
man, who forms the highest link of the chain, and
descending from him by an almost imperceptible
dimunition of mental powers, through an innumera-
ble series of existences, till it ends at last in mere
animation alone, with a seeming privation of all
mental perception whatever. It is indeed true, that
though, in regard to intellect, some of the higher
order of animals appear, in certain points of vievv^
to approximate to the lowest of the human species,
yet there can be no doubt that man is much farther
exalted above them all, than any one of these excels
the next below it; so that if there be any break in
the chain at all, it is here that the rupture takes
place. For though many of the higher orders of
animals possess a kind of memory, and the faculty
of reasoning in a certain degree; though u the ox
knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib,"
yet, unless it be in recollecting their dependence on
others for food, and a few circumstances of a similar
nature, tending chiefly to the preservation of ex-
istence, the intellectual powers of even the highest
order of animals are extremely circumscribed Man
alone can reason from consequences to remote causes,

4 BOOK OF NATURE LAID

and can from the creature trace an idea of the
Creator. A sense of religion, then, is the charac-
teristic peculiarity which decisively marks a separa-
tion between man and all other animals.

In the view we are about to take of Nature, then,
it shall be our chief aim, while we expatiate on the
wonderful variety it presents in each department, to
endeavour to establish and strengthen this pre-emi-
nent characteristic of our species, and counteract
that tendency to infidelity which has of late, by the
labours of the wicked and designing, been rendered
too prevalent.

Indeed the contemplation of the works of Nature
invariably leads to a consideration of the attributes of
the Creator. The subject is so replete with digni-
fied feelings, that wre cannot help being surprised
that atheism should ever have had a teacher or a
convert. These infatuated men attempt to make
every thing subservient to their leasonings, and they
are unwilling to acknowledge that a superior mind
can have created the wonders around them. Their
favourite arguments against the intervention of Pro-
vidence lie in a reference to physical and moral
evils; such as pestilence, tempests, volcanoes, and
death. They have no pleasure in contemplating the
beneficent part of the works of Nature ; show them
a flower, and they will point out the worm which
consumes its bosom. It is by dwelling on scenes of
waste that they seek to make us converts to their
doctrine of annihilation; it is by making us bend
under the pressure of the evils of life, that they

BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN. 5

expect to bring us to renounce the hope of eternity.
To minds thus perverted, all that excites sorrow
among mankind affords a ground of triumph; even
when living in the country, they shut their eyes to
the plentiful harvest that waves around them, to the
beautiful sky over their heads, and to the benefkent
effects of the orb of day. Let us not lend an ear to
those gloomy reasoners, who, while they are ad-
mitted to the enjoyment of so many blessings,
refuse to trace them to their Divine Author Their
theories are contradicted by the concurrent voice of
every people; the most uncivilized nations are im-
pressed with a belief of *he existence of a Creator,
and are accustomed to contemplate him in his
works Hardly had our world risen out of chaos,
hardly had our ancestors been admitted to the en-
joyment of light and life, when their thoughts were
directed with gratitude to the throne of their Maker.
Their mode of worship was in the beginning as
simple as the nature that surrounded them; but the
first application of their progress in art and science
was to give dignity and splendour to their adoration.
Temples were constructed with magnificence, and
assembled tribes repeated there the hallowed verses
taught to them by their fathers.

That man does not receive instruction from the
creatures of God is not their fault, but his own.
Their language is not dull and languid, but loud and
incessant; while he, alas! remains deaf to the re-
iterated cries of> nature; and although 4< day unto
day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth

B 2

6 BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN.

knowledge," he continues to post on in his career,
without once reflecting on the importance of Na-
ture's universal call to

Stand still, and consider the wonderous works of God.

The task, therefore, be ours, in this work, to di-
rect the attention of our fellow-travellers in the
journey of life to this universal call of Nature, and
by pointing out a few striking passages in the stu-
pendous volume of the Creator's works, endeavour,
while we instruct, to excite their adoration, love,
and gratitude to HIM who gave them being, and has
so abundantly provided for all their wants.

But where, in the midst of the multiplicity of na-
ture's works shall we begin? From what spot of
this prospect shall we set out? Struck with the
vastness of our task, we stand, as it were, in the
Temple of the Universe, insensible to every thing
but our own insignificance; we know not scarcely
how to commence our labours, so prolific of instruc-
tion, and so attractive is every page of this vast
volume; for when we look around us, every object,
whether in the form of things animate or inani-
mate,— existing in the heavens or on the earth, in
the waters or in the air, conspire with one accord
to arrest our attention, and to point out the almighty
power of the Supreme, his consummate wisdom,
and the infinitude of his goodness to the children of
men. As the traveller, however, in setting out on a
voyage of discovery takes his departure from his na-
tive land, and should, at least, before visiting regions

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 7

more remote, first make himself a little acquainted
with those nigh home, we shall, previous to extend-
ing our researches to more distant bounds, first in-
dulge ourselves with a cursory glance at the lowest
compartment of the vast edifice, by taking a view of
the internal structure of our globe, and see what
commodities there present themselves for our use
and accommodation.

CHAP. II.

THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF THE EARTH.

Thus in thy world material, MIGHTY MIND,
Not only that which solaces and shines,
The rough, the gloomy, challenges our praise !

The treasures of the mineral kingdom, being
more concealed, are not so alluring to the senses
and are of course, to most men, less interesting than
animals or vegetables; but they present themselves
to the reflecting mind under innumerable points of
view that are interesting, chiefly as affording the ma-
terials on which nature, by her slow but certain
operations, is continually producing changes that
tend to augment the multiplication of plants, for the
preservation and the accommodation of animals;
while man, in the mean while, is endowed with fa-
culties which enable him to avail himself of the
qualities they possess for his own purposes.

O BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

When we penetrate the dark and subterraneous
magazine of Nature, v\e find veins fraught with the
richest Metals; from hence conies that which gives
value to the monarch's crown, and weight to his
sceptre ; which, formed into coins, gives energ} and
life to traffic, rewards the toils of labour, and puts it
in the power of the affluent to warm the bosom oi ad-
versity, and make the widow and the orphan sing
for joy, or, beaten out into an inconceivable thin-
ness, is made to cover with a transcendant lustre
some of the coarest of nature's productions, and ren-
der them ornamental in the palace of the great.

Here also is laid up the pale brightness of the
Silver, which, formed into a variety of domestic uten-
sils, sets off with peculiar lustre the choicest dainties
of the rich man's table; and here is found the pon-
derous Lead, from which the cool and clean cistern
is formed, as well as those convenient and safe
aqueducts, by which the useful element of water is
conveyed into the very hearts of our dwellings.
Here too are stores of Copper and Tin, by which
sundry utensils, formed of the former metal, are
rendered more safe and fit for use: and here do we
find in profuse abundance Mines, whose contents,
although they may not be reckoned of equal value,
have been found to b^ more beneficial in their ser-
vices to man, th:in any of those already mentioned.
Iron furnishes the mechanic, the artist, and the la-
bourer with their most useful implements and tools;
by Iron the firmer is enabled to tear up the most
stubborn soil; Iron secures our dwellings from the

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. <)

midnight thief, and confines, by its massy bars, the
disturber of our peace to his gloomy cell ; by means
of Iron, the vessel tossed with tempest is firmly at-
tached to a place of safety, or prevented from being
broken up by the raging elements, when overtaken
by a storm in the midst of the watery waste.

In these dark vaults are also found that subtle,
insinuating metal, Quicksilver, which so much re-
sembles a fluid ; the uses of which in philosophy
and medicine, are so well known, as well as its im-
portance in various arts and sciences.

From hence, also, are extracted a multitude of
Mineral Salts and Saline Substances, together with
a variety of Sulphureous bodies. The astringent
Alum, the green Borax, the volatile Nitre, the blue
Vitrol of Hungary and Cyprus, the green of Ger-
many and Italy, the shining Bismuth, the glittering
Antimony, the brown-coloured Cinnabar, the white
Chalk, have all an origin in these dark apartments ;
as also that truly invaluable black inflammatory sub-
stance Coal, which ministers to our comfort in the
room, presents its services in the kitchen, assists the
chemist and philosopher in their experiments, ren-
ders the work of the artist more easy, transforms
the coarest materials into transparency itself, by
which means the light of day is admitted into our
dwellings, while the cold inclemency of the weather,
is excluded — the astronomer is enabled to extend
his researches to worlds before invisible to mortal
eye — the naturalist to observe the minutiae of crea-
tion— and the feeble ejes 01 old age furnished with

10 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEX.

new and invigorating powers. — From hence also is
derived that wonderful mineral, whose magnetic
quality guides the mariner, with unerring precision,
beyond the pillars of Hercules, and enables him to
find his solitary way across the pathless deep.

Here also in these dark recesses are conveniently
laid up, a variety of strata of Stones, and beds of
Fossils ; and hence derive their origin a number of
valuable Jewels and transparent Gems, as well as
the firm and compact Marble, the Alabaster, the
Porphyry, and the hard pellucid Flint.

Here are to be found those quarries of Stones,
from which are constructed secure and comfortable
dwellings for man and beast — by which the arms of
the pier are strengthened to repel the surges of the
sea — the rampart is raised above the basis nature
had formed — our property secured from the depre-
dations of intruders — the arched bridge thrown
across the broad and rapid stream, and the stupen-
dous aqueduct carried over the deep-sunk glen.

Here too are deposited a variety of curious Fossils
and extraneous substances, which bafle the wisdom
of the wise, and puzzle the reasoning of the natur-
alist to account for : and here are those vast layers
or strata of earth, in all their variety, whose nature
and uses are more apparent — where the vegetable
kingdom derives its support and nutriment, the trees
of the forest spread their wide extended roots, and
the tender herb and flower of the field takes hold of
the dust ; where the pliable worm forces itself quietly
along, the mole finds its darksome way, the foxes

B»OK OP NATURE LAID OPEN. it

have holes, and the coneys burrow themselves.
Here is that tough tenacious species of earth, which
administers its services to man in such a variety of
shapes, and acts as a substitute for other commo-
dities in situations where nature has denied them.
Are some in want of stones for building? Clay, by
undergoing a process, becomes firm and hard, to
withstand the most rigid blasts of winter. Are there
no Slate quarries in the neighbourhood ? Clay, in
the shape of Tiles, forms an excellent substitute.
Are we in want of Lead for pipes to convey our
water from a distance? Clay comes seasonably to
our aid. In short, by this mean looking, dirty, and
despised substance, we are abundantly supplied
with a great variety of utensils and vessels, neat in
their structure, cleanly in the use, and though cheap
in the purchase, extremely valuable in point of
utility. Here are also, commodiously lodged, a va-
riety of other useful earths, which it would encroach
too much on our limits to attempt to enumerate.
These, with an innumerable variety of other useful
and valuable materials, of which those we have
mentioned may be considered as only a specimen,
are safely locked up by PROVIDENCE in this great
storehouse of Nature, and the key given to Indus-
try to take out and apply as necessity may require,
or circumstances direct; and in the disposition of
which we may be at a loss what most to admire,
the bounty of the Creator, in thus so largely making
provision for our numerous wants, or his ivisdom in
placing them at such convenient distances below the

12 BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN.

earth's surface, as neither to obstruct by their bulk
the operations going on upon it, or to be beyond the
reach of moderate labour, when the necessities of
man call aloud for their use.

How inconvenient would it have been, and what
small space left for cultivation, had these useful
layers of Stone and Lime, Coal and Clay, been
promiscuously scattered about in our fields and vine-
yards, or plied up in uncouth, naked, and deformed
masses, without the slightest depth of soil for a co-
vering; and how inaccessible to human labour and
ingenuity, or to what an expence of loss of time
must man have been put in coming at them, had
they been sunk miles instead of feet into the bowels
of the earth ? Reflecting upon these things, we have
good reason to exclaim, In goodness, as well as
" in wisdom hast Thou made them all!"

CHAP. III.

THE FORM OF THE EAETtt.

" O Nature! all-sufficient, over all!
Enrich me with the knowledge of thy works ! ''

On returning from our subterraneous excursion,
our attention is naturally directed to the shape or
form of that stupendous fabrick, which contains so
many convenient apartments, and is enriched by so
many valuable materials; and were we to trust to ap-
pearances as they present themselves to our limited

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 13

powers of vision, we might be led to conclude (as
was the opinion of some of the ancients,) that the
earth is a wide extended flat, bounded by the hori-
zon.

This belief, however, is now completely explod-
ed, and the figure of the earth demonstrated to be
globular, by the voyage of a number of circumnavi-
gators, from the days of the famous Magellan down
to those of our illustrious countryman, Captain Cook.

By these voyagers it has been fully ascertained,
that a vessel leaving Europe in a certain direction,
may return to the point from whence she set out,
without altering her course farther than is necessary
to avoid intervening obstacles, or give her, what the
sailors call sea room.

The spherity of the earth is also apparent from the
circumstance, that two ships at sea, sailing in con-
trary directions till they lose sight of each other, first
do so bv the disappearance of the hulls and lower
rigging, and afterwards of the higher sails and top-
masts. The roundness, from North to South, is
evident from the sinking of northern stars to the
horizon, till they actually disappear to those who
travel far southward ; and from East to West by the
difference of sun rise in proportion as we go east-
ward or westward.

The form of ihe earth being therefore proved by
arguments the most incontrovertible, to be that of a
globe or sphere, permit us here to pause and ac-
knowledge (he wisdom and goodness of the Creator,
as manifested in that particular form. This wisdom

c

14 BOOK. OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

and goodness is highly apparent, when we consider
that this is the most capacious, compact, and dura-
ble of all figures, the most convenient for a body in
motion, for the equal distribution of light and heat,
for the proper disposal of land and water, as well as
for the beneficial influence of the winds.

The earth, which is the habitation of so many
Creatures, must be sufficiently capacious not only to
oontain them, but what is necessary for their preser-
vation ; and being, as it were, the basis of this sub-
lunary creation, it must be so firmly and compactly
girt together, as to be beyond the reach of accident
to destroy any of its parts, till the fiat shall have gone
forth, that Time shall be no more.

Had it been of an Angular form, the points of
the angles behoved to have been considerably weak-
ened by their distance from the centre of gravity,
and consequently would have been in continual
danger of being loosened, or flying off, by the ra-
pidity of the earth's diurnal motion round its axis;
or, had it been possible for them to have remained,
what resistance must these angles have occasioned
in the performance of that motion! What a conti-
nual state of perturbation and tempest in the air must
they have caused! How incommodious to the dif-
fusion of light and heat, and for the wise and useful
distribution of the waters !

TIic Surface of the Earth.

In casting our eyes abroad over the face of the
eftrth, we observe, it covered with two great bodies

BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEH. I

of Land and Water ; but as it is to the appendages
and productions of the former we mean first to di-
rect our thoughts, we will leave the consideration of
Nature's mighty Reservoir, and the wonders of the-
Ocean, to an after occasion, and will proceed to
consider the magnificent scene which the dry land
presents.

The first thing that here strikes the imagination
is that wonderful diversity every where observable
and those numerous inequalities so conspicuous on
its surface. On one part, we behold the gently rising
hillock, scarcely perceptible amidst the surrounding
level; in another, the tremendous precipice, yawn-
ing horribly over the mountain's brow ! Here a
deep-sunk glen, imbosomed among rocks, recedes
from the eye, and screens the little rivulet that glides
along its bottom ; there, the lofty summits of the
Andes and the Alps, with cloud capt tops wrapt in
garments of perpetual snow, bid defiance to vegeta-
tion or smile above the blast in sunshine, while the
reverberating sound of distant thunder proclaims the
raging of the storm below.

In one place we behold the pleasantly sheltered
meadow, decked in all its luxuriance of herbage,
and in a another a wide naked waste, or sea-like
fen, losing itself in the distant prospect. Here, broad
and rapid rivers separate nations at variance ; there
the purling stream, partly fordable, and partly sur-
mounted by the convenient bridge, unites and con-
nects those who enjoy the mild blessings of peace.
Here a vast tract of uncultivated heath stretche*

1$ BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

across the districts of the mountains, while lakes of
considerable magnitude lave their basis, and cover
by their limpid waves the interjacent vallies.

We have just been considering the earth as a glo-
bular body But how, it may be asked, are we to
reconcile this with those unequal appearances ob-
servable on its surface ? To this we answer, that
the elevation of the highest mountain bears no more
proportion to the diameter of this wonderful struc-
ture, than the inequalities on the rind of an orange
does to its bulk ; and although these may render it,
comparatively speaking, a little uneven, they do
nothing to subtract from the beauty of its appear-
ance, or the general roundness of its figure.

Deformities, indeed, they cannot be called ; for
if the human mind delights in variety, these inequa-
lities present us with a variety the most pleasing and
picturesque ; and if the contemplative philosopher
Is captivated by the multiplicity of nature's produc-
tions, these furnish food for the most keen researcher
into the wonders of creation. But a gratification of
taste for the sublime and beautiful were not the only
objects the Creator had in view in this diversity of
the earth's surface.

Mountains and Vallies.

These have other great and important uses. Is
Health the greatest of all earthly blessings? — to one
class of valetudinarians the mountain breeze is be-
neficial, while to another the genial warmth of the

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 17

well sheltered valley produces the most salutary ef-
fects. Does the east wind rage with fury, or cold,
with its freezing particles, visit us from the north —
the deep-sunk bosom of the valley, or the lee-side of
the mountain, defend us from the fury of the tem-
pest, and shelter us from the raging storm.

By this happy diversity of towering mountain and
sinking dale, we have a variety of soil in a small
compass, and are furnished with the productions of
different climates almost at our doors. These serve
also for the harbour and lodgment of a variety of
animals that would have been ill accomodated in
the open plain. They are also convenient not only
for the generating of metals and minerals, but for
digging them out with infinitely less trouble and ex-
pense than if they had been situate at considerable
distances below a level surface ; and mountains are
the birth place of many valuable Mines and pre-
cious Stones-.

In the burning regions of the torrid zone, ridges
of mountains, running from East to West, arrest
with their towering heads the vapours in their flight,
and, condensed into rain, force back the fugitives in
cooling and refreshing showers.

In places where earthquakes prevail, mountains
are converted into funnels, for the purpose of vomit-
ing forth these volcanic eruptions of liquid fire,
which, but for such vents, might have shaken king-
doms from their foundations, and swallowed up
provinces in one mighty gulph.
c 2

18 BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEK.

But the most general use to which Providence
seems to 'have applied mountains and vallies, and
consequently, without doubt, the most important one
for which they were designed, is the elevation of
Springs, and convenient distribution of Waters,
agreeably to the language of the Royal Psalmist:
" They go up by the mountains, they go down by
the vallies, unto the place which thou hast appointed
for them," And this use alone would have atibrded
us abundant motives of gratitude and thankfulness,
although there had been no other, that from moun-
tains and vallies we are supplied with these inesti-
mable blessings.

Springs and Rivers.

Water is not only one of those necessary elements
of which our very means of existence are composed,
but it administers to our wants and conveniences on
a- variety of occasions, and in many different shapes.

With water our choicest bread is mixed, and it
makes part of the composition of our favourite be-
verage, By water the beasts of the field, and the
fowls of the air, quench their thirst ; and by means
of it the lofty cedar of Lebanon derives its nutri-
triment, as well as the tender herb that creepeth
against the wall. By this necessary and useful fluid
we are assisted in many a tedious and laborious
operation: — Formed into canals it helps the deep-
laden barge forward in its progress ; confined into
dams it sets the ponderous mill-wheel in motion ; or

BOOK OF MATURE LAID OPEN. 19

evaporated into steam, it puts in play the massy arms
of the huge engine.

But how does it come to pass that water is ren-
dered thus serviceable? It is partly owing to the
wise manner in which the great Creator distributes
it from his treasures, by causing Springs to take
their rise in elevated situations, and partly from the
general law impressed upon fluids to regain their
level, that water is impelled forward in its course,
and made to surmount so many obstacles in its pro-
gress to the sea, while its suitable consistency fits it
for being easily turned aside, and diverted into such
other channels as the necessities of man may re-
quire.

If, as might have been expected, Springs had
been confined in general to the lower situations of
the earth, extensive tracts must have been left un-
watered, while plains in their immediate neighbour-
hood would have been deprived of their fertility by
inundation, or rendered pestilential by stagnant wa-
ters pent up without the means of escape. Had
water been deprived of that admirable property of
rising to its level, how liable would it have been to
be obstructed in its progress by every insignificant
hillock, or trifling rise of the ground ; and, with re-
spect to its consistency, besides being rendered inca-
pable of being converted to so many useful purposes,
had it been thinner, how would it have answered the
purpose of supporting so many burdens, or keep-
ing \vithinits bounds; had it been thicker, how would
it have been adapted for quenching thirst, or ascend-
ing the minute tubes of the vegetable tribe?

SO BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

But by this wise and beneficial arrangement, Ri-
vers being elevated at their head, in situations at a
distance and remote from the sea, are necessitated
to pass over a large tract of country, before they
lose themselves in the main, and following the course
of those numerous sunken beds made for them in
the vallies, they are at once confined within their
proper limits, and made to wind in many a length-
ened turn, to the more copious diffusion of their
benefits, than would have otherwise been the case ;
while their pliable nature renders them easily turned
aside as they glide along, to water those fields re-
moved at a small distance from their bunk?, or for
other purposes to which the ingenuity of man may
make them subservient.

Mineral and Medicinal Waters,

Are also amply provided by nature, and dispense
their salutary virtues in a variety of situations.
These are not so numerous as the other, but are
sufficiently so for the purposes to which they are
adapted ; for all men, and every living creature,
need food, but we have reason to be thankful that
all need not the aid of medicine. Many there are,
however, who stand in need of their beneficial in-
fluences, and many an invalid have they been the
means of restoring to renovated powers, and the
blessings of health. Like the pool of Bethesda, they
may be said to be of a healing nature ; but blessed
be the adorable Physician who has opened up these

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 21

fountains, that they have been found to be for the
healing of multitudes who resort thither, and not for
him alone who is fortunate enough to be first plunged
ipto the troubled stream.

Widz and extended Plains

Also cover a considerable portion of the face of
our globe, and these are not without their uses. Did
nothing but huge mountainous districts, intercepted
by deep vallies, present themselves, what room
would be left for tillage ? What incredible labour
and fatigue in travelling ! What insurmountable
barriers to the purposes of trade and commerce!
But these facilitate the operations of agriculture, and
cause the stubborn glebe to be broken up with ease.
Carriages with immense burdens glide alona: ori the
level of a rail -way ; the traveller on horseback, en-
veloped in darkness, pursues his journey without
danger of stumbling ; the loaded waggon is wheeled
anwards without interruption; and the swift post
flies with astonishing celerity on the wings of busi-
ness.

The last thing we shall touch upon in the general
appearance of the surface of the dry land is the

Verdant Colour of the Earth ',

For whatever diversity of hue there may be in na-
tural objects when viewed separately, there car-* be
no doubt but this is the most general and prevailing

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

colour; and as nature does nothing in vain, the cir-
cumstance certainly ought not to be overlooked.
In this the wisdom and goodness of our Creator
will appear by attending to the following considera-
tions: Had the robe of nature assumed a more light
or brilliant cast, and the generality of objects ap-
peared of a white, yelloiv, orange, or red com-
plexion, it would have been too much for the strength
of our nerves, and instead of being refreshed and
delighted, we would have been blinded and over*
powered with the dazzling splendour.

Had she put on a more sombre aspect, and been
clothed with a violet, purple, or blue mantle, the
prospect must have been sad, dismal, and gloomy,
and instead of imparting to the animal spirits the
exhilarating draught to keep them in full play,
would have suffered them to subside into dejection
and despondency. To prevent these two extremes,
nature is clothed with a verdant mantle, being that
proper combination of light and shade, that neither
dazzles nor darkens the prospect, which rather re-
freshes than fatigues the eye, strengthens and invi-
gorates instead of weakening the powers of vision,
and creates in the soul that increasing delight and
lengthened rapture, which the poet had in view
when he wrote the following lines :

" Gay green !

Thou smiling Nature's universal robe ;
United light and shade ! where the sight dwells
With growing streng h, and ever new delight]."

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEIST. 23

CHAP. IV.

VEGETABLES.

•

«< Your contemplation further yet pursue ;
The wondrous world of Vegetables view !
See varied Trees their various fruits produce,
Some for delightful taste, and some for use.
See Sprouting Plants enrich the plain and wood,
For physic some, and some design'd for food.
See Fragrant Flowers, with different colour's dy'd,
On smiling meads unfold their gaudy pride !

FROM the verdant colour of creation the transi-
tion is natural to a consideration of the objects by
which it is occasioned. These are the numerous
vegetable tribes which cover and adorn the surface
of our globe in all that variety of Trees, Shrubs,
and Herbs which we behold.

Here Trees, like stately turrets, raise their lofty
heads; there, the more pliant and humble thick set
Shrubs unite their foliage; while the herbaceous
tribe in mingled profusion cling more closely to the
earth, and cover the fields with their verdure. Man
cannot contemplate the vegetable creation without
recalling the idea of beauty, sweetness, and a thou-
sand charms thai captivate the senses. The perfume
of the rose, the brilliancy of the lily, the sweetness
of the violet, and the stately magnificence of the
forest, successively catch his attention and delight
him.

24 BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN.

The, Structure, of Vegetables)

In all their varied forms, is truly wonderful.
How excellently adapted are the roots for taking
hold of their parent earth, as well as for drawing
nourishment for the support of the plant, and imbib-
ing moisture from the neighbouring soil ! How com-
modiously are the various tubes and fibres which
compose the trunk or stalk arranged, for the motion
of the sap upwards to aH the extremities of the
leaves and branches ! How nicely are the .'eaves
formed for the important services they are made to
yield in the economy of vegetation ! See how they
serve to concoct and prepare the sap ; how they
prevent by their s"hade the moisture at the root from
being too speedily evaporated ; how they embrace
and defend the flower in the bud, and carefully con-
ceal the fruit before it arrives at maturity ; and by
catching the undulations of the gentle breeze, how
they convey that motion to the trunk and branches,
which (for ought we know,,) may be as essentially
necessary to the vegetable life as exercise is to ani-
mal health. What an excellent clothing does the
bark afford, not only for protecting the stem and
branches from external injury, but from the hurtful
extremes of heat and cold? What evident marks
of wisdom and design do the Flowers evince in their
beautiful and delicate construction ! how nicely are
they formed for the protection and nourishment of
the first and tender rudiments of the fruit ! and when
it has attained more firmness and solidity, how

BOOK. OP NATURE LAID OPEN. 25

readily do they relinquish their charge, and drop
off in decay when no longer necessary ! How won-
derfully does the fruit, in some classes, envelope
and protect the seed till it has arrived at maturity ;
and, lastly, what a passing strange piece of orga-
nized mechanism is the seed itself, and, being ne-
cessary for the reproduction of its species, what a
remarkable provision is made for its preservation
and succession ! What but the wisdom of a Deity
could have devised that those seeds wrhich are most
exposed to the ravages of the inhabitants of the
forest, should not only be doubly, but some of them
trebly enclosed ! that those most in request as arti-
cles of food, should be so hardy and abundantly
prolific ; and that seeds in general, which are the
sport of so many casualties, and exposed to injury
from such a variety of accidents, are possessed of a
principle of lasting vitality, which makes it indeed
no easy matter to deprive them of their fructifying
power. Plants are also multiplied and propagated
by a variety of ways, which strengthen the provision
for their succession.

Nor is the finger of Providence less visible in the
means of diffusing or spreading abroad vegetables,
than in the provision made for keeping up their suc-
cession. The earth may be said to be full of the
goodness of the Lord ; but how comes it to pass,
that in parts untrod by man, and on the tops of ru-
inous buildings, so many varied specimens of the
vegetable creation are to be found ? Is it not from
the manner in which Nature's great husbandman

D

26 BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN.

scatters his seeds about ? While the seeds of some
plants are made sufficiently heavy to fall down and
take up their abode nigh the place of their nativity ;
and others, after having been swallowed by quadru-
peds, are deposited in the neighbouring soil ; some
are carried by the fowls of the air to places more re-
mote, or, being furnished with a soft plumage, are
borne on the winds of heaven to the situations allot-
ted for them. To prevent some from pitching too
near, they are wrapt up in elastic cases, which burst-
ing when fully ripe, the prisoners fly abroad in all
directions : to prevent others from straying too far,
they are furnished with a kind of grappling hooks
that arrest them in their flight, and attach them to
the spot most congenial to their growth.

In the construction of plants we observe a consi-
derable difference in the consistence of the three
classes. Compared with the shrubby race, how
hard, firm, and tenacious is the trunk of the majestic
Oak; and, compared with the herbaceous tribe, how
woody, tough, and elastic is the hawthorn twig;
but for this, how could the mighty monarch of the
wood have been able to withstand the fury of the
tempest; and, while the more humble and lowly
shrubs stand not in need of such firmness of texture,
their pliability and elastic toughness, together with
the prickly coat of mail by which they are envelop-
ed, render them less susceptible of injury in their
exposed situation.

Softness, united with a still greater degree of flex-
ibility, are the distinguishing characteristics of the

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 27

herbaceous order; and how wisely has this been or-
dered for the various purposes for which they were
created ; with the firmness of trees, to what a
prickly stubble must Nature's soft and downy carpet
have given way ? with the tenacity of shrubs, how
would it have answered as food for our cattle ?

There are, besides, a number of other properties
and peculiarities in the vegetable kingdom, in which
the wonderful working of Divinity shines pre-emi*
nent. How strange, for instance, that if a seed is
sown in a reversed position, the young root turns of
itself downwards, while the stern refuses to sink
deeper in the soil, and bends itself round to shoot up
through the surface of the earth. How surprising,
that when the roots of a tree or plant meet with a
stone or other interruption in their progress under-
ground, they change their direction and avoid it.
How amazing, that the numerous shoots which
branch out from the root in quest of moisture, pursue
as it were by instinct the tract that leads to it ; will
turn from a barren to a more fertile soil ; and, that
plants shut up in a darksome room, bend or creep
to any aperture through which the rays of light may
be admitted.

In these respects the vegetable tribes may be said
to possess something analogous to animal life ; but
here the resemblance does not drop — how surprising
the phenomenon of what is called the sleep of plants,
and the sexual system of Linnaeus, founded on the
discovery that there exists in the vegetable, as well
as in the animal kingdom, a distinction of sexes !

28 BOOK OP KATURE LAID OPEN.

What amazing variety of size, of shape, and hue,
do we discover among this multitudinous order of
things ! What different properties do some possess
from others ! and what a near approach do a few
make to that superior order immediately above
them, in the scale of existence ! The Sensitive
plant, when slightly touched, evinces something like
the timidity of our harmless animals ; the Hedysa-
rum Gyrans, or moving plant of the East, exhibits
an incessant and spontaneous movement of its leaves
during the day, in warm and clear weather ; but
in the night season, and in the absence of light and
heat, its motions cease, and it remains, as it were, in
a state of quiescence ; and the American Venus9
Flytrap, like an animal of prey, seems to lie in wait
to catch the unwary insect. These are wonderful
properties of the vegetable creation, but these are
necessary in the infinitude of the works of creation,
as links to connect it with the order of animals, and
preserve unbroken the most minute gradations in
Nature's universal chain !

Flowers are undoubtedly among the most exqui-
site pieces of nature's workmanship. What beautiful
tints do they display ! what lively colours do they
unfold ! what variegated beauties do they discover !
and what delightful perfumes do they emit! In
view of these well might the poet exclaim :

" Who can paint

Like Nature? Can imagination boast
Amid its gay creation, hues like hers?
Or can it mix them with that matchless skill,

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

And lose them in each other, as appears
In every bud that blows ?"

But we have no less to admire in the general con-
trivance and delicate structure of their several parts,
and beautiful harmony of the whole, than in the lay-
ing on of the colours by which they are embellished.

The diversity of shape, and ?A>rm, and complexion,
in those of different kinds, is not more remarkable
than that no two are to he found exactly alike, even
of the same species, and growing on the same stalk
or knot.

Nor should the aromatic fragrarrce which those
beautiful sons and daughters of nature Send forth,
more excite our gratitude, than that well ordered
succession, by which the pleasures we receive from
these transitory visitants, are lengthened out and
protracted all the year round.

Before winter with his cloudy front has taken his
departure, the early Snow drop boldly steps forth
in his pure white robe, the Crocus next, with an air
of timidity peeps out, and, as if afraid to venture,
keeps close to die earth ; then comes the Violet with
her varied beauties, accompanied by the sparkling
Polyanthus, and splendid Auricula; afterwards
groves of Tulips display their rich and gaudy attire,
followed by the Anemone in her spreading robe. —
Now the" Ranuncules expands the richness of his
foliage, the Sun-Flower shoots forth his golden rays,
and the beautiful Carnation with a numerous train
bring up the rear, and close the procession.

30 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

The Use of Vegetables.

Trees. — Those stupendous specimens of creating
art spread not their wide extended roots, nor lift
their lofty heads in vain. Beneath their cooling
shades, our flocks and herd's find a c(.mfortable
asylum from the scorching rays of the summer sun;
the wild stragglers of the forest have a place of re-
fuge among their woods and thickets; whilst the
feathery songsters of the grove build their little
dwellings in security, and sing among their branch-
es ; " as for the stork, the fir trees are her house."

But in what a variety of respects, besides afford-
ing the inhabitants of warm climates an agreeable
shelter from the mid day heat, do they yield their
services, or are made subservient to the use of man.
Some, as the bread fruit tree of the Pacific Ocean,
the cabbage tree of East Florida, the tea tree of
China, the sugarmaple tree of America, the coffee
tree and sugar cane in the West Indies, and the nu-
merous luxurious fruit bearing trees scattered over
the face of the globe, contribute to our wants in form
of food. The fountain tree on one of the Canary
Islands, is said by voyagers to furnish the inhabitants
with a supply of water ; while the paper-mulberry
tree of the Southern ocean, and the cotton shrub of
America, provide us with materials for clothing.
The candle-berry myrtle presents the inhabitants of
Nankeen with a substitute for animal tallow. The
salt tree of Chili yields a daily supply of fine salt
Thf cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, and pimento, furnish

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. i

us ,with a supply of spices. The Jesuit's bark,
manna, senna, and others, produce a variety of sim-
ple but useful medicines. Some trees yield a preci-
ous balsam for the healing of nations; son e a quan-
tity of turpentine and rosin, and others give out their
quota of valuable oils and gums.

Nor are trees serviceable only in a natural state :
by the assistance of art, some are converted into
houses to protect man from the inclemency of the
weather, or are moulded into a variety of forms for
the purposes of building, and domestic comfort;
others raise the huge fabric of the floating cattle or
bulky merchantman, by which the articles of indus-
try and commerce are transported, and a communi-
cation kept up with the remotest regions,

Our limits do not permit us to enlarge upon these
specimens, or point out the various uses to which a
number of other woods in general use may be ap-
plied ; but the reader's own thoughts may suggest
these, as they are sufficiently obvious : and mean
time we will proceed to the order of

Shrubs. — As much that has been already said
respecting the utility of trees, may be applied in
common to this order, we will confine ourselves to
the three particulars in- which they may be said to
differ most from the former ; the first is their stature,
the second their greater pliability, and the third the
prickly armour by which many of them are covered.

Some shrubs, as the gooseberry, the rasp, and the
current bushes, so common in our gardens, gratify
the palate, and temper the blood during the summer

32 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

months with agreeable and cooling fruit; others, as
the rose, delight and please the eye by the beauty
of their flowers ; or regale the olfactory nerves with
the fragrance of their perfumes, as the sweet scented
briar: but how could these several ends have been
accomplished, if, by a more exalted exposure, the
fruit bearing bushes had placed their treasures be-
yond our reach — every rose, with its back turned to
us. had been " born to blush unseen," and each aro-
matic shrub, removed far above the sense of smel-
ling, had literally been left

" To waste its sweetness in the desart air."

With regard to that considerable share of pliant
elasticity possessed by some of them, how easily
does this admit the branches .to be turned aside, and
to resume their former position, in gathering of the
fruit or flowers, and how serviceable does this pro-
perty enable us to make some of them in the form
of hoops, baskets, or wicker work of any descrip-
tion ; while the sharp-pointed prickles by which they
are armed, serve not only as weapons of defence for
themselves, but furnish us with cheap and secure
fences against the inroads of straggling cattle, and
the unwelcome intrusion of the unprincipled vagrant.

Herbs — in an especial manner may be said to>
constitute the food of man and beast, as well as to
yield their assistance in an infinity of ways; and
behold, in what profusion they spring forth; in
what numerous bands they appear ! Yonder, a field
of golden-eared wheat presents to the view a most

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. S3

prolific crop of what forms the chief part of the sfeaff
of life. Here a few acres of long bearded barley
ripen to provide us with our favourite beverage.
On the right hand stand the tall growing and slen-
der oats and flowering potatoes, to revive and keep
alive the hopes of the poor; while on the left the
heavy laden bean, and low -creeping pea, in length-
ened files vegetate to furnish provender for our
horses; or the globular turnip increases its swelling
bulk to lay up for our herds a supply of food when
the softer herbage of the tietd is locked up by the
congealing powers of winter.

But what a spontaneous crop of luxuriant herbage
do our meadows present in the appointed season,
and in what a profusion of wholesome pasture do
the numerous flocks of sheep and cattle roam!
Whether they frequent the solitary holm, beside the
still waters, or range the pathless steep, still they
are followed by the goodness of the Lord : myriads
of grassy tufts spring up on every side, and they are
satisfied out of the treasures of Providence.

But the herbaceous productions of the field are
not universally calculated for the purposes of food.
In some places numerous groups of tall, thin, flexi-
ble plants make their appearance, whose filmy coats
being properly manufactured, are converted into the
most costly and delicate raiment; while others of a
coarser texture furnish the mariner with wings to
his vessel, cordage to tighten his masts, or the pon-
derous cable to stay his bark in the midst of the
fluctuating element.

34 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

But here their services do not end; for when
worn out in one shape, they assume a new form, and
not only furnish the material from which is formed
the wrapper of the manufacturer, and the package
of the merchant, but that invaluable article upon
which we write — upon which we are able to hold
converse with friends at a distance — and by means
of ichich, man transmits his thoughts to man, and
generations unborn are enabled to hold converse
with past ages!

By means of these pliant productions we are also
supplied with a variety of seeds and oils, of much
request in common life ; and wherever disease is
known? there, we have reason to believe, medicinal
herbs spring up as antidotes ; some communicating
their healing virtues by the root, some by the leaves,
and others by the flowers or seeds. A number of
these, and many others of the greatest utility in me-
dicine, come forth in various parts of the globe
without the aid of art, and are found growing wild
among the herbs of the field — but these are not the
effects of chance. They were originally planted by
the hands of Omnipotence, at the suggestion of
Divine benevolence, prompted by Omniscience. It
was the Lord who created medicines out of the
earth; He foresaw the distresses of his creatures,
and in pity to their calamities, not only commission-
ed the balm to spring up in Gilead for the healing
of the eastern tribes, but has spread abroad that
boundless variety of medicinal plants, which are to
be found in every climate, suited to the diseases of

BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN. 35

those particular spots, where Providence, all-wise,
hath fixed the lot of their inhabitants.

What a beautiful variety of nutritious esculents,
and exquisitely formed flowers do our gardens pre-
sent ! Here the Parsley with her frizzled locks, the
Celery with her outstretched arms, the Asparagus
with his towering stem, the Artichoke with his tur-
gid top, the Cauliflower with her milky dome, the
Cabbage with her swelling form, a variety of greens
with their curled leaves, and long files of peas and
beans, await in silence their master's call to do ho-
mage at his table ; and here too is deposited, among
a number of valuable and useful roots, that excellent
farinaceous substitute for bread, the wholesome po-
tatoe.

Flowers. — But for what purpose do .these charm-
ing flowers come forth r Is it merely to please our
eyes with their brilliant colours, and regale the sense
of smelling with their odoriferous perfumes, that
they unfold their fascinating beauties and emit their
pleasing fragrance ? Or is it to attract those nume-
rous insects which swarm among them, and riot
amid their liquid sweets?

That flowers were designed for both these pur-
poses is apparent from the sensations we experience
when we have leisure to visit those delightful spots,
and the assiduous eagerness which the busy bee
evinces in roaming from flower to flower, to extract
their balmy juices* But there is another, and that
a most important use to which the flowery race may

36 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

be made subservient : — In reason's ear they become
preachers.

The upright philosopher of the land of Uz, and
that devout admirer of the works of Nature, Israel's
king David, both took occasion to compare the un-
certain ten ut ot human life, to the frail and perish-
able state of a flower. The prophet Isaiah repre*
sents the transient glory of the crown of pride as
being like to one of these fading beauties; and our
Saviour has demonstrated that an important lesson
may be learned against a too anxious care, and
pride in dress, by a right consideration of these gay
visitants: " Consider the lilies how they grow ; they
toil not, they spin not , and yet I say unto you, that
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one
of these."

It must, therefore, add much to the value of these
short lived monitors, in the estimation of the wise,
and make their peaceful abodes be sought after with
the greater avidity by those who take pleasure in the
works of God, that they are thus capable of afford-
ing matter for serious reflection and moral improve-
ment.

Mr. Addison seems to have been sensible of this,
when he breaks out into the following declamation,
in praise of the pleasures of such a retirement: —
" You must know, Sir," says he, in one of his papers
in the spectator, " that I look upon the pleasure
which we take in a garden, as one of the most inno-
cent delights of human life. A garden was the ha-
bitation of our first parents before the fall It is

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 37

naturally apt to fill the mind with calmness and
tranquility, and to lay all its turbulent passions at
rest. It gives us a great insight into the contrivance
and wisdom of Providence, and suggests innumera-
ble subjects for meditation. We cannot but think
the very complacency and satisfaction which a man
takes in these works of Nature, to be a laudable, if
not a virtuous habit of mind."

But let not the poor complain, or those who have
no garden to retire to, no beautifully adorned en-
closure, where, secluded from society, they may give
themselves up to reflection. Still the fields are open
to them, and what, in the words of an eminent na-
turalist, is the earth, but " an immense garden, laid
out and planted by the hand of the Deity ? — the
lofty mountains and waving forests are its terraces
and groves; fertile fields and flowery meadows form
its beautiful parterres."

We cannot, we are persuaded, conclude this head
of our subject better than with the following quota-
tion from the author of The Seasons :

*' Soft roll your incense herbs, and fruits, and flowers,

In mingled clouds to HIM, whose sun exalts,

Whose breath perfumes you, and whose pencil paints."

oS BOOK. OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

CHAP. II.

ANIMALS.

« Fountain of elegance, unseen thyself,

What limit owns thy beauty, when thy works

Seem '.o possess, to faculties like mine,

Perfection infinite ! the merest speck

Of animated matter, to the eye

That studiously surveys the wise design,

Is a full volume of abundant art.

IN ascending from the Vegetable to the Animal
kingdom, we cannot help our attention being for-
cibly engaged by the singular construction, and
amazing properties of those little wonders found at
the bottom of ditches, and adhering to the underside
of the broad leaves of Aquatic Plants, known by the
name of Freshwater Polypuses. See that little
thing in form of a funnel or bell, adhering by the
lower extremity to some extraneous substance at
the bottom of the water ! Observe how it shoots
out its slender arms from the margin of its wide
mouth, and casts them around, occasioning a vortex
in the fluid! See how those insects, after being
drawn into that vortex, are caught hold of by its
arms, and conveyed to the mouth with a celerity
that is astonishing ; but for these signs of life and
animation would you not have taken what you first
saw to be a flower? Now observe how it shoots
out from its sides something in form of buds; return
in a few days, and, what do you behold? — these
buds converted into perfect Polypuses, but still ad-

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 39

hering to the parent. See how, by a sudden Jirkj
they separate, and immediately fix on other situa-
tions; cut one of these in two, the upper ^art shoots
out a tail, and the under produces a head; cut one
in three, and the upper and under do the same,
while the middle division produces both a head and
a tail ; cut one down lengthways to the middle, and
you have a monster with two heads; divide these,
again and again, as often as you please, and you
have a Hydra with many heads, in short cut the
Polypus into ten, or ten hundred parts, the effect
will be the same, and you will have as many Poly-
puses.

If the Sensitive Plant, the Hedysarum Gyrans,
and Venus' Fly-Trap, may be considered as so
many links at which the vegetable creation ends,
these living plants, if we may use the expression,
and animal flowers, which are found adhering to
the rocks on the sea shore, may, as well as the Oys-
ter, and other shell -fish (which form the connection
betwixt the animal and the mineral kingdom,) be
reckoned among those at which the mysterious "and
multitudinous order of beings begins, which is con-
tinued in such an infinitude of shapes and sizes,
shades and differences, and possessed with such a
number gf dissimilar appetites and instincts, from
the lowest gradation amongst the number of these
imperfectly formed animals, till it arrives at that
most complete piece of Nature's workmanship — that
cape-stone of the inferior creation, or link whick
unites it with superior intelligences — Man.

40 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

The number of animated creatures is prodigious
indeed! The whole creation teems as it were with
existence! The dry-land sends forth its multitudes;
the air hath its swarms; the sea its numerous shoals:
and the very depositories of corruption produce their
myriads ! Indeed in the class of Insects alone there
are a greater number of species than there are kinds
of Plants on the surface of the earth. In a little rain
water, after standing some days, Mr. Lewenhoeck
discovered innumerable animalcules, many thou-
sands of times less than a grain of sand, and in
proportion to a mite as a bee is to a horse! Having
examined the melt of a cod, he concluded that it
contained more living animalcules than there were
people living in the world; and by a method he
made use of in order to ascertain the comparative
size with the thickness or breadth of a hair of his
head, it was found that 216,000 of these minute
creatures are but epual to a globe whose diameter is
the breath of a hair. How amazing the wonders of
Omnipotence!

Yet notwithstanding these immense numbers, this
amazing diversity of form and bulk, of taste and
habit, all are conveniently and comfortably lodged ;
all are fed to their hearts' content, at the same
common table, and in such a manner as qpt a frag-
ment can be lost. How wonderful is it to observe
how well adapted are the various appetites of his
Creatures, to fulfil the will of the Great Creator, that
not a fragment may be lost. Some animals ol the
carniverous kind have an unquenchable thirst for

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 41

blood warm from the animal; others are satisfied
with the flesh newly killed: a third are not pleased
with it till it is in a state of putridity : ot those of
another description, some live upon fruits and roots;
otliers can partake of bark and leaves ; a third put
up with the soft herbage of the meadow ; and a
fourth. are content with the very refuse of our fields
and gardens: while each pursues that particular
path chalked out for him by Nature, without re-
pining or envying the lot of his neighbour.

The unwieldly Whale in the Greenland seas, the*
numerous herds of Elephants which graze the ex-
tensive regions betwixt the river Senegal and the
Cape of Good Hope ; and the gigantic Ostrich of
the sandy borders of Egypt and Palestine, roam as
much at large as the winged insect that flits from
flower to flower, or the invisible Animalcule \\hich
swims in the liquid drop. The polar Bear of the
Arctic Circle, wrapt in his shaggy covering, the
Ermine of Siberia in his furry mantle, and the Wa-
ter-Fowl with her thick-set oily feathers, no doubt
feel as comfortable as the Barbary Cow, almost
naked, the rhinoceros, sheltered from the tropical
heats by his coat of mail, or the monstrous Hippo-
potamus (the Behemoth of Job,) when he retires to
cool himself at the bottom of the African rivers.
Those abhorred insects which feed upon ordure, or
still more loathsome, that riot in putrefaction, we
have reason to believe feed as deliciously as the
Racoon on his West-Indian sweets, or pampered
Lap-dog from the hand of its mistress. And if the
E 2

42 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests,
we have no reason to suppose but the former feel
as happy when they have formed their habitations
at a convenient distance from the hen-ioosi, and the
latter, when from their lofty situations they can
behold the fowler at a distance, as the frocks and
herds which graze our fields, or the domestic fowls
which partake of our care and bounty. By this
wise and happy arrangement, the harmony of the
universe is preserved, and the prodigious multitude
of Earth's numerous tenants enabled to exist with-
out 'disorder or confusion.

But if we attend to the internal- structure of these
wonderfully complicated and intricately woven ma-
chines, called Animals, we will still find more rea-
son to admire and adore that Great Supreme, whose
omnipotent fiat brought them all into existence No
wonder that Galen, at the sight of a human skeleton,
should relinquish his former atheistical thoughts;
and, that the Psalmist, on the contemplation of his
material structure, should exclaim, " I am fearfully
and wonderfully made ;" but the greater surprise
is, that so many skeletons of animals and animated
wonders can be beheld with so much indifference
by that creature to whom God has given reflection
for the wisest of purposes ; for to what purpose can
the thoughts of man be better applied than to the
contemplation of the Deity through the medium of
his works !

" What variety of springs, what forces, and what
mechanical motion (says Button,) are%enclosed in

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 43

this small part of matter which composes the body
of an animal ! What properties, what harmony,
and what correspondence between the various parts !
How many combinations, arrangements, causes, ef-
fects and principles, conspire to complete one end;
and another writer observes: u In the single ounce
of matter which composes the body of a Sparrow,
we see all the instruments necessary for eating, for
digestion, for respiration, for seeing, ior hearing, for
smelling, for walking, for flying, for the performance
of ever) animal function, and of every motion. All
the parts of the complicated machine are perfectly
appropriated, completely adapted to their respective
uses ; and all disposed with the most exact organi-
zation." All this is very true, but would not the
wonder have been still more augmented, had the
specimens been taken from among those little curi-
osities of the Western hemisphere, called Humming-
birds ; with the addition that its beak is pointed like
a needle, its claws not thicker than a common pin ;
that its nest is about half an inch deep, its egg about
the size of a small pea ; and that nevertheless this
diminutive bird is adorned with a plumage of the
richest hues, and covered with a down that makes
it resemble a velvet flower? Upon its head is a
black tuft of incomparable beauty; the breast is of
a rose colour, its belly white as milk, the b: ck,
wings,. and tail are grey, with a border resembling
silver, and as if streaked with gold of the brightest
hue! But indeed the structure of the smaller in-
sect, or minutest animal in the creation of God carries

44 BOOR OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

along with it the most indisputable evidence of its
Original; namely, that it is beyond the possibility
of art to imitate, or the utmost stretch of human in-
genuity to comprehend.

Motion is one distinguishing characteristic of the
animal from th'* vegetable kingdom of 'Nature: and
this peculiarity will bo found to be absolutely neces-
sary ; for if the food or nutriment 01 animals is not
brought to them as to plants, by means of roots or
other conductors, they must needs go in search of
it; and how wisely are they furnished with instru-
ments for the purpose, some in the form of liir.bs,
some of wings, some of fins, and some of the reptile
tribe are enabled to move by the disposition of the
muscles and fibres of their bodies ; but what would
this power of motion and means of performing it
have signified, had these creatures been left to grope
in the dark, without ability to distinguish the good
from the bad :

« To shun their poison, and to choose their food."

Might they not as well have remained to perish
en the spot which gave them birth, as to have strayed
only to get their frames shattered by every interven-
ing obstacle: or the vital spark extinguished by
mistaking the beautiful plant for the wholesome herb.
To remedy such evils, howrever, Nature, or rather
the God of Nature, has not only .provided them
with senses, but has taken the utmost precaution to
guard from external injury these wonderful pieces
of exquisite skill, as well as that seat of all sensa-

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 45

tion, from whence the ramifications of the nerves
take their rise.

To mention only one or two of the most obvious,
for instance; what a curious and wonderful piece of
mechanism is the human Eye, so admirably con-
trived with its various coats, muscles, vessels, hu-
mours, nerves, and retina, for the purposes of vision !
How excellent its situation for the use it was de-
signed ! and how safely guarded by tie projecting
eye brows and watchful eye lashes, ev^ppn the alert,
from external injury ! The Eur, too, is a most
wonderful structure, contrived by its .ridges and
hollow's to gather and concentrate sounds till they
strike on the transparent membrane that forms the
surface of the drum, although deeply lodged that it
may also be preserved from outward accident
These are strange pieces of mechanism indeed!
and is it not natural to conclude, " He that planted
the ear shall he not hear f he that formed the eye
shall he not see ?"

If the brain, which is the seat of sensation and
the fountain of the animal spirits, is environed round
with such a hard, thick, and tough substance as the
skull, the heart and lungs are wisely placed in the
centre of the body, and encompassed by a double
fence of bones or ribs, muscles, and skin.

Without breathing, to put the wheel in motion at
the cistern, no animal could exist, and how admira-
bly situated and guarded also, as we have observed,
are the organs of respiration, and that mysterious
movement, " that faints not, neither is weary/' but

46 BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEW.

by night and by day, asleep or awake, in motion or
at rest, beats in unremitting pulsations, with greater,
regularity than a watch, in the breast ot some ani-
mals for sixty, in some seventy, and in others up-
wards of one hundred years. We might also notice
the admirable structure and wise disposition ot the
other parts in the animal economy, but this would
be inconsistent with our present limits and design ;
we must, however, observe on the whole, that each
will be fou^J| most conveniently situated for its re-
spective uses, and formed in the wisest manner for
its various purposes; that while nothing is wanting
to render the structure complete, there is nothing su-
perfluous or made in vain. The feelers of the
Butterfly are no less essential to her well being than
the proboscis of the Elephant; and the leg of the
Fly can no more say to its wing, than the eye of the
human body to its hand, " I have no need of thee."
But if the riglit consideration of the structure of
animals as well as the wise provision made for their
lodgment and subsistence, is convincing to the most
sceptical, that all are the doings of a Being infinite
in power, and fearful in working ; and inspire the
religious philosopher with such sentiments as David
expressed when contemplating the formation of the
human frame ; must we not also adopt such lan-
guage as he made use of on another occasion, and
sayv when reflecting on the manner in which these
creatures are reproduced, and the wonders of that
procreative power by which a continued succession
is kept up ; Thine eyes saw them when they icere

BOOK OP NATURE LAID ®PEN. 4?

made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lower
places of the earth. Whether they come into the
world in the shape of animals completely toi med,
or through the medium of eggs, still the business of
generation must remain a mystery, arid be reckoned
amongst the number of the dark things of the Creator.

The provision for keeping the number of living
creatures within due limits, is no less remarkable
than that for bringing them into being. The most
formidable monsters are thinly scattered, or confined
to particular spots. The destructive Tiger> for /in-
stance, is not very common, and the greatest ren-
dezvous of this blood-thirsty animal is said to be a
sort of insulated situation, the Sunderbunds or
Woody -Islands, at the mouth of the Ganges in India.
Long lived animals are observed to have few young
at a time ; while those of the greatest utility or such
as are used for animal food, abound in every climate,
and the short in duration are uncommonly prolific !

The instinct displayed by many of the irrational
creation for the preservation of their young, is also
truly astonishing,, and in some instances has been
referred to as examples of the strongest proofs of af-
fection. " How often," says our Saviour, " would
I have gathered thy children together, as a hen ga-
thereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would
not !" — but there are some of this order who stand
not long in need of parental protection and instruc-
tion; for the newly-calved Hippopotamus on the
death of his dam, will, at the sight of danger, betake
himself to a place of safety in his natural element,,

48 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

the bottorr of the river. This n.ight bring us to
speak more fully of those particular instincts by
which animals are distinguished ; but as we shall
have occasion to notice a few of these in considering
some peculiarities in the difterent orders as we go
along, we will here drop the general survey, and
proceed to that of

Quadrupeds.

OF this order it may be remarked in general, that
they derive their name from the number of their
legs ; and this naturally occasions in those that make
use of them for the purpose of walking, the prone
posture by which they are distinguished ; but this
posture, far from incommoding them, is, by the wise
conformation of the other parts, rendered the most
commodious possible for their habits and manner of
living. Quadrupeds are, for the most part, furnish-
ed with tails, and these are highly useful in the
absence of arms, for sweeping off vermin and trou-
blesome animals. Having no hands to lift their
food to their mouths, the necks of this order are in
general proportioned to the length of their fore legs;
their legs are made to bend in such a direction as
with the greatest ease to facilitate their motion for-
wards ; they have, for the most part7 a covering of
hair or wool ; and, that the weight of the head
might not become too heavy in the act of feeding,
each of these animals is furnished with a strong
tendinous insensible ligament, braced from the head

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 49

to the middle of the back, which both enables them
to support their burden with ease, and to recover
their head at pleasure.

In the particular construction of the various spe-
cies of Quadrupeds, with their several dispositions
and appetites, there are several things very remark-
able ; but we will only mention a few of them, in
which the wisdom and goodness of the Creator, in
adapting them so wonderfully to their different si-
tuations, habits, and manners of living, are very
conspicuous.

Animals of the graminivorous kinds, such as the
Horse, the Ox, and the Sheep, are furnished with
masticating organs, adapted to the soft herbage they
eat ; being of harmless dispositions, they are only
armed with defensive weapons, and for mutual safety
associate together in herds

Those whose natures are fierce and savage, and
whose cruel dispositions, like those of the Tiger and
Hyena, cannot be satisfied but at the expense of
blood, come forth solitary and alone ; but they are
armed with fearful claws and horrid tusks, and
monstrous jaw^s, wonderfully fitted for the seizure
and destruction of Hieir victims.

The Camel doomed to traverse the parched and
.burning deserts of Arabia, where continued drought
and ^erility reign, has not only a foot admirably
fitted for his element, and endowed with a remark-
able abstinence, but carries along with him a natu-
ral reservoir which he fills with water at every well.

F

50 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

The Lama of South America (the only original
beast of burden it produces,) is remarkably sure
footed, and climbs and descends with the greatest
safety the craggy rocks it has to encounter among
the rugged steeps and narrow paths of the Andes,
though encumbered with its load.

Goats range the craggy steep, and delight to crop
the uncultivated heath from the mountain's brow ;
and behold how admirably their hollow hoofs are
formed for taking hold of the rock, and with what
surprising agility they bound from cliff to cliff!

Animals of the Weasel kind, that live chiefly in
holes, and feed upon vermin, are not only furnished
with furs to preserve them from the damp, but have
long, slender, flexible bodies, well adapted for their
various windings. The Sea-horse of the Northern
Ocean, whose element is sometimes in the water,
and sometimes on the ice, is not only web-footed,
to assist in swimming, but has two monstrous tusks,
bending down from the upper jaw, which, together
with his claws, enable him to scramble up the icy
beach at pleasure. In short, the Mole is moulded
in the best possible manner for his subterraneous
habitation — the Squirrel for his aerial flights — the
Kangaroo for his tremendous leaps-^and the Bat,
which unites the Quadruped with the Volatile race,
is shaped in the most convenient manner for his
predatory excursions.

But if this remarkable accommodation of the
parts and appetites of quadrupeds to their habits
and pursuits, is apt to excite our surprise, what must

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 51

we think of those still more surprising and remark-
able instincts by which many of them are distin-
guished. In their internal formation some of this
order are so strikingly analogous to the human
body, that it is said, some skill in physiology is ne-
cessary to be able to notice the difference ; and in
the external appearance of the Orang-outang, or
Wild -man of the Woods, there is certainly no little
resemblance. So much, indeed, does the external
appearance of this creature resemble the human,
that " the Negroes imagine them to be a foreign
nation, come to inhabit their country, and that they
do not speak for fear of being compelled to work."
They are also the only animals that imitate man
in the use of weapons otherwise than what are na-
tural ; frequently attacking their enemies with sticks
and stones. That they possess an eminent share of
natural sagacity in the absence of reason, is evident
from the manner in which they make sheds for shel-
ter, and go to sleep in trees for security, as well as
from their descending from the mountains, when
they no longer find fruits, to the sea shore in search
of shell-fish. In the passage of one of these ani-
mals from Angola to England, it made many friends
on board, and seemed to despise the monkies of a
lower species, by avoiding that part of the ship
where they were confined. Buffon describes one of
these animals which he saw, as sitting down at table,
unfolding his napkin, wiping his lips, making use
of a fork or spoon, pouring' out his drink into a
glass, touching glasses with the person who drank

52 BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN.

with him, giving his hand to shew the company to
the door who came to see him, and walk about as
gravely as if he formed one of the society. " All
these," he observes, " I have seen, without any other
instigation than the signs or command of his master,
and often of his own accord." He also mentions,
that his dep'ortment was grave, his movements re-
gular, and his disposition gentle, very different from
other apes. Francis Pryard relates, that in the
province of Sierra Leone there is a species so strong
limbed, and so industrious, that when properly
trained and fed, they work like servants.

But to proceed ; what wonderful prudence, fore-
sight, and industry, does the republic of Beavers
display, as in a state of social compact, with an over-
seer at their head, each exerting his powers and con-
tributing his exertions fn raising the mole, and form-
ing with care the fortified settlement ! What sa-
gacity does the Elephant discover, as he discharges
the water from his mighty trunk, in order to cool
himself in the midst of the burning plains of Caf-
fraria !

Who knows not the affectionate tenderness of the
Dog, the mischievous cunning of the Monkey, the
inflexible perseverance of the Cat, in watching her
prey, and the subtle artifices of the Hare, in elud-
ing her pursuers ?

The Lion, at whose tremendous roar creation flies,
as if knowing the terror which his fearless form in-
spires, has recourse to cunning, and watches his
prey in ambush, in the neighbourhood of those

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 53

springs and waters to which they must necessarily
come to quench their thirst. The Bear, in autumn,
betakes himself to his winter quarters, nor ventures
abroad till spring has again renewed the face of the
earth. The Chamois Goat, when closely pursued in
his mountainous retreat, will suddenly rebound on
the huntsman, and precipitate him over the rock.
The Hedge-hog in winter wraps himself up in his
mossy seat. The Porcupine when almost overtaken
in the pursuit, on a sudden rolls himself up, and
presents to his antagonist, instead of a delicious
morsel, a ball of prickles : and the Armadillo, ac-
tuated by the same unerring impulse, joins his ex-
tremities beneath his shelly covering, and rolls over
the precipice unhurt, to the confusion of his ene-
my. But this is not all ; Horses in a state of na-
ture are not only said to keep a centinel on the look-
out, but, when attacked, join heads together and
fight with their heels. Oxen in a similar state join
tails together, and fight with their horns. Swine
get together in impenetrable herds to resist an at-
tack, and what is observable in all, they place the
young in the middle, and keep them safe in the day
of battle !

These are some of the wonders of instinct ; — and
can we behold them without admiration !

The Uses of Quadrupeds

Are so various, that we must content ourselves
with only naming a few of them. Of what great

54- BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

utility for the purposes of agriculture, travelling,
industry, and commerce, is that docile and tractable
animal the Horse ! In what a variety of ways do
those of the Ox and Sheep kind administer to our
wants ! and. happily for the world, these creatures
are most extensively diffused, from the polar circle
to the equator.

Goats, in many of the mountainous parts of Eu-
rope, constitute the wealth of the inhabitants : they
lie upon their skins, convert their milk into cheese
and butter, and feed upon their flesh. The Rein-
deer, to the inhabitants of the icy regions, supply
the place of the horse, the cow, the sheep, and the
goat. The Camel is to the Arabian what the Rein-
deer is to the Laplander. The flesh of the Elk is
palatable and nutritious, and of his skin the Indians
make snow-shoes and canoes. The Elephant, in
warm countries, is useful as a beast of burden, and
draws as much as six horses.

What an unwearied pattern of unremitting exer-
Xion arid fidelity is that invaluable animal the shep-
herd's Dog ! What humane and excellent life pre-
servers, the Newfoundland species ! and what sa-
gacious guides and safe conductors are that useful
breed, trained in the Alpine solitudes, to carry pro-
visions to the bewildered traveller, and lead his steps
to the hospitable convent !

To what a number of depredators would our sub-
stance be exposed, were it not for that convenient
and agile, but often ill-fated domestic animal, the
Cat ; which, in consequence of an ill-founded pre-

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 55

judice excited against her for those very habits and
propensities which render her valuable, and were
implanted in her nature for the fTest of purposes,
often becomes the victim of unfeeling boys, and of-
ten, too often, alas ! is made the sport of more un-
feeling barbarians, who deserve not the name of
men. The Ichneumon is to the Egyptians, in se-
veral respects, what the Cat is to us ; but far from
thinking of hanging her up in a barrel, and amusing
themselves with her sufferings, that more grateful
people have worshipped the Ichneumon as an ema-
nation of the Deity ! Cannot our more sober-
minded countrymen adopt a conduct between the
two extremes, and at least treat the purring race
with kindness? Animals of the Weasel kind fur-
nish us with a number of rich and valuable furs ;
the Civet, the Genet, and the Musk, with a supply
of perfumes ; the tusks of the Elephant, arid the
Seahorse with ivory ; the beautiful skin of the Tiger
decorates the seats of justice of the mandarins of
the East ; the flesh of the White Bear is eaten by
the Greenlancler, that of the Leopard is much re-
lished by the African ; and the Lion, even the Lion,
the living tomb of so many creatures, is frequently
eaten by the Negroes at the last !

We have reason to be thankful that in our happy
country we are abundantly supplied with food of a
more harmless nature, and much easier to be ob-
tained than those formidable monsters of the desert,
and that when taking a solitary ramble through
our peaceful fields, we have no occasion to adopt

#6 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

the following sentiments of the poet, so feelingly

expressed :

•

" What if the Lion in his rage I meet?

Oft in the dust I view his printed feet;

By hunger rous'd, he scours the groaning plain,

Gaunt Wolves and sullen Tigers in his train ;

Before them Death with .shrieks directs their way,

Fills the wild yell, and leads them to their prey."

CHAP. VI.

ON THE VARIETIES OF ANIMALS.

« To all has Nature given a bound precise
Of being and perfection ; and promulg'd
To every varying rank, her varying laws ;
Urging to this, from that restraining firm."

IN the science of natural history, philosophers
have found it expedient to arrange objects first un-
der a few grand divisions, and then to divide, and
afterwards subdivide these in the following manner.
The most general divisions are called Classes ; each
class is again divided into several lesser parts, which
are called Orders; each order contains a certain
number of Genera ; each genus consists of several
Species; and each species contains certain Varieties,
which is the smallest subdivision that they have
taken notice of. It is this lowest link of their chain
of classification which will form the subject of the
present chapter.

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 57

It is unnecessary for us to enter deeper into this
system of classification than merely to point out the
distinguishing circumstance that they have laid hold
on to mark the boundaries between what they call
a species and a variety; and this will be the easiest
done by choosing a familiar example for illustra-
tion. The horse and the ass are both of the same
genus of quadrupeds; and they resemble each other
so much, that they might well be mistaken for be-
ings of the same species ; but although it be found
that it is possible to make them procreate, yet it is
also known that the mule, which is produced from
this intermixture, is not capable of continuing its kind,
which circumstance induces naturalists to rank them
as a different species. When animals procreate to-
gether, and produce an offspring that is capable of
continuing their kind, however different they may
be in their appearance and other particulars, they
are accounted as only varieties of the same species;
nor is there any criterion that we know of, for dis-
tinguishing a variety of any particular kind of ani-
mal from a distinct species of the same genus, but
that of producing a fertile or an unfertile progeny.
In this particular, we believe, all naturalists are
agreed.

That there are many varieties of most species of
animals is well known ; and as many of these va-
rieties, especially among domesticated animals, rea-
dily intercopulate with each other, and produce a
mixed race, participating of the qualities of both
parents, it necessarily must happen, that in cases

58 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

where they are suffered to mix together, the de-
scendants of an animal of one of these varieties is
very different from that of the parent race. This
fact having been remarked, has given rise to an opi-
nion, that there has been originally but one pair of
animals of each species, and that all the varieties we
now discover of the same species, have been pro-
duced by accidental circumstances only, such as a
variation of climate, of food, or of some other ex-
traneous peculiarity ; and that, of course, one va-
riety may. be transmuted into another without any
intermixture of blood, purely by a change of cir-
cumstances only. This doctrine being once ad-
mitted, the inferences which necessarily result from
it, have proved highly detrimental to the practice
of individuals in their attempts to improve the breed
of domestic animals ; as it tends, in as far as that
doctrine is believed, to turn the attention of men
from fixed and certain principles, which admit of no
variation, to others that are vague and erroneous,
which tend only to puzzle and confound the mind,
and leave it in perpetual darkness and uncertainty.

The boldest asserter of the doctrine, that all the
varieties of every species of animal are derived from
one common stock, is the celebrated Buffon, who,
instead of searching for proofs to support his hypo-
thesis, contents himself with mere assertions, uttered
with as much confidence as if the matter had been
before proved beyond a possibility of doubt; and
he takes as the subject for his illustration the dog
kind, though the varieties of this species are more

BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN. 59

distinctly njarked than those of perhaps any other
animal with which we are intimately acquainted.
He says, that the shepherd^s dog (a variety of the
canine species, by the bye, which cannot be so dis-
tinctly recognized as many other kinds,) ^s the ori-
ginal stock from which the greyhound, the spaniel,
the pointer, the harrier, the bull -dog, the lap-dog,
the mastiff, the terrier, and every other variety, are
all directly produced ; and he even goes so far as to
specify the means that are necessary to be adopted
for producing these changes. It is painful to dwell
upon the accidental failings of a man of genius ; for
which reason we decline following him in his ex-
cursive career, and exposing the absurdities into
which he has fallen in pursuing.it. We have only
to regret, that a man of such distinguished talents
should have so far overlooked facts that were easily
within his reach, as to have so positively dogmatised
upon this subject in direct contradiction to them ;
for the multitude, who think not at all, follow the
authority of one who is, on many accounts, so re-
spectable, without the smallest degree of hesitation.
In consequence of this great authority, the hypo-
thesis above stated has been tacitly, at least, assent-
ed to by the literary world in general, for some time
past, though it will not require great exertions to
"bring such evidence, as we hope will prove satis-
factory to every reader, to shew that the fact is di-
rectly the reverse of what this learned philosopher
has stated it to be.

60 BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN.

If it were true, that a change of climate affected
an animal to such a degree as this hypothesis sup-
poses, it would be impossible that any person exist-
ing should not have had opportunities of observing
very striking instances of that kind. But, instead
of this, the most direct proofs of the contrary must
have fallen within the observation of every man in
the kingdom, in respect to the very animal that he
has selected for illustration. The dog is a favoured
domestic ; he attaches himself to his master, and
follows him wherever he goes. He is thus carried
through all the climates of the globe, under the im-
mediate controul and inspection of man; and no
instance hath ever been known in which an indivi-
dual dog has ever Jhus experienced any material
change in his external form, far less in his internal
qualities. If a smooth-haired Spanish pointer, for
instance, be carried to the torrid or the frozen zone,
from Kamtschatka through the whole extent of
Asia and Europe into America, he is the same
smooth-haired dog every where ; and his master
recognizes him for the same creature at the first
glance : but if the pile of its hair and external ap-
pearance be not altered, far less is the animal
changed in its other qualities : it still scents the
game in the way peculiar to that kind of dog ; it
does not, like the greyhound, pursue it by the eye ;*
it does not, like the hound, burst forth in sonorous
howling when it feels the scent strong : this variety
of the dog kind steals upon its prey with extreme
caution and circumspection. These qualities it pos-

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 61

sessed at its birth, and these qualities it retains till
its dying hour, in spite of any change of climate
or kind of food it may be made to experience. The
same thing may be said of every other kind of dog.
The English bull dog. displayed the same uncon-
querable obstinacy on the arena of ancient Rome>
as he does at this day in the island which gave him
birth: and the Newfoundland dog of the present
day is equally gentle, equally attached to his mas-
ter, and alike firm in his defence in every part of
Europe as in America. In sho'rt, the universal ex-
perience of mankind incontrovertibly proves, that
the same individual dog continues the same in re-
gard to all its essential characteristics in every re-
gion of this globe, and under every different system
of management. He may be rendered fatter or
leaner, diseased or sound, and these variations of
management will produce a temporary change in
his appearance ; but no evidence was ever known
of a dog of one kind being converted into one of
another sort. The terrier continues to ferret out
the lesser animals with silent assiduity ; the lap dog
to bark at every thing that moves ; the pointer re-
tains his quick sense of smelling; the greyhound
searches, for his prey by the eye in every region
alike ; so that there is no reason to doubt that every
kind of dog, considered individually, retains the
same faculties unchanged throughout the whole
course of its life, to whatever changes of food or
climate it may be subjected.

Gr

62 BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN.

But if the individual itself remain unchanged
under every possible variation, how are we to con-
ceive that a change in this respect can affect the
progeny ? Can any one believe that if a greyhound
bitch, while with young, were allowed to bring forth
her litter in one place (in Britain suppose, the place
of her nativity,) she would produce true grey-
hounds, but if she were carried to Norway, the lit-
ter would turn out to be mastiffs; in Turkey long-
haired pointers ; and in other countries hounds,
terriers, and all the other varieties of dogs? At
the bare mention of such a position the mind revolts
from it, as from a self-evident absurdity : but if the
litter were not brought forth in these states in dif-
ferent climates, the puppies must be changed in-
stantaneously after they come into the world ; for,
as we have seen, they are not changed by it at any
other period of their life, it must be now that the
change is effected, (like tadpoles into frogs,) or
never. But who has ever heard of such a meta-
morphoses ? We all know that no such thing takes
place. Yet this, and more, must have happened
were there the smallest foundation for this hypo-
thesis These changes must have happened not
once only, but often ; not casually, but invariably;
of course it would have been utterly impossible to
propagate a greyhound in one country, or a beagle
in the other; in short, every country would have
had its own particular variety of dogs, and none
other. But this we know is contradicted by the
clearest facts, and the universal experience of man-

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 63

kind ; and it must appear to be not a little surpris-
ing to those who reflect upon it, that an hypothesis
which is, under every point of view, so absurd,
should ever have obtained currency for one moment
among men who had their eyes open, and were not
deprived of the power of reasoning.

CHAP. VII.

BIRDS.

{< But who the various nations can declare,

That plough with busy wing the peopled air ?

These cleave the crumbling bark for insect food ;

Those dip the crooked beak in kindred blood ;

Some haunt the rushy moor, the lonely woods ; „

Some bathe their silver plumage in the floods."

THE Ostrich, the Emu, and the Cassowary, are
not only remarkable, by reason of their superiority of
size, but seem to claim our first attention among the
feathery tribes, on account of their constituting some
of those apparent links, by which the winged tribe
is united to the order of Quadrupeds, For although
these animals resemble birds in the outline, and in
several parts of their conformation, they certainly
cannot be classed among the more perfect orders of
the species, in as much as they do not make use of
their wings for the purpose of flying ; and as to in-
ternal formation, the Ostrich is said to have as great
a resemblance to the tour-footed as to the volatile
order.

64 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

The structure of these creatures, as well as their
appetites, is 'however well adapted for the situations
in which they are severally placed, and they appear
to know well how to supply the defect of some of
their members by the use which they make of others.

Of all animals that move on their legs, the Os-
trich is by far the swiftest ; and although the Ara-
bians train their fleetest horses for the chase, it is
not likely they would be successful in the pursuit of
this animal, were it not for his circling manner of
running. Nor is this surprising, when we consider
that this lofty mass of light materials is not only
carried forward by his long springing legs, but is
impelled along by his wings, which he keeps in con-
stant motion, and apparently serve the purpose of
oars.

The Emu, or Ostrich of the new continent, is also
a remarkably swift runner, but its manner of assist-
ing its legs is somewhat different from the former ;
besides making use of something behind, like a heel,
to push it forward, this animal uses a kind of action
peculiar to itself, first lifting up one wing and keep-
ing it elevated for some time in form of a sail, then
letting it drop and elevating the other ; by this
means it moves along with such rapidity, that even
the Greyhound can seldom overtake it. The fa-
vourite climate of the Cassowary seems to begin
where that of the Ostrich terminates, in the old
world ; and although its wings are so very small^
that being covered with the hair on the back they
are scarcely perceptible, it kicks up behind with the

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. ' 65

one leg, and then making a bound forward with the
other, proceeds with such amazing speed, that the
swiftest racer would be unable to maintain the pur-
suit !

In the structure of Birds of the more perfect order,
a few things demand our most serious attention :

The whole body is 'shaped in the most convenient
manner for making their way through the air ; be-
ing, as Mr. Ray observes, constructed very near Sir
Isaac Newton's form of least resistance. According
to Bar, in his continuation of Buffon, " It is neither
extremely massive nor equally substantial in all its
parts ; but, being designed to rise in the air, is capa-
ble of expanding a large surface without solidity.
The body is sharp before, to pierce and make its
way through that element; it then gradually in-
creases in, bulk, till it has acquired its just dimen-
sions, and falls off in an expansive tail."

The motion of this order being two-fold, walking
and flying, they are provided with legs at once
wonderfully contrived to walk with, and raise them
like a spring for their flight ; wings to buoy them
up and waft them along ; and a tail to keep them
steady in the air, assist them in their evolutions,
and to direct their course.

Although their feathery covering is admirably
constructed for lightness and buoyancy, their wings
are furnished with a strength that is amazing ; so
that the flap of a Swan's wing has been known to
break a man's leg: and a similar blow from an Ea-
gle has produced instant death ; and by these they
G 2

66 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

are enabled to impel themselves forward with a ra-
pidity that exceeds the fleetest quadruped. To fit
them the better for their flight, the feathers are dis-
posed in the most perfect order, lying one way; and
that they may glide more smoothly along, they are
furnished with a gland situated on the rump, from
which they occasionally press out oil with the bill,
and anoint the feathers. In water-fowl this oil is so
plentiful, that by it their plumage is rendered com-
pletely water-proof.

The beak, or bill of birds, is a curiout piece of
art, formed of a hard horny substance, constructed
in the most commodious manner for piercing the
air. Their ears stand not out from their head to
retard their flight, while their eyes are placed in
such situations as to take in nearly a hemisphere on
either side.

Birds have no teeth to chew their food ; but those
of the granivorous kind are provided with two- sto-
machs ; in one of which the victuals are softened and
macerated before they enter the other to be com-
pletely digested. Being often employed in travers-
ing the upper regions, where they behoved to be
much incommoded did they bring forth their young
in the manner of quadrupeds, their manner of gene-
rating is wisely made to differ, and their offspring
are produced by means of eggs In the speedy
growth of yeung birds, by which they acquire a
degree of strength and size to be able so soon to pro-
vide for themselves, we have also an instanced the
tender care of Providence.

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 67

What power unseen inspires these little creatures
with " the passion of the groves," at the most fit
season for forming their alliances — wben^ the 'genial
temper of the weather covers the trees with leaves,
the fields with grass, and produces such swarms of
insects for the support of their future progeny ! And
how comes it to pass, that no sooner is the connubial
league formed than those little warblers (a pattern to
new-married couples in humble life, who have no-
thing'but their own industry to depend on,) imme-
diately set about building their nests, and making
preparations for their tender offspring !

In the building of their nests, what art and inge-
nuity are displayed ! Whether they are constructed
from the collected portions of clay and mortar, or
from the more light materials of moss and straw,
these little creatures contrive to mould them into the
most convenient forms, and to give them a durabi-
lity proportionate to their wants.

" It wins my admiration,

To view the structure of that little work,
A bird's nest ; mark it well within, without,
No tool had he that wrought, no knife to cut,
No nail to fix, no bodkin to insert,
No glue to join ! his little beak was all !
And yet how neatly finish'd."

Nor is the wonder less, that birds of the same
kind, however widely separated, should all follow
the same order of architecture in the construction

68 BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPES.

of their habitations ; that each should make choice
of the situation most suitable to its kind.

" Some to the rude protection of the thorn
Commit their feeble offspring ; the cleft tree
Offers its kind concealment to a few ;
Their food its insects, and its moss their nest.
But most in woodland solitudes delight."

And that all should agree in laying as many eggs
as to be sufficient to keep up their species, yet no
more than they can conveniently hatch and bring up.

In the incubation with what patience do these
creatures set on their eggs when necessary, till the
young are ready to be hatched, and then how
officious in assisting the little prisoners to escape !
With what inimitable care do they afterwards watch
over and provide for the brood until it is capable of
doing for itself ; and with what scrupulous exactness,
during this period, do they distribute to each his al-
lotted portion of food.

" What is this Mighty Breath, ye sages say,
That in a powerful language, felt, not heard,

Instructs the fowls of heaven ? What but GOD,

Inspiring GOD ! who, boundless Spirit all,
And unremitting energy pervades,
Adjusts, sustains, and agitates the whole."

These observations are applicable to the feathery
tribe in general ; but if we turn to the peculiarities
of a few of the different species, we shall observe
that the wisdom and the goodness of the Deity are

BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN, 69

no less conspicuous. The Ostrich, formed to tra-
verse the burning sands of Africa, is long legged,
light, and amazingly agile. Denied the natural re-
servoir of the Camel, it is endowed with such an
abstinence from water, that the Arabs assert that it
never drinks ! and as it may roam many hundreds
of miles in quest of vegetation, it seems to have an
appetite for almost every kind of food. So that
there is no desert, however barren, but what pos-
sesses sufficiency to supply these creatures with pro-
visions, for they eat almost any thing. Glass, stones,
irODj &c. have been found in their stomachs ; and it
is affirmed, that in one was found a piece of stone
that weighed upwards of a pound.

The Condor of America, is said to be the largest
bird endowed with flight; and being of the rapa-
cious kind, is armed with a beak so strong as to
pierce the hide of an ox.

The Eagle, the most noble of rapacious volatiles,
has a tasje too nice for carrion ; and in order that
he may secure his living prey, and bear it in safety
to his nest in the inaccessible cliff. Nature has en-
dowed him with the faculty of vision in an eminent
degree, prodigious claws, amazing strength, and a
profusion of feathers down to his very toes.

The Vulture delights in carrion and putridity ;
and this excellent anatomist may at once be distin-
guished from the Eagle by the nakedness of his neck
and head, as well as that acute sense of smelling, by
which, according to Herodotus, he can smeli a dead
carcase at the distance of fifteen thousand paces.

70 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

How admirably formed are the eyes of the birds
of night for seeing better when the sun is below than
above the horizon. Those of the poultry kind are
not furnished with hooked bills and formidable ta-
lons, or wings calculated for long flights ; and while
the solitary Eagle or Hawk pay us a transient visit,
unaccompanied and alone, these surround our dwell-
ings in numerous flocks. Those of the Grouse kind,
who feed on moor-berries and the tops of heath plants,
have their habitations assigned them in the most bar-
ren and uncultivated tracts where their favouritefood
abounds The hooked bill of the Parrot is well
contrived to assist him in climbing. Ducks, Geese,
and many others, have long broad bills to enable
them to grope for their food in water and mud ; on
the contrary, a thick, short, and sharp edged bill, is
as necessary to those who have occasion to husk
and flay the grain they swallow. The Wood-peck-
er's bill is sufficiently strong to dig holes ; that of
the Swallow is slender and sharp pointed, and he
is also furnished with a very wide mouth, to enable
him to catch the winged insect in its flight; and the
ease with which Sea pies raise their favourite food
from the rocks, by means of their long, narrow, and
compressed bills, is astonishing. Even Limpets,
which adhere so firmly to the rocks, as not to be ea-
sily separated by a knife, these birds find no diffi-
culty to raise with the instrument Nature has pro-
vided them with for the purpose.

The long legs and necks of birds of the Crane
kind, together with their sharp pointed bills, are

BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN. 71

wonderfully adapted for the purpose of wading and
picking up their food from the bottom of the shal-
lows; and the webbed feet, oily feathers, and broad
bills of those of the Swan kind, are equally so, to
enable them to swim along, and lay hold of their
prey in the watery element.

The Pelican of the wilderness is a most dexterous
fisher, and nature has provided him with a prodigi-
ous pouch, of a singular construction, under his bill,
which, although scarcely perceptible when empty,
enables him when full to bear ashore as many fish
at a time as would suffice sixty men for dinner The
Albatross, the most formidable of the Gull kind,
preys not only on fish, but water fowl of an inferior
size; and his bill terminates in a crooked point, by
which he is enabled to lay hold of them on the wing.
The Penguin seldom leaves the water ; and while
others of the feathery . race only skim its surface,
pursues his prey to the greatest depth, and he ap-
proaches the finny tribe in his formation as well as
in his disposition and ha-bits. Indeed, these animals
may be justly reckoned one of the connecting links
between the volatile and finny tribes, as not only
their fin-like wings and broad webbed feet, but their
body being covered more warmly all over with fea-
thers than any other bird whatever, and the parti-
cular construction of their lungs, all tend to shew
that water is their principal element

How wonderful the migration of birds ! or that
surprising instinct by which " the stork in the hea-
vens knoweth her appointed times/' " and the crane

72 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

and the swallow observe the time of their coming."
When Storks take their departure for Europe, it is
said they all assemble on a particular day, decamp
during the night, and leave not a single one of their
company behind. Now what power unseen com-
mands them to this general assembly, directs them
in their course, orders them to halt as occasion re-
quires, and then to renew their flight till they ar-
rive at the exact point of their destination ?

« Who bids the Stork, Columbus-like, explore
Heavens not his own, and worlds unknown before?
Who calls the council, states the certain day?
Who forms the phalanx, and who points the way ?"

" Where do the Cranes, or winding Swallows go,
Fearful of gathering winds and falling snow ?
If into rocks or hollow creeks they creep,
In temporary death confined to sleep ;
Or, conscious of the coming evil, fly
To milder regions and a southern sky r"

Birds in the torrid zone, where their nests, other-
wise situated, would be exposed to the assaults of
the snake when he twines up the trunk, or the de-
predations of the ape, suspend them at the point of
a bough, or the extreme branches of the trees; and
some, as the Taylor-bird, not content with that pre-
caution, attach their nests to the side of a leaf. The
expertness of this little .bird, at the profession from
whence it derives its name, is admirable. When
it has picked up a dead leaf, it sews it to the side of
a living one, its slender bill being its needle, and its

BOOK OF NATURE LAID GPEN. 73

thread some fine fibres; the lining is composed of
feathers, gossamer, and down The Eagle con-
structs her habitation among inaccessible rocks,
where it is shielded by projecting craigs; and the
Flamingo builds her nest in the middle of an ex-
tensive morass, beyond the reach of danger.

*' From man retir'd, amid the lonely marsh,
Flamingoes build and tend their curious nest."

What sagacity does the Vulture display as he sits
silent and unseen in the American forest, watching
the operations of the monstrous Crocodile, while she
deposits her eggs in the sand on the banks of the
river! The little Butcher-bird, that attacks crea-
tures four times bigger than himself, seizes its vie-
tims by the throat, and strangles them in an instant;
and, as if conscious of its inability otherwise to sepa-
rate the food it has so secured, contrives to spit it
on a neighbouring thorn, and then pulls it pieces
with its bill The solitary Owl takes up its station
in the corner of a barn at the approach of night,
and with inflexible perseverance watches its prey.
The Magpie is noted for its singular cunning Bus-
sards are said to keep a sentinel on the look-out to
apprize them of danger. The Partridge acts with
the greatest subtlety, in order to decoy away a dog
or other animal when he approaches her nest ; and
the affection of the Hen for her tender brood is such,
that for their protection she will attack the hog or
the mastiff, and even not hesitate to fly at the ftrs

H

74 BOOK OF tfATURE LAID OPEN.

What animal evinces more courage than the Cock,
as he struts in sovereignty on his favourite dunghill ?
The facility with which Parrots are taug t to speak,
and retain and repeat a number of words is truly
surprising Cormorants in China are trained for
the purposes of fishing; and Hawks, in other coun-
tries for fowling; and the Carrier Pigeon performs
his lengthened embassy with unerring precision,
and with astonishing celerity Thevenot says, they
commonly travel from Aleppo to Alexandria in Sy-
ria in six hours, which is a distance of eighty-eight
miles The letters are generally fastened under
their wings In order to ascertain with some de-
gree of accuracy the speed of these curious birds, a
gentleman, some years ago, sent a carrier pigeon from
London to a friend at Bury St Edmunds, desiring
it to be thrown up at a particular time two days
after its arrival ; this was attended to, and the pigeon
returned to the Bull Inn, Bishopsgate-street, two
hours and a half afterwards, having in that time tra-
velled seventy two miles — Even the stupid Ostrich,
as it may be called in other respects, is not so desti-
tute of natural affection and instinctive cunning as
some are apt to imagine; for if she more frequently
leaves her eggs than other birds, it is only in those
hot climates where there is no necessity for constant
incubation ; and if she thrusts her head in the sand,
when every chance of escape is at an end, it is no
less certain that she contrives to prolong the chace
and distance her pursuer, by occasionally lowering

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 75

one of her wings, aud disappointing him with a
mouthful of feathers.

The Uses of Volatilcs.

The uses of the poultry kind, especially of such as
are domesticated, are too obvious to be enumerated;
it may, however, be remarked, that the common
Hen, if well supplied with food and water, is said
to lay sometimes two hundred eggs in a year; and
the fecundity of the Pigeon in its domestic state is
so great, that from a single pair, near fifteen thou-
sand may be produced in four years.

The flesh of the .Grouse kind is esteemed for its
delicacy; the Peacock, in some countries, is consi-
dered as a luxury; and although it is in a great mea-
sure for his singular plumage that man has been
tempted to follow the Ostrich in his desert retreat,
some of the African tribes are very fond of his flesh,
and even the Romans appear to have considered it a
dainty; for it is recorded of Heliogabalus, that he
had the brains of six hundred of these animals, at a
feast, served up in one dish! He should immediately
after partaking of that dish, have buried his head in
the sand, and been ashamed to resume the erect form
of man, whose character he had disgraced. — There
are, besides, many parts of this animal which are
supposed to be very salutary for medicinal purposes,
and their strength and swiftness seem to render them
very fit for the purposes of travelling or carrying bur-
dens; fop Moore relates, that at Joar in Africa, he

76 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN*

met a man travelling on an Ostrich; and Mr. Adam;
son informs us, that when he was at the factory of Po-
dore there were two young Ostriches, the strongest
of which was much fleeter than the best English
race-horse he ever saw, although he at that time
carried two negroes on his back.

If in the feathery tribe some appear to be formed
to please us with the beauty of their plumage, as the
Goldfinch, the Bullfinch, and the Humming bird ;
others, as the Thrush, the Blackbird, and the Ca-
nary, delight us with the melody of their song The
L*ark soars aloft and salutes the new-born day with
his cheerful notes. The Nightingale soothes, the
weary labourer as he returns from his daily toil, by
his fascinating strains. The little Robin, in return
for the protection our fences have afforded him, ex-
erts himself to render the hedges vocal, in soft and
tender melody; and the Sparrow endeavours to
amuse us with her chirpings.

The Swallow, also, as if sensible of the undisturb-
ed possession she has been allowed to take of our
premises, during the time of her necessities, catches
upon the wing a multitude of flies, gnats, and bee-
tles, and frees us from a number of troublesome ver-
min before she bids us farewell. Birds of the Rook
and Pie kind, although a noisy and chattering tribe,
may be of infinitely more use than we have the sense
to discover, by the destruction of grubs, worms, and
eggs of vermin; and the common carrion crow may
be no less necessary in our climate, than the Egyp-
tian Vulture and the Ossifrage of Syria. The Vul-

BOOK OF STATURE LAID OPEN. 77

ture, indeed, is common in many parts of Europe,
and abounds in America, Asia, and Africa. In
Egypt and other warm countries, he is of singular
use. Numerous flocks of them are always hovering
in the neighbourhood of Grand Cairo; and for the
services the inhabitants experience, by these ani-
mals devouring the carrion and filth of that great
city, which, in such a sultry climate, would other-
wise soon putrify and corrupt the air, they are not
permitted to be destroyed. The Ossifrage of the.
woods of Syria and Egypt feeds on the dead car-
cases of fowls and reptiles. This brings us to say
a few words on the use of rapacious fowls^, which
may be also applied to wild beasts in general.

Better perhaps it may appear to the imperfect
reasoning of short sighted mortals, that the business
of mutual destruction had been avoided in the eco-
nomy of nature, and instead of that circuit of prey
and devastation which we observe, all animals had
been formed to live on vegetable food, and suffered
to die a natural death. But, independent of the dif-
ficulty that occurs as to how such a number of crea-
tures could be fed from the same source, we do not
consider the state of suffering to which many of them
must necessarily have been exposed, if they had been
left to perish by protracted famine, after the decay
of their bodily powers rendered them unfit to go in
quest of food. Compared with this, is it not a far
more happy dispensation that animals are formed
for the destruction of each other ? and that (to fol-
low -the course of one circle by way of specimen,)

H2

•78 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

tvhile the tree-louse lives on plants, the musca aphi-
divora lives upon the tree-louse; the hornet lives
upon the musca aphidivora ; the dragon fly on the
hornet; the spider on the dragon-fly; the small birds
on the spider; and the hawk on the small birds.

Deprived of reason, the innocent lamb licks the
hand raised for its destruction ; and the sufferings
which animals feel upon the speedy extinction of
the vital spark, must be momentary indeed, in com-
parison of the pangs they must have undergone, if
they had been left to expire by old age. Indeed,
according to this plan, old age would be impossi-
ble ; for what would the world soon become were
Its numerous tenants so cut off, and the putrid car-
cases to lie unburied ? — the circumambient air, now
the source of life and vitality, must then in a short
lime be rendered pestilential, and bearing upon its
wings the noxious vapours, deal death and deso-
lation with increasing malignity to every climate,
until the beautiful theatre of life and activity became
one great charnel-house, and the animating flame be
for ever extinguished in the awful silence of eternal
night.

Instead, therefore, of finding fault with the mer-
ciful dispensations of our all wise Creator, and re-
pining that lions and tigers, bears and wolves, ea-
gles and vultures, serpents and crocodiles, and vo-
racious monsters of the deep of every description
exist, let us rather rejoice that wherever the carcase
is exposed on the field, there will the vultures be
gathered together ; and that, where the lion and

BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN. 79

Serpent may die in their sequestered retreats, innu-
merable vermin, attracted by the scent, will soon
find them out, and leave not a vestige of putrifaction
behind.

Before we conclude with the tribe of volatiles, we
will just remark, that these are not the only uses for
which this order of beings seem to have been created.
From the feathery creai'on we may also learn les-
sons of wisdom on the most interesting and impor-
tant subjects. What an example of conjugal con-
stancy and fidelity do we discover in the turtledove!
What a pattern of filial affection in the young stork!
What a lesson for presumptuous pride have we in
the answer of Solon to the monarch of Lydia ! —
When seated on his magnificent throne, and sur-
rounded by all the appendages of external pomp
and pageantry, Croesus asked the Greek philoso-
pher, if he had ever seen so magnificent a specta-
cle : " After having seen the plumage of the Phea-
sant, he could not be astonished at the sight of any
other finery," was the cool reply ! — And what com-
fort may we derive, under the vexatious losses and
crosses of life, from the argument drawn by our
Divine Teacher against sinking under despondency
or anxiety : u Behold the fowls of the air ; for they
sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns:
yet our heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not
better than they ?>

" Behold, and look away your low despair;
See the light tenants of the barren air ;

80 BOOK OF NATURE LAID

To them nor stores, nor granaries belong;
Nought but the woodland and the pleasing songr
Yet, your kind heavenly Father bends his eye
On the least wing that flits along the sky/*

CHAP. VIII.

INSECTS.

" Where greatness is to Nature's works deny*<J,
In art and beauty it is well supplied :
In a small space the more perfection's shown,
And what is exquisite in little's done."

INSECTS have been reckoned by some among
the more imperfectly formed of Nature's works;
but in this most numerous class of animated beings,
where shall we find a single instance in which this is
made to appear? In all that prodigious variety
that exist between the Scorpion and the Mite, we
certainly behold in the structure of insects abundant
evidence of the most exquisite skill ; and if by means
of the microscope we extend our researches down-
wards through that minute order of beings, till we
arrive at those invisible animalcules which are com-
puted to be twenty-seven millions of times smaller
than the mite, the same evidence of wisdom and
design present themselves in every gradation, and
all ideas of imperfection eease.

BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPE^N. §1

Of all productions in nature, insects are by far the
most numerous, and though at first sight herbs of
the field seem to be the parts of organized matter
produced in the greatest abundance, yet upon mi-
nute inspection we find every plant supporting a
multitude of creatures scarcely perceptible, that fill up
the compass of youth, vigour, and age, in the space
of a few days' existence. In Lapland, and some
parts of America, insects are said to be so numerous
that if a candle is lighted they swarm about it in
such multitudes that it is instantly extinguished!
As insects are endowed with the various powers of
creeping, flying, and swimming, there is scarce any
place, however remote and secure, in which they
are not to be found.

It is the infinite number of these invisible animals
that makes stagnating waters appear of so many
different hues, as green, brown, reddish, &c.

It is not at all surprising then, that such an accu-
rate researcher into Nature's works as the excellent
Mr. Boyle, should observe, " that his wonders dwelt
not so much on Nature's clocks as her watches." —
In several kinds of these creatures, invisible before
to mortal eyes, it is not only easy to discover, by
means of a good magnifier, the external appearance
of their mouths, their horns, their trunks, and other
members, but the very motion of their heart and
lungs ! Now, as it has been remarked, as these
little animals are discovered to be organized bodies,
how fine and subtile must be the several parts that
compose them ! How difficult to conceive the ex-

62 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEtf.

treme minuteness of the muscles necessary to the
heart, the glands for the secretion of the fluids, the
stomach and bowels for the digestion of the food,
the fineness of the tubes, nerves^ arteries, veins, and
above all, of the blood, the lymph, and animal spi-
rits, which must be infinitely more so than any of
these ! Here the utmost stretch of imagination is
brought to the test, without being able to form any
adequate conception ; but these inconceivable won-
ders, instead of conveying any idea of imperfection,
as to the skill of the artist, must, from what they
make to appear, inspire the attentive observer with
very different emotions, and force him to exclaim,

" Thyself, how wond'rous then !"

The beauty and symmetry of some of those mi-
nute objects so viewed, are surprising indeed. What
a metamorphosis do they seem to undergo under the
magic-working glass ! Creatures that before seemed
small and despicable, now " appear the pride of
nature, wherein she has bestowed more nice and
delicate art, and displayed more profusely the rich
embroidery and elegant beauties and garniture of
colours than in any of the larger species of animals.''
Even the dust that adheres to the butterfly's wing,
and to which it owes the beautiful tints and varie-
gated hues which adorn it, is said to be an innume-
rable collection of extremely small feathers, as per-
fect in the structure and symmetry of the arrange-
ment, as they are beautiful in the colouring.

BOOK OF NATURE LA.lt> OPftN. 83

But tliis is not all, the very circumstances adduced
as marks of imperfection in the insect tribes, viz.
their being enabled to live for some time after being
deprived of those organs necessary to life in the
higher ranks, and their amazing numbers, ought ra-
ther to be considered as arguments to the contrary.

The former is no doubt essentially necessary to
the preservation of a species exposed to so many ca-
sualties, as those in particular who live on blood,
and cannot, therefore, partake of a meal, without giv-
ing their enemies notice of their presence ; and the
latter, to prevent the extinction of a short-lived race,
which come into existence at a time when there are
so many open mouths ready to devour them.

Without these two characteristic distinctions of the
insect tribes, although they may be deemed imper-
fections by the more imperfect powers of short sight-
ed mortals, it is probable that long ere now some of
those exquisite pieces of Nature's workmanship must
have disappeared from the creation, and for want of
those connecting links, the whole beautiful fabric of
the universe must have fallen to decay ; for, trifling
as some of those minute or imperceptible objects
may appear, the language of philosophy is:

- " Each crawling insect holds a rank
Important in the plan of HIM who frarn'd
This scale of heings ; holds a rank, which lont,
Would break the chain, and leave a gap
That Nature's self would rue."

Instead, therefore, of having the presumption to
stigmatize, in the most remote degree, this particular

84 BOOK OP NATURE LAIS OPEN.

order of the creatures of the Almighty, as affording
evidences of imperfection, let us rather, from similar
considerations, adopt the words of the more judi-
cious Swammerdam ; t( After an attentive examina-
tion," says he, a of the nature and anatomy of the
smallest as well as the largest animals, I cannot help
allowing the least an equal, or perhaps a superior
degree of dignity. If, while we dissect with care
the largest Miimals, we are filled with wonder at the
elegant disposition of their parts, to what a height is
our astonishment raised, when we discover all these
parts arranged in the least in the same regular man-
ner"— And sum up the dispute in the words of ano-
ther naturalist : " Of this dispute it is only neces-
sary to observe, that the wisdom of the Creator is
so conspicuous in all his works, and such surpris-
ing art is discovered in the mechanism of the body
of every creature, that it is very difficult, if not im-
possible, to say where it is most, and where it is
least to be observed."

It is impossible, in the compass of this book, to do
any thing like justice to a subject which can never
be sufficiently investigated. We will, however, con-
sistent with our general plan, notice a few facts and
striking peculiarities in this mysterious and numer-
ous order of beings, by which it is most distinguish-
ed from the others, and in which it will be suffi-
ciently evident that insects are also the children of
the same common parent, whose wisdom and good-
ness are so conspicuous in his other works:

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 85

In the head of an insect no organization of the •
brain is said to be discovered, but the want of this is
abundantly made up by that medullary thread which
communicates the vital principle to the other parts of
thejr bodies, and endows them with that tenacity of
life, which, as has been already observed, is so use-
ful to the species. Neither are they apparently fur-
nished with the usual organs of smelling and hearing,
but whether the olfactory nerves communicate with
the feelers, and the auricular organs are situated in
the antenna?, as Mr. Barbutt supposes, or not, there
can be no doubt from the readiness of Wasps,
Flies, &c. to betake themselves to their wings and
fly to dainties at a distance; and the alertness oi Bees
in sallying out to the relief of a brother in distress,
when he alarms them by his noise outside the hive,
that insects are not deficient in the senses of hearing,
wherever the organs may be situated. The manner
of respiration is different in insects from other ani-
mals ; they breathe through pores placed in the sides
of their bodies, and this also fits them for that re-
markable peculiarity of living in separate parts. In
the composition of insects no bones are made use of,
but this defect is supplied in some by a membraneous
or muscular skin, and in others by a crustaceous or
horny covering Their eyes are fixed, and they have
no eyebrows, but, to prevent them from injury the
latter want is supplied by the external tunic of their
eyes being hard and transparent, and to remedy the
former, some insects have four, some six, others. %ht,
while the number of lenses in some of those who

i

86 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

•have only two is amazing indeed. Flies, wasps, &c.
have the outward coat of their eye made of curious
lattice-work. Pagett is said to have discovered no
fewer than 17,325 lenses in the cornea of a butterfly !
The eyes of insects are admirably adapted for see-
ing minute objects nigh at hand, but from the small-
ness and convexity of their lenses, it is apparent that
they can neither see far, nor take in the larger ob-
jects, and to remedy any inconvenience that might
arise from this, may have been the principal reason
why Nature has furnished them with those project-
ing horns or feelers with which they seem to grope
as they advance. Insects are also distinguished by
the number of their legs and wings; of the latter
most insects have four, while no other species of
animals have more than two; and although the
greater part have six legs, others, as Mites and Spi-
ders, have eight, and some ten, fourteen, sixteen,
and even a great many more. The palpi are those
little instruments fixed to the mouth of some insects,
which seem to be intended to serve the purpose of
arms, for they employ them to bring food to their
mouths, and to keep it steady when eating. Some
insects are furnished with stings for defence, or to
assist them in procuring their food, others with a tube
for injecting: their eggs into the most convenient si-
tuations for hatching. The females of some w inged
insects, for instance, insert their eggs under the sur-
face of leaves, and the worms wrhen hatched, give
rise to those tubercles or galls with which the leaves
of the ash, the fir, and other trees sometimes abound ;

BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN. 87

the eggs of the Cynips, inserted into the leaves of the
oak, produce the caterpillars, which give rise to the
galls used in the composition of ink. The greater
part of winged insects have a proboscis or trunk,
which although not so large, is as wonderfully con-
trived as that of the Elephant, and serves the pur-
poses of a mouth, a nose, and a windpipe! The
proboscis is a machine of a very complicated nature ;
and that of a butterfly, when not in quest of food, is
rolled up in form of a watch spring.

The degree of strength and agility which many of
the insect tribes possess is amazing. A ilea will
draw a chain one hundred times heavier than itself;
and the velocity of a mite, in proportion to its size,
is said to outstrip that of a race-horse ! With regard
to sex, there is one thing very remarkable in this
order, viz. that the Bees, the Wasps, and Ants fur-
nish an example of a species that belong to neither
sex, and so are called neuters ; these however, are
not without their uses ; and the affection they evince
for the helpless little creatures left to their care, might
serve as a lesson to those who are intrusted with the
tender charge of infants not their own.

The last thing we shall mention in this general
survey of the insect tribes, is the wonderful transfor-
mations many of them undergo in the different
stages of an egg, a grub or worm, a cry sails, till they
arrive at their most perfect or fly state.

" Observe the insect race, ordain 'd to keep
The lazy sabbath of a half year's sleep.
Entomb'd beneath the filmy web they lie,
And wait the influence of a kinder sk v .

BOOK OF KATURE LAID OPEN.

When vernal sunbeams pierce the dark retreat
The heaving tomb distends with vital heat ;
The full-formed brood, impatient of their cell,
Start from their trance, and burst their silken shell."

In each change not only their form and structure,
but their very nature and appetite undergo a com-
plete revolution. — Take for example, yonder But-
terfly? which in gaudy attire, and with a sprightly
air, roves and flutters in quest of its balmy juices
from flower to flower: how wonderful the change
from that dead and inanimate state in which its
beauties lately lay concealed, or from the grovelling
reptile which on the cabbage-leaf partook voracious-
ly of its coarser fare, nor evinced any relish for other
dainties.

If any; thing were wanting to prove the wise dis-
position of the parts and appetites of animals to their
various situations and habits, here we have it in the
instance of the Butterfly, whose structure and taste
both undergo an alteration when its sphere of action
and propensities become different.

In regard to some peculiarities of a few of the dif-
ferent species of insects, we will briefly observe, that
in the mouth of the Gnat we have an admirable
specimen of the instrument necessary for such a
blood thirsty animal ; the nails or crotchets of the
Horse-fly, as well as its tenacity of life, evince that
it is apt to be disturbed in its banquets ; whoever
attentively considers the form of a Louse, .need not
be told that it is a blood-sucker The legs of the
Locust and of the Grasshopper at once shew their

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 89

propensity to leaping. The Bee, in danger of being
robbed of its precious stores, is armed with its .well
known weapon. -The female Wasp is larger and
stronger than the male, to enable her to survive the
rigour of winter ; and the strong hairy legs of the Ant
are no less well contrived to assist her in the inde-
fatigable labours of the hill, than the two claws with
which they are armed are for the purpose of climbing.
How surprising the instinct by which those little
creatures are taught uniformly to deposit their eggs
on such animal or vegetable substances, as furnish
a proper and plentiful supply of food for the worms
or caterpillars, as soon as they are hatched. That
those who pass into the Chrysalis or inactive state,
select the most proper situations and modes of con-
cealment; and that others, whose only metamor-
phosis consists in the addition of wings, surround
themselves while undergoing the change by an en-
velope of spume or froth, proceeding from their bo-
dy ; as the Cuckoo spit, or Froth worm.

" The Locusts have no king, yet they go forth all
of them in bands;" while the solitary Spider, having
no wings to go to pursuit of her prey, weaveth to
herself a web, and watches with patience the en-
tanglement of a fly. — Our space will not permit us
to dwell on the geometrical precision and mathema-
tical exactness, with which Bees form their combs ;
the wonderful ingenuity and contrivance of the
Wasp's nest, or the order and regularity observed
in the construction of the Ant hill, as well as the
prudence and foresight which the whole of these
I 2

90 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

evince in their labours and pursuits ; these, and the
singular but convenient attitude which the Water-fly
assumes in swimming on his back, to enable him
the better to lay hold of his food, the under side of
plants which grow on the water, we can only men-
tion, and must proceed to consider a few of the

Uses of Insects.

From the number of animals in the different ele-
ments and regions of existence, which prey upon
insects, there can be no doubt but the principal ob-
ject the Creator had in view in the formation of these,
was for the subsistence of many of the larger orders
of creatures; but the following specimens serve to
shew that some of these also contribute in no small
degree, in their respective spheres, to the service of
man. By the labours and exertions of the Bee, we
are provided with stores of honey and wax; the
seemingly contemptible little Silk-worm presents us,
in its passage from the Caterpillar in the sleeping
state, with materials for constituting our most costly
raiment — From the Cantharies come the Spanish
Flies, so useful in blisters; the Kermes is also va-
luable for medicinal purposes; and the Cochineal
furnishes us with a rich and beautiful dye. The
wonders accomplished by the united exertions of the
Bees, the Wasps, and the Ants, shew what can be
done by brethren dwelling together in unity. The
watchfulness of the Spider, after she has woven her
web, demonstrates the necessity of not folding our

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 91

hands for slumber just at the time we have comple-
ted our preparations for activity; and to the Ant, the
sluggard is sent to learn a lesson of prudence and
foresight.

" These emmets, how little they are in our eyes !
We tread them to dust, and a troop of them dies

Without our regard or concern :
Yet, as wise as we are, if we went to their school,
There's many a sluggard, and many a fool,

A lesson of wisdom might learn.'*

CHAP IX.

REPTILES.

'« Lo ! the green Serpent, from his dark abode,
Which even imagination fears to tread ;
At noon forth issuing, gathers up his train
In orbs immense."

. " Thro' subterraneous cells,

Where scorching sunbeams scarce can find a way,
Earth animated heaves. — The flowery leaf
Wants not its soft inhabitants."

IN the order of Reptiles, we have a new display
of the wonders of creating art. These creatures are
also endowed with the power of motion, but how
differently do they move from any of the orders we
have already considered Deprived of the usual ap-
paratus of legs or wings, the ponderous Serpent is-
sues from his concealment, and moves majestically
along by means of his scales and strong muscular

92 BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN.

•powers ; and the slender Worm draws and pushes
himself forward by his rings and contortions. The
wisdom in these contrivances must be immediately
apparent, when we consider that some of the former
have their habitations assigned them in the most im-
penetrable thickets, where an elevated stature would
expose them to many inconveniences. Some take
up their abode in the swampv banks of great rivers,
or among the reeds in morasses, where the weight
of their body, supported by legs, must have sunk
them deeper in the mire ; others wind their way
among heaps of rubbish or crumbling ruins, where
projecting appendages, of any description, would
have been apt to retard their progress ; and the naked
and defenceless bodies of the latter are admirably
adapted to those subterraneous passages which they
form to themselves unseen in the bowels of the earth.

Snails, also, are a species of Reptiles; but, being
encumbered in their movements with their shelly
appendage, they are furnished with an instrument
peculiar to themselves, in that long, broad surface, by
which they pull themselves along ; and by which*
assisted by the glutinous substance they emit from
their bodies, they aiv enabled to adhere, in any po-
sition, to the smoothest of surfaces.

The motion of Caterpillars in their vermicular
state is curiously performed, by means of a number
of little legs, the foremost of which are differently
constructed from the hindmost, but all are formed
in the v most suitable manner for assisting in their
progress on the leaves of plants.

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 1)

Being- deprived of those instruments of motion
possessed by other animals, to carry them speedily
forward in pursuit of their prey, Serpents are neces-
sitated to have recourse to the resources of artifice*
and to lie in wait for it ; and, to enable them to do
this to the best possible advantage, Nature has not
only endowed them with the power of intwining
themselves in ambush around the trunks and among
the branches of trees, by the slender make and flexi-
bility of their bodies, but, by a very particular and
singular construction of the back-bone in Serpents,
they are enabled to coil themse'ves up in a very
small compass. In the generality of animals, the
joints in the back-bone do not exceed thirty or forty ;
but in the serpent kind they amount to one hundred
and forty five from the head to the vent, and twenty-
five more from that to the tail. If Serpents are not
furnished with the claws of the Tiger to lay hold of
their prey, the strong hooked bill and talons of the
Eagle to pull it to pieces, and the tusks of the Boat-
to devour it, several of this species are furnished with
a poisonous sting for instantaneously inflicting the
mortal wound, others are soon enabled to extinguish
the vital spark by means of the convulsive energy
of their enormous twistings ; while the general con-
formation of the jaws, the width of the mouth, and
yielding texture of the bodies of Serpents are such,
as to enable them to swallow prodigious mouthfuls,
and animals more bulky than themselves. A Ser-
pent in the island of Java was observed at one time
to destroy and devour a Buffalo; after having bro-

94 BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN.

ken the bones by its voluminous twistings, it was
seen to lick the body all over, which covered it with
its mucus, and make it slip more glibly down its
throat.

But the assistance which some of these creatures
receive from their poison in the seizing of their prey,
is not the o?.!y benefit they derive from it; it is also
their most sure and effectual defence ; and from the
dread and horror which such an instrument as the
sting of .a Serpent inspires, (although only found in
the possession of a few,) it serves, as it were, for a
safeguard to the whole species.

Mankind, indeed, cannot tr-erd with too cautious
steps the paths frequented by these creatures ; for
although none of the most venomous kinds will at-
tack man, except on the defensive, yet, without the
power of discriminating, when accidently trod upon,
they will make the intruder feel the power of their
vengeance. What a merciful provision, therefore,
has Providence made, for the safety of the American,
in the tail of the Rattle-snake, than which there is
not one of the serpent tribe more to be dreaded: yet
the rattle in his tail, on the smallest motion, must
give notice of his approach, or warn the trareller of
the impending danger that lies concealed in his
haunts. It is a melancholy truth, that the direful
effects of the Serpent's poison is not confined to the
wounds they themselves inflict, but, as a celebrated
naturalist observes, by men more mischievous even
than Serpents, who prepare their veuom to destroy
each other; with this the savages poison their arrows,

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 95

and prepare their revengeful poisons. The ancients
were known to preserve it for the purposes of sui-
cide, and among barbarians the venom of snakes is
used as a philter to this day. How much more ho-
nourable for human nature when the ingenuity of
man is exerted for the preservation of his species*
and as Vipers are the only animals of a venomous
kind, from whose bite the inhabitants of Great Bri-
tain have any thing to fear, the discovery of Wil-
liam Oliver, the Viper-catcher at Bath, that the ap-
plication of Olive Oil was an effectual cure for the
bite of one of these animals, may not be improperly
mentioned here, to the honour of that person, who
submitted to some dangerous experiments in corro-
boration of the truth of this discovery.

Nor is the care of Providence less observable in
the provision made for the security and preservation
of the more harmless kinds of reptiles, than for those
of a dangerous and venomous description. The
naked and tender body of the Earth worm is no
doubt pretty securely lodged in the subterraneous
vaults it forms for itself in the earth, and the Ser-
pent, in the absence of defensive weapons, enjoys no
little security in the dread its very form inspires; but
slill the former is exposed to many an injury in his
lowly situation, and the latter may oft wait long for
the approach of his victims ; but the feeble worm,
when cut in several parts by the gardener's spade,
evinces a remarkable tenacity of the vital powers ;
and the voracious Liboya, which can swallow at a
raeal an animal three times as thick as itself, at other

96 BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN.

times, when no food presents itself, exhibits an ab-
stemiousness that is astonishing. Indeed, a single
meal with many of the Snake kind seems to be the
adventure of a season ; and is an oceurrence for
which they have been lor weeks, nay, sometimes for
months, in patient expectation. Vipers are often
kept in boxes for six or eight months, without any
food whatever ; and there are small Serpents sent
over to Europe from Grand Cairo that live for se-
veral years without eating.

The insti.nctive sagacity of an animal, said at first
to be more subtile than any beast of the field, and
whose wisdom was pointed out by the Saviour of
men as being necessary to be united with the harm-
lessness of the dove, in the dispositions of his disci-
ples, must naturally be expected to be very remark-
able, and it certainly is so, whether manifested in
the wonderful docility which some of these creatures
assume in a state of captivity — the dancing serpent,
for instance, carried about by jugglers and strollers
in the East Indies, will raise their heads and part
of their bodies at the sound of music, moving them
in such a manner as to keep time with the instru-
ment, while their tails continue in a coil at the bot-
tom of the basket: — the convenient places in which
they lie in wait fq^ the approach of their- prey — the
commodious attitude in which those of the venomous
kind put themselves for darting at their victims; or
the subtle artifices to which these of the more harm-
less kind have recourse in eluding an enemy. Ser-
pents the most venomous will suddenly spring up

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 97

on their tail, at the approach of a larger animal, erect
their head, and inflict the deadly wound in a mo-
ment; while some of those who are less so, when
closely pursued, or excited by rage or fear, will emit
a most horrible foetor, in order, as it were, to force
the enemy to retire from the pursuit.

The Black Snake of Virginia lays its eggs in dung-
hills or hotbeds, where, aided by the heat of the sun,
they are hatched and brought to maturity. The blind
worms betake themselves, at the approach of winter,
to those secret recesses, where, in a state of torpidity,
they are sometimes found in vast numbers twisted to-
gether; and the common earth-worm, when warned
of danger from the mole, by the moving of the earth,
darts upwards to the surface, and is out of his reach
in an instant.

Uses of Reptiles.

In a former part we noticed the indispensable ne-
cessity of animals of prey, and the bad consequences
that must have inevitably ensued had the whole of
earth's various tenants been left to die a natural death,
and their carcases been left to rot unhuried

Amongst animals of this descripflR we may un-
doubtedly reckon the race of Serpents; and whether
we consider the fitness of their bodies for entering
the dens, and caves, and holes of the earth, or their
voracious appetites for such sort of food in common
with reptiles of an inferior order, we must certainly
allow that they are wonderfully adapted for the pur-
it

98 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN,

pose. This, then, may be one reason, and a very
sufficient one too, for the formation of Serpents, that
besides helping to rid the earth of a vast number of
the smaller obnoxious vermin, they find their way
with the greatest ease into the most secret recesses
of putrefaction, and destroy those noisome carcases
in a short period, to which the other large animals
of similar tastes could not, by the peculiar structure
of their bodies, have had access. The use of the
Leech is also too well known to need description.

CHAP. X.

THE OCEAN.

... .. ... « And thou, majestic main !

A secret world of wonders in thyself !

Sound His stupendous praise, whose greater voice

Or bids you roar, or bids your roaring fall."

WHAT a grand and magnificent spectacle does the
Ocean present ! Whether we view it when wrought
up by fearful agkation into all the horrors of the tem-
pest, when the blackness of darkness rides trium-
phant on the storm, and its foaming billows mix with
the clouds, or gaze upon it, with a calm delight, as it
gently advances or recedes in soft and hollow' mur-
murs upon the sandy beach, when not a breeze is
observed to breathe on its undulating bosom, and
every wind is hushed, it is impossible to conceive

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 99

any thing better calculated to excite in us lofty and
sublime conceptions of the Creator.

" May not the sea/' in the words of a modern au-
thor, " be styled the temple of contemplation? View-
ed in all its stages, it exalts and improves the mind-
Its level expanse,, when a calm prevails, communi-
cates a similar tranquillity to the reflecting breast; and
when its billows lift their devouring heads, they sug-
gest ideas the most sublime, meditations the most
solemn. The very nature of the prospect, boundless
and unbroken, presents a sensible argument for eter-
nity of duration and infinity of space, more forcible
than the subtilest reasoning of metaphysics."

The ocean, rolling its surges from clime to clime,
is, undoubtedly, the most august object under the
whole heavens. A spectacle of magnificence and
grandeur which fills the mind, and engrosses the
utmost stretch of imagination.

What an immense and mighty assemblage of wa-
tery particles rcmst be contained in the great deep,
and what a prodigious extent of the earth's surface
doth it cover ! Some natural philosophers, indeed,
have carried their ideas on this subject so far as to
assert, that if the bed of the sea were empty, all the
rivers of the world flowing into it, with a continu-
ance of their present stores, would take at least eight
hundred years to fill it again to its present height.
If, then, in a single drop of water, as much only as
will adhere to the point of a needle,- a philosopher
has computed no less than thirteen thousand globules,
what an inconceivable number must there be in the

100 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

unfathomable depths, and immeasurable extent ot
the ocean ! where the eye is lost in wandering over
the liquid expanse, and which, if we look upon a
map of the world, we shall find to cover a consi-
derably larger portion of the surface of the globe
than even the dry land itself. Wonderful as the sea
is in itself, and beneficial as it is to the sons of men,
all its wonders and all its benefits reflect glory to
Him who formed it, and poured it abroad. When
we place ourselves upon the shore, and from thence
behold that immense body of water, stretching away
on all sides, as far as the eye can reach ; and when
we consider how large a portion of the globe is co-
vered in like manner, what a noble idea are we en.
abled to form of that Being, who taketh up the sea
in his hand, and in whose sight the ocean is no more
than a drop ; who covered the earth with the deep
as with a garment, and assigned it bounds which
it cannot pass ! And it is truly astonishing by what
simple, yet potent means, this great and important
end is accomplished ; for it is neither by adaman-
tine rocks nor tremendous precipices, nor shelving
banks of well cemented sand, that the unruly cle-
ment is confined within due limits, although these
all no doubt tend their aid in repelling the lashings
of its surges, and occasional attempts to encroach
on the land ; but by a barrier, simple, yet more ef-
fectual than all these, the word of the great Jeho-
vah's strength; who has impressed upon this ele-
ment that law of gravitation, by which the waters
of the mountains are made to go down into the val-

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 101

lies; and has. said to the fluctuating and unstable
mass, " Hitherto shalt thou come, and no farther •'
and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." There
are, however, some shores on which the sea has
made temporary depredations ; where it has over-
flowed, and after remaining, perhaps, some ages,
has again retired of its own accord, or been driven
back by the industry of man ; but we have an in-
stance of one of a very considerable and lasting na-
ture, which happened in the reign of Henry I. in
which the sea overflowed the estates of Ikirl God-
win, in Kent, and formed that celebrated bank now
called the Godwin Sands. In the reign of Augus-
tus, the Isle of Wight also made a part of Britain,
so that the English crossed over to it at low water
with cartloads of tin; and in the bay of Baise, near
Naples, there are remains of houses and streets still
visible below the present level of the sea. These,
however, may have been occasioned by some earth-
quake, or other internal convulsion of the earth, in
which case such tracts would no doubt have sunk,
although they had been situated more inland; or if
these facts must really be 'considered as evidences-of
the encroachment of the sea upon the land, as the
advocates for that theory insist, we must bring in
the testimony of the Norway fishermen to balance
them, who affirm, that the sea upon that coast has
become much shallower in many places than it had
been ; that rocks, formerly covered with water, were
now several feet above the surface of the sea. and
that loaded vessels used formerly to ride where pin-

K2

102 BOOK. OF MATURE LAID OPEK,

naces and barks could now with difficulty swim; as
nothing is more'certain from the absolute necessity
that a proper equilibrium in the disposition .of the
waters of the ocean be kept up, that if the sea is
suffered to gain upon the land in one direction, it
must recede from it in another, and vice versa.

Indeed, so far from there being the smallest dan-
ger that the world of waters may escape from its
present situation, and return again to cover the earth,
it might rather be expected, from its known pro-
perties and penetrating quality, that it would find
its way downward, so as to leave its banks dry by
receding from our shores, or, by mixing with the in-
ternal composition of the globe, saturate its stores
with the exuberance of its moisture. Whether the
former of these is chiefly prevented by that other
law impressed upon fluids, by which they have a
natural tendency to regain their level, and thejatter,
by that stiff, tenacious coat of clay, which covers
such a considerable portion of the bottom of this uni-
versal canal, we will not take upon us to say : one
thing is certain, that, as no increase is observed on
the waters of the ocean, notwithstanding, as the wise
man observes, all the rivers flow into it; so neither
is there any sensible diminution of that extent of sur-
face so essentially necessary in the business of evapo-
ration, which is continually going on from this great
natural reservoir. The water, of which the clouds
are formed, and which descends in rain or snow, is
evaporated from the sea; and it has been found, by
calculation, that, in a summer day, there may be

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 103

raised, in vapours from the Mediterranean alone, no
less than five thousand two hundred and eighty mil-
lions of tuns of water. The air and sun are the
mighty engines which work, without intermission,
to raise the water from this inexhaustible cistern. —
The clouds, as uoqueducts, convey the genial stores
along the atmosphere, and distribute them in sea-
sonable and regular proportions through all the re-
gions of the globe.

A superficial observer may be apt to imagine, that
if the watery element had been less copiously dif-
fused, and more confined to a deeper bed, a greater
part of the earth might have been converted into dry
land, and, consequently, made habitable to a larger
portion of the human species ; but such do not con-
sider, that the clouds, which drop down fatness, de-
rive th^ir fertilizing quality from the vapours exhaled
from the ocean, and that to abridge the liquid ex-
panse of its extent, would' be only depriving those
aerial water-bearers of part of their genial stores, so
indispensably necessary to render that portion of
the dry land we already possess productive. How
amazing that water, without which we can scarcely
perform any business, or enjoy any comfort, should
be thus brought to stream by our doors, and enter
our houses, from the remotest regions — from the far
ofr' and unfrequented paths of the great deep ; that
this boundless mass of fluid salt, so intolerably nau-
seous to the taste, should be the original source of
those sweet and pleasing showers that descend to
water and refresh the earth.

104 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

The all-wise Creator foresaw this, and, in mercy
to the inhabitants of the dry parts of this earthly ball,
diffused his watery treasures over such a consider-
able portion of its surface ; carefully balancing the
Atlantic with the Pacific, and the Northern with the
Southern ocean ; and if the old Continent can boast
of its Mediterranean, Caspian, Baltic, Black, White,
and Red seas, the New World is deeply indebted
by the gulf of Mexico, and North America has ob-
tained the appellation of the Country of lakes.

But the ocean, as well as being the source of fer-
tility, by the exhalations drawn up from its surface
by the sun, is also the great receptacle of filth, and
mighty purifier and restorer of nature. Almost all
the rivers, indeed, run into the sea; but it is not mere-
ly to empty their liquid stores, and to keep up the
circulation in the huge machine of the universe ; they
convey also, as they go along to this capacious re-
ceiver, the refuse of nations, and deposit in the bo-
som of the great abyss thp accumulated fillh of our
towns anr! cities. How, then, it may be asked, are
the waters of this mighty basin preserved from being
contaminated? And. instead of continuing the sa-
lubrious element of vitality to so many living crea-
tures, how comes it to pass that the sea is not con-
verted into a source of corruption, a fountain of pu-
tridity, disease, and death ?

The two great efficient causes, which produce
these happy results, are, that incessant -motion by
which the ocean is kept in perpetual agitation, even
in its most tranquil state, and the saltness of its wa-

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 105'

tcrs; and that these might operate with the greatest
possible effect where most necessary, it is wisely so
ordered that both prevail most as we approach those
warm regions, where the intense heat would be fol-
lowed by most pernicious consequences on a stand-
ing pool, or stagnant fresh-water lakes, and are less
perceptible in climates more remote from the equator-

The principal currents of the ocean are those ob-
served in the Atlantic ocean, near Guinea, extending
from Cape Yerd to the Bay of Fernandos. These
currents are so rapid, that vessels run as far in two
days with them, as require six or seven weeks to
return.

Near Sumatra there are rapid currents, as also
between Java and Magellan, the Cape of Good
Hope, and the Island of Madagascar; especially
between Natal and the Cape on the coast of Africa;
there are violent currents in the sea adjacent to the
Maldivian Islands.

One of the greatest tides wre know of, is that a^
the mouth of the river Indus, where the water rise8
thirty feet in height .; it is no wonder, therefore, that
Alexander's soldiers, who had been accustomed to
behold the scarcely perceptible risings of the Medi-
terranean,'should have viewed this striking pheno-
menon with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension.
The tides are also remarkably high on the coasts of
Malay, in the Straits of Sunda, in the Red Sea, and
along the coasts of China and Japan.

The sea contains the greatest quantity of salt in
the torrid zone, where, otherwise, from the excessive

106 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

heat, it would be in clanger of putrefaction ; as we
advance northward, this quantity diminishes, till, at
the Pole, it nearly vanishes altogether.

It may also be remarked, that the Caspian and
other inland seas, that have no effluent rivers to put
them in motion, and circulate their contents, are salt;
while the lakes of Ontario and Erie, through which
the river St. Lawrence passes, in North America,
are fresh-water lakes.

We have already Had occasion to remark the bad
effects that must have inevitably ensued, had the
putrid carcases of land-animals been left to rot in
the air unburied; but what must this mighty recep-
tacle of carrion and putrefaction have long ere now
become, but for the correcting and renovating power
imparted to it by its saltness and motion.

And it ought here to be remarked, that, from what-
ever cause the saline nature of the ocean may pro-
ceed, its saltness is as inherent in its composition as
the heat is in the sun; while, to preserve and keep
up the perpetual agitation of its fluid particles, its
motion is not dependant on any one single cause.

The most perceptible agitation in this world of
water that strikes our senses, is that occasioned by
tl e influence of the wind, when the raging billows
heave their tumultuous throes, and threaten destruc-
tion to the affrighted mariner; yet this motion, even
in the most violent storms, is said to be confined
only to its surface That occasioned by the cur-
rents, however must descend to the bottom, and be
particularly strong among those narrow and deep

BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN. 107

inequalities most apt to produce them. The bottom
of th^sea, like the surface of the earth, is overspread
with mountains, intersected with inequalities. In all
mountainous places currents will be violent ; in all
places where the bottom of the sea is level, they will
be almost imperceptible.

Whirlpools appear to be no other than the eddies
of the water formed by the action of two or more
opposite currents. The Euripus, nigh the Grecian
coast, and famous for the death of Aristotle, alter-
nately absorbs and rejects the water seven times in
twenty-four hours The Charybdis, near the straits
of Sicily, rejects and absorbs the water thrice in
twenty-four hours ; and the greatest known whirlpool
in the world, that in the Norway sea, which is affirm-
ed to be upwards of twenty leagues in circumference,
is said to absorb, for six hours, whales, ships, and
every thing that comes hear it, and afterwards returns
them in the same quantity of time as it drew them in.

But that which gives to the sea its unremitting and
universal impulse, which suffers it not to rest for a
single moment over all its wide extended bounds, but
keeps it in perpetual agitation, and makes it, a it
were, remain vigorous, and acquire health by exer-
cise, from one extremity of the earth to the other, is
that wonderful and truly surprising phenomenon of
nature, the flux and reflux of the tides.

This wonderful phenomenon, so inconceivable to
the ancients, is accounted for by the moderns, on the
principle of gravitation, and has been demonstrated
to be under the influence of the moon; but from

108 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

whatever secondary cause it may proceed, there can
be no doubt as to the tact, that the waters of tte sea
ebb and flow alternately twice in the course of some-
thing less than twenty-five hours, with the greatest
regularity. This is surprising indeed; but it is no
less so, that they should adhere so invariably to the
limits of their operation ; that even when the waves
lift up their heads in the most ungovernable fury, and
toss about in their most frantic ravings, they still con-
fine themselves to the space allotted for them by Pro-
vidence, and pay the most implicit bmission to that
unerring law which regulates their movements.

When the tide begins to flow, it signifies not that
the proudest earthly potentate be in the way. Ca-
nute may erect his throne on the beach, and com-
mand the sea to approach no farther ; but it will be
only to proclaim his own impotence ; for, regardless
of the mandate, the waters will press on, and, if the
monarch persists, will sweep him from the face of
the earth. When the ebb has commenced, it is
equally vain to think of retarding the reflux ; the roll-
ing surges must return to the bosom of the ocean,
from whence they came.

The bed of the ocean, gradually deepening as it
recedes from our shores, till it loses itself in the dark
unfathomed caves of the deep, renders it not only
more commodious for the purposes of navigation,
and safe for the inhabitants who dwell on its bor-
ders, but it is of singular service in removing, to a
distance from our shores, those numerous deposits
of noxious matter which are daily poured into it,

BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN. 109

while undergoing the process of purification amongst
the sandy particles at the bottom. There the most
offensive impurities having subsided into the mud,
may be said to be buried in the depths of the sea ;
but not to remain, for even there a species of worms
await their farther decomposition, and the last stage
of corruption is made to assume a new form.

The saltness of the sea, besides the important part
it bears in the renovating power of the watery ele-
ment by its saline quality, is also -of use in lending
its aid to preserve that motion, the beneficial efficacy
of which has just been demonstrated ; for the salt-
ness of the sea renders its waters less apt to freeze,
and in those countries where, in the absence of heat,
it is not so necessary otherwise, tends not a little to
retard the progress of congelation. This serves only
to render the water of the ocean heavier, and con-
sequently of a proper consistency for supporting
those numerous burdens which float on its surface.

Among the wonders of the great deep, we may
justly reckon those awful phenomena, termed Wa-
ter-spouts ; yet these no doubt have their uses. —
They are of two kinds; one of which is no other
than a thick compressed cloud, reduced to a small
space by contrary winds, which, blowing at fhe same
time from many corners, give it a cylindric form,
and cause the water to fall by its own weight. The
quantity of water is so great, and the fall so sudden
and precipitate, that if, unfortunately, one of these
spouts break on a vessel, it shatters it to pieces, and
sinks it in an instant. It is asserted, and possibly

L

i

110 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

with foundation, that these spouts may be broken
and destroyed by the commotion which the firing
of cannon excite in the air.

The other kind of water spout is called a typhon,
and does not descend from the clouds, but rises up
from the sea with great violence. " These Water-
spouts," Thevenot observes, " are also very danger-
ous, for if they fall on a vessel they entangle in the
sails so much that sometimes they raise it up, and
afterwards let it fall with such violence as to sink it;
or, at least, if they do not lift the vessel up, they tear
all the sails, or let the water they contain fall on it,
which often sinks it to the bottom." But, whatever
mischief may be occasioned by Water- spouts, or
however terrifying their appearance, we have abun-
dant reason to believe, from their being the produc-
tions of so wise and good a God, that the partial evil
they may at times occasion, is nothing in comparison
with the good they promote. As the burning torrent,
issuing from the top of Etna or Vesuvius, alarms the
surrounding inhabitants, and sometimes carries ir-
remediable devastation among their dwellings, yet
is absolutely necessary to prevent greater evils, so
the terrific Water spout may act as the most simple
and efficacious medium of restoring that equilibrium
among the elements, which, if longer prevented,
might not only occasion convulsions sufficient to
swallow up whole navies, but be attended with the
most direful effects upon the dry land. But were it
for no other purpose than to add to the grandeur of
such a scene as is about to be described, and awa-

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. Ill

ken feelings similar to those experienced by the au-
thor of the following sublime sketch, taken in the
midst of the Atlantic ocean, these wonderful produc-
tions of the varying power of nature may be said
not to have been created in vain.

te One evening,'' observes this writer, (" it was a
profound calm,) we were in the delicious seas which
bathe the shores of Virginia; every sail was furled;
I was engaged upon the deck, when I heard the bell
that summoned the crew to prayers; I hastened to
mingle my supplications with those of the compa-
nions of my voyage. The officers, with the passen-
gers, were on the quarter ; the chaplain, with a book
in his hand, stood at a little distance before them; the
seamen were scattered at random over the poop ; we
were all standing, our faces towards the prow of the
ship, which was turned to the west. The globe of the
sun, whose lustre even then our eyes could scarcely
endure, ready to plunge beneath the waves, was dis-
covered through the rigging in the midst of a bound-
less space. From the motion of the stern, it appeared
as if the radiant orb every moment changed its ho-
rizon. A few clouds wandered confusedly in the
east, where the moon was slowly rising; the rest of
the sky was serene; and towards the north a Wa-
ter-spout, forming a glorious triangle with the lumi-
naries of day and night, glistening with all the co-
lours of the prism, rose out of the sea like a column
of crystal, supporting the vaults of heaven.

" He who had not recognised in this spectacle the
beauty of the Deity, had been greatly to be pitied.

H2 BOOK OP MATURE LAlD OPEJJ.

Religious tears involuntarily flowed from my eyes.
The consciousness of our insignificance, excited by
the spectacle of infinity ; our songs resounding to
a distance over the silent waves, the night approach-
ing with its dangers; our vessel itself a wonder among
so many wonders ; a religious crew, penetrated with
admiration and with awe; a priest, august in suppli-
cating the Almighty God, inclined over the abyss,
with one hand staying the sun at the portal of the
west, with the other raising the moon in the eastern
hemisphere, and lending, through immensity, an at-
tentive ear to the feeble voice of his creatures; this is
a picture which baffles description, and which the
whole art of man is scarcely sufficient to embrace."
No person who has walked along the sea shore
but must have observed that incessant noise, that
continued murmur, which, even when the greatest
calm prevails, salutes his ear, and the beautiful white
edging by which the floating mantle is fringed at its
extremities. This soft and placid murmur, and these
graceful white curls, are occasioned by the motion
of the waves on the extended beach ; and, trivial as
they may appear, serve as perpetual monitors to
warn the passenger where the line of boundary com-
mences, which separates the land from the water;
and as the rushing noise of the rapid river, and the
tremendous roar of the dreadful cataract, serve to
point out the path of danger to the bewildered tra-
veller, particularly under the cloud of night, these,
as well as the luminous appearance of the sea, and
the noise of the breakers on the rocks, in regions

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 113

more remote from the habitations of men, may ajso
be of use to the mariner in the midnight gloom, by
enabling him to steer clear of impending dangers.
The luminous appearance of the surface of the ocean,
during the obscurity of the night, has been remarked
by navigators, and is a curious phenomenon, which
has long exercised the sagacity of philosphcrs; but,
without enquiring into the cause of this singular phos-
phoric property of the waters, by which they are il-
luminated, and rendered more visible among break-
ers, or where the greatest agitation prevails, we must
allow that it, as well as the noise which they make
in a state of turbulence, has been wisely imparted
to the waves of the deep ; for, in the words of that
elegant writer already quoted, " How many vessels
would perish amid the darkness, were it not for
those miraculous beacons, kindled by Providence
upon the rocks!"

We have already had occasion to notice that law
of nature by which fluids, when put out of order,
have an uniform tendency to regain their level ; and
it is to this law that we must ascribe the facility with
which the track of a ship, in the midst of the sea, is
closed up. But for this, what a rugged and mis-
shapen mass must the surface of the ocean long ago
have appeared ! It is, however, wisely ordered other-
wise ; and while the plough of the husbandman leaves
the deepened furrows open in the stubborn glebe,
those occasioned by the humblest bark or lightest
skiff in the watery element, as soon as she
passed, are quickly swallowed up.
L 2

Hi BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPES.

To a spectator on land, the sea appears to be
higher than the spot on which he stands ; this, how-
ever, is by no means the case, as is demonstrated
by the same experiment by which the globular form
of the earth is proved ; namely, the sinking of the
hull of a ship in the horizon, as she recedes from our
view, before the sails and higher parts disappear.
This illusion is occasioned by that refraction in the
atmosphere, or property of vision, by which objects
are made to rise in the landscape in proportion to
their distance from us, by which means our horizon
is increased and objects longer kept in view, which
otherwise must have been extremely limited, and
our prospects of short duration.

We labour also under a deception in regard to
the colour of the sea; for although when viewed
from a precipice its waters afford a muddy greenish
hue, arising from the depth and position of the eye ;
when beheld from a shelving beach it assumes the
colour of the sky ; although it is dark and black in
the deep abyss, white and foaming in a storm, cloud-
ed with the most beautiful colours when the rays of
the setting sun shine upon it, or puts on the appear-
ance of a beautiful green, when beheld from a boat
in a sun-shine day, over a sandy bottom ; yet there
can be no doubt but the sea-water is of itself trans-
parent and colourless, and that the various appear-
ances it puts on must be entirely owipg to accidental
causes : and, indeed, how could it be otherwise, but
that the medium of vision to so many living crea-
tures should have remained in such a transparent

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 115

and untingcd state, as to enable them to distinguish
each other, and the numerous inanimate objects
which are to be found in it, by their colour.

The bottom of the sea being supposed to resemble
the surface of the dry land, these inequalities in its
depth which occasion the mariner to be so much on
the alert, may easily be accounted for But if these
are the causes of the deceitful shallows and danger-
ous rocks, it must not be forgotten, that to these also
we owe the deep unfathomable gulfs over which the
vessel glides in safety, and those numerous islands
which adorn and diversify the surface of the ocean.

T/ic Uses of the Ocean.

« Adoring own

The hand Almighty, who its charmell'd bed
Immeasurable sunk, and pour'd abroad,
Fenc'd with eternal mounds, the fluid sphere
With every wind to waft large commerce on^
Join pole to pole, consociate sever'd worlds,
And link in bonds of intercourse and love
Earth's universal family."

The Ocean, as we have already observed, is the
great reservoir of nature, the mighty source of eva-
poration, which supplies the earth with fertility, by
causing the clouds to drop down fatness " It is,"
in the words of an elegant admirer of Nature's
works, " the capacious cistern of the universe, which
admits as into a receptacle, and distributes as a re-
servoir, whatever waters the whole globe. There is

116 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

•not'a fountain that gushes in the unfrequented desert,
nor a rivulet that Hows in the remotest continent, nor
a cloud that swims in the highest regions of the fir-
mament, but is fed by this all-replenishing source. r
Thus, in the great, as well as in the lesser world, a
continual circulation is kept up. The waters of the
clouds ascend from the sea in vapours; they descend
to the earth in showers, and return again to the deep
in rivers, after having watered and fertilized the
earth. The ocean, instead of being a bar of sepa-
ration, is the great bond of union among the nations;
for look at a map, and behold with admiration how
wisely the sea, which the ancients looked upon as
an impassable gulf, is disposed and distributed for
connecting the remotest realms, and facilitating the
intercourse of one nation with another. '* By means
of this element we travel farther than birds of the
strongest pinion fly, and discover tracts which the
vulture's eye has never seen. We make a visit to
nations that lie drowned in midnight slumbers when
every industrious person on this part of the globe is
bestirring himself in all the hurry of business. We
cultivate an acquaintance with the sun burnt Negro
and shivering Icelander. We cross the flaming line,
we penetrate almost to the pole, and wing our way
even round the globe."'

The ocean is the great vehicle of commerce, and,
instead of limiting the industry of man, enlarges his
sphere, and excites him to action. There go the
ships which transport the produce of nations from
clime to clime, and enable one people to supply their

BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN. 117

wants from the abundance of another. And here
permit us to observe that the arts of ship building and
navigation have, indeed, been of incalculable benefit
to mankind. How astonishing, that such an enor-
mous and heavy mass as a large ship should be so
constructed as to be made to swim in water, with all
her crew, stores, and appendages ! Yet such masses
are not only made to swim, but are constructed in such
a manner as to move at the lightest breeze, and be
guided in their course by a very small helm. These
considerations alone might excite our surprise, even
if the vessel did no more than coast it along, without-
losing sight of land ; but, by the sister art of navi-
gation, she is carried into the immense depths of the
ocean, and made to find her way through pathless
tracts, and across a distance of some thousand miles
extent ; and this by night and by day, foul weather
and fair; as well when the sky is overcast as when
it is clear, without the smallest danger of mistaking
her port, or missing her desired haven.

Through this element are imported, at a small
expense, the productions and rarities of almost every
country ; and while the workmanship of our artisans,
and the produce of our manufacturers are widely
diffused among the nations, our tables are furnished
from the remotest corners of the globe. We are
clothed during summer with the fleeces of the south,
and are kept warm in the cold season of winter by
the furry mantles of the north. The riches of both
Indies are wafted to our shores; and our heavy laden,
merchantmen find their way to the remotest regions.

118 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

And in this place we cannot pass without noticing
how different our modern voyages from those un-
dertaken by the ancients, who, even in the mildest
climates, and in seas the least tempestuous, ventured
only from their harbours in the summer months!
and for this we are indebted to the Loadstone. It
is the faithful and unerring guide which now con-
ducts the pilot with so much certainty in the un-
bounded ocean, and enables the merchant to trans-
port his goods at such a trifling expence, that a
ship of six hundred tons burden, and navigated by
between thirty and forty men, can be made to tran-
sport as many goods at a time, as would require
upwards of twelve hundred horses and a propor-
tionate number of men to manage them! What a
difference in point of saving, were it no more than
the victuals and provender made use of by such a
number of men and horses !

By the invention of navigation, and the discovery
of the magnet, we are enabled to correspond with
the most uncultivated barbarian in the isles of the
sea, and hold converse, as it were, with those who
dwell in the uttermost parts of the earth. By means
of these, savages the most distant may be humanized
and instructed in the knowledge of the arts and sci-
ences, and a way opened up for the more universal
spread of the gospel.

In short, it is impossible to enumerate the benefits
to be derived from the wonderous fluid. As the
medium of traffic, and the great depot of so many
finny treasures, it gives employment to thousands.

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN, 119

It surrounds nations with the most secure barrier of
defence; its salubrious breezes refresh and cool the
air. — Used as a bath, it invigorates and strengthens
the invalid; taken internally as a medicine, its qua-
lities are of the most potent nature ; and although it
serves as a sink for corruption and all manner of
filthinc^s, such are its purifying and renovating pow-
ers, that it not only remains clean, wholesome, and
uncontaminated itself, but furnishes us with a large
proportion of an useful ingredient to preserve our
food from putrefaction!

The bottom of the sea also abounds with a variety
of vegetable productions, while its waters are stock-
ed with creatures innumerable, both small and
great; a consideration of these, however, we must
defer for succeeding chapters, and will conclude the
present in the words of Bishop Home : — " The last
use I shall mention which we are to make of the
sea, is, that which the Holy Spirit himself hath so
frequently made of it in the Scriptures, viz. to con-
sider it as an emblem of the world, and of what is
passing therein. Under a smiling, deceitful surface,
both conceal dangerous rocks and quicksands, on
which the unskilful mariner will strike and be lost.
Both abound with creatures pursuing and devouring
one another; the small and the weak becoming a
prey to the great and powerful ; while in both there
is a grand destroyer, a leviathan, taking his pastime,,
and seeking the perdition of all.

" In the voyage of life we may set out with a still
sea and fair sky; but ere long, cares and sorrows.

120 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

the storms of affliction, shall overtake us. At God's
word, either to punish us or to prove us, from some
quarter or another, whence perhaps we least ex-
pected it, the wind ariseth and lifteth up the waves.
We are carried sometimes up to heaven with hope,
sometimes down to the deep with despair."

CHAP. XL

SEA PLANTS.

c( With wonder mark the moving wilderness of waves,
Magnificently dreadful ! — Where at large
Leviathan, (with each inferior name
Of sea horn kinds, ten thousand, thousand tribes,)
Finds endless range for pasture and for sport."

THE bottom of the sea, as we have observed,
abounds with a variety of vegetable productions.
Before turning our attention more immediately to the
animated inhabitants of the great abyss, we shall,
therefore, take a cursory glance at these sub-marine
gardens, woods, and meadows ; and the first thing
that strikes our attention, is the remarkable differ-
ence in the conformation of Sea and Land Ve-
getables; for although they agree in possessing
t>he concomitant parts of roots, stalks, and branches,
yet it must be immediately observed, that instead of
being hard and brittle like the latter, the largest and
strongest of the former are furnished with an extra-
ordinary degree of tenacity, yet evince a power of

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 121

flexible elasticity that is astonishing; so much so,
that bend them into any form, or twist them into an
hundred shapes, while they adhere in their native
freshness, to the rocks, still they recover their na-
tural shape and position without danger of breaking.
The roots of sea plants are not constructed for pe-
netrating deep into the soil, but they are wonderful-
ly fitted for taking firm hold of the rocks or stones
upon which they vegetate, and, instead of being dis-
turbed by the tossings of the tempest, these seem ra-
ther to acquire vigour by the severity of the weather.
The long and broad leaves of these plants are ex-
cellently formed for imbibing moisture from the sur-
rounding element; their horizontal position, extreme
pliability, and oval shaped branches, fit them admi-
rably for the peculiar situations in which they are
placed, while the clammy, glutinous moisture, with
which they are covered, no doubt serves (besides
other important purposes,) to prevent them from being
injured by the continual action of the wrater ; so that,
in the words of an admirable writer, whom we have
already more than once quoted, " we see from this,
and numberless other instances, what a diversity
there is in the operations of the great Creator's hand.
Yet every operation is an improvement, and each
new pattern has a peculiar fitness of its own. The
herbs and trees (he also adds) which flourish on the
dry land, are maintained by the juices that permeate
the soil, and fluctuate in the air. For this purpose
they are furnished with leaves to collect the one, and
with roots to attract the other; whereas the sea plants,

M

122 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

finding sufficient nourishment in the circumambient
waters, have no occasion to detach a party of roots
into the ground, and forage the earth for sustenance.
Instead, therefore, of penetrating, they are but just
tacked to the bottom, and adhere to some solid sub-
stance, only with such a degree of tenacity as may
secure them from being tossed to and fro by the
random agitation of the waves."

There are two striking peculiarities in sub-marine
vegetables, which deserve our notice. Several of
them are furnished with a number of appendages in
the form of globes or bladders; and, instead of an
uniformity of colour, these are found to be diversi-
fied with a dissimilarity of tints The former, how-
ever, from emitting a loud noise when broken, we
have reason to conclude may possibly serve the pur-
pose of air-vessels to the plants, and we need not go
far to have the mystery solved, why they are made
to differ so much in colour trom each other.

Let us attend to the operations of yonder angler,
and behold with what eagerness the unsuspecting
fish, guided by the eye, rushes on the deceitiul bait ;
if we can, therefore, for a moment harbour the sup-
position that it is by the eye the finny tribes are, in
a great degree, directed in their movements, and
knowing, as we do, that some of them delight in ve-
getable food, we must see at once the propriety of
such a variety in the colour of the carpet that covers
the bed of the, ocean, and the wisdom in the contri-
vance of its different hues. Without dwelling on the
several uses of the vegetable productions of the great

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 123

deep, we will briefly observe, that, besides serving
as articles of food to so many of the watery regions,
particularly to those of the Shell kind, which abound
chiefly among them, these afford, among their intri-
cate and perplexing labyrinths, a safe retreat for the
weak from the strong; a commodious lodgement for
a variety of shell fish, and convenient recesses for
numbers of the finny tribes to betake themselves to,
for the purpose of depositing their spawn ; and to
those who make usa of their leaves on the occasion,
these plants seem to be admirably adapted to the
glary matter which covers their substance, not only
preventing the eggs from being easily washed off be-
fore they are hatched, but affording, in all likelihood,
an immediate supply of nutricious food for the young,
before they are fitted for any thing more gross ; and
this may be the reason, as well as the safety which
their concealment insures, why so many of the weak
and smaller fry are found among them.

These few specimens may serve to show in what
respects sea vegetables may be of use in the econo-
my of nature ; and we will just notice two or three
of the many instances in which they may be said
more directly to contribute to the service of man.

The utility of the Sponge, (an article which takes
its rise from those rocky beds,) in several of our most
useful arts and manufactures, is well known. The
sea weed, made into kelp, forms a principal ingre-
dient in the composition of soap and glass; and is
found o> our rocks and shores in great abundance.
After being spread out and dried in the summer

124 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEff,

months, it is raked together and burnt in those hol-
lows which we observe on the beach. The ashes
form what is called kelp, which is used in the com-
position of soap and glass, as well as in the alum
works. Soap is an article too well known for its
cleansing quality to need description; and without
the aid of glass, to what miseries and inconveniences
must we be exposed, without taking into consider-
ation the darkness that must still have hung over our
mental horizon, had it not been for the invigora-
ting powers of those magical instruments that have
brought a new creation to our notice! But of all the
uses to which sea vegetables can be, applied, there
is not one so valuable as that to which they may be
converted, when in a state of putrescence, in the
form of manure, for promoting the interests of agri-
culture and vegetation upon land.

How surprising that these pliant productions of
the bed of the ocean, wrhen worn out, or in a state
of decay, should possess the amazing qualities of ren-
dering more fertile our fields and meadows, of caus-
ing the barren tracts to bring forth, and of renovating
the exhausted powers of the cultivated districts ! On
this strange circuit of reproduction, wre cannot say,
" out of the eater cometh forth meat, and out of the
strong came forth sweetness ;" but we have abun-
dant reason to remark, that out of death came forth
life, that out of putrefaction came forth vitality !

BOOK. OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 125

Animal Flowers.

Half removed from the objects we have just been
considering, we observe, on our way to those of a
higher order, a number of curious productions in the
form of fleshy excrescences among the rocks and
stones; some with their heads drawn close together,
and others spread out at top in all the luxuriance of
a full blown flower. These, on account of their firm
adherence to a particular spot, and apparent want
of sensibility, might be taken for vegetables ; but, up-
on minute examination, they will be found to con-
stitute part of that superior class, or uniting link be-
tween the vegetable and animal creation, that we
had occasion to mention in a preceding chapter upon
Quadrupeds, under the appellation of Animal Flow-
ers. Let us attend to the operations of one of them,
and we shall soon discover, that what at first wore
the appearance of a still, inanimate, full-blown flower,
has something of a living and active principle in it.
Touch its diverging rays or filaments, and see how
they contract ; but in this you may say it does no
more than the sensitive plant ; make, however, an-
other experiment, and put a shell-fish on its orifice,
behold how it extends itself to receive it, with what
efforts it sucks it in, and how the under part of the
body swells as it forces the food into the stomach. It
is not, however, capable of digesting the shelly sub-
stance, and see with what artifice it disgorges it, af-
ter having stript it of its contents. These are cer-
tainly not the properties of mere vegetables. — But

M2

126 BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN.

what is that other one about ? It has put forth in
array all its little fleshy horns or feelers ; with some
of them it has laid hold of an insect, which it is in
the act of conveying to its mouth ; it soon is made
to disappear in the aperture, and the dilating of the
under extremity, or stalk of the flower, plainly evin-
ces its progress downwards ; these are certainly the
functions of animal life, and from these and such like
actions, what at first might appear as nothing more
than vegetables, have justly been denominated Ani-
mal Flowers -, while, from their being capable of
propagation by cuttings, and of being muitiplied by
divisions, they may, with equal propriety, be desig-
nated Salt-water, or Sea Polypuses, and be reckoned
among the wonders of the Almighty in the deep.

That these substances resemble polypuses, by the
singular property of being multiplied and grafted
by slips, experience has put beyond a doubt The
reproductive power of the Barbadoes animal flower
is prodigious. Many people coming to see these
strange creatures, and occasioning some inconve-
nience to a person, through whose grounds they were
obliged to pass, he resolved to destroy the objects of
their curiosity ; and that he might do so effectually,
caused all the holes, out of which they appeared, to
be carefully bored and drilled with an iron instru-
ment, so that we cannot suppose but their bodies
must have been entirely crushed to a pulp ; never-
theless they appeared again, in a few days, from the
same places.

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 12

CHAP. XII.

SHELL-FISH.

11 In shelly armour wrapt, the lobster seeks
Safe shelter in some bay, or winding creek ;
To rocky chasms the dusky natives cleave,
Tenacious hold, nor will the dwelling leave.**

IF the wonderful productions we have just been
contemplating, may be considered as pail of the con-
necting link between the vegetable and animal king-
doms, the lowest gradation of this species may be
accounted that which unites the animal to the fossil
class ; but what a prodigious variety of these exist,
from the humble oyster, which vegetates in its shell,
to the ponderous Tortoise that grazes the aquatic
meadow, or the wondrous Lobster, that shoots with
rapidity across the gulf

The Lobster, indeed, may be well styled won-
drous. According to Sturm, it is one of the most
extraordinary creatures that exists. " An animal,
(observes this writer,) whose skin is a shell, and
which it casts off every year, to clothe itself with
new armour ; an animal, whose flesh is in its tail and
legs, and whose hair is in the inside of its breast ;
whose stomach is in its head; and which is changed
every year for a new one, and which new one be-
gins by consuming the old. An animal which carries
its eggs within its body, till they become fruitful,
and then carries them outwardly under its tail ; an
animal which can throw off its legs when they

128 BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPE&.

become troublesome, and can replace them with
others ; and lastly, an animal whose eyes are placed
in moveable horns. So singular a creature will long
remain a mystery in the human mind. It affords
new subject, however, to acknowledge and adore
the power and wisdom of the Creator.

The distinguishing appendage of this class, and
that from which they derive their name, is the hard
crustaceous covering in which their bodies are en-
veloped ; and how admirably fitted are they by this
natural bulwark for that particular station in which
Providence has placed them : for how could such
soft and tender bodies have been otherwise defended
and protected from injury among the many rugged
and uneven masses where their habitations are as-
signed, and how could they escape from their nu-
merous enemies, had they not the power of with-
drawing and shutting themselves up on the approach
of danger, within their shelly covering? But be-
sides this, there are several things remarkable in
each individual species of this order, which demon-
strates the whole to be fitted in the best possible
manner for their various situations, habits and pro-
pensities, and to be the workmanship of the same
Being whose wisdom and goodness are so conspi-
cuously displayed in his other works.

The Limpet, stationed as a sentinel on the top of
the rock, and oft exposed to the mid-day's heat when
the tide is, out, as well as to the continual tossings
and agitations of its waves when it is covered, is
safely lodged in a little cone, impervious to the most

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 129

penetrating rays of the sun, and so firmly cemented
to the rock by means of the broad muscular surface
he presents, that neither storm nortempest can prevail
to loosen his grasp, or make him relinquish his firm
hold. The Muscle is not provided by nature with
such a strong and firm sheet-anchor, but she is taught
to supply the defect by a rt, and to spin to herself
cables, by which she can be moored in security to
her favourite spot. The Periwinkle does not at-
tach itself so firmly as either of these, nor has she
the means or the power to do so ; but her stony ha-
bitation is almost proof against accident, and she can
roll about in safety, hermetically sealed up tfnder
her scaly covering The Cockle burrows deep in
the sand or mud, and its edges are notched, in order
to enable it to clasp more firmly together. The
Nautilus, which can exist either as a diver or swim-
mer, and lives sometimes at the bottom, and some-
times on the surface of the ocean, has a power of
contracting and drawing itself into its shell when it
has occasion to descend to the bottom, and of un-
folding and expanding its oars and sails, when it
has an inclination to sport on the surface. The
Cutler, or Razor fish, never creeps, but penetrates
perpendicularly into the sand; and how nicely is
its long and slender shell formed for this purpose !
The Crab is provided with, claws and -feet for
scrambling about, but amongst such rugged preci-
pices, and with so many enemies to encounter, it
must often be at the expence of a limb; and, lo ! it
is endowed with the singular property of shaking off

130 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

and reproducing a new one at pleasure. Nature
has given this singular power to these creatures, for
the preservation of their lives, in their frequent quar-
rels. In these, one crab lays hold of the claw of
another^ and crushes it so that it would bleed to
death, had it not the power of giving up the limb in
the strange manner described by naturalists. If one
of the outer joints of a small leg be bruised, and the
creature be laid on its back, it shews uneasiness at
first, by moving it about, afterwards it holds it quite
still, in a direct and natural position, without touch-
ing any part of the body, or of the other legs with it
Then, on a sudden, with a gentle ccack, the wound-
ed part of the leg drops off; the effect will be the
same with the great leg, only it is thrown off with
greater violence. Having got clear of the injured
part, a mu :us now overspreads the wound, which
presently stops the bleeding ; and a small leg is by
degrees produced, which gradually attains the size
of the former. Lobsters have also the power of re-
producing an injured leg ; and this accounts for
their being so often found with limbs of unequal
size : — the small leg must be a new one, which has
not attained its full growth — The Lobster is admi-
rably formed for either running or swimming, and
can bound with such a spring to her hole in the rock
when frightened, that she enters it with velocity
through an opening barely sufficient, to appearance,'
for her body to pass. And the Pholas, though not
furnished with an instrument apparently calculated
for boring and scooping out stones, is endowed with

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 131

such a fund of patient perseverance, that it is ena-
bled to penetrate into these callous substances by the
application of a fleshy member, resembling a tongue.
With this soft and yielding instrument, the indefati-
gable and persevering Pholas, perforates marble and
the hardest stones ; and when small and naked, it
has effected an entrance, it then enjoys a life of se-
curity and ease, existing upon sea water, that enters
at the aperture, and increasing its habitation as it in-
creases in size.

The Instinctive Sagacity of the crustaceous tribe
also claims our attention We have already re-
marked, that the little Nautilus is furnished with an
apparatus for either diving or swimming. But who
taught the Nautilus to sail ? — and yet, without the
instinctive knowledge how to make use of them, of
what use would be either her sails or oars ? — these,
however, are not given her in vain, for she evinces
a knowledge in the art of navigation, which is sup-
posed to have been copied by some of the early ma-
riners, and the example she affords has been held
out by the poet as still deserving imitation :

« Learn of the little Nautilus to sail,

Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale."

The natural sagacity of the Nautilus, in the use of
his instruments of motion, is thus beautifully deli-
neated by the descriptive pen of Hervey; — " The
dexterous inhabitant (whose shell forms a natural
boat,) unfurls a membrane to the wind, which serves
him instead of a sail. He extends also a couple of
arms, with which, as with two slender oars, he rows

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

himself along. When he is disposed to dive, he
strikes sail ; and, without any apprehension of being
drowned, sinks to the bottom. When the weather
is calm, and he has an inclination to see the world,
or take his pleasure, he mounts to the surface, and
self-taught in the art of navigation, performs his
voyage without either chart or compass ; is himself
the vessel, the rigging, and the pilot."

When the sea is calm, numbers of these animals
are said to be seen sailing on the surface; but at the
approach of a storm, they fold in their legs, and
swallowing as much water as will enable them to
sink, they plunge to the bottom, where they no
doubt remain in a place of security during the raging
of the tempest, and when they wish to rise, they
void this water, and so decreasing their specific
gravity, quickly ascend to the top, where, by means
of their tails, answering the purpose of helms, they
can steer themselves in any direction.

Sea Tortoises, without any teacher but nature,
are instinctively taught to lay their eggs on the sea
shore, and cover them with sand ; and no sooner
are the young hatched and fitted for their journey,
than they leave the place of their nativity, and run
towards that element which Providence has destin-
ed for their abode ; so that the poet may well say :

" Reason progressive, instinct is complete;
Swift instinct leaps, slow reason feeblv climbs.
Brutes soon their zenith reach ; their little all
Flows in at once; in ages they no mo; e
Could know, or do, or covet, or enjoy."

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 133

When the young Lobsters leave the parent, they
betake themselves to hiding places in the smallest
cliffs in the rocks; but no sooner do they find them-
selves incrusted with a firm shell, than they sally
out in quest of plunder. When the time of moult-
ing, or changing the shell draws near, this animal
again betakes itself Co a retired situation, where it
remains in security during its defenceless state; and
after losing the shell, (which both crabs and lobsters
do annually,) and before a new one is formed, the
animal is in a very naked and defenceless state, ex-
posed to the dog fish, and a multitude of other de-
predators. In this situation they do not, however,
long continue; for the new covering is formed, and
completely hardened, in little more than forty eight
hours; and no sooner does it find itself covered with
its new suit of armour, than it appears again on the
stage, lively and active as before. The common
Crabs herd together in distinct tribes, and keep
their separate haunts. The Soldier Crab is not
provided by nature with a shell attached to his body,
but she has inspired him with instinctive sagacity to
take up his abode in the first empty one he can lay
hold of, suitable to his purpose, and to change it for
another when it grows incommodious. When it has
overgrown, or otherwise has occasion to change the
shell, the little soldier is seen busily parading ihe
shore, but still dragging its old habitation along, un-
willing to part with one, until it has found another
still more convenient for its purpose It is ^-en
stopping at one shell, turning it, then going on to

N

134 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

another, looking at it a while, then slipping its tail
from the old habitation to try on the new. This
is sometimes found to be more inconvenient, in
which case it quickly returns to its old shell, and
goes in quest of another more roomy and commo-
dious. But it is not till after many trials and fre-
quent combats, that the soldier sometimes finds him-
self completely equipped; for there are frequent
contests betwixt two of this species, for some well-
looking and commodious shell ; and it is from this
circumstance, perhaps, the soldier-crab derives its
name. When two of them meet with the same ob-
ject, each strives to take possession; they strike with
their claws, and bite each other till the weakest is
obliged to yield. It is then that the victor takes pos-
session, and parades in his new conquest, backwards
and forwards upon the strand, before his envious
antagonist. The Land Crabs of the \Vest Indies
(which also may be reckoned among the natives of
the deep,) are represented as living in a kind of or-
derly society, and regularly once a year marching
down from the mountains to the sea, in order to de-
posit their spawn ; and after the little creatures are
hatched under the sand, they also are observed as
regularly quitting the shore in crowds, and slowly
travelling up towards the mountains

These creatures commence their expedition in the
months of April and May. At that time the whole
ground is covered with this numerous band of adven-
turers. The sea is the place of their destination, and
to that they direct their march. No geometrician

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 135

could send them by a shorter course. They never
turn aside to the right or to the left, if they can pos-
sibly avoid it, whatever obstacles intervene. If they
meet with a house, they will attempt to scale the
walls, in order to keep their ranks ; and if the coun-
try be intersected by rivers, they wind along the
course of the stream. They arc commonly divided
into three battalions, of which the first consists of
the strongest and boldest males, that, like pioneers,
march forward to clear the route, and face the great-
est dangers. They are often obliged to halt for want
of rain. The main body is composed of females,
which never leave the mountains till the rain is set
in, and then descend in regular order, in columns of
fifty paces broad, and three miles deep ; and so close
that they almost cover the ground. Three or four
days after this, the rear guard follows, a straggling
and undisciplined tribe, consisting of males and fe-
males ; but neither so robust nor so numerous as the
former. The night is their chief time of proceeding;
but if it rains by day, they do not fail to profit by
the occasion When they are terrified, they march
back in a disorderly manner, holding up their nip-
pers, with which they sometimes tear off a piece of
the flesh of an assailant, and leave the weapon where
they inflicted the wound. They even try to intimi-
date their enemies, by clattering their nippers toge-
ther, which, considering their number, must have
a powerful effect. When they have arrived at the
shore, which sometimes takes three months, they
prepare to cast their spawn, by eagerly going to the

136 BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN.

edge of the water, and letting it wash several times
over their bodies. At the expiration of some days,
spent on the land, after this washing, they again seek
the shore; and shaking off the spawn into the wa-
ter, leave it there- The sea, to a great distance, is
black with the eggs, and shoals of hungry fish at-
tend, and devour a considerable quantity of them ;
those that escape are hatched under the sand; and
soon after, millions at a time of these little crabs are
seen quitting the sfiore, and making their way slowly
to the mountains.

When the Tellina has occasion to move, she puts
herself into a certain position, which occasions her
to spring out, with considerable force, to a distance.
When the Scallop finds herself deserted by the tide,
it jerks itself forward by opening and shutting its
shell in a singular manner. When the Razor shell-
fish finds itself deceived by the fisherman, when he
decoys it from its subterraneous habitation by a
sprinkling of salt, and has time to retreat, no such
attempt will succeed a second time. When part of
the legs of the Sea Hedge-hog are at work, carry-
ing him forward, the horns that are nearest in that
direction are busily employed in making soundings
or feeling the way. The Muscle, when she has
commenced spinning her cable, will make a trial of
a thread, by drawing it out strongly towards her,
before she proceeds to stretch out a second ; and these
cords, which she spins with so much art, are, in re-
ality, as serviceable to them as cables are to a ship.
There are frequently a hundred and fifty of these

BOOK <W NATURE LAID OPEN. 137

little cables employed in mooring a muscle; each
cable is scarcely two inches long, but they are all
spun by herself, and the tongue is the instrument
which not only produces these numerous threads, but
serves also instead of arms and legs on other occa-
sions The Limpet, when she has occasion to un-
moor, finds means to disengage herself without any
great effort, and to move from her place by the same
muscle by which she adhered so firmly to her an-
chorage. Even Oysters are said not to be destitute of
the power and the instinctive sagacity to turn them-
selves round when thrown irregularly into a vessel
of water, so that the concave shells may remain

downmost, in order to retain their favourite liquor.

I

Uses of Shell-fish.

From the number of animals which prey upon in-
sects, it was inferred, that the principal object the
Creator had in view in the formation of these, was
the subsistence of many of the larger orders of crea-
tures ; so, from the numerous herds of shell-fish,
which, in a great degree, resemble insects, and eve-
ry where abound among the beds of the ocean, and
the extraordinary digestive faculties of the finny
tribes, we have reason to conclude, that the former
were principally intended and brought into existence
for food to the lifter- We will, however, mention a
few particulars in which the crustaceous tribes may
also be said to be otherwise serviceable.

138 BOOK 0# NATURE LAID OPEN.

The Hawk's -bill Turtle is valued on account of
its shell, from whence our most beautiful snuff boxes,
and other trinkets, are said to be formed. The Green
Turtle, as a wholesome and highly delicious food,
has become such a valuable article in commerce, that
our West India vessels are now generally fitted up
With conveniences for importing them alive. The
Land Crab is said to be regarded as a delicacy in
Jamaica; and it is even asserted that the slaves are
often entirely fed upon them. Among the shell fish
on the Waterford coast, the Murex, which gave the
Tyrian purple, is said to exist. We need not men-
tion in what estimation the Lobster, the Crab, and
other shell-fish, are held among ourselves;^ and the
delicacy of flavour which makes the Oyster prized
as an article of food. In the Oyster, also, is found
that beautiful substance called Mother of Pearl; but
as the pearl fishery is one of the most destructive em-
ployments (the art of war excepted,) in which the
human species can be engaged, it is much to be la-
mented that what is principally used in the formation
of trinkets should continue to be procured at the ex-
pence of so much human misery.

The pearls are searched for by Divers, educated to
it as a profession ; they descend from fifty to sixty feet,
each bringing up a net full of Oysters. The pearl
is most commonly attached to the inside of the shell,
but is most perfect when found in me animal itself.

The exertion undergone during this progress is so
violent, that, upon being brought into the boat, the
Divers discharge water from their mouths, ears and

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 139

nostrils, and frequently blood; this does not, how-
ever, hinder them from going down in their turn,
and the poor creatures will often make from forty to
fifty plunges a day. But the violence of the exer-
tion (by which, although the most robust and healthy
are generally chosen for this employment, yet they
seldom survive it five or six years,) is not the only
thing the Pearl-divers have to dread; they are also
exposed to the attacks of the sharks, who, if they are
not successful in every attempt to extinguish at once
the vital spark, and so put an end to a life so little
to be envied, frequently deprive these unhappy be-
ings of a limb", and suffer them only to escape from
their jaws in a mutilated state! — Read this, ye dash-
ing fair ones! and think, as ye enter the ball room
under a profusion of glittering ornaments, that, to
procure that costly bracelet, an unhappy fellow crea-
ture was doomed to the slavery of the diamond-
mines ; and that beautiful pearl was procured at the
peril of another's life. — And all this while so many
of the transcendent beauties of creation, placed by
the Almighty within our reach, pass unregarded. —
But this is of a piece with the general conduct of
man, who is ever apt to lose the substance in grasp-
ing at the shadow.

110 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEK

CHAP. XIII.

FISHES.

" Who can old Ocean's pathless bed explore,
And count her tribes that people every shore:1"

" From icy oceans, where the whales
Toss in foam their lashing tails."

IP the Ostrich, the Emu, and the Cassowary, were
remarkable for their size, and claimed our first at-
tention among the feathery tribes, in consequence of
their apparently constituting part of that link which
unites the quadruped to the volatile race, the Whale
deserves our immediate notice on entering among
the finny tribes; not only on account of its enormous
bulk, which has occasioned it, in its movements, to
be compared to a mountain in motion, but for the
resemblance that it bears to the four footed class of
animals in its internal structure, and that superior in-
stinctive sagacity which it displays in its conjugal at-
tachment, and care of its offspring* In bulk, the
Whale may be said to exceed every animal of which
we have any certain description. They are in the
arctic regions at present from sixty to ninety feet
long; but formerly, when the captures were lessfre-
qnent, and they were not so much thinned before ar-
riving at a larger growth, they were suid to be found
of the enormous length of two hundred and fifty feet;
and in the Indian Seas they aiv still seen one hun-
dred and fifty feet in length. Yet, notwithstanding

BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN. 141

. its amazing bulk, this creature must not be consi-
dered as a huge unwieldy mass ; for, according to
La Cepede, it swims at the rate of thirty-three feet
in a Second, and it is computed that it might circum-
navigate the globe, in the direction of the equator, in
forty seven days, even allowing it to rest by night
during that time! It is believed to be extremely
long lived; and the method of catching these huge
animals is said to be one of the boldest enterprizes
of man. As the whale fishing has, however, been
so fully described in a variety of publications, within
the reach of the greater part of our readers, we shall
pass it over for the present. But, large as the whale
is, what is its size in comparison with the Kraken ?
if such an animal exists; which is said to be " a mile
and a half in circumference ; — that, when it appears
above the water, it resembles a parcel of small isl-
ands and sand-banks, on which fish disport them-
selves, and sea-weeds grow ;" — and that, " when he
sinks, which he does gradually, a dangerous swell
succeeds, and a kind of whirlpool is actually formed
in the water."

Far from being disposed to set bounds to the power
of the Almighty, by denying the possibility of the
existence of such an anirr>al, we wrould conclude in
the words of Goldsmith, that " to believe all that has
been said of those animals would be too credulous,
and to reject the possibility of their existence, would
be a presumption unbecoming mankind."

In the internal conformation of its parts, and in a
few of the external ones of the Whale, there is such

142 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

a similarity to those of quadrupeds, that Linneeus has
placed it in the same class ; to which its claim, and
that of the other cetaceous fishes, seem, indeed, little
inferior to that of the Seal, where the last gradation,
in that order of animals, may be said to end.

In its instinctive tenderness, the Whale is, indeed,
entitled to our admiration ; but, as we shall have oc-
casion to speak more fully on that subject by and
by, we will, for.the present, proceed to the consider-
ation of the general

Structure of Fishes.

In attending to these, we will soon observe that,
if the body of a bird is shaped in the most convenient
manner for making its way through the air, a no less
extraordinary degree of divine wisdom is evident in
the conformation of the finny inhabitants of the deep
to that element in which they exist. To make these
creatures buoyant and flexible, yet firm to oppose
Jthe strongest currents, the great Creator has consti-
tuted them of very different materials, and of a dif-
ferent construction from other animals. To enable
them to traverse with ease and swiftness the watery
regions, the greater part of them have the same ex-
ternal form, sharp at each end, and swelling in the
middle. To preserve them from being hurt by the
action and temperature of the surrounding fluid,
as well as to enable them to glide more smoothly
through it, many of these are covered with a coat of
scales, others with a fat oily substance, and the whole

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 143

with a slimy glutinous matter, supposed to be se-
creted from the pores of their bodies. A protube-
rant eye would have been inconvenient, and easily
injured by moving in such a dense medium ; but, to
prevent this, the eyes of fishes are sunk in their heads,
and the cornea made flat, while the defect of vision,
that must have inevitably ensued in consequence, had
they been formed like those of other animals, is pro-
vided against by the spherical form of the crystalline
humour. As their progression is performed in a
different way from that of any of the tribes we have
already noticed, they are provided with instruments
peculiar to themselves, and are enabled to poise their
bodies, and push swiftly along by means of their fins
and tail Not being provided with hands or feet to
lay hold of their prey, or with talons or bills to tear
it to pieces, Nature has provided them with mouths
capable of great extension, when they have occasion
to seize on their victims, yet so formed, that when
shut up close, they terminate in a point, in which an
opening is scarcely distinguishable. What a tre-
mendous chasm, for instance, does the mouth of a
Shark present when extended to receive a human
carcase, of which this voracious monster has given
instances of being extremely fond, and yet, when
closed, it appears but a continuation of that long snout
with which this fish, (reckoned among the swiftest of
swimmers) like an arrow pierces the watery element.
In the absence of necks, which would make the
head too apt to be turned aside when making their
way against a stream, the whole bodies of fish are

144 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

so formed as to be easily turned with a slight stroke
of the tail ; for, when a fish desires to turn, a blow
from the tail sends it about in an instant; and when it
strikes both ways, the motion is progressive, and en-
ables it to dart forward with an astonishing velocity.
One distinguishing appendage peculiar to the fin-
ny tribe, and which is found in the bodies of all spi-
nous or bony fish, is the air bladder, by means of
which they can make themselves more or less buoy-
ant, and rise or fall in (he water at pleasure. " This,"
as Dr. Paley observes, " affords a plain and direct
instance, not only of contrivance, but strictly of that
contrivance which we denominate mechanical It
is a philosophical apparatus in the body of an ani-
mal. The principle of the contrivance is clear; the
application is also clear " The rising and sinking
of a fish in the water, so far as is independent of the
strokes of the fins and tail, can only be regulated by
the specific gravity of the body. When the bladder,
contained in the body of the fish, is contracted, which
it probably possesses a muscular power of doing, the
bulk of the fish is contracted along with it ; where-
by, since the absolute weight remains the same, the
specific gravity, which is the sinking force, is in-
creased, and the fish descends ; on the contrary,
when, in consequence of the relaxation of the mus-
cles, the elasticity of the inclosed, and now com-
pressed air, restores the dimensions of the bladder,
the fish becomes proportionally lighter, and rises in
the water.

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN, 145

If the attributes of the Deity are so conspicuously
displayed in the general structure and conformation
of fishes, they are no less so in the infinity of their
number and sizes; in the provision made for at once
keeping up the number of this most numerous of all
classes, and preventing the sea from being overstock-
ed ; and in that peculiarity of form and structure, so
essentially necessary in the different species.

In this mighty reservoir it may emphatically, inr
deed, be said, " there are creatures innumerable,
both small and great." Linnaeus, however, reckons
upwards of four hundred species ; but it is extremely
probable, that numbers are concealed in the vast ex-
tent and profundity of the ocean, which have never
yet been exposed to human observation. But who
can count the numbers in each species ? For who
can attempt to calculate the numbers in those pro-
digious shoals that tinge the sea with their colour,
without taking into consideration " those scaly herds,
and that minuter fry, which grace the sea weed, or
stray through the coral grove?" and what a diversity
and variety of sizes do they assume, from the massy
whale that sports at large in the Greenland seas, to
those minute creatures which enter our creeks, and
take up their abode in our harbours!

Yet, notwithstanding the prodigious numbers of
some of these animals, and the stupendous size of
others, as we observed before, they are all conve-
niently lodged and fed ; which is the more surprising,
if we take into consideration the amazing fecundity
of some, and the longevity of others of these erea-

o

146 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

tures. It is asserted of the Herring, that if suffered
to multiply unmolested, and its offspring to remain
undiminished during the space of twenty years, it
would shew a progeny many times greater in bulk
than the whole earth! — that a single Codfish will
produce at a birth, if they escape depredation, a num-
ber equal to that of the inhabitants of England! —
The Flounder is said to produce above a million at
a time, and a JVlackarel not less than five hundred
thousand; and, in regard to the longevity of fishes,
several are said to live upwards of an hundred years.
How, then, it may be asked, are those myriads of
subjects of the watery kingdom kept within due li-
mits? How comes it to pass, that the mighty basin
is not overstocked? And how are its numerous te-
nants provided with food? This must be principal-
ly owing to the prevalence of the predatory system
among fishes ; for, numerous as are the draughts ta-
ken from the bosom of the ocean for the service of
man, they can bear no proportion to the number that
are left behind. But the sea, like the land, abounds
not with a profusion of vegetables, so as to be suffi-
cient for the support of all, nor even the greater part
of its inhabitants, many of which are known to be
of the most greedy and voracious natures It was
absolutely necessary, therefore, that they should de-
vour one another, and the experience of ages has
proved, that great as the increase of these creatures
is, and has been, it has never as yet been more than
enough; that the balance has hitherto been pretty
equally kept up, and that while the astonishing pro-

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 147

lific powers of the finny tribes have been found suffi-
cient for keeping up a constant supply, and making
up for every waste, yet there will always be found
a requisite number of hungry mouths to devour the
overplus. A single Pike has been known to devour
one hundred Roaches in three days. Whatever is
possessed of life, seems the most desirable food of
fish. Some of the smallest feed upon worms and
spawn; others, wh^e mouths are large, seek larger
prey, it matters not of what kind, or whether it is or
is not of their own species. Those with the largest
mouths pursue almost every thing that has life ; and
often meeting each other in fierce opposition, the fish
with the largest swallow comes off victorious by de-
vouring its antagonist.

In regard to the particular construction of fishes,
we will briefly remark, that the Whale has often oc-
casion to ascend to the surface of the water for the
fmrpose of breathing, and it has a tail peculiarly con-
structed to enable it to do so. His coat of blubber
may be absolutely necessary to make his body equi-
ponderate in the water, and to keep his blood warm;
while in the absence of offensive weapons he is pos-
sessed of extraordinary agility, and by a stroke of
his tail can deal destruction to his pursuer. The
strength of this fish lies chiefly in the tail. A boat
has been cut down, from the top to the bottom, by
means of this formidable instrument, though the gun-
nel on the top was of tough wood. Another has had
the stern-post, three inches thick, cut off smooth,

148 BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEX.

without so much as shattering the boat, or drawing
the nails of the boards.

The Cod, the Haddock, the Whiting, and others,
whose principal element is in the middle region of
the ocean, have an air-bladder to raise and depress
them at pleasure; while the Scate, the Thornback,
and others, that grovel mostly at the bottom, are des-
titute of this wonderful instrument. The Nar-whale,
being a harmless and peaceable animal, may proba-
bly make use of the horn, which rises from its brow,
for the purpose of breaking the ice, or disengaging
the plants, on which it feeds, from the bottom of the
sea. The Sword fish will not fail to attack even the
Whale himself; and with what a fearful and danger-
ous weapon is he armed for the purpose! Of all the
inhabitants of the deep, the Shark is the fiercest and
most voracious, and in celerity of movement sur-
passes most, if not all, of the finny race ; but, to coun-
terbalance powers, and an appetite for destruction,
that might thin the ocean, there is a strange singu-
larity in the projecting of his upper over his under
jaw, so that he is obliged to turn in order to take hold
of his prey, and while he is doing so his victim often
makes its escape. Crabs, Lobsters, Whilks, Mus-
cles, and other shell fish, are the food of the Wolf-
fish; and for the purpose of effecting the destruction
of such well-defended prey, this animal is provided
with teeth remarkable for their strength. The Fly-
ing-fish has many enemies in both elements, but it
is provided with instruments by which it can betake
itself either to the water or the air, as occasion may

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 149

require. In the tropical climates these fishes, when
hotly pursued, are seen springing by hundreds out of
the water, and sometimes throw themselves on board
of ships in order to escape their various assailants.
The predaceous fishes that swim in the ocean, and
all the birds of prey that range its surface, seem to
be combined against it. It is no wonder, therefore,
that the beneficent Author of nature has endowed a
fish, exposed to so many enemies, with a twofold
power to esca'pe.

The structure of the Sucking-fish enables it to at-
tach itself fkmly to the bodies of animals; that of the
Ammodytes, or Sand-eel, particularly the head, is
most excellently formed for piercing into the sand.
The flatness of the Scate and Flounder enables them
to cover themselves up in the sand or mud, when
they lie in wait for their prey; and the Turbot is said
to be provided with a skin or membrane, which he
draws over his eyes when he has occasion to stick
fast at the bottom in stormy weather. The Globe-
fish is beset with prickles like a hedge-hog, and bids
defiance to all birds of prey. The Torpedo benumbs
on a sudden, and renders impotent whatever fish it
assaults: it is said also to strike the fisherman's arm,
when he attempts to lay hold of it, with a temporary
deadness. " The instant," says Kempfer, " I touched
it with my hand, I felt a terrible numbness in my
arm, and as far up as my shoulder. Even if one
treads upon it with a shoe on, it affects not only
the leg, but the whole thigh upwards." The Tor-
porific Eel imparts a sensation similar to that which

150 BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPE*.

is experienced from electricity. The Cuttle-fish is
furnished with a liquid magazine of an inky colour,
to darken the waters when pursued by an enemy.
The Galley-fish is protected by the caustic quality
of the substance with which its legs are smeared.
The abhorrent appearance of the Sea Orb is suffi-
cient to disgust men from handling it, and more so
fco deter them from partaking of its poisonous quality
by way of food. And it is not improbable but the
hideous form of the Sea-devil, and other monsters of
the deep, may have been stamped upon them by na-
rore (which does nothing in vain,) for similar purposes.

The Instincts of Fishes.

Fishes, it is said, appear inferior to beasts and birds
In acuteness of sensation and instinctive sagacity ; but
how is this reconcileable with that tenderness, care,
and solicitude, (which nothing can exceed,) which
the common Whale evinces for her young ? She-
suckles and nurses them with the greatest affection,
takes them with her wherever she goes ; when pur-
sued she carries them on her back, and supports them
with her fins ; when wounded she will not relinquish
her charge, and when obliged to plunge, in midst
of her agonies, will clasp them more closely, and sink
with them to the bottom. Mr Waller, in his beau-
tiful poem of" The Summer Islands," relates a sto-
ry, in which the maternal tenderness of the Whale
is most affectingly displayed. A whale and her cub
had got into an arm of the sea, where, by the defec-

BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN. 151

fion of the tide, they were entirely enclosed. The
people on shore beheld their situation, and drove
down upon them in boats, with such weapons as
could be hastily collected. The animals were soon
severely wounded, and the sea tinged with their
blood. After several attempts to escape, the old one
forced over the shallow into the depths of the ocean;
but, though in safety herself, she could not bear the
danger that awaited her young one; she therefore
rushed in once more where the smaller animal was
confined, and, as she could not carry it off, seemed
resolved to share its danger. The tide, however,
coming in, both were enabled to escape from their
enemies, after sustaining a number of wounds.

The fidelity of whales to each other is also said
to exceed even what we observe in birds ; and Gold-
smith relates an instance, in which a female whale
being wounded while her attached partner was re-
clining by her side, on beholding the object of his ten-
derness fulling a victim to the harpooners, he stretch-
ed himself on her body, and participated in her fate.

It is curious to remark what sagacity the finny
tribes display in seeking out the most proper places
for depositing their spawn. The Salmon on her
journey up the river, will suffer no obstacle that she
can possibly surmount to oppose her progress to the
place of her destination ; and in order to attain it,
will spring over cataracts several feet high. In
going upwards she will keep at the bottom where
the current is weakest, and when she returns, will
avail herself of its strength at the top, by swimming
near its surface !

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

The migration of different kinds of fishes is truly
astonishing; and it is pleasing to remark, that it is
when fat and in season for eating, that they are
taught so instinctively to throng our bays and creeks,
while they disperse to the remotest quarters of the
globe when lean and emaciated. " Who," in the
words of the celebrated Hervey, " Who bids these
creatures evacuate the shores, and disperse them-
selves into all quarters, when they become worthless
and unfit for our service? Who rallies and recalls
the undisciplined vagrants, as soon as they are im-
proved into desirable food ? Who appoints the very
scene of our ambush to be the places of their ren-
dezvous, so that they come like volunteers into our
nets? Surely the furlough is signed, the summons
issued, and the point of re-union settled by a Provi-
dence, ever indulgent to mankind, ever studious to
treat us with dainties, and load us with benefits."
Not only do the Herrings, the poor man's feast, visit
our shores at stated periods, and solicit us by their
numbers to partake of the bounties of Providence, but
the Pilchard, the Mackerel, the Lamprey, the Tun-
ny, and the Salmon, are regular in their migrations.

At the time the Land Crabs of the West Indies
arrive upon the coast to deposit their eggs, numerous
fishes of different kinds punctually attend, as if time-
ly advised of the exact period when they might
expect their annual supply, and greedily devour
many of the eggs before they are hatched. — Fishes,
in order to be fed, have been taught to assemble at
the side of a pond by the sound of a bell. Dr. George
Serger asserts, that having taken a walk with some

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 153

friends in the fine gardens of the Archbishop of
Saltzburg, the gardener conducted them to a very
clear piece of water, in which no fish were at first to
be seen, but that the man had no sooner rung a little
bell, than a multitude of trout came together from all
parts of the pond, to take what he had brought them,
and disappeared as soon as they had eaten it up.

The Lamprey makes holes in the gravelly bottom
of the river previous to depositing her ova. The Sea-
Dog, in a storm, is said to conceal her young under
her belly. A curious circumstance has been observed
relative to the young Sharks, that when pursued,
they will, on the appearance of danger, take refuge
in the belly of the mother. It is asserted by Pliny,
that the Fishing- Frog hides itself in muddy water,
and makes use of a singular artifice to secure her
prey. The Ink Fish seems to be well informed of
the use she ought to make of her natural bottle, and
when pursued, discharges its contents in the way of
her foe. The aborescent Star fish, like the Spider,
spreads out her net in order to entangle her unwary
victim. And the little Thresher, in order to get the
better of his formidable antagonist, tumbles neck
over heels, and falls down with astonishing force on
the back of the Whale, while his ally, the Sword-
fish, wounds him from underneath.

TJic Uses of Fishes.

Although it has been said, that to preserve their
own existence, and to continue it to their posterity,

154 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

fills up the whole circle of their pursuits, and that a
ceaseless desire of food seems to be their ruling im-
pulse, yet we are not to consider Fishes as insulated
creatures, unconnected with the general concerns
and affairs of the world ; as merely formed for the
propagation of their kind, and to " pursue and be pur-
sued, each other's prey." No; these also act an impor-
tant and most essential part in the great theatre of the
universe; and woe be to the inhabitants of the earth,
did multitudes of fishes not abound in its waters.
We have already had occasion to notice the neces-
sity of a speedy decomposition of the parts of putres-
cent bodies on land? and notwithstanding the saline
quality of its waters and perpetual agitation which
prevents them for a time, the bad effects of such ac-
cumulated loads of filth and nastiness, as are conti-
nually pouring into the sea, must soon be apparent,
were it not for those numerous herds of fishes, which
in every quarter glide with rapidity through the li-
quid expanse, and catch and devour almost every
thing of a digestible nature that comes in the way.
For this purpose, that amazing fecundity may have
been bestowed upon them, and for this purpose,
those voracious appetites given, that, however re-
mote the situation, or disgusting the substance, that
enters the watery element, it might quickly meet an
eye eager to catch it, and a living tomb to swallow
and strip it of its noxious qualities.

As an article of food the finny tribes are greatly
to be prized, and it is matter of thankfulness, that
the benefits they impart are most extensively diffus-

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 155

eel; for while our lakes, and rivers, and streams,
abound with these living treasures, the ocean con-
veys them in myriads to the ends of the earth, and
presents the bounties of an indulgent parent to his
numerous children, however scattered among the
isles of the sea ; and if the Turbo t has been styled
for its exquisite relish the Pheasant of the waters,
the Sturgeon, even in pickle, has been denominated
a luxury, and while the Salmon is held in much es-
teem by the great, the poor have reason to praise the
Almighty for an abundant supply ot cheap, whole-
some, and nutritious food, in those prodigious shoals
of Herrings and Pilchards which visit our coasts.

When the great colony of Herrings set out on
their migrating journey from the Polar seas, it is
composed of such numbers, that it all the horses in
the world were loaded with them, they could not
carry the thousandth part ; and when the main body
approaches the coast, it is generally divided into
distinct colums of five or six miles in length, and
three or four in breadth !

Vast shoals of Pilchards (a small species of Her-
ring) appear about the middle of July, off the coast
of Cornwall ; and Mr. Pennant was assured by Dr.
Borlase, that on the fifth ot October, 1767, there
was at one time enclosed and caught in St. Anne's
Bay, no less than 7000 hogsheads of Pilchards, each
hogshead containing 3500 fishes !

Nor have we less reason to be thankful for the in-
calculable number of Cod, and other white fish,
which are drawn from the ocean ; and for those in-

156 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

exhaustible stoics of cartilaginous flat fish, which
furnish the labourer with his cheap repast. — In 1806,
fiVe hundred and severity-seven ships, carrying about
64,667 tons, arid navigated by 4,336 men, were em-
ployed bv the British Government, to export the
produce of the fisheries on the banks of Newfound-
land, where the principle cod fisheries are. The
vessels used in the fishery, are from 100 to 150 tons
burden, and catch from thirty to forty thousand fish
each; 10,000 persons being employed about this
fishery, in catching, salting, and drying the fish,
which are sent to all parts of Europe and the West-
Indies. These fisheries are said to bring in to the
proprietors a revenue of several millions yearly; and
they will probably remain in an iriexhausted and in-
exhaustible source of treasure, when the richest
mines are wrought out. Happy ordination of infi-
nite goodness and unerring wisdom, that while the
monstrous and unwholesome tribes are thinly scat-
tered or hid from our sight in the great abyss, the
wholesome and nutritious kinds abound in such num-
bers, and are brought, as it were, to our very doors !

Even the great Greenland Whale, which abounds
in such numbers in the northern ocean, is said to
furnish the inhabitants of those countries, which
border on his haunts, with a delicious luxury in the
article of food. The Porpoise was a royal dish oven
so late as the reign of Henry VIII. and the negroes
are said to be fond of the flesh of the voracious Shark.

The Whale is well known on account of its im-
portance in furnishing such a supply of oil and

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 15.7

whalebone. Every Whale yields, on an average,
from sixty to one hundred barrels of oil; which,
with the whalebone, a substance taken from the
upper jaw of%e animal, must render these creatures
very valuable in a commercial point of view. From
the Cacholet we derive that valuable commodity
spermaceti; and ambergris, the sweetest of perfumes,
is also frequently found in this animal. The skin of
the Shark is converted into shagreen. From a spe-
cies of the Sturgeon, we are supplied with isinglass.
From the Beluga-fish we derive that delicious com-
position called caviare, and also the Beluga stone;
The hide of the Huso is so tough and strong, that it
is employed for ropes in carts and other wheel car-
nages.

As some of the volatile race seem to be formed to
please us with the beauty of their plumage, and de-
light us with the melody of their song, so a few of
the finny tribe are so exquisitely formed and beauti-
fully embellished, that they appear more calculated
for our pleasure and pastime, than for any intrinsic
value in another point of view. We do not here
merely allude to the little gold and silver natives of
China and Japan, which are trained and domesti-
cated to sport in our ponds, and amuse us with gam-
bols in our gardens, but to the Dorado and Gilt head,
which glide in the ocean, and the beautiful Drago-
net, which shines resplendent in the deep. These,
also, on some interesting occasions, may contribute
their mites towards the comforts of man. Gazing
on these from the side of the vessel that conveys him

158 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

far from his native home, the solitary exile may be
made, for a while, to forget his private woes ; and
the sporting of these may serve to beguile the tedi-
ous moments that mark the slow progress of the lone-
some passenger, returning from captivity to the circle
of his friends, or to the agitated bosom of her he loves.
Thus, if we have had reason to admire the wis-
dom, the power and the goodness of the great Crea-
tor, as they are manifested in some of the inanimated
pages of the BOOK OP NATURE, and to contemplate,
as we have gone along, with sentiments of admira-
tion and gratitude, the benefits we derive from the
internal structure and outward form of the earth —
from the numerous appendages and vegetable pro-
ductions by which the dry land is covered — and from
the wonderful phenomena and beneficial properties
of the ocean ; we have no less cause to be filled with
admiration at the bright display of the wisdom and
goodness of the Creator, as they shine conspicuous
in the inhabitants of the great deep.

CHAP XIV.

THE ATMOSPHERE.

- i • " To HIM, ye vocal gales

Blow soft, whose spirit in your freshness breathes !'*

« We view his kind, his life-preserving care,

In all the wondcous properties of air."

FROM the earth let us ascend into the regions of
the air, and take a view of that invisible fluid that

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 159

surrounds our globe as with a garment/ gravitates to
its surface, enters into its pores, revolves with it in its
diurnal motion, and circles along with it in its annual
course.

The Air is one of the most heterogeneous mix-
hires imaginable. " In it," says Goldsmith, " all the
bodies of the earth are continually sending up a part
of their substance by evaporation A thousand sub-
stances that escape all our senses we know to be
there; the powerful emanations of the loadstone, the
effluvia of electricity, the rays of light, and the in-
sinuations of fire." Such are the various substances
through which we move, and which we are conti-
nually taking in at every pore, and returning again
with imperceptible discharge. Yet, notwithstanding
the multitude of discordant particles of which the at-
mosphere is composed, it is made wonderfully ta
harmonize in point of utility ; and is wisely contrived,
admirably framed, and excellently constituted, for
the various purposes it was intended to perform, in
the world of nature and of art.

That the air is a fluid is obvious, from its possess-
ing so many properties in common with other fluids;
yet, in one respect, it is wisely made to differ from
all others, being incapable of freezing by the greatest
degree of cold. Was it not for this singular quality
of the atmosphere, what dreadful effects must have
been the consequence. Life and animation must
long ago have ceased, before the frigid blasts of the
north, and when winter first shook his hoary locks,-
the great pulse of nature must have stood still,

160 BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN.

Another wonderful property of the air is its invi-
sibility; for, although it can be heard in the howling
of the tempest, and felt in the pressure of the gale,
and notwithstanding the number of bodies that con-
tinually mix with its substance, it is still too fine to
be seen by the sharpest eye.

Every object around us is visible, except the air;
and happy it is for us that it is so ; for, had it been
otherwise, farewell to all the delightful prospects that
charm the eye; farewell to all the bright beauties of
creation. Nature must have put on a sombre aspect,
and, instead of those delightful regions of light and
cheerfulness in which we are placed, our habitations
would have been surrounded by the doleful shades
of a dusky covering, and environed with a mantle
of darkness and despair.

But, although the atmosphere is of itself invisible
to the sight, it is the happy medium of light and heat.
The air is found to moderate the rays of light, to dis-
sipate their violence, and to spread an uniform lus-
tre over every object. Were the beams of the sun
to dart directly upon us, without passing through this
protecting medium, they would either burn us up at
once, or blind us with their effulgence; but, by go-
ing through the air, they are reflected, refracted, and
turned from their course a thousand different ways,
and thus are more evenly diffused over the face of
nature. But this is not all ; for, by means of the air,
the beams of the sun are not only rendered tolerable,
and the rays of light more copiously diffused through-
out creation, but the advantages of heat and light are

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 161

lengthened and prolonged. By the reflective pro-
perty of this iluid, which must always be in propor-
tion to its density, the heat of the sun, although duly
attempered, must be more sensibly and uniformly felt
nigh the surface of the earth, than in the higher re-
gions of the atmosphere; while, to its refractive qua-
lity, we arc beholden for the twilight, or that surpris-
ing phenomena of nature, by which we enjoy the
real presence of the sun when he is actually below
the horizon. For the better understanding of this,
let any person put a shilling into a basin, and then
retire until he can just observe its outer edge visible
over the inner edge of the vessel; in that position let
some person fill up the basin with water, the whole
shilling, by being seen through a denser medium,
will instantly become visible to the person who could
only before observe its outer edge.

•Were it not for the reflective quality of the air, by
which, indeed, the light is parted^ we would behold
the sun in his splendour, and observe a brightness
in that part of the heavens in which he happened to
be, but, on turning round, how cheerless would be
the prospect! there darkness visible would reign in
the heavens, although the stars and planets would
glimmer at noon day; and were it not for the refrac-
tive property of this fluid, by which the oblique rays
of the great luminary are broken off from a straight
course, and turned towards the earth, the transition
from the horrors of night to the light of day must
have been instantaneous, and, instead of those bene-
ficial harbingers, by which the outgoings of the mofcfc-
p 2

162 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN,

ing and evening are made to rejoice, and the long
and dismal nights of the polar regions stript of their
horrors, the optic nerves would have been overpow-
ered by the sun rising in all its glory, and the mo-
ment he sunk beneath the horizon, the bewildered
traveller left to grope in the dark.

Although the air cannot be frozen, or perceived
by the eye, for the wise reasons already noticed, yet
it is capable of being condensed and rarified to an
astonishing degree: so much so, that the air in a
house may be compressed so as to be made to enter
a cavity not larger than the eye of a needle, and the
contents of a nut-shell so expanded as to fill a sphere
of unknown dimensions. If an empty bladder, with
its neck tied close, is laid before the fire, the heat will
so rarify the small quantity of inclosed air, as to make
it extend the bladder to its full dimensions, and if not
then timously removed, will at last break it with
the report of a gun. Sir Isaac Newton thinks the
air capable of diffusing itself into above a million of
times more space than it before possessed. By these
remarkable properties of the air, together with its
weight and elasticity, it is admirably fitted for some
of its most essential uses, and, perhaps, none more
so than for the business of animal respiration; for, in
this act, so necessary for the prolongation of life, the
air, by its weight and condensing power, is forced
and compressed into the lungs, while, by its elastic
and expanding property, it is thrown out again in
the act of breathing.

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEtf. 168

Perhaps some of our readers may be surprised at
the bare mention of the weight of a substance, which
has been proverbially compared to a trifle for its
lightness, and they may wonder still more when we
speak of its elasticity, when they have been taught
to consider it an unresisting medium; but what will
such think when we boldly assert, that we are lite-
rally plunged into a sea of air, and of such gravity
and pressure, as to be equal, on the body of a man
of moderate size, to the weight of 20,000 Ibs? "< Tre-
mendous consideration," says the reflective Hervcy,
" should the ceiling of a room, or the roof of a house,
fall upon us with half that force, what destructive
effects must ensue! Such a force would infallibly
drive the breath from our lungs, or break every bone
in our bodies; yet so admirably has the divine wis-
dom contrived this aerial fluid, and so nicely coun-
terpoised its dreadful power, that we receive not the
slightest hurt; we suffer no manner of inconvenience;
we even enjoy the load. Instead of being as a moun-
tain on our loins% it is like wings to our feet, or like
sinews to our limbs. Is not this common ordination
of Providence, thus considered, something like the
miracle of the burning bush, whose tender and com-
bustible substance, though in the midst of flames,
was neither consumed nor injured r"

But how are we to account for this miraculous pre-
servation?— It is owing to the elasticity or spring of
the internal air within all bodies, which, although
small in proportion, is wisely made to balance, resist,

164 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

and equiponderate that which is without, notwith-
standing the height of its column.

The elasticity and resistance of the air, perhaps,
cannot be demonstrated by a more simple experi-
ment than by pressing with the hand on a bladder
with which it is confined; and the weight and pres-
sure of the atmosphere may be explained vv ithout the
aid of the air-pump, or other philosophical instrument,
merely by taking a common saucer, filled with wa-
ter, and turning down a teacup into it, with a piece
of flaming paper inside. As the fire destroys the in-
ternal air in the cup, a sort of vacuum will take place,
and the pressure of the outward air on the water in
the saucer will make it disappear and fill up.

Although, in casting our eyes upwards, we do not
observe any boundary to the vast expanse, we are
not to consider that the atmosphere is unlimited. On
the contrary, we are taught, by the most rational cal-
culation, that if it extends much beyond forty -five or
fifty miles, it becomes so exceedingly -rare, as to be
unfit for the purposes for which the lower regions
are so well adapted. The atmosphere, at the height
of fifty miles, is said to be so rare, that it has no sen-
sible effect on the rays of light At the height of
forty-five miles it loses the power of refraction ; at
forty -one miles it is supposed to be rarified to that
degree as to occupy three thousand times the space
it does here; and Dr. Gregory observes, that it is
generally agreed that there are no clouds at the height
of four or five miles.

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 165

It is seldom, indeed, sufficiently dense at the height
of two miles to be able to bear up the clouds ; so that,
to whatever perfection our modern aeronauts may
bring the art of balloon-navigation, there is not the
smallest probability of their being able to escape from
the earth to another planet. The atmosphere has its
limits as well as the ocean; and not only are those
massy bodies that are made to move in the lower-
parts of this great outwork of our globe confined by
laws, firm as chains of adamant, but the thinnest va-
pour, the minutest atom, the most subtile effluvia that
ascends the higher regions, and gain, as it were, the
outskirts of creation, are checked in their career by
the powerful mandate or the Creator, and forced to
return and execute his orders.

Happy, indeed, for the world, is this ordination;
for, if the philosophic axiom be true that things must
continue as at the beginning, with respect to the quan-
tity of matter contained in the universe, and that, if it
were possible that a single atom could be lost, the
harmony of creation would be destroyed, what dire-
ful consequences must ensue, were the daring spirits
of adventurous men not confined by unalterable laws,
and the imperceptible atoms which float in the at-
mosphere not laid under restraint by that command
which says to the troubled waves of the ocean, " Hi-
therto shalt thou come, and no farther."

The Uses of the Atmosphere.

We have already mentioned several of the uses
of this invaluable and all-pervading fluid^ in point

166 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

ing out some of its most remarkable peculiarities ;
and all we have now to do is, to notice a few, and
but a very few more, of the man}7 unspeakable bless-
ings and advantages derived from this necessary ap-
pendage, which the bountiful Benefactor of the hu-
man race has attached to our globe.

The air, in a peculiar manner, may be said to con-
stitute the very essence of which life is made. When
the Lord created man of the dust of the ground, he
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, when
man became a living soul ; and the experience of all
ages amply testifies, that when men cease to breathe,
which is performed by means of the air, they cease
to live. Many days, it has been observed, we might
live, or even whole months, without the light of the
sun, or the glimmering of a star; whereas, if we are
deprived only for a few minutes of this aerial sup-
port, we sicken, we faint, we die. How thankful,
then, ought we to be, that of this indispensable ne-
cessary of life no person can deprive us. The trea-
sures of the earth, the verdure of the fields, and even
the refreshments of the stream, often contribute to
the luxuries of the great, while the less fortunate can
only behold them as humble spectators ; but, in the
words of an eminent naturalist, " the air no limi-
tations can bound, nor any landmarks restrain. In
this benign element, all mankind can boast an equal
possession; and for this we have all equal obligations
to Heaven."

It is equally beneficial to all the branches of the
animal creation; for, although some creatures dwell

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 16?

in the very bowels of the earth, or swim in the im-
measurable depths of the sea, yet it has been demon-
strated by experiment, that no sooner are they total-
ly deprived of air than they cease to live. By the
same air, also, that preserves animal life, flame is
fed and cherished. We all know the utility of fire,
and the many inconveniences to which we would
be exposed, were we deprived of that necessary ele-
ment ; but without air, in vain would the faggots be
piled in a heap, in vain would we apply the lighted
torch. Every attempt to set the hearth in a blaze,
in order to render our habitations more comfortable
during the chilling damps of winter, and every effort
to dispel the midnight gloom by the cheering can-
dle, would prove abortive. Take but away the sur-
rounding air, life expires, and the lighted taper goes
o'ut in darkness; for even an ordinary candle is said
to consume about a gallon of air in a minute.

Plants are also dependent on the air for support
and nourishment, and they cannot possibly exist
without it. They are continually imbibing fresh nu-
triment from the atmosphere It is this wondrous
fluid that helps to transfuse vegetable vigour into the
trunk of the mighty oak, and gives a blooming gaiety
to the spreading rose.

And how wisely is its consistence calculated for
answering these important purposes! It is neither
too thick nor too thin ; too gross nor too attenuated.
It rushes with ease into our lungs, in order to inflate
them in the act of respiration ; it forces its way into
the most minute tubes of the vegetable tribes. In

168 BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN.

fact, as Mr. Derham observes, it is a subtile and pe-
netrating matter, " fit to pervade other bodies, to
penetrate into the inmost recesses of nature; to ex-
cite, animate, and spiritualize ; and, in short, to be
the very soul of this lower world "

But what is very remarkable, this wonderful fluid,
so necessary for the existence of bodies, is also made
use of as a most powerful agent in the hand of Pro-
vidence for their destruction. It is a chaos contain-
ing all kinds of menstrua, and consequently possess-
ing powers for dissolving all bodies, by which means
many things, which would prove nuisances to the
world, are put out of the way, and reduced to their
first principles

The air, as well as being the medium of light and
vision, is also the great vehicle of sound, serving to
convey to the ear, by its undulating motion, all that
diversity of noise and modulation of tone, necessary
to warn us of impending danger, or attract our at-
tention and regard. " As I walk across the streets
of London," observes Mr. Hervey, "with my eye en-
gaged on other objects, a dray, perhaps, with all its
load, is driving down directly upon me; or, as I
ride along the road, musing and unapprehensive, a
chariot and six is whirling on with a rapid career,
at the heels of my horse. The air, like a vigilant
friend In pain for my welfare, immediately takes the
alarm ; and while the danger is at a considerable dis-
tance, despatches a courier to advertise me of the
approaching mischief. The air wafts to our senses
all the modulations of music, and the more agreeable

OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

entertainments of refined conversation. When Cle-
ora tunes her song, or the nightingale imitates her
enchanting voice ; — when wisdom takes its seat on
Mitio's tongue, and flows in perspicuous periods
and instructive truths amidst the chosen circle of his
acquaintance ; — when benevolence, associated with
persuasion, dwrell on Nicander's lips, and plead the
cause of injured innocence or oppressed virtue;-—
when goodness, leagued with happiness, accompany
Eusebius into the pulpit, and reclaim the libertine
from the slavery of his vices; disengage the infidel
from the fascination of his prejudices ; and so affec-
tionately, so pathetically, iftvite the whole audience
to partake the unequalled joys of pure religion — in
all these cases the air distributes every musical vari-
ation with the utmost exactness, and delivers the
speaker's message with the most punctual fidelity "
The air is also made highly subservient to the sense
of smelling. " It undertakes (says the same author)
to convey to our nostrils the extremely subtile effluvia
which transpire from odoriferous bodies. Those de-
tached particles are so imperceptibly small that they
would elude the most careful hand, or escape the
nicest eye; but this trusty depository receives and
escorts the invisible vagrants without losing so much
as a single atom, entertaining us, by this means, with
the delightful sensations which arise from the fra-
grance of flowers ; and admonishing us, by the trans-
mission of offensive smells, to withdraw from an un-
wholesome situation, or beware of pernicious food.7'

170 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

Thus does the air administer to the senses of see-
ing and smelling. Happy, however, ought we to
account ourselves, that, so often charged with noi-
some effluvia and noxious vapours, it does not ren-
der these susceptible to the taste; and although it
certainly is a body corporeal, and may at times be
felt, yet, its resistance in ordinary cases, when it is
unagitated and unconfined, is so undistinguishable as
to occasion no inconvenience.

The region of the atmosphere is the great thorough-
fare to the feathery creation ; it is, if we may so speak,
the king's highway for the fowls of heaven, where
they perform their lengthened journeys with expe-
dition and safety, and range and expatiate beyond
the reach of danger. It is by this element, also, that
the inhabitant of the waters is enabled to work his
little philosophical engine with effect; for, without
the aid of this subtile fluid, the empty vesicle would
have remained a piece of useless lumber

We cannot as yet say, there go the balloons, as if
the atmosphere, like the sea, had become the esta-
blished medium of commerce and travelling; but the
art has already attained to such a degree of perfec-
tion, as render it not improbable that a voyage in the
air will be regarded one day, by the generality of
mankind, with less awe than was evinced by those
who first witnessed the adventurous navigator push
his bark out of sight of land, beyond the pillars of
Hercules

As all the rivers run into the sea, and deposit their
contents in its capacious bosom, so do all the exha-

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 171

Kiiions that arise from terrestrial bodies ascend into
the atmosphere. To this capacious alembic take
their flight, not only the aqueous vapours that pro-
ceed from the sea, the rivers, and moist places of the
earth, but the steam or smoke of things melted or
burnt; the perspiring fumes of whatever enjoys life;
and the effluvia they emit when deprived of it, and
in a state of putrescence. How then, it may be
asked, is this heterogeneous mass preserved from
corruption, and purified from its offensive qualities ?
For, if by respiration, flame, and putrefaction, air is
rendered unfit for the support of animal life, there
can be no doubt, as Dr. Paley observes, by the con-
stant operation of these corrupting principles, the
whole atmosphere, if there were no restoring causes,
would come at length to be deprived of its necessary
degree of purity.

Among these causes the Doctor mentions vegeta-
tion, and agitation with water, both of which have
been proved by experiment to have the effect of at-
mospherical restoratives; for a sprig of mint, corked
up with a small portion of foul air, placed in the light,
renders it again capable of supporting life and flame ;
and the foulest air, shaken in a bottle with water,
for a sufficient length of time, recovers a great de-
gree of its purity. Here we see the salutary effects
of storms and tempests — the yesty waves, which
confound the heaven and the sea, are doing the very
thing, but upon a larger scale, which was done in
the bottle. And, in as far as the lower regions are
concerned, these, on account of their wide extension,

172 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

must be attended with most beneficial consequences;
but as the sea, for its purity, is not dependent on any
one cause, so the atmosphere, besides these external
restoratives, will be found to contain, in its own bo-
som, a correcting principle, which developes itself
by its salutary operations, as we shall soon have oc-
casion to notice, in speaking of some of the most
remarkable of the phenomena of the atmosphere.

CHAP. XV.

PHENOMENA OF THE ATMOSPHERE;

" Of what important use to human kind,

To what great ends subservient is the wind?

Where'er the aerial, active vapour flies,

It drives the clouds, and ventilates the skies ;

Sweeps from the earth infection's noxious train,

And swells to wholesome rage the sluggish main!"

The Wind.

SOMETIMES there is a profound calm ; every wind
is hushed; not a zephyr breathes over the face of
creation, and not a breeze disturbs the glassy ex-
panse of the lake; but the appearance is deceitful
and short lived ; all on a sudden the wind is heard
rustling among the branches — it gathers strength as
it proceeds, and growrs up into the majesty of a storm.
Now the raging tempest spends its fury; houses are

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 173

swept from their foundations ; navies are rent from
their anchors ; trees are torn up by the roots. This
we call wind ; and whether its effects appear in the
fury of the gale, the violence of the hurricane, the
impetuosity of the whirlwind, the dryness of the har-
mattan, the deleteriousness of the sirocco, or the mor-
tifying influence of the samiel, it becomes us not to
repine at the dispensations of the Almighty, or ac-
count those the most deplorable evils, which are wise-
ly sent us for the best of purposes.

We have already noticed the bad effects that would
accrue, were il not for the agitation of the ocean ; but
more dreadful would be the consequences,

Did neither air nor ocean feel the wind.

Motion is the soul of the universe; it is as necessary
in the air as in the ocean, and both are no less indis-
pensable than the motion of the sap of plants, and
the circulation of the blood in animals.

It is, however, happily so ordered, that where pu-
trefaction in a state of quiescence would soon prevail,
wholesome breezes and salutary gales alternately
spring up, to sweep destruction from the aerial fluid,
and where heat is felt to an alarming degree, the
atmosphere extends its airy wings to fan a fainting
world.

" This principle, as Dr. Gregory observes, we
find realized on a great scale in what are called the
trade winds, which blow constantly from east to
west, near the equator. The sun rises in the east

174 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

and sets in the west, consequently the air will be
heated gradually from east to west, and the wind
will blow in that direction." The same cause, this
author remarks, will explain " the land and sea
breezes in the tropical climates;" and the monsoons,
though the theory of them be more complicated, origi-
nate in the same cause

And as it is not only necessary that there be a con-
tinual agitation kept up in the ocean, by means of
the tides and currents, but, in order to prevent its wa-
ters from being contaminated by those numerous
loads of filth which are, from all quarters, poured into
it, it is also requisite that it be furnished with some-
thing of a correcting nature, which it has in its salt-
ness. So in the atmosphere, besides the perpetual
motion kept up in it by means of the winds, and the
beneficial consequences proceeding from vegetation
and the agitation of the waters, there must be also
some correcting quality, especially prevalent in the
upper regions, where a number of the most noxious
particles, and a considerable quantity of vitiated ef-
fluvia, must ascend? perhaps beyond the reach of the
other purifying agents. This, it is probable, is the
chief cause of the electric fluid, which, although it is
found to pervade the whole mass of creation, is sup-
posed to be much more copious in the upper than in
the lower parts of the atmosphere.

In the lower regions of the firmament, indeed, the
tremendous noise of the thunder is heard, and the
vivid lightnings are seen to flash ; but these only hap-
pen on extraordinary occasions, or where their pre-

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 175

sence is absolutely necessary to restore the equilibri-
um of the lower tracts, in the same manner as the
tempest is sometimes sent to agitate, in an uncommon
degree, the surface of the ocean; but far more fre-
quent, we may suppose, is the busy working of the
lightning in the higher regions of the air, although it
may be concealed by the density of its lower extre-
mities at times from our view. The glancing of the
wild fire, as the vulgar style it, and the playful skip,
ping of the aurora borealis, give us sufficient inti-
mation, that, in the silent hours of rest and repose,
the great Supreme faints not, neither is weary, but
is busily employed in the unceasing operations of
his providence, when our senses are locked in mid-
night slumbers, and refreshing sleep stretches her
balmy wings over a fatigued world.

Besides these, which may be called the principal,
there are also a number of other fiery meteors. Fire-
balls, in all the glare of terrific magnificence, are
sometimes seen to rush across the hemisphere Fall-
ing stars are observed to shoot with astonishing ra-
pidity. The Ignis-fatuus, Will with-the- wisp, or
Jack-with-a lanthorn, as it is called, glides along by
the sides of hedges or ditches in moist situations, and
sometimes takes up his abode among the graves of
the dead, or is seen in the neighbourhood of dung-
hills; but these, as well as the fiery Dragon, the skip-
ping Goat, the Dart and the Lamp, with every other
appearance that the unsubstantial and airy form may
assume, may all be accounted for on the principles
of electricity.

JT6 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

Watery Meteors.

In the regions of the air, a variety of watery me-
teors are formed. Here are fogs, the creation of
those collections of vapours which chiefly rise from
fenny, moist places. These become more visible as
the light of day decreaseth, and, uniting with those
that rise from the waters, so as to fill the air with
their humid particles, are called mists. Sometimes,
especially in the summer months, our morning walks
sparkle with pellucid drops, and transparent globules
hang pendant from every leaf, in the form of pearly
dew.

In the atmosphere, the balancings of the clouds
are preserved, till these swimming lakes are commis-
sioned to discharge their contents, not in deluging
torrents, confined to particular spots, but in refresh-
ing showers, widely spread abroad in the form of
drops of rain. Here, too, that wonderful phenome-
non snow takes its rise, which is said to be composed
of such vapours as are frozen while the particles are
small ; and hail, which is rain frozen, as hoar frost
is said to be of the dew. Water-spouts may be rec-
koned among the number of watery meteors; but,
having already been noticed in a preceding chapter,
(chap x.) we shall pass them over, and proceed to
the consideration of a few of the most remarkable

Celestial Appearances.

The wonderful and beautiful colours which we ob-
serve in the clouds, is owing to their particular situ-

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 177

ation to the sun, and the dift'erent modifications under
which they reflect his light. The various appear-
ances and fantastic figures they assume, probably
proceed from their loose and voluble texture, revolv-
ing into any form by the force or activity of the winds,
or by the electricity contained in their substance.

But, of all the celestial appearances we can behold,
what can be compared to the beauty of the rainbow?
What a majestic and stupendous arch does this won-
derful phenomenon present to our view, and how
beautifully is it tinged in regular order, by all the
primogenml colours in nature !

Yet, this gorgeous arch is instantaneously erected,
and at no expense : the commission is sent forth, and
it springs into existence, merely by the operation of
the sunbeams on the watery particles that float in the
atmosphere The rainbow, it must be observed, is
always seen in an opposite direction from the sun,
and that it is occasioned by the reflection and refrac-
tion of his rays, at a certain angle or distance from
the eye of the spectator, must be evident to every
person who has tried the experiment of the silly boy
in the fable, and gone in pursuit of the treasures at
the end of it.

Sometimes, too, we have lunar rainbows; but
these shine with inferior lustre ; and what more can
we expect from the reflected light of a body, such
as the moon that shines itself by reflection? Halos
are supposed to be occasioned by the refraction of the
light of the sun or moon on. the frozen particles that
surround them in frosty weather; and what are called

178 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

parhelia, or mock-suns, and paraselenes, or mock-
moons, are only representations by the reflection of
the face of the true sun or moon from some of the
clouds, which are placed at a convenient distance to
produce the effect.

The Uses of Atmospheric Phenomena,
Meteors, fyc.

Without entering upon the vast utility of the winds
in the world of art, with the many purposes to which
they are made subservient arid applied, in navigation,
agriculture, manufactures, trade and commerce; or
recapitulating what we have already said respecting
their vast import in the preserving the equilibrium
and salubrity of the atmosphere, we wrill briefly ob-
serve, that the wind may be said to act the important
part of Nature's great husbandman, by scattering
abroad the productive principles of a multitude of
plants ; and, instead of that imaginary water bearer
which the ancients traced out among the stars, the
eye of modern philosophy has discovered, in the ope-
rations of the wind, a real Aquarius in the heavens,
bearing about his precious treasures, and dispensing
them where most wanted.

Electricity is, indeed, a most powerful agent in
nature, and we are probably but acquainted, as yet,
with a small proportion of its wonderful effects ; but,
from what we do know, we have reason to conclude
that the benefits to be derived from this all pervading
principle are numerous as the appearance it puts on ;

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 179

are infinite as its extent. Since the phenomena pro-
duced by this fluid have been observed with atten-
tion, the true cause of thunder and lightning seems
to be ascertained. As the motion of light is almost
instantaneous, and that of sound is at the rate of a
league in forty pulsations, the distance of thunder
may be easily ascertained; for, if we can count thir-
teen pulsations between the flash and the sound, the
thunder will be about a mile off. A means, how-
ever, has been invented, by which houses, ships, and
other buildings, may be secured from its ravages,
and places of the greatest safety, in thunder storms,
pointed out; but what are the evils experienced from
thunder storms, when put in competition with the ad-
vantages to be derived from them? What would
the atmosphere, it may be observed, become, but for
the winds? But, notwithstanding the blessings de-
rived from those wholesome ventilations, what would
become of the atmosphere itself, were it not for the
loud-roaring thunder, the forked lightning, and all
the other varieties of electrical phenomena, which
purge the air of those noxious substances that are con-
tinually mixing with it, and purify, by fire, the upper
regions, where so many light, inflammatory sub-
stances, are arrested .in their course?

There appears to be a continual circulation going
on in the atmosphere, by which the inflammable air,
generated between the tropics, is made to ascend, by
its lightness, to the upper regions, where, by the mo-
tion of the earth, it is urged to the poles ; hence, the
inflammatory exhalations continually arriving and

180 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

taking fire as they approach, are made to form those
beautiful appearances called northern and southern
lights, which, although they are oft invisible by the
thickness of the weather, at other times amuse the
inhabitants, even of our climate, in clear frosty wea-
ther; and these merry dancers, as the vulgar call
them, are no doubt of infinite service to the people
of the polar regions, by imparting a lengthened, if
not uninterrupted supply of that light and cheerful-
ness, of which they would otherwise be deprived
during their protracted winter.

Were it not for the beneficial operations of the
electric spark, which is always ready at the com-
mand of its Maker, to kindle these combustible ma-
terials before they become sufficiently accumulated
to involve the whole in one universal conflagration,
the world, it is probable, would long ere now have
been destroyed by fire. There is no occasion (ac-
cording to the opinions of some theorists) for calling
in the aid of a comet to complete this work of de-
struction. The Almighty has only to suspend the
operations of his fiery meteors, and the elements will
soon become sufficiently inflammatory to catch fire
by a single spark; so that, in fact, those terrific mo-
nitors of the gazing crowd, instead of being certain
indications that an incensed Deity is about to inflict
the effects of his hot displeasure on a guilty world,
according to the language of philosophy and the
whispers of religion, are rather convincing tokens
that " His mercy is not yet clean gone, that the Lord
has not forgotten to be gracious."

BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN. 181

The use of fogs and mists on the tender herbs, in
the absence of rain, is well known to the grazier and
agriculturist; and so sensible was the good man of
the land of Uz, of the importance of what some may
reckon among the inferior kinds of watery meteors,
(although it is the surest and most universal which
the wise Ruler of the world makes use of to render
the earth fruitful) that, when he asks the question,
" Has the rain a father?' he does not forget to add,
" Who has forgotten the drops of the dew?"

From the clouds proceed not only those fertilizing
showers that drop down fatness, and the windy cur-
rents that, to a surprising degree, agitate the air in
warm climates, but, by intervening between the earth
and the scorching rays of the sun, they serve as
screens to protect from injury the grass and tender
herbs, and also act the part of conducting mediums,
by which the electric fluid is conveyed not only from
the atmosphere to the earth, and from the earth to
the atmosphere, but from one end of the heavens to
the other.

Of all the blessings poured out of the treasures of
Providence, there is none, perhaps, of which man is
more sensible than that of rain. What an alteration
on the face of the earth does a seasonable shower
produce ! No wonder that the Psalmist, when con-
templating such a scene, breaks out in such language
as this: " Thou visitest the earth and waterest it:
thou makest it soft with showers : thou blessest the
sprinkling thereof: the little hills rejoice on every
side: the pastures are clothed with flocks: the val-

R

182 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

lies also are covered over with corn ; they shout for
joy, they also sing." Nay, the very manner in which
this blessing is made to descend, claims at once our
admiration and gratitude; for, in general, the rain
descends in gentle showers, but, in the case of thun-
der, there is an exception, when it pours down with
impetuosity and in torrents ; but let it be remarked,
that here it acts the part of a life-preserver ; for, when
once wet, our clothes become excellent conductors
to carry off the electric fluid to the earth.

Even frost and snow have their uses. Hail is
known to cool the air in summer; and experience
has demonstrated, that " nature could not give a bet-
ter covering than snow to secure the corn, the plants
and trees, from the effects of cold in winter; and if
a frost succeeds after a ploughed field has been well
watered by the autumnal rains, the particles of the
earth dilute and separate, and the spring then com-
pletes the making the earth light, moveable, and fit
to receive the kindly influence of the sun and fine
weather."

Water-spouts at sea seem to proceed from the
same cause as whirlwinds upon land, and if these
serve the purpose of carrying up the superabundance
of the jelectric fluid from the earth to the atmosphere,
as is with good reason supposed, their utility, in the
economy of nature, must be apparent.

With regard to those illusory appearances that
\ve behold in the heavens, do they not teach us in a
language plain, evident, and forcible, how easily we
may be deceived by our senses, and of the conse-

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 183

quent importance of placing our actions under the
guidance of that reason which distinguishes man
from the brute creation, and was kindly given him
as a lamp to his feet, and a light to his path ?

5Tis Reason our Great Master holds so dear ;
'Tis Reason's injured rights His wrath resents ;
'Tis Reasons's voice obey'd His glorious crown ;
To give lost Reason life, He poured his own.

CHAP. XVI.

fyJANGES OF THE SEASONS, AND VICISSITUDES
OF DAY AND NIGHT.

«' These, as they change, Almighty Father these
Are but the varied God. The rolling year
Isfullof7%ee!"

THE Earth, surrounded by the Atmosphere, re-
mains not at rest ; for, as we observed in a preced-
ing chapter, the latter is made to revolve with the
former in its diurnal motion, and to circle with it in
its annual course.

Before proceeding farther in our researches, we
will therefore, turn our attention for a few minutes
to this two-fold motion of the earth, which although
it would not, but for external objects, be perceptible
t<rour senses, is rendered extremely important, on
account of the beneficial effects it produces.

184 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEtf.

" Of all the effects resulting from this admirable
scene of things," says Bonycastle, " nothing can be
more pleasing and agreeable to a philosophic mind,
than the alternate succession of day and night, and
the regular return of the seasons. When the sun first
appears in the horizon, all nature is animated by his
presence; the magnificent theatre of the universe
opens gradually to our view, and every object around
us excites ideas of pleasure, admiration, and won-
der. After riding in all his brightness through the
vault of heaven, he is again hidden from our sight ;
and we are now presented with a new spectacle of
equal grandeur and sublimity. The heavens are on
a sudden covered with innumerable stars ; the moon,
rising in a clouded majesty, unveils her peerless
light; whilst the silent solemnity of the scene, fills
the mind with sentiments and ideas beyond the
power of language to express.

" Variety is the source of every pleasure ; and the
bountiful Author of Nature, in the magnificent dis-
play of wisdom and power, has afforded us every
possible means of entertainment and instruction. —
What a pleasing succession of scenes results from
the gradual vicissitudes of the seasons ! Summer,
Winter, Spring, and Autumn, lead us insensibly
through the varied circle of the year; and are no
less pleasing to the mind, than necessary towards
bringing to maturity the various productions of the
earth. Whether the sun flames on the tropic, or pows
his mild effulgence from the equator, we equally re-
joice in his presence, and adore that Omniscient

BOOK. OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

Being, who gave him his appointed course, and
prescribed the bounds which he can never pass."

But how is tliis pleasing and useful variety produc-
ed?— How is this perpetual succession of Day and
Night, of Spring and Summer, of Autumn and Win-
ter, kept up? It is by means simple, but evidently
striking, to the man of science and discernment. By
the revolution of the earth on its axis, once in twenty-
four hours, we have the alternate succession of day
and night; — by its annual circuit round the sun, to-
gether with the inclination of its poles (lying always
in the same direction) to the plane of its orbit, we
experience all that variety of season, which is so in-
dispensibly necessary for the springing up, ripening,
and in gathering of the fruits of the earth.

By this constitution of things, that part of the
earth's surface which is turned towards the sun,
must have the largest share of his visible presence at
the time ; hence, when the earth is south of that lu-
minary, the inhabitants of the regions north of the
equator, must have their summer ; and, on the con-
trary, those wno dwell in the southern latitudes,
must have their winter: but reverse the case, and
suppose the earth in that part of her orbit which is
north of the sun, and the inhabitants between the
equator and south pole must have their longest days,
while those who dwell on the opposite side, of course
must have their shortest. At the equinoctial points^,
the axis of the earth being parallel ta the san^ and
neither turned in to,, nor out from him, .it aecessariljr
Mows, that at those precise times, and HO

186 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN".

the days and nights must be equal throughout the
globe; for the instant that the north pole gets be-
yond the vernal equinox in spring, it emerges into
the sun's light, and the people who inhabit the arctic
regions, have six months of perpetual day; while
those at the south pole, or contrary extremity of the
earth, have an equal duration of protracted night.
At the opposite season of the autumnal equinox, the
reverse takes place. In the intermediate spaces be-
tween the poles and the equator, the inhabitants
experience all that vicissitude of light and shade, to
which their situations expose them; and which, in
the absence of a globe, may be tolerably well illus-
trated by suspending a large wooden bowl from the
hand, and making it revolve round a lighted candle,
with its axis inclined a little to one side, and point-
ing always in the same direction. If, at the same
time, this bowl could be made to turn incessantly
round on its axis in the progress of its revolution, it
would afford a pretty accurate idea how the vicissi-
tudes of day and night are produced.

Let us attend a little to some of th*e beneficial con-
sequences of this " ever varying, ever changing
scene." Spring is characterized as the season of
the renovation of nature; in which animals and ve-
getables, excited by the kindly influence of returning
warmth, shake off the torpid inaction of winter, and
prepare for the continuance and increase of their se-
veral species. " A soft and pleasing languor,
interrupted only by the gradual progression of the
vegetable and animal tribes towards their state of

BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN.

maturity, forms the leading character of Summer,
In Autumn the promise of the spring is fulfilled.
The silent and gradual progress of maturation is
completed, and human industry beholds with tri-
umph the rich production of its toil. The unvarying
symptoms of approaching Winter now warn several
of the winged tribes to prepare for their aerial voy-
age to those happy climates where no deficiency of
food or shelter can ever distress them ; and, about
the same time, other fowls of hardier constitutions,
which are contented with escaping the iron winters
of the arctic regions, arrive to supply their place.
From the fall of the leaf, and withering of the herb,
an unvarying, death-like torpor oppresses almost the
whole vegetable creation, and a considerable part
of the animal, during this entire portion of the year:
but this state is not always to continue; it is a time
of renovation and refreshment: — a time shall come,
when many that sleep in the dust shall awake, and
shine forth gloriously at the return of spring.

Day is the season of labour and activity ; Night is
the time for rest and repose. Man goeth forth to
his labour in the morning, and returns to recruit his
exhausted powers in the evening ; and what an ad-
mirable provision for this purpose is sleep, which
introduces a most welcome vacation, both for the
soul and body, during which the exercises of the
brain, and the labours of the hands, are at once dis-
continued.

These are some of the inestimable blessings de-
rived from the changes of the seasons, and the alter-

188 BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN.

nate succession of day and night; but to man they
speak also a moral lesson.

" Behold, fond man !

See here thy pictur'd life ; pass some few years

Thy flow'ring Spring, thy Summer's ardent strength^

Thy sober Autumn fading into age,

And pale concluding Winter comes at last,

And shuts the scene. Ah ! whither now are fled

Those dreams of greatness 1

Virtue sole survives,

Immortal, never-failing friend of man."

4* Each night we die, each day are born anew."

CHAP. XVII.

THE MOON.

(t As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night,,
O'er heaven's clear azure sheds her sacred light,
Then shine the vales ; the rocks in prospect rise ;
A flood of glory bursts from all the skies.'*

FROM the earth and the atmosphere we will now
ascend in onr speculations, and, in our way to re-
gions more remote, turn aside a little and consider
the Moon.

The first thing that strikes our attention in view-
ing this resplendent luminary, is the opacity of hey
substance, and diversity of her shades. The Moon
is not, of herself, a luminary, but shines by the bor-

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 189

rowed or reflected light of the sun, and her face, in-
stead of being too dazzling to behold, presents, like
the earth, a dark unequal surface, pleasantly diver-
sified with hills and vallies, mountains and cavities.
Seas and lakes have also been exhibited as adorning
this body, by the constructors of some maps of the
moon ; but the powerful glasses of Dr. Herschel are
said to have dissipated such delusions; and, as it
appears from the clearness of her disk, and the cir-
cumstance that, when any star approaches her, it
retains its lustre till it touches the very edge, and then
vanishes in an instant; that the moon has no at-
mosphere, there is the less probability that there are
lakes and seas, from which clouds and other atmo-
spheric phenomena are formed.

The Phases of the Moon,

And the circumstance of her having always the same
face turned to us, are very rationally accounted for
as follows. — The moon is known to have a twofold
motion ; the one she performs round the earth in the
time of a lunar month, and the other she performs
round her own axis in exactly the same period. By
the latter motion, she naturally behoves to turn al-
ways the same face to the earth ; and, by the former,
her various phases are produced. When that part
of the moon which is illuminated by the sun, is turn-
ed wholly towards the earth, we then see one of her
sides, round and fully enlightened, and in that situ-
ation we say w&have a full moon; when the side

190 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

illuminated is turned from us, by being between us
and the sun, she becomes totally invisible, and then
we have the change ; when, shortly after, the en-
lightened part re-appears, we call it the new moon ;
and when it exhibits a half-enlightened aspect, the
moon is said to be in her first or last quarter, accord-
ing to the time of her age. These appearances, with
all the intermediate stages, will be pretty correctly
represented by moving the bowl, formerly alluded
to, round the flame of a candle, when suspended by
a string, and observing in what manner the light is
reflected from its surface, according to the various po-
sitions in which it is placed in the course of its circuit,

Eclipses.

There are no phenomena better understood by
modern astronomers than the nature of eclipses; and
so far is there from being any thing supernatural or
mysterious in them, that were the orbit of the moon
perfectly parallel, or in the exact plane of the earth,
there would be an eclipse of the moon at every full,
and of the sun at every change ; for there is not a
doubt that an eclipse of the moon is occasioned by
the dark body of the earth happening to be in a line
between the sun and the moon, when the moon is
in a direction opposite to the sun ; while an eclipse
of the sun is caused by the dark body of the moon
passing between the earth and the sun, when she is
in that part of the heavens. That eclipses do not
more frequently happen, arises from the orbit of the

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 191

moon being wisely made to incline to that of the earth
at a small angle ; by which, although they some-
times take place, it is so unfrequent, as not to exceed,
at the average, four in the year ; and of these, two
only may be expected visible at any particular place.

Tlie Harvest-Moon.

In the path which she describes in the heavens, the
moon is made to rise every day later than she did
on the preceding; but the exact period between the
time of her rising differs so considerably in different
seasons of the year, that although in the spring she
is an hour and twenty minutes later in rising one day
than she was on the preceding, the difference in au-
tumn is so inconsiderable, as scarcely to be perceived
for several days together. No sooner does the sun
set towards the middle of September, than the moon
immediately rises in her glory for several days, by
which the day is considerably lengthened out in that
most important of all seasons; and Nature, as it
were, points to the husbandman to make the best of
his time in cutting down and securing his crops be-
fore the equinoctial gales and storms of winter set in.
This wonderful phenomenon, although too little at-
tended to by us, has been distinguished, in different
ages of the world, by different appellations, accord-
ing to the favourite occupations and pursuits in which
mankind happened to be engaged at the time; be-
ing first called the Hunter's, then the Shepherd's,
and now the Harvest-Moon.

192 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OP&S.

About the equator, where there is no variety of
seasons, the moon rises, with the greatest regularity,
about forty-nine minutes later every day than on the
preceding; but as we advance north or south from
that line, and get in a more variable climate, the lit-
tle difference in the rising of the Harvest Moon be-
comes more perceptible. At the polar circles, where
the mild season is very precarious, and of short du-
ration at that advanced season of the year, the au-
tumnal full-moon rises at sunset, from the first till
the third quarter; and, at the poles, where the sun
is half a year below the horizon, the winter full-moon
shines constantly from the first to the third quarter.

In these respects the moon, that faithful compa-
nion and attendant on the earth, may be said to pro-
portion her services to the emergency of the occa-
sion ; but even in the ordinary aid she affords, in the
absence of sunshine, her influences are of infinite ad-
vantage. The Hebrews, the Greeks, the Romans,
and. indeed, the ancients in general were wont to
assemble, at the time of the new moon, to discharge
the duties of gratitude and devotion. The oldest
measure of time, taken from the revolutions of the
heavenly bodies, is supposed to be a month; and
when the king of the Felew Islands entrusted his
son to the care of Captain Wilson, he inquired how
many moons would elapse before he might expect
his return.

By the dark, opaque, and unequal surface of the
moon, the light of the sun is reflected to the earth,
after thai superb and glorious luminary has left our

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 193

hemisphere to visit other climes ; and what a tran-
scendanlly magnificent spectacle does a moonlight
scene present, independent of the incalculable bles-
sings it is made to produce. How welcome are the
harbingers of this bright luminary to the toiling tra-
veller, when almost fainting under his unremitting,
but fruitless exertions, to gain the goal of his journey
before the close of the day. How comfortable to
the bewildered mariner as he ploughs the deep on
an unknown coast; and how cheerful to the lonely
shepherd, as he tends his fleecy charge in the other-
wise deep gloom of some sequestered valley, or
tunes his midnight pipe among the solitary tops of
his native mountains Even on the mighty ocean
the moon extends her influence; the waves of the
sea are swollen and lifted up by the energy of her
power; and it is far from being improbable, that
what has su<5h an effect upon this great fluid mass,
may not also make some very important and sensi-
ble impressions on that atmosphere, in whose agita-
tions and changes we are so much interested.

CHAP. XVIII.

THE SUN.

« Great source of day ! best image here below
Of thy Creator, ever pouring wide,
From world to world, the vital ocean round ;
On nature write with every beam His praise."

FROM the earth and its companion, the moon, we
will now direct our attention to yonder radiant orb,

194 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

which fills the heavens with his rays, and cheers the
earth with his presence The Sun is, indeed, a most
glorious luminary; and is, without doubt, the most
perfect image of his great Creator that we can be-
hold among inanimate beings; and, indeed, so nigh,
in one respect, does he resemble his Maker, that of
the Sun it may be said that he, also, is

*' Too glorious to be gaz'd on in his sphere."

It is no wonder, then, that the fallen reason of
'idolatrous nations " should mistake so fair a copy for
the adorable original," and that philosophers should
be divided so much in their opinions respecting his
substance. In one thing, however, even from the
imperfect glance we have been able to procure of
this glorious body, it is found to differ from, and to
fall infinitely short of, its Creator; for the Sun has
his spots, while He, who made the Sun, is

«« Light itself,

Pure, spotless, uncreated light, ineffable."

According to Dr. Gregory, " the sun is very ge-
nerally considered as composed of the matter of light
and heat, whether these are to be regarded essen-
tially the same or not:" but he is careful how he ex-
presses himself, even in this cautious manner of de-
claring his sentiments ; for he adds, " perhaps it will
be speaking more correctly to say, that he is the
source of both, and that he both warms and enlight-
ens the bodies which surround him." The sun is,

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 195

indeed, the great fountain of light and heat, and it is
amazing to think with what rapidity of motion he
sends forth his rays to illumine and cherish the world;
for so great is the distance of this bright body from
us, that, were the motion of light no swifter than a
cannon ball, it would take, according to the compu-
tation of philosophers, thirty-two years in arriving
at the earth; and, were it no swifter than sound, it
would take upwards of seventeen years; but light
flies with such incredible velocity that it arrives at
the earth in about seven or eight minutes, being at the
rate of no less than 200,000 English miles in a second
of time. By this means the inconvenience that wrould
result from a slower progress of light is obviated,
and the kindly effects of this inestimable and indis-
pensable blessing are conveyed to us in an instant.

The rays of the sun are. not sparingly dispensed,
nor come to us as from a niggardly hand. The rays
of light are copiously diffused, and in sufficient abun-
dance to chase away the most minute vestige of the
shades of night. The extension of light is a most
valuable property of that great and invaluable bless-
ing; for it is by it that \ve are enabled to see bodies
at a distance during the day, and, by the same ope-
rating cause, the mariner, during the hours of dark-
ness, observes the fiery beacon glimmering from afar.

The heat of the sun is also most potent in its ope-
rations. With ease it penetrates into the bowels of
the earth, and finds its way into the most secret re-
cesses of nature; so that, in the expressive language
of Scripture, " there is nothing hid from the heat

196 BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN.

thereof." But, indeed, what could possibly exist
without it? The sun may be truly styled the grand
enlivening principle of the universe; without his in-
fiue/ice, the crimson tide behoved to stagnate in the
veins of animated beings; a the trees could never
break forth into leaves, nor plants spring up into
flowers;" we would no more behold the meadows
mantled over with green, nor the vallies standing
thick with corn; or, to speak in the beautiful lan-
guage of a prophet, u No longer would the fig-tree
blossom, nor fruit be in the vine: the labour of the
olive would fail, and the fields would yield no meat:
the flocks must be cut off from the fold, and there
would be no herd in the stall." It penetrates the
beds of metal, and finds its way to the place of sap-
phires. In short, the beneficial agency of this mag-
nificent luminary is inexpressible.

The sun is also the fountain of cheerfulness. While
all nature is enlivened by his presence, it is also
cheered by his gifts. " Truly," says Solomon, " the
light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes
to behold the sun." And the author of" The Spec-
tator" has well observed, that the sun has a particu-
lar influence on the mind of man, and making the
heart glad ; for a proof of which, he refers us to a
consideration of the natural world, when this lumi-
nous globe withdraws his rays, for a few moments,
by an eclipse

The human mind delights in variety; and one
great cause that produces cheerfulness in the heart
of man, as he walks abroad and contemplates the

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 3J '• /

face of nature, is no doubt that diversity of light and
shade, of colour and hue, that in every direction su-
lutes his eye. In this respect, also, the sun may be
said to be the fountain of cheerfulness, as it is cer-
tainly the cause of colour. The sun is the great lim-
ner of nature, .whose beautifying rays paint creation.
" The blushing beauties of the rose, the modest blue
of the violet," as Goldsmith observes, <4 are not in the
flowers themselves, but in the light that adorns them.
Odour, softness, and beauty of figure, are their own ;
but it is light alone that dresses them up in those
robes wrhich shame the monarch's glory."

The sun may, therefore, also be well styled the
fountain of colour ; and, but for this, what disadvan-
tages would we labour under, notwithstanding the
beneficial distribution of light and heat! In that
case, we would not only be unable to distinguish ob-
jects at a distance, and to perceive the colour of the*
raiment of our nearest friends, but be incapable of
observing any difference of complexion between the
ink that flows from our pen, and the paper on which
we write. Without this discriminating property of
light, no pleasing variety would overspread the great
carpet of nature ; the same unvaried hue, in every
direction, would meet our eye; the same dull uni-
formity would every where prevail.

Such are some of the beneficial consequences that
result from the sun, with respect to the earth. We
shall now consider him in another and a more ex-
alted light, as the centre of the Solar System.

198 BOOK OF "NATURE LAID OPE>*;,

CHAP. XIX.

T11E SOLAR SYSTEM.

" Observe how regular the planets run,

In stated times their courses round the sun :

Different their bulk, their distance, their career.

And diff'rent much the compass of their year;

Yet all the same eternal laws obey,

While GOD'S unerring finger points the way."

FROM the consideration that, by the laws of na-
ture, all the lesser heavenly bodies art- made to re
volve round the greater, in the same manner that the
moon is made to move round the earth, it was to be
expected that the sun, the centre of a system in which
so many planetary and cometary bodies were made
to move within the sphere, or verge, of his attraction,
would be a body of very considerable magnitude;
and that he is said to be of such an extent, that his
solid bulk is computed to be sixty-four millions of
times bigger than the moon, a million of times big-
ger than the earth, or five hundred times greater than
all the other planets put together!

From what we ourselves experience of the bene-
fits of this luminary, we have reason to conclude, that
the sun is placed in the most convenient situation in
the heavens, and at the most suitable distance from
each of the respective bodies which move around him;
and that, however nigh or remote their courses may
be to the common centre, or however slow or rapid
in their movements, the inhabitants of all those bo-

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 19$

dies which are inhabited, will have forms and pow-
ers no less suited to their situations than ours,

" And constitutions fitted for that spot,

Where Providence, all-wise, has fix'd their lot."

The sun, although generally considered as fixed,
is known, by his spots, to make a revolution on his
axis in somewhat less than our month, and is like-
wise said to be agitated by a small motion round
what is called the centre of gravity of the Solar
System His motion, however, is so comparatively
small, that he may, indeed, be said to be fixed, with
respect to

The Planets.

Of the planets which have yet been discovered,
the first, or nighest the sun, is Mercury His dia-
meter is computed to be less than the half of that of
the earth, and his year is not quite so long as three
of our months: the light and heat of this planet are
supposed to be about seven times greater than the
earth receives ; yet he is said to move at the rate of
more than 109,000 miles in an hour! Being so nigh
the sun, Mercury is seldom seen; but when he is, it
is a little after sunset, and before sunrise, and he
appears to em:c a bright white light

The diameter of Yenus is somewhat less than that
of the earth, and her year is not quite eight of our
months In the heavens she moves next in order
ta Mercury, and, notwithstanding she is supposed to

200 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

be surrounded by an atmosphere like the earth, her
light and heat are said to be twice as much as ours.
Like the sun, this brilliant planet has her spots ; like
the moon, she has her phases, and she moves at the
rate of upwards of 80,000 miles an hour ! Venus
appears in the heavens the brightest of all the pla-
nets, and, according as she is situated, is sometimes
called the Morning, and sometimes the Evening
Star. What is called the transit of Venus, is the
passing of this planet over the sun's face, which hap-
pens only twice in about one hundred and twenty
years.

Next to Venus comes our Earth, attended by her
constant companion, or satellite, the Moon. The
diameter of the Earth may be computed to be about
7.964 miles, her distance from the sun ninety five
millions of miles, and, moving at the rate of 68,000
miles an hour, she completes her annual revolution
in 365 days and somewhat less than six hours, all
the while whirling round on her axis, once in twenty-
four hours, with such velocity that the inhabitants of
the equator are carried round at the rate of 1,045
miles, and those in the latitude of London about 644
miles in an hour.

We have already explained several of the pheno-
mena resulting from the motion of the Earth; but
there is one astronomical fact we will here mention,
which may sound strange in the ears of some of ouy
readers, viz, that we are actually nigher the sun in
winter than in summer! Were it not for this, it is
presumed that the severity of our winters (being chief-

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 201

ly occasioned by the obliquity of the sun's rays, as
they, at those seasons, fall on our atmosphere) would
be rendered still more intolerable and severe.

The magnitude of the Moon is said to be about
one-fiftieth of that of the Earth, about which she
moves at the distance of 236.847 miles, and com-
pletes her revolution in somewhat less than twenty-
eight days, travelling at the rate of 2,270 miles an
hour.

Mars, whose diameter is little more than one half
of our Earth, moves next her in the order of the pla-
nets: he completes his revolution in something less
than 687 of our days ; so that his year is nigh twice
the length of ours, while his light and heat are con-
sidered to be not quite the half of what we enjoy;
Mars revolves at the rate of 55,223 miles an hour,
and appears in the heavens of a dusky red colour.

What are called the !New Planets are to be found
between the orbits of Mars and of Jupiter; but as
so little is yet known respecting them, we shall just
mention their names, with the dates of their disco-
veries:— Ceres was discovered by M. Piazzi in Si-
cily, on the 1st Jan 1801; Pallas was discovered
by Dr Olbers, of Bremen, on the 28th of March,
1802; Juno was discovered by Mr. Harding, of
Lilienthal, Bremen, 1st Sept. 1804; and Vesta was
discovered by Dr. Olbers, 29th March, 1807. These
being so very small, in comparison with the others,
Dr. Herschel does not deign to denominate them
planets, but Asteroids.

202 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

But very different is the case with Jupiter, which
is the largest of all the planets, and adorned by his
belts, attended with his glorious retinue of four moons,
comes next in order in the heavens. The magni-
tude of this stupendous planet is, indeed, said to be
no less than 1400 times larger than the earth: his
year is .something less than twelve of ours, and he
moves at the rate of 29,894 miles in an hour. In
consequence of his distance from the sun, his light
and heat are computed to be only about one twenty-
seventh of what the earth receives, but the former
of these may be compensated by the number of his
inoons; by one or more of which, there is scarcely
any part of this planet but what is enlightened du-
ring the whole night, except his poles, and there is
no saying, but what has the appearance of Jupiter's
belt, may be something of an atmospheric nature, so
constituted as to imbibe, and considerably increase,
the heat of the sun's rays. Jupiter, in the heavens,
appears to the eye next in magnitude to Venus.

Beyond the orbit of Jupiter moves Saturn, attend-
ed by a retinue of no less than seven satellites or
moons, and having his body surrounded by an in-
terior and exterior ring. Although the diameter of
this planet is not so large as Jupiter, his magnitude
is said to be no less than 966 times that of the earth,
and, moving at the rate of 22,072 miles in an hour,
he completes the revolution of his wide circle in a
period not much less than thirty of our years.

The light and heat which he receives from the sun,
are computed to be about one hundredth part of what

BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN. 203

the earth receives; but, to compensate for this, be-
sides the rings and moons already mentioned, the
disk of this planet has been observed to be crossed
by zones or belts, which may b£ analogous to, and
answer the purposes of, those of Jupiter. Saturn is
visible to the naked eye, and shines in the heavens
with a pale, feeble light.

The Georgian, or Georgium Sidus, is the remotest
of all the planets yet discovered, and was brought
to notice so recently as the 13th of March, 1781, by
that indefatigable astronomer, Dr Herschel. Six
satellites have already been discovered attending on
this distant planet Its magnitude is supposed to be
upwards of eighty times that of the earth, and its pe-
riodical revolution performed in something more than
eighty three of our years. Through a telescope of a
small magnifying power, the Georgian appears like
a star of the sixth or seventh magnitude, and is only
visible to the naked eye, in the absence of the moon,
in a clear night.

These planets, with their attendant satellites and
other appendages, are carried round the sun in ellip-
tical orbits, differing but little from circles; by which
means the temperature of their seasons must be wise-
ly proportioned, and pretty equally kept up To
prevent too frequent eclipses, they move not in the
same planes; and that they may not interfere with
each other, they revolve all in the same direction,
from the east away westerly. The greater part of
them are known, and the whole are supposed to turn
round on their axis in jthe same manner that our earth

204 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

does, by which means they must also be favoured
with the alternate succession of day and night; and
as the revolution of the satellites of Jupiter is known
to a nicety, there cftn be no doubt but those planets,
which have such attendants, are equally benefitted
by them. Of the spots of Venus and of Mars, the
belts of Jupiter and rings of Saturn, we can say lit-
tle ; but let it .be remembered that we are surround-
ed by an atmosphere, the appearance of which may
not easily be accounted for by the inhabitants of those
distant bodies. That the planets are inhabited, we
have every reason to believe., from the provision that
is made for their comfort, and other analogy they
bear to our own inhabited globe. It is true, that our
views and discoveries respecting those distant orbs,
must be imperfect and limited in this present state;
but what we know not now, we may, perhaps, know
hereafter ; although it is not to be supposed that our
finite capacities, even in a more exalted state and
enlarged sphere of vision, shall ever be able fully to
comprehend the mighty works of the Creator of the
Universe, or utter forth all His praise.

CHAP. XX.

COMETS.
« Hast thou ne'er seen the comet's flaming flight ?"

BESIDES the planets and their satellites, there are
other bodies called Comets, which revolve round the
sun in very eccentric ellipsis, and in all manner of

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 205

directions. These comets, in one part of their orbit,
called the perihelion, approach very near the sun,
and appear all in a blaze: this appearance, however,
they gradually lose, as they fly off, with inconceivable
rapidity, to the opposite part of their orbit, called, by
astronomers, their aphelion ; there they are totally di-
vested of their luminous tail, and, being at such an
immense distance from the sun, it is concluded they
must experience a degree of cold, of which we can
have no adequate conception. There are a variety
of opinions as to the number of comets belonging to
our system: Riccioli enumerated 154; others assert
that 450 had been seen previous to 1771 : the tables
of Berlin estimate them at 700, and some have even
supposed that there are millions. And, as these bo-
dies appear but seldom, and their stay is so short, it
is not surprising that so much ignorance should pre-
vail respecting them. It is, however, now sufficient-
ly ascertained, that these, like the planets, shine not
by their own, but by a reflected light; and, were it
not for the sun, these bodies, instead of alarming our
fears by their glaring magnificence, would move un-
seen and unheeded by us; for, however naturalists
may have differed respecting the composition of their
tails, it seems now to be pretty well understood that
they possess nothing fiery or combustible in them,
and may, with more propriety, be likened to the mild
radiance that proceeds across the street from the il-
luminated glass in an apothecary's window in a dark
night, than to any thing of a baneful or pestilential
nature.

T

206 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

There is one thing to be remarked with regard to
the tails of comets, that they appear always in a di-
rection averted from, or contrary to, the sun ; and
this certainly, with the circumstance of the stars be-
ing visible through them, gives colouring to the sup-
position that they are nothing more than merely a
condensation of the solar rays, by the refracting
power of the comet and its atmosphere.

With regard to the purposes for which comets
were created, <* all is doubt, uncertainty, and con-
jecture." Some have supposed they are the means,
appointed by the Almighty, for putting a period to
the planetary world; others have imagined that co-
mets, in their several revolutions, gradually approach
the sun, till at last they fall into it, and become a sup-
ply of fuel to that luminary; and some of the learned
world, Dr. Mavor remarks, are of opinion, that they
are places of future punishment for tormenting the
damned with eternal vicissitudes of heat and cold;
" but when, on the other hand," as the Doctor goes
on, " we reflect on the infinite power and goodness
of the Deity, the latter inclining, the former enabling
him to make creatures suited to all states and circum-
stances; that matter exists only for the sake of intel-
ligent beings; and that, wherever we find it, we al-
ways perceive it pregnant with life, or subservient
to that purpose ; when we consider the numberless
•species, the astonishing diversity of animals, in earth,
air, water, and even on other animals ; every blade of
grass, every tender leaf, every natural fluid, swarm-
ing with life, and every one of these enjoying such

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 207

gratifications as the nature and state of each require ;
when we further reflect that, some centuries ago, a
great part of the earth was judged uninhabitable, till
experience undeceived us; the torrid zone, on ac-
count of excessive heat; and both the frigid zones,
on account of excessive cold; it seems highly pro-
bable, that such numerous and large masses of du-
rable matter as the comets are, not however, dissi-
milar to our earth, destitute of beings capable of
contemplating with wonder, and acknowledging with
gratitude, the wisdom, symmetry, and beauty of the
creation, which is more plainly to be observed in
their extensive tour through the heavens than in our
confined circuit: yet, however difficult it may be for
us, circumstanced as we are, to discover their par-
ticular designation, this is an undoubted truth, that,
wherever the Deity exerts his power, there, also, he
manifests his wisdom and goodness.5'

If, in addition to these judicious remarks of the
learned Doctor, we take it into consideration that the
vast rapidity of their movements, when in their peri-
helion, or part of their orbit Highest the sun, and the
comparatively slow progress they make as they re-
cede from him, till their motion is so languid as to
be scarcely perceptible at their aphelion, or farthest
distance from him, may not suffer these bodies to
undergo such an alternate extreme of heat and cold
as would otherwise have been the case, the proba-
bility is still the greater that comets are inhabited,
especially if we make a proper allowance for the
powerful eft'ect of such an atmosphere as they may

208 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

be surrounded with, for attempering the sun's rays
as they fall more directly or obliquely upon it. And
we have an example of this in what we ourselves
experience in winter, when our situation is nearer
to the sun than it is in summer.

But whatever uses these eccentric bodies are of
otherwise, the astonishing courses that the comets per-
form in empty space, suggest to our minds an idea
of the vast distance between the sun and the nearest
fixed stars, of whose attractions all the comets must
keep clear, in order to return periodically and move
round the sun, and, consequently, of the infinite great-
ness of that Being, who has stretched out the hea-
vens like a curtain, and afforded such ample scope
for all those numerous orbs. <e I cannot forbear re-
fleeting/' says the author of the Guardian, " on the
insignificance of human art, when set in comparison
with the designs of Providence. In the pursuit of
this thought, I considered a comet, or, in the lan-
guage of the vulgar, a blazing star, as a sky rocket
discharged by a hand that is Almighty. What an
amazing thought is it to consider this stupendous bo-
dy traversing the immensity of the creation with such
a rapidity, and, at the same time, wheeling about in
that line which the Almighty had prescribed for it!
How spacious must the universe be, that gives such
bodies as these their. full play, without suffering the
least disorder or confusion by it! What a glorious
show are those beings entertained with, that can look
into this great theatre of nature, and see myriads of
such tremendous objects wandering through those

BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN. 209

immeasurable depths of ether, and running their ap-
pointed courses! Our eyes may hereafter be strong
enough to command this magnificent prospect, and
our understandings able to find out the several uses
of these great parts of the universe; in the meantime,
they are very proper objects for our imagination to
contemplate, that we may form more extensive no-
tions of infinite wisdom and power, and learn to
think humbly of ourselves, and of all the little works
of human invention."

CHAP. XXI.

THE FIXED STARS.

-l This prospect vast, what is it? — Weigh'd aright,

'Tis Nature's system of Divinity ;

And ev'ry student of the night inspires.

'Tis eider scripture writ by God's own hand."

WHAT a glorious prospect does night unfold when
she draws aside her sable curtains, and displays to
the contemplative mind the azure canopy of the hea-
vens bedecked with stars ! We need not wonder at
the expression of the poet :

" Devotion ! daughter of Astronomy !
An undevout astronomer is mad I"

Tor who can take even the most transitory glance

of these glowing beauties, on a fine frosty evening;

T 2

210 BOOK OF NATURE LAID Opi

without feeling something of that indescribable im-
pulse which every good man must feel when casting
his eyes to the nocturnal heavens? "Something,
like magic," says the pious Hervey, " has struck my
mind, on a transient and unthinking survey of the
etherial vault, tinged throughout with the purest
azure, and decorated with innumerable starry lamps.
I have felt, I know not what powerful and aggran-
dizing impulse, which seemed to snatch me from the
low entanglements of vanity, and prompted an ar-
dent desire for sublimer objects." What, then, must
be his sensations, who, by means of the " sight invi-
gorating tube," and the lights of philosophy, is led
to explore the upper regions of this celestial canopy,
which the Creator has so distinctly marked with the
wonders of his power!

The first thing that strikes a superficial observer,
js the apparent multitude of those heavenly hosts ;
but this will be found to be an illusion, and probably
is occasioned by their twinkling, and th? confused
manner in which, by their distance, they are made
to appear ; for, strange as it may sound in the ears
of the unlearned, the stars that are visible in our he-
misphere to the naked eye, even in the most favoura-
ble weather, do not amount, in any one time, to one
thousand. But let it not be imagined that, in men-
tioning this, we mean to derogate from the glory of
th. Almighty, as it is revealed in the heavens, or by
any means wish to insinuate that the number of the
stars is within the sphere of our finite powers and
capacities to calculate. — No; as the more we descend

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 211

downwards in our researches among the animalcule
creation, the more evident traces of divinity we dis-
cover; so the more we extend our discoveries up-
wards into the regions of the universe, the more do
we observe of the glory of God.

The heavens, indeed, declare the glory of God
in a most emphatic manner; and the important in-
vention of the telescope, aided by modern improve-
ments, has brought systems and worlds to light, that
w^ere not dreamt of by the ancients. The heavens
of Tliales and Hipparchus were poor and thinly
-sown, indeed, when compared to £hose of Tycho,
Bralie and Flamstead ; but what were even these to
what the wonderful instruments of Dr Herschel has
brought to notice ? Every new discovery of this in-
defatigable astronomer has tended to the glory of his
Maker, and every increase of magnifying power has
served to confirm the sublime truth, that " the stars
of heaven cannot be numbered "

The Milky Way, or that white, luminous tract,
which we observe in the heavens, is found to derive
its appearance from the number of stars of which it
is composed. No less than forty little stars are said
to be in the Pleiades alone; and in the constellation
of Orion, a number has been discovered, by far ex-
ceeding what can be observed by the naked eye in
the whole heavens.

From an attentive examination of the stars with a
good telescope, many which appear perfectly formed
or single, to the naked eye, have been found to con-
sist of two, three, or more stars; and Dr. Herschel,

212 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

by the help of his glasses, is said to have discovered
near 700 such stars. Besides these, the Doctor has
observed other appearances in the heavens, which
he calls Nebulce or cloudy stars; being apparently
surrounded by a faint, luminous substance, of con-
siderable extent; of these he has given us a catalogue
of 2000, which he has described, and is of opinion
that the starry heavens are replete with nebuloe. —
There are also several little whitish spots which
appear magnified, and more luminous, when seen
through telescopes, yet without any stars bein- dis-
tinguishable in tiiem.

When, to these grand, magnificent, and numerous
appearances in the heavens, we add those wander-
ing stars, or planetary bodies we have just been con-
sidering, which, according to the appearances they
put on, are denominated as stars of different magni-
tudes, together with that host of cometary orbs which
occasionally appear and disappear from our hemi-
sphere, who can forbear exclaiming:

«« This gorgeous apparatus ! this display !
This ostentation of creative power!
This theatre ; — what eye can take it in ?
By what divine enchantment was it rais'd ?
How boundless in magnificence and might!"

The fixed stars are so called to distinguish them
from the planets, and other wandering bodies, that
move among them ; for, in respect to these, they seem
to be fixed, and, with regard to each other, they do
not appear to ciiuiige place. Thus, while the pla-

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 213

netary bodies are not to be found in precisely the
same place for any two successive days together, the
stars, for instance, in the constellation of Ursa Ma-
jor, or the Great Bear, have not been observed to
alter their situation, with respect to each other, since
the creation of the world. But there are few rules
without exception; and here it must be observed.,
that new stars have been discovered, which were un-
known to the ancients, and many of those which ap-
peared in old catalogues arc not now visible, while
numbers seem gradually to vanish, and others ap-
pear to have a periodical increase and decrease of
magnitude.

All the fixed stars, however, have an apparent
motion round the heavens once in twenty -four hours ;
for, although that of the star nighest the pole, and
consequently called the polar star, be so impercepti-
ble as to be scarcely distinguished, yet, even that star
appears to move in a very small circle; and this ima-
ginary motion is occasioned by the same cause as
produces the rising and setting of the sun; viz. the
revolution of the earth on its axis.

Though the number of the fixed stars, visible to
the naked eye, fall infinitely short of what a super-
ficial observer might be apt to imagine, yet, from
the great resemblance they bear to each other, and
the confused manner in which they appear at such
vast distances, it was found necessary, by the ancient
astronomers, to class and arrange them under vari-
ous figures and resemblances, to which they gave the
names of several persons and things ; and these i

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

ginary likenesses, many of which, individually, ob-
tained the names of persons celebrated in antiquity,
were in general called constellations.

The distances of the fixed stars from the earth is
supposed to be very great; so much so, that were a
cannon ball discharged from the nearest of them, it
is computed that it would take 7,000,000 years be-
fore it could reach the earth. So far, indeed, are
these luminous orbs removed from us, that their mag-
nitude cannot be increased by the best magnifiers ;
and, notwithstanding the great extent of the earth's
orbit or path round the sun, a fixed star does not ap-
pear to be nearer to us when the earth is in that part
of its orbit nearest to it, than it seemed to be wrhen
the earth was at the greatest distance, or 190,000,000
of miles farther removed from the star.

Dr. Bradley calculates the nearest fixed star from
the earth to be 40,000 times the diameter of the
earth's orbit, and the distance of Draconis from
the earth to be 400,000 times that of the sun, or
38,000,000,000,000 miles !

As to the size of the fixed stars, some idea may
be formed from the vast distance at which they are
visible. Were the sun removed to as great a dis-
tance from us as we are from the nearest of these
stars, it is not probable that he would appear greater
to us, and the different apparent magnitudes of the
stars is supposed only to arise from their diiierent
distances. Indeed, from a comparison of the light
afforded by a fixed star to that of the sun. it has been
concluded that the fixed stars do not differ materi

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

ally, in magnitude, from that luminary; and, as it is
impossible that these bodies can shine from such a
distance with a reflected light, it has also been con-
cluded, that the fixed stars must be of the same na-
ture of the sun, and, like him, shine with their own
native lustre.

The. Uses of the fixed Stars.

ff Ask for what end these heavenly bodies shine;
Earth for whose use?— Pride answers, 'tis for mine!''

" But do these worlds display their beams, or guide
Their orbs, to serve thy use, to please thy pride?
Thyself but dust, thy stature but a span,
A moment thy duration— foolish man !"

tc As well may the minutest emmet say,

That Caucasus was rais'd to pave his way;

The snail, that Lebanon's extended wood,

Was destin'd only for his walk and food :

The vilest cockle, gaping on the coast

That bounds the ample seas, as well may boast

The craggy rock projects above the sky,

That he in safety at its feet may lie;

And the whole ocean's confluent waters swell,

Only to quench his thirst, or move and blanch his shell."

As every part of the vast machine of the universe
seems wisely made? in some degree or other, sub-
servient to the whole, notwithstanding the vast dis-
tances of the stars from the earth, it would be ex-
tremely improper to deny that they may be, to a cer-
tain extent, useful to man. How often do they serve

216 BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN.

to cheer the gloom of the midnight sky, when nei-
ther sun nor moon appears. In the early ages, those
who went down to the sea in ships had scarce any
other sure guide for their wandering vessel. They
still serve to direct the benighted traveller in his so-
litary journey; and, by means of the revolutions of
the stars, the ploughman, even had he no other di-
rectory, would know" exactly when to plough his
fields and sow his seeds. But if, as we have seen,
the stars bear such a striking analogy to the sun in
their magnitude, their nature, and some of their pro-
perties, have we not reason to conclude that they
have far more important offices to fulfil than merely
to be useful, in a few 'respects, to man ? that they,
also, like the sun, are each the centre of its respec-
tive system ? But where does this reasoning lead us?
for, if the stars are suns, and centres of other sys-
tems than that to which our earth belongs, does it
not naturally follow that there must be other worlds
revolving around them? and if other worlds, must
they not also be inhabited? This is a humiliating
lesson to the sons of pride, who have indulged the
thought that every thing in the universe was intend-
ed chiefly for their use ; but it is not to be supposed
that the Omnipotent Creator, who has not a leaf or
drop of water unpeopled, should have left such im-
mense bodies destitute of inhabitants. " It is surely
much more rational to suppose them the abodes of
intelligent beings ; of beings endowed with capaci-'
ties of knowing, loving, and adoring their Creator;
provided and blessed with every object conducive

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 217

to their happiness; many of them, perhaps, in a far
greater state of purity than the inhabitants of our
earth; in possession of superior degrees of bliss; and
all under the direction, indulgence and protection, of
infinite wisdom and goodness;" so that the poet is
correct in his reasoning:

« What read we here?— Th' existence of a God?
Yes; and of other beings, man above;
Natives of aether ! sons of higher climes !"

In this view of the subject, what a grand and mag-
nificent spectacle does the starry heavens present!
What lofty anotenlarged ideas must it give of the
Deity, to suppose every star which we behold a sun,
and each sun the centre of its respective system, of
planets and comets moving within the sphere of its
attractive energy, and irradiated by its beams! Must
not such a consideration inspire us with the grandest
and most sublime ideas of that Being, who has not
only formed, but launched forth, those numerous orbs
into the immensity of space, and who preserves them
in the greatest order and regularity, so that there is
not the least danger, nor the smallest possibility, of
their running into confusion? But, to stretch our ima-
gination still farther beyond the boundaries of the
visible creation, and to suppose other stars, and con-
sequently other suns and systems of inhabited worlds,
moving in the same beautiful order and regularity
beyond these, how awful the thought ! how over-
whelming the consideration! What an august, what
an amazing conception does this give of the works

218 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN.

of the Creator! Thousands of thousands of suns
multiplied without end, and ranged all around us at
immense distances from each other, attended by ten
thousand times ten thousand worlds, all in rapid mo-
tion, yet calm, regular, and harmonious, invariably
keeping the paths prescribed them ; and these worlds,
doubtless, peopled with myriads of beings, formed
for endless progression in perfection and felicity !

(( Not only this which we by custom call
Our world, the stars embellishing the skies

Are worlds alike, th' Almighty rules them all,
And all at first from matter's ma(fe did rise.

Thus we see, that the great Creator of the Uni-
verse, like gold well tried in the furnace of the re-
finer, rises more august, more grand, more sublime,
more inexpressible, beyond what our finite capaci-
ties can conceive, or our tongues express, the more
we extend our researches into nature ; — that " the
works of the Lord are indeed great, in proportion
as they are sought out of all them that have pleasure
therein;" while man, an atom of an atom world,
dwindles into insignificance as he becomes sensible
of his own imperfections and weakness; and even
the most devout and diligent student of nature, while
he is forced to exclaim as he contemplates the won-
ders of the skies, " The heuvens declare the glory
of God, and the firmament sheweth his handy work,"
is also obliged, from a sense of his own littleness,
when put in competition with those mighty orbs, to

BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 219

adopt the following beautiful sentiment: " When I
consider the heavens the work of thy fingers; the
moon and the stars which thou hast ordained ; what
is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of
man that thou visitest him ?'

NATURAL APPEARANCES

IN JANUARY.

" Stern Winter's icy breath, intensely keen,
Now chills the blood, and withers every green.
Bright shines the azure sky serenely fair,
Or driving snows obscure the turbid air."

CIVILIZED nations in general have agreed to date
the commencement of the year on the first of Janu-
ary, within a few days after the winter solstice, or
shortest day, which takes place on the 21st or 22d
of December. In- the month of January, the wea-
ther, in the British islands, is commonly either a
clear, dry frost, or fog and snow, occasionally inter-
mingled with rain. Nothing can be more wonder-
ful than the -effects of frost, which, in the spac,-. of a
single night, stops the running stream in its course,,
and converts the lake, that was curled by every
breeze, into a firm plain. This property of frost
produces a beneficial effect to the farmer; for the
hard clods of the ploughed fields are loosened and
broken to pieces by the swelling of the water within
them when it freezes, and thus the earth is prepared
for receiving the seed in spring ; while,

. " The frost-concocted gTebe,

Draws in abundant vegetable sonl,
And gathers vigour for the coming year.'*
Y 2

222 NATURAL APPEARANCES

Numerous natural phenomena are produced by
frost. Water from the clouds, freezing slov\ ly, crys-
tallizes in little icy darts or stars, forming, by their
Assemblage, the beautiful flakes of snow. Its white-
Bess is owing to the smallness of the particles into
which it is divided; for ice, when pounded, becomes
equally white. Snow is very useful by protecting
the plants it covers from the severity of the frost. —
Hailstones are drops of rain, suddenly congealed in-
to a hard mass, so as to preserve their figure. They
often fall in warmer seasons of the year, as even
then the upper regions of the atmosphere are very
cold. When dew or mist freezes, as it frequently
does on every object on which it falls, it becomes
hoar frost, producing figures of incomparable beauty
and elegance. p

As the cold of this inclement season advances, the
birds collect in flocks, and, rendered bold by want,
approach the habitations of man. The wild quadru-
peds, also, are driven from their accustomed haunts ;
hares enter the gardens to browse on cultivated ve-
getables, and, leaving their tracks in the snow, are
frequently hunted down, or caught in snares.

The domestic cattle now require all the care and
protection of the farmer. Sheep are often lost in the
sudden storms by which the snow is drifted into hol-
lows, so as to bury them a considerable depth be-
neath it; yet they have been known to survive many
days in this situation. Cows receive their subsistence
from the provision of the farm-yard; and early lambs

IN JANUARY. 223

and calves are kept within .lours, and tended with
nearly as much care as the farmer's own children.

" Now shepherds, to your helpless charge be kind;
BafTle the raging year, and fill their pens
With food at will; lodge them below the storm,
And watch them strict; for, from the bellowing east,
In this dire season, oft the whirlwind's wing
Sweeps up the burden of whole wirit'ry plains
At one wide waft, and o'er the helpless iiooks,
Hid in the hollow of two neighbouring hills,
The billowy tempest 'whelms."

The plants, at this season, are defended by nature
from the effects of cold. Those called herbaceous,
which die down to the root every autumn, are safely
concealed underground; and the shrubs and trees
that are exposed to the open air, have all their soft
and tender parts closely wrapped up in buds, which,
by their texture, resist the effects of frost? and are
hence aptly termed the winter quarters of the young
shoots How admirable is the economy of Nature !

The earth, at this season, may now be compared
io a mother who has been robbed of those children
from whom she had the best hopes. She is deso-
late, and deprived of the charms which varied and
embellished her surface; howeveiyshe is not robbed
of all her children ; here and there some vegetables
are still to be seen, which seem to defy the severity
of the winter; here the wild hawthorn shows its pur-
ple berries, and the laurestina displays its blossoms
in clusters, crowned with leaves which never fade.
The yew-tree rises like a pyramid, and its leaves

NATURAL APPEARANCES

preserve their verdure. The ivy, evergreen, still
creeps along the walls, and clings immoveable, while
the tempest roars around it. The laurel extends its
green branches, and has lost none of its summer or-
naments; and the humble box shows here and there,
in the midst of the snow, its evergreen branches.

FEBRUARY.

" Now shifting gales with milder influence blow,

Cloud o'er the shies, and melt the falling snow ;

The soften 'd soil with fertile moisture teems,

And, freed from icy honds, down rush the swelling streams."

THE earlier part of this month may still be rec-
koned winter; though the cold generally begins to
abate. The days are sensibly lengthened, and the
sun has power enough gradually to melt away the
snow and ice. Sometimes a sudden thaw comes on,
with a south wind and rain, which at once dissolves
the snow. Torrents of water then descend from the
hills; every little brook and rill is swelled to a large
stream ; and the ice is swept away W7ith great vio-
lence from the rivers. The frost, however, returns
for a time ; fresh snow falls, often in great quantities ;
and thus the weather alternately changes during most
part of this month.

Various signs of returning spring occur at different
times in February. The woodlark, one of the ear-
liest and sweetest of our songsters, often begins his

IN FEBRUARY. 225

note at the very entrance of the month. Not long
after, rooks begin to pair, and geese to lay. The
thrush and chaffinch then add to the early music of
the groves. Moles go to work in throwing up their
hillocks as soon as the earth is softened. Under
some of the largest, a little below the surface of the
earth, they make their nests of moss, in which four
«r five young are found at a time. These animals
live on worms, insects, an^l the roots of plants. They
do much mischief in gardens, by loosening and de-
vouring flower-roots; but in the fields they do no
other damage than rendering the surface of the
ground unequal by their hillocks, which obstruct the
scythe in mowing. They are said, also, to pierce
the sides of dams and canals, and let out the water;
but this can only be an accidental occurrence, attend-
ed with their own destruction.

Many plants emerge from under ground in Fe-
bruary, but few flowers yet adorn the fields or gar-
dens. Snow-drops, in general, are fully opened from
the beginning of the month, often peeping from the
midst of the snow.

" Already now the snow-drop dares appear,
The first pale blossom of the unripen'd year ;
As Flora's breath, by some transforming power,
Had chang'd an isicle to a flower ;
Its name and hue the scentless plant retains,
And winter lingers in its icy veins."

The aider-tree discloses its flower buds; the cat-
kins of the hazel become very conspicuous in the

226 NATURAL APPEARANCES

hedges ; and young leaves appear on the gooseberry
and currant bushes. The farmer, as soon as the
ground is sufficiently thawed, ploughs his fallows,
sows beans and pease, and rye and spring wheat.

*' Joyous th' impatient husbandman perceives
Relenting nature, and his lusty steers
Diives from their stalls, to where the well-us'd plough
Lies in the furrow, loosen'd from the frost ;
There, unrefusing, to the hajness'd yoke
They lend their shoulder, and begin their toil,
Cheer 'd by the simple song and soaring lark.
Meanwhile, incumbent o'er the shining share,
The master leans, removes the obstructing clay,
Winds the whole work, and sidelong lays the glebe.
While through the neighbouring field the sower stalks.
With measur'd step, and lib'ral throws the grain
Into the fruitful bosom of the ground."

The husbandman, also, at this season, sets his early
potatoes, drains his wet land, dresses and repairs his
hedges, lops his trees, and plants those kinds which
love a wet soil, as poplars and willows ; and, with

„ " Fancy fir'd, anticipates their growth."

Winter in the Polar Regions.

Nor are the symptoms of returning spring con-
fined to the inhabitants of our temperate climate ; they
also begin, towards the middle of this month, to be
sensibly felt by those of the icy regions of the north.

IN FEBRUARY. 227

Their winter, however, is very different from ours.
The single night of the country about Spitz bergen
begins about the 30th of October. The sun then
sets, and never appears till about the 10th of Febru-
ary. A glimmering, indeed, continues some weeks
after the setting of the sun : then succeed clouds and
thick darkness, broken by the light of the moon,
which is as luminous as in England, and, during this
long night, shines with unfailing lustre. The cold
strengthens with the new year* and the sun is ush-
ered in with an unusual seventy* of frost. By the
middle of March the cheerful light grows strong ;
the arctic foxes leave their holes, and the sea-fowls
resort, in great multitudes, to their breeding place?.
The sun acts no more after the 14th of May. The
distinction of day and night is then lost.

But, to make up for the want of sunshine in such
a long and tedious winter, the wisdom and goodness
of God has amply provided, by furnishing, in ad-
dition to the light of the moon, the northern inhabi-
tants of our globe with such a copious display of the
aurora borealis, or what the common people here call
streamers

In Shetland, these northern lights, which the na-
tives call merry dancers, are the constant attendants
of the clear evenings, and prove great reliefs amid
the gloom of the long winter nights. They com-
monly appear at twilight, near the horizon, of a dun
colour, approaching to yellow, sometimes continuing
in that state for several hours, without any apparent
motion ; after which they break out into streams of

228 NATURAL APPEARANCES

stronger light, spreading into columns, and altering
slowly into ten thousand different shapes, varying
their colours, from all the tints of yellow, to the most
obscure russet. They often cover the whole hemi-
sphere, and then make the most brilliant appearance.
Their motions, at these times, are most amazingly
quick, and they astonish the spectator with the rapid
changes of their form. They break out in places
where none were seen before, skimming briskly
along the heavens. * On a sudden they are extin-
guished, and lea^e behind a uniformly dusky tract.
This again is illuminated in the same manner, and
as suddenly left a dull blank. In certain nights they
assume the appearance of vast columns, on one side
of the deepest yellow, on the other declining away
till it becomes undistinguished from the sky. They
have generally .a strong, tremulous motion, from end
to end, which continues till the whole vanishes. In
a word, we, who only see the extremities of these
northern phenomena, have but a faint idea of their
splendour and their motions.

In Siberia there is one species of the aurora bore-
alis, which regularly appears between the north-east
and east, like a luminous rainbow, with numbers of
columns of light radiating from it. Beneath the arch
is a darkness, through which the stars appear with
some brilliancy. There is another kind, which be-
gins with certain insulated rays from the north, and
others from the north-east, They augment little by
little till th(\\ fill the whole sky, and form a splen-
dour of colours rich as gold, rubies, and emeralds ;

IN FEBRUARY. 229

but the attendant phenomena strike the beholders
with horror ; for they crackle, sparkle, hiss, make a
whistling sound, and a noise even equal to artificial
fireworks.

In Hudson's bay, moreover, the firmament, in
winter, is not without its beauties. The night is en-
livened by the aurora borealis, which spreads a thou-
sand different lights and colours over the whole
concave of the sky, not to be defaced even by the
splendour of the full moon; and the stars are of a
fiery redness.

Wonders of the North.

As we advance into these dreary regions, we meet
with those picturesque objects which attract and cap-
tivate the most incurious eye. In the icy seas, and
particularly at Spitzbergen, (which is the largest of
that group of frozen islands which go under that
name, or that of New Greenland) the forms assumed
by the ice are extremely pleasing. The surface of
that which is congealed from the sea water is flat,
even and hard, resembling white sugar, and is ca-
pable of being slid upon. The greater pieces, or
fields, are many leagues in length : the smaller are
the meadows of the seals, on which those animals,
at times, frolic by hundreds. The motion of the
smaller pieces is as rapid as the currents ; the greater,
which are sometimes two hundred leagues long, and
sixty or eighty broad, move slowly and majestically.
They often fix for a time, immoveable by the power

230 NATURAL APPEARANCES

of the ocean, and then produce, near the horizon,
that bright, white appearance, called, by the mari-
ners, the blink of the ice. These float in the sea like
so many rugged mountains, and are sometimes live
or six hundred yards thick ; but the far greater part
is concealed beneath the water. These are continu-
ally increased, in height, by the freezing of the spray
of the sea, or of the melted snow which falls on them.
Those which remain in this frozen climate receive
continual growth; others are gradually wafted, by
the northern winds, into southern latitudes, and melt,
by degrees, by the heat of the sun, till they waste
away, and disappear in the boundless element.

The collision of the great fields of ice, in high la-
titudes, is often attended with a noise that, for the
time, takes away the power of hearing any thing
else; and the meeting of the lesser fields is attended
with a grinding of unspeakable horror. The water
which dashes against the mountainous ice freezes
into an infinite variety of forms, and gives the voy-
ager ideal towns, streets, churches, steeples, and
every shape which imagination can frame.

The icebergs or glaciers of the north-west of Spitz-
bergen, are among the capital wonders of the country.
Frost sports with these icebergs, and gives them
majestic, as well as other most singular forms. —
Masses have been seen assuming the shape of a go-
thic church, with arched windows and doors, and
all the rich tracery of that style, composed of what
an Arabian tale would scarcely dare to relate, of
crystal of the richest sapphiring blue. Tables with

IN FEBRUARY. 231

one or more feet, and often immense flat-roofed tem-
ples, supported by round, transparent columns, of
cerulean hue, float by the astonished spectator. These
icebergs are the creation of ages, and receive annu-
ally additional heights, by the falling of snow and
rain, which often instantly freezes, and more than
^repairs the loss by the influence of the melting sun.

Such are part of the wonderful phenomena of the
polar regions ; and the best improvement we can
make of such awful and terrific scenes, is to compare
them with what we daily behold at home, and learn
contentment with that spot, where Providence, all,
wise, has fixed our residence.

" One of the great arts to escape superfluous tin-
easiness," says a celebrated writer, " is to free our
minds from the habit of comparing our condition
with that of others, on whom the blessings of life are
more bountifully bestowed, or with imaginary states
of delight and security, perhaps unattainable by mor-
tals. Few are placed in a situation so gloomy and
distressful as not to see, every day, beings more for-
lorn and miserable, from whom they may learn to
rejoice at their own lot

" A native of England, pinched with the frosts
of December, may lessen his affection for his own
country by suffering his imagination to wander in the
vales of Asia, and sport among woods that are al-
ways green, and streams that murmur ; but if he
turns his thoughts toward the polar regions, and con-
siders the nations to whom a great portion of the year
is darkness, and who are condemned to pass week

232 NATURAL APPEARANCES

and months amid mountains of snow, he will soon
recover his tranquillity; and, while he stirs his fire,
or throws his cloak about him, reflect how much he
owes to Providence that he is not placed in Green-
land or Siberia."

MARCH.

" As yet the trembling year is unconfirm'd,
And winter oft at eve resumes the breeze,
Chills the pale morn, and bids his driving sleete
Deform the day."

THE great operations of nature, during this month,
seem to be to dry up the superabundant moistf "e of
February, thereby preventing the roots and seeds
from rotting in the earth, and gradually to bring for-
ward the process of evolution in the swelling buds;
while, at the same time, by the wholesome severity
of chilling blasts, they are kept from a premature dis-
closure, which would expose their tender contents to
injury from the yet unsettled season.

The winds of March, boisterous and vehement to
a proverb, are to be* regarded, however, as particu-
larly useful to vegetation ; for those years generally
prove most fruitful? in which the pleasing appearances
of spring are the most retarded. The importance of
a dry season for getting the seed early and favoura-
bly into the ground, is expressed in the old proverb:

" A bushel of March dust is worth a king's ransom."

MARCH.

233

The mellow note of the thrush, singing perched
on the naked bough of some lofty tree, and the coo-
ing of the ring dove in the woods, are heard from
the beginning of March. The rooks also are now
in motion, building and repairing their nests; and it
is highly amusing to observe the tricks and artifices
of this thievish tribe; some to defend, and others to
plunder, the materials of their new habitations. These
birds are- accused of doing much injury to the farmer,
by plucking tip the young corn, and other springing
vegetables; but some are of opinion that this mis-
chief is fully repaired by their diligence in devouring
the grubs of various insects, which, if suffered to
come to maturity, would occasion much greater da-
mage. For this purpose, they are frequently seen
following the plough, or settling in flocks on newly
turned up lands.

In the month of March, those birds which took
refuge in our temperate climate from the rigour of
the northern winters, begin to leave us, and return
to the countries where they were bred. The red-
wing, fieldfare, and woodcock, are of this kind, and
retire to spend their summer in, Norway, Sweden,
and other parts of the north of Europe. Frogs,
which, during winter, lie in a topid state at the bot-
tom of ponds or ditches, now, enlivened by the
warmth of spring, rise in vast numbers to the surface
of the water, and make themselves heard to a stir-
prising distance. by their croakings. Those small,
but beautiful fish, called smelts, or sparlings, proceed
op the rivers in this month in order to spawn; bat

234

NATURAL APPEARANCES

they are of so tender a nature, that the least mixture of
snow-water in the river drives them back to the sea.

One of the most agreeable tokens of our approach
of spring is, thaj: about the middle of the month of
March bees venture out of their hives. These ad-
mirable and useful insects appear to be possessed of
uncommon foresight of the weather; so that their
appearance in the morning may be reckoned a sure
token of a fair day. As their food is the sweet juice
to be found in the nectaries of flowers, their coming
abroad is a certain sign that flowers are now to be
met with. The gardens are adorned with the yel-
low and purple crocus; and, towards the end of the
month, primroses peep out from beneath the hedges,
while the most fragrant of all flowers, the violet, dis-
covers itself by the perfume it imparts to the sur-
rounding air. The peach, the nectarine, the almond,
apricot and cherry trees, come into full bud during
this month; the sallow enlivens the hedges with its
catkins full of dust ; and the leaves of the honey-
suckle are nearly expanded.

In the latter part of the month of March the equi-
nox happens, when day and night are of an equal
length all over the globe ; or rather, when the sun is
an equal time above and below the horizon ; for the
morning and evening twilight makes apparent day
considerablv longer than night. This takes place
again in Septe- ber The former is called the ver-
nal, the latter the autumnal equinox.

XN APRIL. 235

APRIL.

(< NovV stormy skies with milder influence shine,
And winter, banish'd, seeks the northern clime :
The earth, revived, a cheerful aspect wears —
The gentle bird returns— the fragrant flower appears."

APRIL generally begins with raw, unpleasant
weather, the influence of the equinoctial storms still,
in some degree, prevailing ; but its vicissitudes of
warm gleams of sun shine and gentle showers have
the most powerful effects in hastening that universal
springing of the vegetable tribes, whence the season
of spring derives its appellation.

Early in the month that welcome guest and har-
binger of summer, the swallow, returns. The chim-
ney or house swallow, known by its long, forked tail,,
and red breast, is first seen; and as this bird lives
on insects, its appearance is a certain proof that some
of that minute tribe of animals are come abroad from
their winter retreats.

In this month the groves resound with the various
melody of the birds.

" The blackbird, woodlark, and the thrush,

Unite with those of feebler voice ;
Whose chants resound from bush to bush,

To rouse all nature to rejoice.

Whilst nature seems to hear the sound,

Flowers, herbs, shrubs, trees, put forth their headsj

To ask, what have you, warblers, found
Tc make you sing—is winter fled ?

NATURAL APPEARANCES

Sweet l yes ;' the nightingale replies ;

« For I'm the harbinger of spring ;
And to confirm the same,' she cries,

« Hark ! don't you hear yon cuckoo sing ';• "

The nightingale is heard soon after the arrival of
the swallow. He sings by day as well as by night,
but in the day-time his voice is drowned among the
multitude of performers ; in the evening it is heard
alone: whence arises the common opinion that it
sings only by night.

Birds are now busied in pairing, and building their
nests, in which they exhibit the most admirable in-
stinctive peculiarities,

" Some to the holly hedge
Nestling repair; and to the thicket some;
Some to the rude protection of the thorn
Commit their feeble offspring : the cleft tree
Offers its kind concealment to a few ;
Their food its insects, and its moss their nests ;
Others apart, far in the grassy dale
Or roughening waste, their humble texture weave ;
But most in woodland solitudes delight,
In unfrequented glooms, or shaggy hanks,
Steep, and divided by a babbling brook,
Whose murmurs sooth them all the live-long day,
When by kind duty fix'd."

Another of the most striking events of this month
is the renewal of the note of the cuckoo, which is
generally heard about the middle of April. This
circumstance has commanded attention in all coun-
tries ; and several rustic sayings, and the names of

IN APRIL. 257

several plants which flower at that time, are derived
from it.

The arrival of the cuckoo is regularly preceded
some days by that of the wryneck, a small bird, sin-
gular in its attitudes and plumage, and which has a
peculiar note or cry, easily distinguished by those who
have once heard it Other birds, which are seen
among us only in the warmer months, as the red-
start, whitethroat, and yellow wagtail, appear in
April.

A considerable number of plants flower this
month, and, with the blossoms of fruit-bearing trees
and shrubs, form a very agreeable spectacle, as well
on account of their beauty, as of the promise they
give of future benefits.

" Arabia cannot boast
A fuller gale of joy than, lib'ral, thence
Breathes thro' the sense, and takes the ravish'd sou!.
Full of fresh verdure and unnumber'd flowers,
The negligence of Nature, wide and wild,
Where, undisguis'd by mimic art, she spreads
Unbounded beauty to the roving eye."

Reflections on Spring.

" Fo1. th in the pleasing Spring

His beauty walks, His tenderness and love.
Wide flush the fields ; the softening air is halm ,
Echo the mountains round ; the forest smiles ;
And every sense, and every heart is joy."

What a wonderful revolution, indeed, in the uni-
versal aspect of Nature, does the return of this lovely

238 NATURAL APPEARANCES

season exhibit ! After having been long bound up
with frost, or overspread with snow, the earth once
more displays all her variety of plants and flowers,
is arrayed with the most beautiful and enlivening
verdure, variegated with a numberless variety of
hues, and exhales odours so exquisitely pure and fra-
grant, that every sense of every creature is awake to
inexpressible delight.

None of the other seasons can vie with spring in
loveliness and amenity It has the same order among
them that the morning has among the divisions of
the day, and youth among the stages of life. It may
be called the favourite season of harmony ; for the
warbling of the feathered tribes has been observed
to have now a peculiar wildness and sweetness of
melody. Nor is its sweet influence confined to the
songsters of the groves: it pervades the whole ani-
mal creation.

Its Influence on Man.

In the opening of spring, and subsequent reno-
vation of Nature, how very sensibly is the human
soul exhilarated by that sense of pleasure which in-
spires the birds with melody, and the whole creation
with joy. In this season, when we contemplate the
smiling scenes around, those secret overflowings of
gladness are diffused over the soul, which compose
what Milton expressively calls " vernal delight," and
which is often denominated, with no less beauty
and propriety, " the smile of nature." What an ex-

IN APRIL. 239

quisite sense of this does the virtuous philosopher ex-
perience! The creation, particularly in this lovely
season, is a perpetual feast to the mind of a good
man. From all that he beholds, he receives instruc-
tion and delight Providence has adorned the whole
creation with such a variety of beautiful and useful
objects, that it is impossible for a mind, not imbruted
by mere sensual enjoyments, to contemplate the
scenes around, without some of the sweetest internal
sensations of which man can be susceptible. But
when, to the delightful satisfaction which rural ob-
jects afford, we add an occasional attention to the
studies of natural philosophy, our relish for the beau-
ties of the creation is quickened, and rendered not
only pleasing to the imagination, but to the under-
standing; and it is an unquestionable truth, that the
man who extends his inquiries into the works of na-
ture, multiplies, in some degree, the inlets to happi-
ness. The philosopher is not content with the loll-
ing murmur of brooks, or the enlivening melody of
birds, with the shade of embowing woods, the ver-
dure of fields, or the embroidery of meadows. He
will reflect, on the contrary, on tHe infinite variety
of benevolent purposes to which they are all sub-
servient, and the wonders of that Divine Wisdom,
of which they all exhibit such impressions. While
the pleasures of the eye, in course, are heightened,
his soul is exalted to that rational admiration which
insensibly leads to love and adoration; and, while
he " walks superior amid the glad creation, musing

240 NATURAL APPEARANCES

praise, and looking gratitude," with a kind of sacred
ecstacy he exclaims :

" These are thy gloiious works, Parent of Good,
Almighty ! Thine this universal frame,
Thus wondrous fair : Thyself how wondrous then,
Unspeakable !"

While unusual sweetness thus inspires the whole
creation with a purer joy, the moral philosopher is
led to enquire into the natural effects of this delight-
ful influence, not only on the frame, but on the heart
of man. The affections, he is fond to imagine, are all
attuned to benevolence, and each discordant passion
soothed to serenity and peace.

With what a generous satisfaction, too, will huma-
nity reflect on the restorative effects of spring ! The
convalescents, so lately wretched, so long oppressed
by the heavy load of pain, and langour, and disease,
now feel, as it were, a new creation; and sweet are
the cheering sensations, sweet the unwonted joys,
that now recall them to the exertions of strength, and
the happiness of health.

MAY.

« Born in yon blaze of orient sky,
Sweet May, thy radiant form unfold;

Unclose thy blue, voluptuous eye,
And wave thy shadowy locks of gold.

fcf MAY.

Warm with new life thy glitt'ring throngs,
On quiv'ring fin and rustling wing,

Delighted join their votive songs,

And hail thee goddess of the Spring."

MAY has ever been the favourite month of poetic
description, as uniting all the soft beauties of spring
with the radiance of summer; but this must be in
more southern climes than ours; for with us great
part of the month is yet too cold for a perfect enjoy-
ment of the charms of nature, and abounds with
chilling blights and nipping winds: —

" The blast that riots on the spring's increase."

The month of May, however, is profuse of beauty ;
the earth is now covered with the freshest green of
the grass and young corn, and adorned with nume-
rous flowers opening on every side The trees put
on their leafy verdure ; the hedges are rich in fra-
grance from the snowy bloom of the hawthorn ; and
the orchards display their highest beauty in the deli-
cate blush of the apple blossoms.

The leafing of trees is commonly completed in
this month. It begins with the aquatic kinds, such
as the willow, poplar, and alder, and ends with the
oak, beech, and ash. These are sometimes very
thin of foilage even at the close of May.

Birds hatch and rear their young principally du-
ring this month. The patience and assiduity of the
female during the task of sitting upon her eggs, can-
not be too much admired ; nor should the conjugal

Y

242 NATURAL APPEARANCES

affection of the male be forgotten, who sings to his
mate, and often relieves her fatigues by supplying
her place : and nothing can exceed the paternal ten-
derness of both, when the young are brought to
light.

Towards the end of May the bee hives send forth
their earlier swarms. Nature directs them to march
in a body in quest of a new settlement, which, if left
to their choice, would generally be some hollow
trunk of a tree ; but man, who converts the labours
and instincts of so many animals to his own use, pro-
vides them with a more secure dwelling, and repays
himself with their honey

The glow-worm shines at this period ; the females
of which are without wings, and luminous; the
males vice versa They extinguish their lamps, or
cease to glow, between eleven and twelve at night.

The cattle are now turned out to the pastures ;
milk becomes more copious ; and the process of
cheese making goes on in Cheshire, Wiltshire, Glou-
cester &c.

This is not a busy month to the farmer. He now
weeds his crop, and looks forward to the reward of
his industry and toil, in the approaching season.

" 3e gracious, heaven ! for now laborious man
Has done his part."

Chick m the Egg.

The hen has scarce sat on the egg twelve hours,
when we begin already to discover in it some linea-

IN MAY. 243

ments of the head and body of the chicken that is to
be born The heart appears to beat at the end of
the day ; at the end of forty eight hours two vesicles
of blood can be distinguished, the pulsation of which
is very visible At the fiftieth hour an auricle of the
heart appears, and resembles a lace, or noose folded
down upon itself At the end of seventy hours we
distinguish wings, and on the head two bubbles for
the brain ; one for the bill, and two others for the
fore part and hind part of the head : — the liver ap-
pears towards the fifth day At the end of 131
hours the first voluntary motion is observed. At
the end of 138 hours the lungs and stomach become
visible : — and at the end of 142, the intestines, the
loins, and the upper jaw The seventh day, the
brain which was slimy, begins to have some con-
sistence. At the 190th hour of incubation, the bill
opens, and the flesh appears in the breast ; — at the
194th, the sternum is seen, that is to say, the breast-
bone. At the 210th, the ribs come out of the back,
the bill is very visible, as well as the gall bladder.
The bill becomes green at the end of 236 hours ;
and if the chick is taken out of its coverings, it evi-
dently moves itself The feathers begin to shoot
out towards the 240th hour, and the skull becomes
grisly. At the 264th, the eyes appear. At the
288th the ribs are perfect At the 331st, the spleen
draws near to the stomach, and the lungs to the
chest. At the end of 355 hours, the bill frequently
opens and shuts ; and at the end of 451 hours, or
the 18th day, the first cry of the chick is already

244 NATURAL APPEARANCES

heard : it afterwards gets more strength, and grows
continually, till at last it sets itself at liberty, by
opening the prison in which it was shut up. Ador-
able wisdom of God ! it is by so many diiferent de-
grees that these creatures are brought into life. All
these progressions are made by rule ; and there is
not one of them without sufficient reason. No part
of its body could appear sooner or later, without the
whole embryo suffering, and each of its limbs ap-
pear at the most proper moment. This ordination,
so wise, and so invariable in the production of this
animal, is manifestly the work of a Supreme Being, r

JUNE.

<• Now genial suns and gentle breezes reign,
And summer's fairest splendours deck the plum ;
Exulting Flora views her new-born rose,
And all the ground with short-lived beauty glows.'*

JUNE, in this climate, is what the Grecian poets
represented May. It is the most lively month in
the year, Summer has commenced, and warm
weather is established ; yet the heats rarely rise to
excess, or interrupt the enjoyment of those plea-
sures which the scenes of Nature at this period af-
ford. The trees are in their fullest dress ; and
a profusion of flowers is every where scattered
around.

IN JUNE. 245

One of the earliest rural employments of this
month is the shearing of sheep ; a business of much
importance in various parts of the kingdom, where
wool is one of the most valuable products, and
yields much rustic mirth ; as,

" Rang'd in Iuc-ty rows,

The shepherds sit, and whet the sounding shears.
The housewife waits to roll her fleecy stores,
With all her gay drest maids attending round.
One chief in gracious dignity enthron'd,
Shines o'er the rest, the pastoral queen, and rays
Her smiles, sweet beaming, on her shepherd king ;
While the glad circle round them yield their souls
To festive mirth, and wit that knows no gall."

England has for many ages been celebrated for
its breeds of sheep ; which yield wool of various
qualities, suited to different branches of the woollen
manufacture.

In the hedges the place of the hawthorn is suppli-
ed by the flowers of the hip, or dog rose, the differ-
ent hues of which, from a deep crimson to a light
blush, and even pure white, form a very elegant
variety of colour ; and of some the smell is peculiar-
ly fragrant Some time after the woodbine and
honeysuckle begin to blow ; and these, united with
the rose, give our hedges their highest beauty and
fragrance.

The several kinds of corn come into ear and flow-
er this month ; as do likewise the numerous species
of grass. In Europe the principal kinds of corn are
Y 2

246 NATURAL APPEARANCES

wheat, rye, barley, and oats ; in Asia, rice ; in Af-
rica, maize, or Indian corn.

The latter part of June is the beginning of hay-
harvest for the southern and middle parts of the king-
dom. This is one of the most busy and agreeable
of rural occupations.

" Now swarms the village o'er the jovial mead."

Both sexes and all ages are engaged in it.

The fragrance of the new-mown hay, the gayety
of all surrounding objects, and the genial warmth of
the weather, conspire to render this a season of plea-
sure and delight

" Ee'n stooping age is here ; and infant hands
Trail the long rake, or, with the fragrant load
O'ercharg'd, amid the kind oppression roll ;

. While, heard from dale to dale,

Waking the breeze, resounds the blended voice
of happy labour, love, and social glee."

In this month appear the grasshopper, green bee*
tie, angler's May-fly, the formidable gad fly, &c —
The angler's May fly is most short lived ; emerging
from the water in its aurelia state at six in the even-
ing, and dying at eleven : they appear about the
fourth of this month and continue a fortnight. ,

Now gooseberries, currants, and strawberries,
begin to ripen Birds cease their notes, except the
stone curlew, yellow hammer, goldfinch, and gol-
den crested wren, now and then chirping. The

IN JUNE. 24.7

cuckoo, also ceases. It is amusing- now, an hour be-
fore sun set, to see the barn owl in search of field
mice, and bringing one to its nest about every five
minutes ; and the fern owl, feeding on the fern chaf-
fer, another interesting nocturnal bird.

On the 21st of this month is the summer solstice,
er longest day ; when the splendid sun

" Shoots full perfection thro' the swelling year."

The D&w.

The wise Ruler of the world, who watches con-
tinually over his children, and provides for all their
wants, makes use of more than one means to render
the earth fruitful. But the most common means, the
suresi, and most universal, and that which men the
least attend to, and are least sensible of its value, is
dew. This inestimable gift of Heaven, which even
in years of the greatest drought supports and pre-
serves the plants from perishing, is those sparkling
drops seen in such profusion morning and evening
on the leaves of trees and plants. The dew does
not fall from above, as was formerly imagined ; it
does not descend from the highest parts of our at-
mosphere ; and still less is it the sweat of the stars,
as superstition had supposed. This pretended ce-
lestial origin has probably given rise to the folly of
some alchymUts who hoped to convert dew into
gold It »«. now generally allowed, that the dew is
nothing but the sweat of the plants, and the moisture

248 NATURAL APPEARANCES

they draw from the earth. In order to be convin-
ced of this, one need only cover a plant with a glass
bell, and it will appear that the leaves collect in the
night a greater quantity of dew drops than the leaves
of the other plants which are exposed to the air.
This certainly would not be the case if the dew fell
from above, and if it did not rise from the ground.
Nothing is more easy than to comprehend how it is
formed ; for nobody is ignorant, that the rays of the
sun, and the heat which is cast on the earth, continu-
ally loosens a multitude of thin particles from off
every thing ; some of which rise into the atmosphere,
and the rest collect in the form of drops of water.
This account of the dew explains to us, how it hap-
pens that it is sometimes hurtful, and sometimes not
so. Its nature evidently depends on the quality of
the vapours of which it is composed. The wind
carries away the light exhalations as soon as they
are formed, and prevents them from falling in drops.
This is the reason that there is most dew when the
air is very calm. By this wise plan of the Creator,
the plants can vegetate and grow in countries even
where there is no rain ; for the soil of those parts
being sandy, porous, and very moist underneath, the
heat draws out a great quantity of dew, which sup-
plies the place of rain.

IN JULY. 249

JULY.

«' Deep to the root

Of vegetation parch'd, the cleaving fields
And slippery lawn an arid hue disclose ;
Echo no more returns the cheerful sound
Of sharp'ning scythe ; the mower, sinking, heaps
O'er him the humid hay, with flowers perfum'd."

JULY is the hottest month in the year. The di-
rect influence of the sun, indeed, is diminishing ; but
the earth and air have been so thoroughly heated,
that ihe warmth which they retain, more than com-
pensates for the gradual diminution of the solar rays.

The effects of this weather upon the face of nature
soon become manifest. All the flowers of the for-
mer month lose their beauty, and the whole plant
hastens to decay Many plants, however, do not
begin to flower till July.

While the animal creation seem oppressed with
languor, during this hot season, and either seek the
recesses of woods, or resort to pools and streams, to
cool their bodies and quench their thirst, the insect
tribe are peculiarly active and vigorous. These
minute creatures are for the most part annual ; being
hatched in the spring, and dying at the approach of
winter. ^ *

The excessive heats of this period of the year,
cause such an evaporation from the surface of the
earth and waters, that, after some continuance of dry
weather, large heavy clouds are formed, which at
length let fall their collected liquor, in extremely co-

250 NATURAL APPEARANCES

pious showers, which frequently beat down the futt-
grown corn, and sometimes deluge the country with
sudden floods. Thunder and lightning generally
accompany these summer storms.

The effects of the great heat on the human body
are agreeably allayed, by the various wholesome
fruits which Providence offers at this season for the
use of man. Those which are now ripe are, of
all, the most cooling and refreshing; as currants,
gooseberries, raspberries, strawberries, and cherries.
These are no less salutary and useful than the richest
products of the warmer climates.

The luxury of cooling shades is now peculiarly
grateful, and multitudes flock from all quarters to
enjoy the invigorating effects of sea bathing ; while
others of the debilitated and valetudinarian tribe as-
semble at the medicinal well, in order to allay the
feverish heat in their blood, or improve their consti-
tutions, by drinking the cooling and reanimating
draught at the spring

Potatoes and hops flower in this month. The jes-
samines and white lily now ornament the garden.
Mushrooms appear. Frogs migrate from ponds.
Hoary beetles appear. Bees kill and expel the
drones Ants, for frugality, foresight, and industry
proverbial, quit their nests to found ryjw colonies.
Ants are divided into male, female, and neuter. —
The neuters are labourers, without wings ; males
and females have w gs. An ant hill is a large
vaulted cha . ber a> d has three or four passages to
it. In the centre of it is the old one, and the young

IN JULY. 251

worms and «ggs ranged around. When opened in
the winter, the labourers are in torpor The} lay up
no provision. They prey upon beetles, caterpillars,
dead mice, rats, frogs, and juices from leaves, and
when they meet with more than they can carry, they
return to fetch their comrades to help them.

In this month the poultry moult. Young par-
tridges are found among the corn, and first broods
of swallows and martins congregate.

The farmer now gets home the products of the
earth, particularly hay.

Hemp and flax are pulled this month. These
plants are cultivated in various parts of Europe more
than in England. The stalks of both are full of
rough fibres or strings, which separated and pre-
pared in a particular manner, become fit for spin-
ning into thread. Of flax linen is made, from the
finest cambrick to the coarsest canvas Hemp is
chiefly used for coarse cloth ; it is also twisted into
ropes and cables.

In the southern parts of our island the corn har-
vest begins ; and,

" Soon as the morning trembles o'er the sky,
And, unperceiv'd, unfolds the spreading day,
Before the ripen'd field the reapers stand
I a, fair array."

NATURAL APPEARANCES

Thunder Storms.

At a season wherein nature presents to our eyes
none but pleasing, cheerful scenes, there are some
people, notwithstanding, who still complain and
murmur. Summer they say, would indeed be de-
lightful, if storms did not come to disturb and banish
all joy from their souls The fear of thunder and
storms is chiefly owing to the opinion of their being
effects of the wrath of heaven, and ministers of its
vengeance. For if, on the contrary, we considered
how much these storms contribute to purify the air
from numberless noxious vapours, and to fertilize
the earth ; if wre would take proper precautions
against the terrible effects of lightning, the storms
would cease to be so dreadful to us, and would ra-
ther inspire gratitude than terror. Alas ! we should
soon change our language, if God, provoked at our
ingratitude and complaints, was to deprive us of the
blessings we derive from thunder storms. It is
true, that we are not capable of pointing out all the
advantages which accrue from them ; but the little
we know is sufficient to fill our hearts with gratitude
towards our great Benefactor. Let us represent to
ourselves an atmosphere loaded with noxious and
pestilential vapours which thicken more and more
by the continual exhalations of earthly bodies, so
many of which are corrupt and poisonous We
must breathe this air ; the preserv ation or destruc-
tion of our existence depends upon it. The salubrity
or unwholesomeness of the air gives us life or death.

IN JULY-

We feel how we are oppressed in the stifling heat of
summer; with what difficulty we breathe; what
uneasiness we experience ! Is it not a great bles-
sing, that we ought to be grateful for to God, when
a salutary storm comes to purify the air from all
noxious vapours ; and by lighting up the saline and
sulphureous .particles, prevents their dangerous ef-
fects, cools the air, which recovers its elasticity, and
restores to us our usual facility of breathing? Were
it not for storms," the dangerous exhalations would
more and more increase, and be more and more cor-
rupt. Men and animals would perish by millions.
Which is then the most reasonable, to fear or to wish
for storms ? To murmur at the slight mischief they
may sometimes occasion, or to bless God for the
precious advantages they procure us ? Let us add,
that not only men and animals are benefited by
purifying the air, but that it is also very useful to
the vegetables. Experience teaches us, that the
rain which falls when it thunders is the most fruitful
to the earth.

Observe also, that, during the greatest claps of
thunder, most people prolong their fear without rea-
son. Whoever has time to fear the natural conse-
quences of lightning is already, out of danger It is
only the lightning which is fatal. When we have
seen, and not been touched by it, and when the thun-
der does not come with it immediately, it is doubly
foolish to .turn pale or tremble at hearing a clap,,
or to stop the ears for fear of sound, which is no lon-
ger dangerous. The thunder tells us we have 6s

254< NATURAL

eaped the danger, and, at the same time, informs ns
at what distance it is; for the greater space of time
there is between the clap of thunder and the flash of
lightning, the more distant is the storm.

Such reflections as these may moderate the ex-
cessive fear we have of thunder. Instead of -filling
our minds with frightful and terrible ide.as, let us ac-
custom ourselves to consider, a storm as a sublime
and great object. Instead of speaking of the mis-
fortunes occasioned by thunder, letT us reflect rather
on the necessity and great use of storms.

AUGUST.

*{ Fair plenty now begins her gotden reign,

The yellow fields thick wave with ripen'd grain,

Joyous the swains begin their sultry toils,

And bear in triumph home the harvest's wealthy spoils/'

WHAT remained to be perfected by the powerful
influence of the sun, is daily advancing to maturity.
The farmer now sees the principal object of his cul-
ture, and the chief source of his riches, waiting only
for the hand of the gatherer.

Rye and oats are usually first ripe; but this varies,
and depends on the time of sowing. Sometimes all
kinds of grain are fit for cutting at the same time.

Every fair day is now of great importance ; for,
when the corn is once ripe, it is liable to continual
Damage while standing, either from the shedding of

IN AUGUST'. 255

the seeds, from the depredations of birds, or from
storms.

This pleasing harvest scene is beheld in its per-
fection only in the open field countries,, where the
sight can take in at once an uninterrupted extent of
land waving with corn, and a multitude of people
engaged in the various parts of the labour. It is a
prospect equally delightful to the eye and the heart,
and which ought to inspire every sentiment of be-
nevolence to our fellow creatures, and gratitude to
our Creator.

The rural festival of harvest home is an extremely
natural one, and has been observed in almost all ages
and all countries. The jovial harvest supper cheers
the heart of the labourer, and prepares him to begin,
without murmuring, the labours of another year;
and now,

" Inwardly smiling, the proud farmer views
The rising pyramids that grace his yard,
And counts his large increase."

This month is the season of another kind of har-
vest in some parts of England, which is the hop-
picking. The hop is a climbing plant, sometimes
growing wild in hedges, and is cultivated on account
of its use in making malt liquors. It is planted in
regular rows, and poles are set for it to run upon.
When the poles are covered to the top, nothing can
make a more elegant appearance than one of these
hop gardens. At the time of gathering, the poles
are taken up with the plants clinging to them and.

256 NATURAL APPEARANCES

the scaly flowering heads, which are the part usc<J>
are carefully picked off. Kent, Sussex, and Worces-
tershire, are the counties most famous for the growth
ftf hops.

Wall fruits now come in season; and,

" The sunny wall

Presents the downy peach, the shining plum,
The ruddy, fragrant nectarine, and dark
Beneath his ample leaf the luscious fig."

Vipers bring forth their young, of the size of earth-
worms. Many insects appear; the flies visit the
windows, and the bulls begin their shrill bellowing.

Swallows appear in the southern regions ; rooks
roost in their nests by night; lapwings and linnets
begin to congregate; and the red breast, one of the
finest, though commonest of songsters, concludes the
month by the renewal of his music.

The Construction and Vegetation of Corn.

The wisdom which appears in the construction
and vegetation of corn is very striking. The leaves,
for example, which surround it before it has attained
its full growth, even those leaves have their use; and
it seems as if the wisdom of the Creator had placed
them round the blade for the same reason that an
architect raises a scaffolding about a building, which,
when the building is finished, he takes away. For
as soon as the blade has attained its full length and
consistency, the leaves which protected it dry up and

IN SEPTEMBER. 257

fall off. Whole months pass away before the ear of
corn ventures to appear and expose itself to the air;
but as soon as every thing is prepared for the for-
mation of the blossoms and fruit, they all appear in
a few days. With what skill, also, are the stalks
and the ears of corn constructed ! If the former were
higher, the nutritive juice could not so well penetrate
into them; if, on the contrary, the corn had been
placed lower, the moisture would have made it spring
up before it was reaped ; birds and other animals
would get at and destroy it If the stem was weaker
and smaller, the wind would break it; and if it was
stronger and thicker, little animals might lodge in
H, birds would perch upon it, and pick out the grain*

SEPTEMBER.

»«• Now soften'd suns a mellow lustre shed,

The laden orchards glow with tempting red ;

On hazel houghs the clusters hang embrown'd,

And with the sportman's war the new-shorn fields resound.'"'

THIS is, in general, a very agreeable month, the
distinguishing softness and serenity of autumn, with
its deep blue skies, prevailing through great part of it.
The days are now very sensibly shortened ; and the
mornings and evenings are chill and damp, though
the warmth is still considerable in the middle of the
day. This variation of temperature is one cause
why autumn is an unhealthy time, especially in the
warmer climates, and in moist situations.
z 2

258 NATURAL APPEARANCES

The labours of the husbandman have but a very
short intermission; for, no sooner is the harvest ga-
thered in, than the fields are again ploughed up and
prepared for the winter corn, rye, and wheat, which
are sown during this month and the next

Not only the swallow-tribe, but many other small
birds which feed on insects, disappear on the ap-
proach of cold weather, when the insects themselves
are no longer to be met with.

On the other hand, some birds arrive at this sea-
son from still more northerly countries, to spend the
winter with us. The fieldfare and red wing, whose
departure was mentioned in March, return about
the end of September. They feed chiefly on the
berries with which our woods and hedges are plen-
tifully stored all the winter.

The mosl useful fruit this country affords, the ap-
ple, successively ripens, according to its different
kinds, from July to September or October ; but the
principal harvest of them is about the close of this
month. They are now gathered for our English
vintage, the cider-making, which, in some counties,
is a busy and important employment.

Pears, treated in the same manner, yield a vinous
liquor called perry. These are the common drinks
in the counties where they are chiefly made.

Partridge-shooting commences on the 14th of this
month. Partridges feed on grain and other seeds
Scratched up ; therefore live chiefly on the ground,
making much use of their legs, and little of their
wings. They pair early in the spring, the hen sit-

IN SEPTEMBER. 259

ting twenty-two days, and the young coming forth
full feathered, like chickens. When the young ones
are attacked, the old ones exhibit wonderful instan-
ces of attachment, and even feign being wounded,
to draw off the pursuers from the nest. They re-
tire to the groves in the day time, to the open stubble
in the night; and, when man begins his

" Falsely cheerful barbarous game of death,"

he obliges them, by pointers, to take wing, for the
purpose of shooting them, or enclosing them in a net,
when they remain on the ground ; and it is highly
admirable to observe

" How, in his mid-career, the spaniel, struck
Stiff by the tainted itale, with open nose,
Outstretch'd and cautious, on the latent prey j
As in the sun the circling covey bask
Their varied plumes, and, watchful every way,
Thro' the rough stubble turn the secret eye."

In this month the snake casts his skin, parting by
rolling itself in the grass, with its whole external
cover ; even the outer coat of the eyes scale off,
and is left in the head of the slough like a pair of
spectacles.

Hazel nuts are now gathered in our thickets and
gardens in this month. The oak sheds its acorns,
and the nuts fall from the beech, both of which are
called mast.

The autumnal equinox, when day and night are
again equal over the whole globe, happens about the

260 NATURAL APPEARANCES

23d of this month, and is often attended with heavy
storms of wind and rain, which throw down much
of the fruit yet remaining; on the trees.

At the end of the month the leaves of many trees
lose their given colours, and begin their grave au-
tumnal tints, indicative of the approaching desolatioji
$f winter; which

.- - " come- to rule the varied year,

Sullen and sad, with all her rising train,
Vapours, and clouds, and storms."

Fruit.

This is the happy season in which Divine Good-
ness lavishes all sorts of fruit upon us in great abun-
dance. The charms of summer give place to more
solid enjoyments. The boughs of the apple-tree
bend under the weight of that golden fruit, the beau-
ty of which is still heightened by its purple streaks.
The melting pear, the plum sweet as honey, gjisptay
their charms, and seem to invite the hand of their
master. Should we not be unpardonable, if the
sight of these blessings which we owe to the mu-
nificence of God, did not create in us grateful re-
flections, and by such means sanctify the pleasures
of autumn ?

There is hardly any food so wholesome as fruits.
It was with a benificent view that Providence gave
them to us in a season when they are not only plea
sing and refreshing to us, but also excellent in a

IN SEPTEMBER. 261

medicinal way. Apples come seasonably during
the heat of summer, because they temper the heat
of the blood, and cool the stomach and bowels. The
plums have an acid sweetness, with an oily, softening
juice, which may make them useful in many cases.
They gently open the body, and correct the acrid
humours, which so often occasion inflammatory dis-
orders. Nothing certainly is more delicious than
fruit. Each sort has a peculiar flavour to itself.
This variety renders them doubly pleasing to us.
Thus, God, like a tender father, provides not only
for the support of his creatures, but also for their,
pleasure.

Herrings.

This is the season in which they fish for herrings
on the coast of England and Scotland ; by which
means we receive a great quantity of these fish,
which feed the poor as well as the rich during the
whole year. Let us examine what is most impor-
tant in the natural history of these fish. Innumera-
ble shoals of herrings live in the Frozen Sea, near
the Ar<th Pole; but at a cert tin period they quit
that place, and come in multitudes to the coasts of
England and Scotland. It is not yet positively as-
certained what may be the cause of this emigration.
Some think it is to avoid whales and other great fish
in the frozen seas; others imagine that the prodi-
gious increase of the herring- M-.,-^ them to take
these long voyages, and to divide into separate colo-

262 NATURAL APPEARANCES

iries, lest they should be in too great quantities to
find sufficient food in the northern seas Perhaps,
also1, it is the desire of propagation, and a peculiar
instinct, which leads them to the places most favour-
able for the increase and preservation of their race.
It is certainly these reasons in general that occasion
such shoals of herrings to quit the north in the be-
ginning of the year ; for in the month of March a
wing of their army had already reached the coast of
Iceland, and it is their western wing. The herrings
are at this season so plentiful there, that by putting
the shovel with which the sails are watered into the
sea, there are great quantities of them taken up at a
time. The eastern wing advances farther into the
Baltic Sea. A part of it turns towards the North
Cape, sails along the coasts of Norway, and enters
through the southern straits into the sea. Another
part gains the northern point of Jutland, then enters
into the Zuider Zee, and from thence, passes again
through the Baltic Sea, in order to return to the
place from whence it set out. But the largest de-
tachment of the eastern wing, is that which turns to
the western coast, in 6rder to turn directly to the
Orkney Islands, where the Dutch go to catch them.
Towards the 8th of June, the sea in those parts is
full of herrings. They then direct their course to-
wards Scotland and England, where they fill all
the bays and mouths of the rivers with their fry.
After having quitted England, they probably re-
turn to thei. own country. The prodigious multi-
tude of these fish is surprising: one single herring1

I<tf OCTOBER. 263

{ays at least ten thouaand eggs in the sea near the
British coasts.

OCTOBER.

" Now stormy Winter, with her dusky train,
Frowns o'er the hill, and murmurs in the plain ;
The little birds the trembling forests fly,
And, led by nature, seek the southern sky."

PLANTS having gone through the progressive
stages of springing, flowering, and seeding, have at
this season brought to maturity the rudiments of a
future progeny, which are now to be committed to
the fostering bosom of the earth. This being done,
rhe parent vegetable, if of the herbaceous kind, either
totally dies, or perishes as far as it rose above
ground ; if a tree or shrub, it loses all its tender
parts which the spring and summer had put forth.
Seeds are scattered by the hand of nature in various
manners. The winds, which at this time arise, dis-
perse far and wide many seeds which are curio- sly
furnished with feathers or wings for this purpose.
Other seeds, by the means of hooks lay hold on
passing animals, and are thus carried to distant pla-
ces. Many are contained in berries, which being
eaten by birds, the seeds are discharged again unin-
jured, and grow where they happen to alight- — -
Thus carefully has nature provided for the distribu-
tion and propagation of plants.

264 NATURAL APPEARANCES

The gloom of the declining year, enlivened by the
rich and bright colours of fading leaves,

" Now cheer the landscape in decay ;"

which to some are more interesting than the blos-
soms of spring, or the radiance and verdure of sum-
mer. Ripened berries in a great variety also at
this season adorn the hedges and decorate the
groves, as the hip, the haw, the sloe, the black-
berry, &c.

The common martin, whose nests hung under the
eaves of our houses, aftbrd so agreeable a spectacle
of parental fondness and assiduity, usually disap-
pears in October. As this, though one of the
smallest of the swallow kind, stays the latest, its
emigration to distant climates is less probable than
that of the others.

In most of the wine countries in Europe the vin-
tage takes place in October. The grape is one of
the latest fruits in ripening. When gathered, -they
are immediately pressed, and the juice is fermented
like that of apples in making cider

This month is particularly chosen, on account of
its mild temperature for the brewing of malt liquor
designed for long keeping, which is therefore com-
monly called old October.

The former continues to sow his winter corn
during this month ; and wheat is frequently not all
sown till the end of it. When the weather is too
wet for this business, he ploughs up the stubble

*N OCTOBER, 265

ilelds ibr winter fallows. Acorns are sown for
young plantations at this time : and forest and fruit
trees are planted.

The ground is now covered with spiders, the
weaving gossamer; and the cold air condensing the
vapour arising from the warm earth, causes thick
and frequent fogs.

This month is the height of the hunting season ;
the weather being suitable, and the products of the
earth housed,

" All, now, is tree as air, and the gay pack,
In the rough, bristly stubbles, range unblam'd ;

fNo widow's tears o'erflow ; no secret curse
Swells in the farmer's breast, which his pale lips',
Tremblingly, conceals, by his fierce landlord aw'd ;
But, courteous now, he levels ev'ry fence,
Joins in the ceremony, and halloos loud,
Charm'd with the rattling thunder of the field."

At the very close of the month, a few flowers still
cheer the eye; and there is a second blow of some
kind, particularly of the woodbine. But the scent
of all these late flowers is comparatively faint.

Migration of the Birds.

*

This is the time when numbers of the birds, which,
during summer, had lived and found food in our
fields, woods, and gardens, are going to quit our cli-
mate for other countries. There are but few of them
which pass the winter with us: the rest leave us al-
most the whole winter. This migration is wonder-
ful in all respects ; and if we have not much attended
A a

266 NATURAL APPEARANCES

to these creatures while they were with us, let us at
least think of them now they are gone. Some birds,
without taking their flight very high, and without
separating from one another, drawing gradually to-
wards the south, to seek the seeds and fruit they pre-
fer; but they soon return back. Others, which are
called birds of passage, collect together at certain
seasons, go away in large bodies, and take their flight
into other climates Some kinds of them are content
with going from one country to another, where the
air and food draw them at certain seasons. Others
cross the seas, and undertake voyages of a surprising
length.

These migrations of the birds cannot be too much
admired Certainly the difference of heat and cold,
and the want of food, warn them to change place.
But what is the reason that, when the air is so mild
that they might remain in it, and that they firid enough
to eat, they still never fail to go at the appointed time?
How do they know that they will find food, and the
proper degree of heat, in other climates ? What is
the cause of their going all at the same time out of
our countries as if they had unanimously fixed, be-
forehand, their day of departure 2 How do they
contrive, in dark nights, and without knowing the
countries, to pursue their direct road constantly? These
and other questions on this interesting subject, are
embarrassing, and have not yet been answered in
a satisfactory manner, because we are not enough
acquainted with the nature and instinct of these ani-
mals. We may, however, behold, in the migrations?

IN OCTOBER. 267

the wise and beneficent directions of Providence,
What wonderful means are made use of to preserve
and give food to certain birds ! With what tender
care is their subsistence pointed out to them, when
it fails them in some regions ! Let us learn from
thence, that every thing, throughout the vast empire

of nature, is planted with infinite wisdom.

«

The, Winter Sowing Time.

Great part of the food destined for us, and for ma-
ny animals, is, at this time, deposited in the ground.
The farmer has sowed his winter corn, and begins
to enjoy rest from his labours. He will soon have
the satisfaction to see his fields gradually covering
with a beautiful verdure, and giving the promise of
a plentiful harvest. Nature at first, indeed, works
in secret, while the seed is opening; but its opera-
tions may be discovered by taking some of the grains
out of the ground when they are beginning to shoot.
Two days after the grain is put into the earth, it is
swelled by the juices, and begins to shoot. The
shoot is always at one of the ends of the grain; and
that part of it which is next the outside of the grain,
is the little root of the future plant. The corn, when
sowed, generally begins, in twenty four hours, to
pierce through the coat, and unfold itself. The root
and stalk become visible. The root is first wrap-
ped up in a bag, which it bursts open. Some days
after, the other roots shoot out of their sides. The
fifth or sixth day, a green stalk springs up above the

NATURAL APPEARANCES

ground. It remains some time in that state, till the
fine season comes, when the ear of corn breaks out
of the coats in which it had been inclosed and pro-
tected from cold and uncertain weather*

NOVEMBER.

«« The lengthen'd night elaps'd, the morning shines

Serene, in all her dewy beauty bright,

Unfolding fair the last autumnal day.

And now the mountain sun dispels the fog,

And rigid hoar frost melts before his beam ;

And hung on every spray, on every blade

Of grass, the myriad dew-drops twinkle round."

THE preceding month was marked by the change,
and this is distinguished by the fall, of the leaf. The
whole declining season of the year is often, in com-
mon language, denominated the fall. There is some-
thing extremely melancholy in this gradual process,
by which the trees are stripped of their beauty, and
left monuments of decay and desolation. This gra-
dual death of vegetable nature, and quick succession
of springing and falling leaves, suggests to 'the re-
flecting mind an apt comparison for the fugitive ge-
neration of men : —

" Like leaves on trees the race of man is found,

Now green in youth, now withering on the ground ;

Another race the following spiing supplies,

They fall successive, and successive rise;

So generations in their course decay,

So flourish these when those are passed away I*3

IN NOVEMBER. 269

The loss of verdure, together with the shortened
days, the diminishing warmth,, and frequent rains,
justify the title of gloomy to the month of Novem-
ber; and other animals seem to symathize with man.
in feeling it as such.

Intervals of clear and pleasant weather,, however,
frequently occur ; and it long continues,

" The pale, descending year, yet pleasing still."

In fair weather the mornings are somewhat frosty;
but the hoar frost soon vanishes after sun-rise.

High winds frequently happen in November,
which at once strip the trees of their faded leaves,
and reduce them to their winter state of nakedness.
Flocks of wood pigeons, or stock doves, the latest
birds of passage in their arrival, visit us in this month.
Salmon now begin to ascend the rivers to spawn:
their force and agility in leaping over cataracts and
other obstacles to their ascent, are very surprising.

The farmer endeavours to finish his ploughing in,
the course of this month; then, laying up his utensils
till the ensuing spring, he takes his cattle and horses
out of the exhausted pastures into the yard or stable;
puts his hogs up. to fatten; turns his sheep into the
turnip-field, or, in stormy weather, feeds them withi
hay at the rick; and then, when

*« The western sun withdraws the shortened dayy
And humid evening, gliding o'er the sky,
In her chill progress, to the ground condens'd
The vapour throws ;"

A a 2:

270 NATURAL APPEARANCES

he seeks the cheerful fire-side, and even gloomy
November has its charms.

The Fall of tlit Leaf .

We now perceive the effects of approaching win-
ter in the woods and gardens. Almost all the plants
are losing their leaves, their chief ornament. The
most natural way this can be accounted for is from
the cold ; for the leaves are no sooner covered with
frost than they begin to fall in abundance, and all
the vegetables are stripped of their clothing. It can-
not be otherwise, as the cold causes the sap to stag-
nate in the plants. But the cold is not the only cause
of the leaves falling ; for they fall when it does not
freeze the whole winter, and when the trees are even
put into green-houses to preserve them from cold.
It is therefore probable that other causes also contri-
bute to strip the trees. But we must not suppose,
that these fallen leaves are entirely lost, and of no
use Reason and experience teach the contrary.
These leaves, which grow rotten when they are fall-
en, make manure for the ground. The snow and
vain wash the salts out of them, and convey them to
the roots of the trees. These strewed leaves, heaped
together upon the young plants, preserve their roots.
They cover also the seeds, and keep them warm
and moist. This is more particularly observed in
respect to the oak leaves. They afford excellent
manure, not only to the tree itself, but also to its
shoots; and are also very useful for forest-pasture,

IN NOVEMBER.

as they increase the growth of the grass on which
they fall and rot. Leaves are spread in stables in-
stead of straw, and make a good litter for cattle, or
are mixed with common dung. This mould is par-
ticularly useful in gardens, where they make layers
of it, which assist greatly the growth of fruit and
young trees.

Thus fallen leaves have their uses in administer-
ing to the comforts and necessities of man, while to
his mind the fall of the leaf is an emblem of this life,
and the frailty of all earthly things.

The Beginning of Winter.

The sun is now taking leave of the world. Every
thing is changed with us. The earth, which was
lately so beautiful and fruitful, is now becoming
gradually barren and poor. We no longer behold
that fine enamel of the trees in blossom ; the charm
of spring, the magnificence of summer, those differ-
ent tints and shades of verdure in the woods and
meads, the purple grapes, nor the golden harvests
which crowned our fields. The trees have lost their
clothing ; the pines, the elms, and oaks, bend with
the force of the northern blasts The rays of the
sun are too feeble now to warm the atmosphere or
earth. The fields, which have bestowed so much
upon us, arc at last exhausted, and promise no more
this year. But in the midst of these melancholy
prospects, let us still observe, that nature faithfully
fulfils the eternal law prescribed to her, of being

272 NATURAL APPEARAKCES

useful at all times and seasons of the year. Winter
draws nigh ; the flowers are going ; and even when
the sun shines, the earth no longer appears with its
usual beauty. Yet the country, stripped and desart
as it is, still presents to a feeling mind the image of
happiness. We may recollect with gratitude to
Heaven, that the fields which are now barren were
once covered with corn and plentiful harvest. It is
true, that the orchards and gardens are now strip-
ped, but the remembrance of what they bestowed
upon us may make us content to bear the northern
blasts which at present we feel so sharp. The
leaves are fallen from the fruit trees ; the grass of the
field is withered ; dark clouds fill the sky, and fall
tn heavy rains- The unthinking man complains at
this, but the wise man beholds the earth moistened
with rain, and beholds it with a sweej^ satisfaction.
Though the earth has lost its beauty and exterior
charms, and is exposed to the murmurs of those it
has nourished and cheered, it has already begun
again to labour secretly within its bosom for their
future welfare.

DECEMBER.

<« No mark of vegetable life is seen,

Save the dark leaves of some rude ever-green ;

No bird to bird repeats his tuneful call,

Save the lone red-breast on the moss-grown wall!"

THE changes which take place in the fare of na-
ture during this month, are little more than so many

IN DECEMBER. 273

advances in the progress towards universal gloom
and desolation. The day rapidly shortens, and the
weather becomes foul and cold.

In our climate, however, no great and continued
severity of cold usually takes place before the close
of the month.

Several of the wild quadrupeds now take to their
winter concealments, which they either seldom ov
never quit during the winter. Of these, some are
in an absolutely torpid or sleeping state, taking no
food for a considerable time; others are only drowsy
and inactive, and continue to feed on provisions
which they have hoarded up. In this country few
become entirely torpid.

Bats retire early to caves and holes, where they
remain the whole winter, suspended by their hind
feet, and closely wrapped up in the membranes of the
fore feet. As their food is chiefly insects', they can
lay up no store for the winter, and therefore must
be starved, if nature did not thus render food unne-
cessary for them. Dormice also lie torpid the great-
est part of the winter, though they lay up stores of
provision. A warm day sometimes revives them ;
when they eat a little, but soon relapse into their for-
mer sleepy condition.

Squirrels, and various kinds of field-mice, provide
magazines of food against winter, but are not known
to become torpid. The badger, the hedgehog, and
the mole, keep close in their winter quarters in the
northern regions, and sleep away great part of the
season.

2-74 NATURAL APPEAKANCES

The only vegetables which now flourish are the
numerous tribes of mosses, and the lichens, or liver
worts. Lichens cover the ditch banks, and other
neglected spots, with a leather-like substance, which
in some countries serves as food both to men and
cattle The rein-deer lichen is the greatest treasure
to the poor Laplanders, who depend upon it for the
support of their only species of domestic cattle dur-
ing their tedious winters.

On the 21st of December happens the shortest
day ; when the sun is not quite eight hours above
the horizon in these islands. About fifteen degrees to
the northward the sun does not rise at all, and a con-
tinued night lasts weeks or months, according to the
distance from the north pole. But, on the contrary,
to the countries near the south pole, it is at this peri-
od perpetual day ; and every where to the south of
the eqnatov it is summer. A.s our summer advances,
their winter approaches.

The festival of Christmas seasonably cheers this
comfortless period. Great preparations were made
for it in the country, and plenty of rustic dainties
provided for its celebration, according to the rules of
ancient hospitality ; and

. • .. " Frequent in the sounding hall they wake
The rural gambol."

Thus the old year steals away unlamented, and
scarcely perceived; and a new one begins with

US DECEMBER. 275

lengthening days and brighter skies, inspiring fresh
hopes and pleasing expectations, that

<* All this uniform uncolour'd scene>
Shall be dismantled of its fleecy load,
And flush into variety again."

' •

The Advantages of Winter.

The frost and cold of winter prevent many hurt-
ful vapours in the higher regions of the atmosphere
from falling upon us, and even purifies the air. Far
from being always bad for our health, it often
strengthens it, and preserves the humours from pu-
trefaction, which a constant heat would certainly oc-
casion. If the vapours which collect in the atmos-
phere were always to fall in rain, the earth would
be too soft and wet, our bodies would be too full of
humours, and too much relaxed ; whereas the cold
braces and promotes the circulation of blood. We
are told by travellers, that in Greenland, where the
ground is covered with mountains of ice, and where
in winter the days are only four or five hours long,
the air is very wholesome, clear, and light: and, ex-
cept a few complaints in the chest and eyes, occa-
sioned partly by the quality of the food, they have
seldom there the disorders so common in Europe.

As man, though active by choice, and though la-
bour is necessary to him, is still glad to interrupt his
employments to taste the sweets of sleep, so also our
nature yields to the change of seasons, and takes a
pleasure in it, because in reality it contributes towards

276 NATURAL APPEARAKCES.

our welfare and happiness. Behold our fields and
gardens ! — they are indeed buried in snow ; but this
is necessary, in order to preserve them from the cold,
as well as to prevent the grain from "corrupting.
The ground requires rest, after having yielded in the
summer all wfewant for the winter. If our present
support had not been provided for, if in this severe
season we were obliged to cultivate the earth, there
might be some foundation for our complaints. But
all our wants are supplied, and we enjoy a repose
suitable to the season.

CONCLUSION.

HAVING endeavoured to point out the changes on
the face of nature, during the varying year., we shall
conclude our labours with the following impressive
extract from St. Pierre.

a We have attempted, in the course of this work/'*
says this amiable writer, 4< to treat of the harmonies
of the sun and moon with animated beings ; but these
harmonies are inexhaustible. All animals, in short,
have the phases of their life regulated by those of
the sun and moon. Scarcely does the orb of day sink
tinder the horizon, when all animals are struck with
lethargy, with the exception of those to whom night
is the season of excursion. The wakefulness of the lat-
ter proves, as well asa number of other effects of nature,
that sleep is not a mere mechanical result of the absence
of the sun. Insects now take refuge in the hearts of
plants; birds, nestling- in foliage, repose with their
heads under their wings ; a flock of sheep retires to
rest under the shelter of a hedge, and the watchful
dog, who guards them, sinks into slumber, after hav-.
ing turned his body several times round. All the
functions of intelligence are suspended, in the ab-
sence of that orb which produces its images ; nay,
several of the smaller insects find their existence ter-
minated by the setting sun; for the ephemeral fly
does not see a second dawn. Soon, ho we very comes

* Harmonies of Nature,

Bb

278 CONCLUSION

forth the moon to give new life to the world. .Like
the sun, she has her plants, her insects, her birds,
her quadrupeds; it is by her doubtful light that the
mirabilis, and other nocturnal plants, open their (low-
ers ; that various Species of fish pursue their progress
to another clime; that the tortoise lays her eggs on
the solitary strand ; and that the nightingale, the bird
of spring, delights to make the echoes of the forest
resound with its song.

l( Many insects live only during one of the lunar
quarters; others live a fortnight, others a month; some
go through an entire season, and die at the summer
solstice ; but the greater number perishes at the au-
tumnal equinox, at the time when the sun proceeds
io enlighten another hemisphere. It is then that the
marmot retires and falls asleep in the hollow rock,
to awaken only at the return of the spring equinox ;
for to her the year seems a day and a night of six
months each. A crowd of animals suspend their
labours, in our hemisphere, at the same season ; the
bees take rest in their hives; several species of birds,
like the quail and swallow, follow the course of the
sun, and pass into the hemisphere which he warms;
While a multitude perishes in that which he aban-
dons. Carnivorous animals are dispersed in all di-
rections to devour their remains; the furred fox, and
the white bear, penetrate even into the bosom of the
frozen zone, into regions of snow and ice, which
hardly any living animal can inhabit. The currents
of the ocean still carry to the shore a quantity of ma-
rine substances coming from the temperate and tor-

CONCLUSION. 2T9

ritl zones. It is thus that the instinct which carries
the foxes and white bears to the sea coast of our fro-
zen zone during winter, leads me to suppose that
the currents of the ocean bring them a supply of food,
which would not be the case, unless these currents
descended from an opposite pole.

" There exists the greatest differences in respect
to the extent of the orbits of the different planets; one
requires only a month for its revolution round the
sun ; others, respectively, three months, eight months,
two years, twelve years, thirty years, and, finally,
nearly eighty-four years. To all these, a calculator
may find, or fancy that he finds, corresponding pe-
riods in the duration of vegetable and animal life,
He may compute that several kinds of insects, such
as butterflies, live between one month and eight;
others, such as the May bug, two years, or one year
of Mars Several birds and quadrupeds, among
others, goats are understood to live twelve years, or
a year of Jupiter; other quadrupeds thirty years, or
a year of Saturn; while the life of man may be oc-
casionally brought forward as completing the longest
period of all, the revolution of the Georgium Sidus.
A farthei- inquiry might lead such a speculator to
ascertain examples of still longer life in the animal
and vegetable world, and to find, perhaps, parallels
to the return of comets

" Leaving these visionary speculations, I am to
observe, that the animals which die of old age go oft*
the stage as they came upon it, without being aware
of the change The last steps in the descent of life

280 CONCLUSION.

are on as gentle a slope as those of its commence*
ment. They have not been led, by vain ambition,
to climb precipices, or to incur a violent death ; but,
faithful to the laws received from Nature, they re-
store her that instinct which has now become useless
in an exhausted machine: they expire without regret,
remorse, or murmur. When a tranquil death takes
place in the night, the moon may be said to untie
those links which she strung together at the time of
birth. Her light still sheds a pale ray over their
breathless bodies, and covers them with her funereal
crape; while the earth, their common mother, which
receives them in her bosom, raises, as an ornament
to their tomb, the broad foliage of the burdock, or a
garland of ivy. Time, like a reaper, cuts down ge-
neration after generation of animals; and he like-
wise plants and gathers, but in comparatively smaller
numbers, the individuals of our species.

" Let man, however, not vent complaints on the
short duration of life; his celestial harmonies will
subsist after his terrestial are at an end. The Au-
thor of Nature has attached to his bodily existence
several years of bitterness and trial ; but he has given
his soul an eternity of joy and delight He is by no
means a being condemned to creep on this globe, or
to tear its bosom with the ploughshare for the sake
of supporting a frail existence HisJife is transient,
but it has an object, and that object is sublime. Be-
hold him expiring- in his bed; his body is in pain,
but he already contemplates a God prepared to re-
ceive him. Can this being, so weak and helpless,

CONCLUSION, 28ft

be so strongly impressed with a thought that would
not have been sanctioned by the Creator of all
thoughts! No; it is not in vain that he has opened
his hopes to a future destiny. He quits a world of
darkness for a world of light ; he quits misfortune,
and frail mortals like himself, to enter on an abode
•where death is not known. His eyes will no lon-
ger be distressed by the sight of distress ; every ob-
ject will be replete with content and satisfaction.
How great must be the transports of man, when,
escaped from the agony of life, he sees the gates of
heaven open to him. He is no longer a creature of
the dust; he is an angel, a superior being, advanced
to an upper region. After remaining, during a sea-
son, a slave and in irons, now behold him free, and
the possessor of a new domain ! But lately sad and
suffering, he dragged his step towards death, and he
rises from it full of glory. He inhabited a world
covered with funereal cypress, bedewed with tears,
where all are subject to change and to death; where
we indulge love only to experience suffering, and
where we meet our friends only to part with them,
He is now transported to an abode where all is eter-
nal; his soul is kindled with everlasting love, and he
casts, from the height of the firmament, a sympa-
thizing look towards his fellow-creatures in thi&
tower world."

FINIS.

35745

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