fume of good works is spread around wherever it exists, and it will one day be transplanted into the garden of Paradise. One observation which the history of plants affords us, is, that the more beautiful a flower is, the sooner it fades. In a short time, nothing of that blooming tulip will remain but a withered dead stalk. Its life and beauty last but for a few weeks; age destroys its charms; its leaves fall off; its colours fade; and the tulip, before so like a beautiful virgin, is no longer any thing but a frightful skeleton. What an useful lesson is this for us? See how little we can depend on exterior charms! How uncertain and frail is beauty! How near are we to death! for what is our life but the life of a flower? We sometimes resemble it in beauty, but we resemble it likewise in the shortness of our days for "Man, that is born of a woman, is of few days, : and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a "flower, and is cut down." Let us so live, that when that time comes, good people may regret us, and weep over our graves. HOWEVER beautiful the flowers may be which are cultivated in gardens through the care and industry of man, we should know but little of the wonders of the vegetable kingdom, were we to limit our researches to the contemplation of a flower garden. Each field is a scene of the wonderful works of God. In the first place, can any thing be more astonishing than the prodigious quantity else? quantity of grass in a field? Suppose that a field was no more than a thousand paces long, and of equal breadth, its surface would be a million of feet square: Now, if we suppose, that in making a step, we cover only ten blades of grass, there must be in each square pace an hundred of these blades of grass; consequently, in casting a glance on that field, we see at once an hundred millions of these machines so curiously formed. Let us give to each blade of grass but an hundred veins, by means of which it draws nourishment from the earth, there would be, by this account, ten thousand millions of regular and perfect veins. But who can suppose, that it would require only an hundred veins for its nourishment and growth, when each blade of grass is a series of nothing How immense a multitude of them must there be in the field! And how small, in comparison, is the number of the plants and flowers, which grow and are cultivated in gardens! Why has the Creator so prodigiously multiplied the productions of the vegetable kingdom? Why, from each sort of grass, does he cause to spring such a numerous multitude? It is, undoubtedly, that beasts as well as men may find sustenance. The fields are, properly speaking, the magazine for animals. Another circumstance worthy of cbservation, in respect to grass, is, that it neither requires sowing nor tillage, but grows perpetually independent of our care. would our pastures and meadows be, if we were loaded with the care of sowing the grass-seed, and of afterwards watering what our hands had sowed and planted? But at the creation of the world, God so provided, that a sufficient quantity of grass should never fail. From that almighty word of the Creator (" Let the earth bring forth 66 grass, How sad and barren grass, the herb yielding seed,") proceeds the constant fertility of our fields. To reflect on the colour chosen for the grass, is sufficient to make us sensible of the wise and beneficent care of the Creator. If all those fields were red or white, who could long bear the dazzling light of them? If the predominant colour was darker and more gloomy, what a melancholy appearance would all nature have? The green is between both colours; it agrees with our eyes, and pleases and refreshes them. It is also remarkable, that, in this colour, there is such variety of shades, that there is not a plant, the green of which is exactly as pale or as deep as that of another. It is then evident, that, in the arrangement of the vegetable kingdom, God has not provided less for our pleasure, than for our convenience. This double attention is well calculated to convince us of that supreme goodness and wisdom which extends over the whole earth. May the proofs of it, which daily present themselves to our sight, never make us cold or indifferent to it. On the contrary, let us employ that reason which we owe to God, in making ourselves, through all his works, acquainted with that infinitely wise and merciful Being. Every time we walk in the fields, let us indulge these meditations: Lord! with what wisdom hast thou formed these plants! With what goodness dost thou not dispense both rain and sunshine for the growth of herbage! Greens and simples which strengthen our bodies; milk, which affords us a food so sweet and wholesome; the flesh of animals, which we enjoy in such abundance; all these advantages, and many more, thou grantest us in the use of the fields. I bless thee for them, O God my Creator! and will bless thee evermore. MAY MAY XIX. SENTIMENTS WHICH THE CONTEMPLATION WHAT, but a Spirit of unlimited knowledge and power, could form that superb vault over our heads? Who could have given motion to those immense globes; that perpetual motion, whose swiftness is inexpressible; a motion, which even the smallest grain of sand could not have of itself? Who ordered those enormous masses of heavy and lifeless matter, to take so many different forms? From whence proceeded that connection, that beauty and harmony, which shines through every part of the whole? Who regulated all things so exactly, according to number, weight, and measure? Who prescribed to those immense bodies such laws as none could discover, but a mind endowed with the greatest wisdom? Who measured those vast circles in which the stars move, without going out of their line? Who put them into the course they run, and which they are to run, without interruption? All these questions lead us to thee, thou adorable Creator! selfexisting, independent, and eternal Being! It is to thee the celestial bodies owe their existence, their laws, their arrangement, their power, and all the advantages they procure to the earth. What sublime ideas must rise in our souls, when we think of these great objects! If the space, in which so many millions of worlds move, cannot be measured by our understanding; if the globes, which take their prodigious courses there, are of a size to astonish us; if the fabric of the universe, constructed by the Creator, is of such immensity immensity, that our ideas are lost in it, what must thy greatness be, O God! and what understanding is able to conceive it! If the heavens and all their host have so much magnificence, beauty, and majesty, that the eye can never be satisfied with contemplating, nor the mind with admiring them, what must be thy beauty, thou eternal Being, of whose splendour and glory these creatures are but faint and imperfect shadows! What must be the incomprehensible extent of thy knowledge and understanding, since thou seest with one glance the whole immense space, all the numberless bodies in it, and art so intimately acquainted with the nature and properties of all the beings thou hast placed there? What depths of wisdom and knowledge must be in thee, O Lord! who hast formed such admirable plans! who hast measured, and calculated every thing with so much exactness, that nothing can be added or taken away! Who didst conceive and establish the several laws, which all the globes were to observe! Who didst employ the wisest means to accomplish them! And who wast capable of forming such connection, relation, and harmony, through all thy works! How great must thy power be, to be able to realize all these plans to guide and direct the most immense bodies to animate all by thy breath! and to preserve all by thy almighty word! But can God have given us such proofs of his greatness and glory in vain! Shall it be to no purpose, that the celestial bodies declare the infinite knowledge and wisdom of the Almighty? Shall they in vain pour upon us the abundance of blessings which the Divine Goodness bestows through their means? Is not all this done, in order that intelligent creatures should take notice of |
