A BIRD'S EGG.

AN egg is one of the most surprising productions in the world. Suppose an egg were put into the hand of a person who never had known or heard of such a thing, and the question were put to him, to what good purposes could it be applied? He would, of course, ascertain what were its contents, and what would he find them to be? A glairy, colourless liquid, surrounding another liquid, of an orange or yellow colour. You might let him make thousands of conjectures; but could it ever enter into his mind that such a substance would produce a sparrow, a thrush, a swan, or an eagle? But give him a hint on the subject; give him an egg, and let him know that it will bring forth a dove. After this advance in a knowledge of the thing, put him in possession of another egg. He may see, of course, that its colour and size are different from the one that produced the dove; but the contents are exactly simi

lar, so far, at least, as human perception can ascertain; and what would then be his conjecture? Could his imagination ever conjure up, even in the brightest moments of inspired genius, the idea of a peacock? Yet the peacock, in all its glory of dazzling colours, is the product of a little glairy fluid contained in a capsule of chalk, and in nowise different, so far as we can perceive, from a barn-door fowl.

Has not the hand of Divinity here written, almost without a metaphor, in letters of gold, the wonders of its creative power? Look at a single feather of the peacock; consider that its shining metallic barbs, its superlatively beautiful eye, and all the wonders it exhibits of rich, and changeable hues, according to the angle in which it lies to the light; that its form, its flexibility, its strength, lightness, and all its wonders (for in the eye of intelligence every part of it is a wonder) had their origin in a little mucilage; and then consider, whether, in looking on such an object, we should be content with thinking no more about it than, simply, that it is a peacock's feather. Yet this is too much the practice above us and below, on the right side and on the left, in every

element, in every situation the works of Almighty Power are present, and all abounding in instruction of the highest kind; and that they make not the impressions that they should do upon us, is chiefly owing to the extraordinary anomaly, that natural history forms no necessary part of the education of young or old. But, if a single feather be so wonderful a production, what are we to think of the entire bird? Those who are unacquainted with the animal economy, have little idea of the mysterious operations which are constantly in action in a being possessed of life. The circulation of the blood, the process of respiration, digestion, absorption, nutrition; the contraction of the muscles to perform motion; the distribution of the nerves for conveying sensation; the organs of the senses, the brain, and all its inscrutable connexion with intelligence, instinct, and perception; these, and many other things in the animal economy, are so wonderful, that could they be attended to, they must excite astonishment in the coldest bosoms; and yet all these are the produce of an egg.

THE SUN.

THE most beautiful object which the heavens present to our view is the sun; the medium of light and animation to this lower world. This glorious luminary is placed nearly in the centre of the orbits of all the planets, which revolve around him at different periods and at different distances.

It was for ages the opinion of astronomers, that the sun was a mass of fire; and this opinion seems very plausible, as he diffuses light and heat throughout the whole planetary system. But since the invention of the telescope, dark spots have been frequently observed upon his disk. These spots are of various magnitudes; some, it is computed, being large enough to cover the continents of Asia and Africa; others, the whole surface of the earth; and others, even five times its surface. Their number, also, is, to appearance, perpetually changing: sometimes many are visible, sometimes very few, and sometimes

none at all; for as the sun revolves on its axis, the spots are carried round from east to west, and the same phase is presented only once in twenty-five days, fourteen hours, and eight minutes, the time in which he performs a complete revolution.

Dr. Herschel remarked that these dark spots on the sun are mountains upon its surface. He says, that in August, 1792, he examined the sun with telescopes of several powers, from ninety to five hundred, and it evidently appeared that the dark spots are the opaque ground, or body of the sun; and that the luminous part is an atmosphere, which, being interrupted or broken, gives us a view of the sun itself. Hence he concludes that the sun has a very extensive atmosphere, which consists of elastic fluids that are more or less lucid and transparent; and of which the lucid ones furnish us with light and heat. It appears, from these observations, that the body of the sun is opaque, like our earth and the planets. And this opinion seems much more rational than the former, which supposed this luminary to be pure fire. For, on the supposition that the sun is a body of fire, it must, of course, have been wasting its light and