It will be at once amusing and instructive, should this view be confirmed, to discover that a substance which has been soberly treated of by naturalists as a plant, the order of which has been settled, the name of which has been added to the calendar, and on which theories have been formed, should af ter all prove to be nothing more than animal excrement. The showers of blood which have sometimes alarmed nations by their fall, have, in like manner, been proved to be the red ejection of a species of butterfly.

It appears that the same substance which gives the red colour to snow, is occasionally detected, even during the warmth of summer, covering the brilliant white limestone of the plains. In the last named locality, it was discovered by the Baron Wrangler, in the province of Nerike. It was believed by him to be of a different species. If, after all, it be the excrement of a bird, it will not be surprising that it should be found in such different localities and seasons.

In reviewing this account of northern vegetation, it is interesting to remark the adaptations by which the general laws impressed on this department of nature are rendered consistent with the propagation and preservation of useful plants, under circumstances of climate which would render the raising of any of the ordinary kinds of the produce of the soil utterly hopeless. Among these provisions the reader would not fail to remark the thickened juices of the pine tribe, and their retention of their bristly foliage during the severity of winter, as means obviously intended to fit them for an ungenial climate; the abundance of mosses and lichens, endowed with qualities which render them nourishing food for man, or for the animals which contribute to his subsistence and comfort; the profusion of edible berries, and of salubrious grasses; and even the existence of beautiful flowers, which adorn the shortlived arctic summer. How edifying is it to find, that even in the most inhospitable climes, there are traces of a Father's care in the gifts which his bounty scatters.

FIFTH WEEK-TUESDAY.

CONNEXION BETWEEN THE VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL KINGDOMS.

IN examining the character and properties of the vegetable creation, we have only been contemplating the various provisions which the Self-Existent has made for the subsistence of the animal creation. Without the existence of animated beings, vegetation, in all its remarkable varieties, would have been but an unmeaning pageant, contrivance without an object,-mechanism without use,—a system of inventions and adaptations, amazing for their extent, their variety, and the depth of thought which they displayed, without any adequate end. It would be as if a magnificent and admirably furnished edifice were erected in a wilderness where there was no being to inhabit it. To communicate happiness, to inspire intelligence, and to call forth the exalted feelings of admiration and gratitude, or, in other words, to form sentient and rational beings, seem to be the only conceivable ends of creation. In the lower orders of animals, we observe the first obscure rudiments of such a design. These intentions we see still further developed in the faculties bestowed on man, and the circumstances in which he is placed in this sublunary state; but we must look beyond the present scene, and, aided by the light of revelation, take a glance into futurity, before we perceive the full scheme unfolded, or understand in what sense it is, that the great end of creation is to enable intelligent beings to glorify and enjoy their Creator.

Considered in this view, the first thing that attracts our attention is, that the organs of living creatures, and the peculiar chemical condition of their structure, are such as rendered the vegetable world necessary for their subsistence. The combination of their elements is so refined and complicated, as to require a succession of changes to fit the inorganic world for the necessary assimilation. In their crude state, the soil and the rocks, of which the earth is composed, are not capable of sustaining animal existence. The animal organs cannot ap

propriate them, nor the animal powers digest them. It was necessary that these unorganized materials should undergo a process of selection and secretion before they could be suited to the support of the animal frame, and this office is assigned to the vegetable kingdom. It would be rash to say, that the Creator could not have so arranged the inorganic and animal worlds, as to make the one supply the wants of the other, without the intervention of intermediate changes; but in the arrangement actually adopted, there is an obvious and beautiful propriety, which marks it as the work of Supreme Intelligence. Vegetable existences extract, from the earth and atmosphere, the simple food furnished by nature, which consists chiefly of water, air, and carbonic acid; they elaborate these elements in their secretive organs, and causing them to undergo various modifications, convert them into aliments, which not only maintain their own vitality, but prepare them as the means of subsistence to the higher world of animals. These animals, again, are endowed with organs and functions capable of receiving such aliments, and converting them to their own use, so as to complete a system, wonderful at once for its simplicity and complexness. Such is the nature of the connexion between the two worlds of organized existences.

But, further, animal life might have been preserved in all its varieties by a single order of plants, had this been the whole intention. But how diversified are the forms and properties which have actually been produced! This was not without design. With regard to man, I have already pointed out very many advantages, embracing bodily vigour, mental improvement, and varied enjoyment, which result from such diversity. Others will appear at every step of our progress in contemplating the works of the Creator. With regard to the inferior animals, it is not so easy to speak with precision; but when it is remembered, that for all the varieties of the vegetable world, there are corresponding varieties among animals, we cannot withhold our conviction, that there are here contrivances and adaptations; and, on considering the character of the Creator as reflected from the works whose objects we

are enabled to trace, we feel warranted to add, that these contrivances and adaptations are wise and benevolent.

It is to the animal world, then, that we must direct our view, if we would rightly estimate the mighty plan of creation. Vegetation, considered in its primary intention, is nothing more than a subservient contrivance, by which the animal frame shall be mechanically sustained, its organization developed, and its waste repaired. If with this be united varied enjoyment, arising from the exercise of the functions and senses, it is because a paternal God was pleased, in the exuberance of his bounty, to cause these subordinate arrangements to be directly conducive to the ends of animal existence, as well as to its means. But so far as the human race is concerned, even the pleasures which they derive from their connexion with the vegetable world are but subordinate to a much higher object, and can only be regarded as faint and scattered emanations from the Great Source of light and happiness, the foretaste of enjoyments unalloyed and endless.

Considered, then, as an end, the vegetable world was called into existence, and endowed with all its properties, exclusively with reference to the animal world; although the various relations and fitnesses, which subsist among the diversified orders of the former with regard to each other, may well form a subject of separate investigation. Vegetation exists for the use of living beings. Whatever properties it possesses are their inheritance, made and maintained expressly for them. Whether a plant be succulent or dry, hard or soft,-whether it be a grass, a flower, a shrub, or a tree,-whatever juices it selects from the earth,-whatever chemical changes these juices undergo in the leaves or other secretory organs,whatever be the form it assumes, the colours it reflects, or the odour it exhales, it is not for itself or its fellows that it thus exists, but for another world, the world of sentient beings.

This, considered in itself, is a very remarkable arrangement, clearly indicating design; and when the particulars are examined, not only is this general view confirmed, but our admiration is greatly increased Here are two distinct

orders of existences in their general characters altogether different, yet so intimately connected, and so beautifully fitted to each other, that without the one the other could not exist at all, or would exist for no end. What gave rise to this remarkable adjustment, this necessary connexion? The answer is obvious:—A Contriving Mind, that could form comprehensive schemes, that could combine mighty powers naturally distinct, that could foresee and provide for conditions and relations vast, profound, and complicated.

FIFTH WEEK-WEDNESDAY.

THE SENSORIAL ORGANS.

In the volume on Spring, I took notice of the general principles which enter into the animal structure, such as the nature of the tendons, membranes, and ligaments, the functions of digestion, secretion, and muscular power, the circulation of the blood, &c. There are, however, some other important provisions in the animal frame, which have either not been mentioned at all, or have only been mentioned incidentally, and which now seem to invite particular notice, as introductory to a consideration of animal existences, in their state of full development. I allude chiefly to the different organs of sense, which shall form the subject of this paper.

Living creatures, being intended to perform voluntary actions, required some means of communication with the external world. This it has pleased Providence to afford them, by five different avenues. How many others might have been bestowed, in order to give them a complete acquaintance with natural things, it is impossible even to conjecture; yet while, on the one hand, we cannot but be aware that there are many existences, and many qualities of bodies, which lie beyond the ken of our senses, and which we can, therefore, no more perceive than a man born blind can perceive an object of vision, we ought gratefully to acknowledge that the