There is no rank of men who can do without others. Each country has its peculiar advantages: and if they were common to all, there would be neither connection nor commerce among men. In a word, on whatever side we cast our eyes under heaven, we every where find the most admirable harmony and proportion. Notwithstanding the infinite variety of creatures, and the continual interruption of many of the laws of nature, it appears, that, in this immense universe, all is perfect, all is planned and contrived for the general good, all is in the most regular and exact order. On whatever side I cast my eyes, I see nothing but the wisest and most delightful harmony. It shines on all sides. It embellishes every thing. Nothing is unconnected. Every thing combines to the same end. The whole is linked together with wonderful art.

Wise Author of Nature! We should be unworthy to contemplate the magnificence and harmony of thy works, if we did not adore thee with the most profound admiration. Teach us, above all things, to feel and to adore that ineffable goodness, which has ordained every thing in the manner most beneficial to thy creatures.

۰۰۰۰۰۰۰۰

APRIL XXII.

THE INTEGRAL PARTS OF WATER.

WHEN we drink water, we think we enjoy a pure and simple element: We are mistaken; for the naturalists assure us, that each drop of water is a little world, where the four elements and the three kingdoms of nature unite. There

is scarce any water which is not full of heterogeneous matter, very plainly visible when distilled or filtered. However incredible this may appear, it has been proved beyond all doubt, by the most exact and certain experiments. Besides its elementary parts, the water contains several earthy particles: Such, for example, as belong to the mineral kingdom, chalky earth, saltpetre, and different kinds of salts. It cannot be doubted, if we consider how many earthy particles the water must meet every where (both in the air, and on the ground), parts that it dissolves, or draws off and carries along with it. Water also contains inflammable or sulphureous parts, which shew themselves when it corrupts. Without these fiery particles, it would become a solid and compact body; for as soon as all its heat is taken from it, it condenses, becomes heavy, and acquires the hardness of ice. Lastly, that water is also impregnated with air, will be easily acknowledged, if attention is paid to what happens when it begins to boil. Common water contains particles of earth, salts, fiery particles, and air; consequently it may be said with truth, that all the elements meet in a drop of water. But are there also plants and animals in it? It certainly contains the principles of vegetation, as all the plants draw their nourishing juices from water, and can only grow and thrive from thence. As to the animal kingdom, it is evidently distinguished in water. Without mentioning fish, and other aquatic animals, with which it is peopled, there is not a single drop of water without its inhabitants, as may be discovered by a microscope. It is also known how fast insects breed in stagnated water; the seeds of which are undoubtedly concealed in the water; although outward circumstances hin

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der them sometimes from coming forth. All this is well calculated to make us reflect on the wisdom and goodness of the Creator. It is not. by chance that water is composed of so many parts. It is true, it would be one of the purest drinks, if it was a body absolutely simple: but, on the other hand, its medicinal qualities would be reduced almost to nothing. If we reflect on the manner in which water nourishes plants, it is easy to presume, that it communicates the little nourishment it contains, in the same way to men and animals. Water is not very nourishing in itself, but being very subtle, it dissolves the nutritive parts of food, serves them as a vehicle, and conveys them into the very smallest vessels. It is consequently the most wholesome drink; that which men and animals can least dispense with; and its salutary virtues are experienced on many occasions, even when all other drink would be hurtful to the health. What therefore ought our gratitude to be at every glass of water we drink? With what wisdom God supplies our wants! He has prepared our food, our drink, in the manner best suited to our nature, and best calculated to preserve health and life. He has communicated a beneficent power to the most ordinary and most necessary sustenance.

APRIL XXIII.

THE PROPAGATION OF PLANTS.

IN general, vegetables spring from seed; and in most plants it is the flower or blossom which produces the seed, and makes it fruitful. Al

most all flowers are folded up in a bud, where they form themselves secretly, and are guarded by their coat, and outside leaves. Then, when sap flows in abundance, particularly towards spring, the blossom grows large, the bud opens, the coat falls off, and the flower appears. At the outside some very small thin leaves are seen of different colours, which serve to defend the organs of fertility, and perhaps also to form the nourishing juice, which enters into those parts. But it is, properly speaking, in the middle of the flower that the fruitful organs are found. There is a thread in it, or a little pillar called pistil, which rises pretty high, particularly in tulips. Round the pistil are the stamina, with heads at the top of them, containing a prolific dust of different colours. These stamina are properly the masculine organs, designed to make the seed fruitful, and the pistil is the female part of generation. It is in a manner the womb which receives the prolific dust.

Vegetables propagate also by ingrafting. From a tender branch of a tree, when in sap, they take an eye or a beginning of a branch, with a part of the bark, and they graft it into another tree; that is to say, they insert this eye between the bark and the wood, after which they gently tie up the whole, by rolling worsted two or three times round it. From that eye there comes a branch, which is of the same species as the tree from whence the eye was taken, though the tree into which it is inserted (and which is called wild-stock) should be quite another sort. Trees and other woody plants are also perpetuated by slips. From a willow, for example, they take a slip, that is to say, a single stick or branch, and put it in the ground, after having cut off the little branches,

little branches, that it may not in the beginning take too much sap. Roots soon shoot out of it in the places where it had beginnings of branches and it becomes a tree.

Lastly, Vegetables also propagate by roots; but these must have eyes, or they will not shoot. Certain plants cast all around them trains, or long strings, which have knots or eyes in them. The knots lengthen their fibres in the ground, and become so many new feet, which may be separated from each other to make so many more plants. The root even is a sort of eye, in which the plant is inclosed; and it has between its leaves little eyes, so that it may also be propagated by the leaves, when the little eyes or roots remain fastened to them. What a train of causes must operate to produce vegetables, to preserve and propagate them. Supposing even that the seed pre-existed, what art does it not require to open them, to give growth to the plant, to preserve and continue the species? The earth must be a fruitful mother, in whose bosom plants may be placed and nourished conveniently. Water, which contributes also to the nourishment of plants, although in a less degree, must be composed of all those parts which are best calculated to make them shoot and grow. The sun must put all the elements in motion, and by its heat make the seed spring up and ripen the fruit. It was necessary to form a just balance and proportion between the plants, in order that they should neither multiply too fast, nor be too few in number. It was necessary, that the texture, the vessels, the fibres, and every part of the plant should be so disposed, that the sap, the nourishing juice, should penetrate into it, circulate, digest, and prepare itself in such a manner, that the plant

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