are opened; I perceive a Being which has raised me up out of nothing, which has given me a soul whose desires cannot rest short of eternity-a Being in whom every perfection and virtue are united, and to whom I will consecrate my heart, and devote myself for ever without reserve, and from whom I will ever receive all my consolation and delight. I will exchange those earthly enjoyments, which I have hitherto preferred to the blessings of Heaven, for advantages incomparably more real and permanently substantial. And though I still continue to make a proper use of the good things of this life, they shall never make me forget the love of God; but whilst I use them, and whilst I feel myself benefited by their good effects, when not abused, they shall serve as a constant memorial of the goodness of God, and call forth my acknowledgments and grateful sense of his kind care and solicitude for my welfare. Whenever I partake of any outward good, I will say to myself, If I find so much sweetness in the enjoyment of earthly things, and being only acquainted with a very small part of the works of God, that knowledge is so delightful, how happy and glorious will be my state when initiated into the mysteries of Heaven, and favoured with a portion of the purity and perfections of God! How great is the felicity of the saints, who see him as he is, and live in the constant participation of his divine communion.

If those pleasures which can only be enjoyed through the medium of a frail and perishing body have the power of so agreeably affecting my mind, what must be its delight and ecstacy when, divested of all its fetters and impediments, it has winged its flight to the regions of bliss, and uninterruptedly enjoys the pleasure arising from its own workings; never wearied with thinking, nor injured by incessant action; but ever employed upon the sublimest images in the presence of the immortal God! If the gentle rivulets that so beautifully irrigate the earth are so pleasing,

VOL. I.

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if a ray of light is so vivifying, how admirable must be the great Source and First Cause of the torrent of the rivers, the Living Fountain of all joy and excellence! how gloriously pre-eminent the Author of the blessed sun, the rays of which only have such great power!

From what we already know of God through his works, we may form some anticipation of the glory of futurity, and prepare with joy and with gladness for the happy moment, when the soul, released from its present dark and inferior abode, shall ascend into the heavens, and enjoy that purity and exaltation, the reward of those who, by the proper use they have made of their time here, are permitted to join the heavenly choir of angels in songs of ecstacy round the throne of the everlasting God.

FEBRUARY XXIII.

Causes of the Vicissitudes of Heat and Cold.

WHAT Occasions the transition from extreme heat to intense cold? By what means does nature effect these vicissitudes? It is certain that in winter the state of temperature principally depends upon the sun; for when our globe in its annual course round that luminary is so situated that its northern hemisphere is turned away from the sun, when the rays fall obliquely upon the earth's surface, and when the sun remains only a few hours above our horizon, it is impossible that its rays can be so powerful as when they fall more perpendicularly. But the heat does not entirely depend upon the distance and situation of the sun, which annually passes through the same constellations, and is not more distant in one winter than in another, yet the degree of cold varies very much in different winters. Sometimes a great part of

the winter is as mild as autumn, whilst in another the deepest rivers are frozen, and men and animals are scarcely preserved from the effects of the cold. Even in those countries where the days and nights, during most part of the year, are of an equal length, the heat of the sun is too feeble to melt the ice and the snow on the summit of the mountains. On their heights reigns an eternal winter, whilst at their base verdure flourishes and summer smiles; yet the rays of the sun fall upon their ridge as well as in the valleys. From these circumstances it would seem as if the sun was not the only cause of heat, otherwise these phenomena would be inexplicable.

Nature is rich in resources, and a thousand causes of which we are ignorant may assist her operations. We know that the winds and the atmosphere have a great influence upon the heat and cold of a country. Hence it sometimes happens, that in the midst of summer, when the atmosphere is charged with vapours, the heavens are obscured by thick clouds, and the north wind blows, that great cold is felt; and on the contrary in winter, when the wind is from the south, the temperature is often much milder. The peculiar nature of the soil may have some effect; and the winds blowing over the ocean acquire a higher temperature, which they impart to the earth as they sweep over its surface.

These causes, and, perhaps, many others we do not yet know, influence the temperature of the air, and produce the sudden alternations of heat and cold. In most of our investigations of nature we are obliged to stop short of the truth; and the most able philosophers have not been ashamed to confess how little they knew of her laws. We can comprehend but a very small part of her operations, and no doubt it is from the wisest reasons the Creator has concealed from our penetration the causes of so many effects which we view with wonder throughout the kingdom of Nature; but we know enough of them to be happy,

wise, and content: let us endeavour to use, with propriety, the little knowledge we are permitted to acquire, and convert it to the advantage of our fellowcreatures, and the glory of God; for surely he did not give us our faculties to be buried in sloth and indolence, nor to be employed in trifling pursuits, or to become obliterated or perverted for want of cultivation and exertion.

FEBRUARY XXIV.

Singularities in the Mineral Kingdom.

FROM the limited nature of our understanding, it would be difficult, if not impossible, for us to comprehend, at once, the whole kingdom of Nature, and to know and distinguish all the properties and qualities of her productions. We shall be facilitated in our search, and assisted in our inquiry, into Nature, if we begin by the consideration of some simple and detached objects, whose beauties will engage our attention, and whose peculiar phenomena will solicit our regard. At present, then, I shall consider some curiosities met with in the mineral kingdom, amongst which none are more remarkable than the magnet. When suspended, one of its extremities points to the north, the other to the south; these are called its poles, and they seem to contain the magnetic principle in greater abundance than the other parts. It does not appear to attract any other substance than iron, or the ores of iron: if you place the north pole of one magnet opposite the south pole of another, they will be mutually attracted; but if their similar poles, whether the two north or the two south poles, are placed together, they repel each other*.

* The magnet does not appear to be a stone, as the author has represented, but iron only, or iron contained in stone,

Mercury offers to our consideration properties equally remarkable, and more useful. It is distinguished from all other metals by its fluidity, but it becomes solid when exposed to a sufficient degree of cold. In a heat of 600° it boils, and may be totally evaporated; exposed to the air and agitated, it attracts a portion of oxygen, and is converted into a powder called oxide, which is black, yellow, and red, according as the oxygen is in greater or less proportion. By the application of heat the oxygen may be extricated from the oxide, and the mercury again assume its original form.

Gold is the most precious and valuable of all metals, not only by its scarcity, but from its admirable properties. No other substance equals it in ductility and malleability. It may be beaten out into leaves so thin that one single grain of solid gold may be made to cover 563 square inches, the leaf being only part of an inch thick; and an ounce of gold upon a silver wire is capable of being extended 1300 miles in length. It requires a very strong heat to melt it.

The curious crystals of salt; the peculiar brilliancy of some stones; the great variety of metals; petrified bodies found sometimes in the highest mountains; and a thousand more wonders contained in the mineral kingdom, are well calculated to awaken our curiosity and to excite our astonishment. No pursuit is more

modified in such a manner as to admit the passage of the magnetic fluid; of which little is known, though some suppose it to be a modification of the electric power: to support which they assert, that iron long placed in an elevated position becomes magnetic; that instruments of iron struck with lightning are sometimes magnetised, and that two pieces of iron may be magnetised by rubbing them against each other in the same direction. But supposing it was the electric fluid undergoing a peculiar change in the iron, we are still no nearer the moon; for we are equally in the dark respecting the nature of an electric as of a magnetic fluid. It is their effects only with which we are acquainted.-E.