We fhall draw a veil over the accumulated dif treffes of this young man's family. His fifter, exhaufted with grief and watching, furvived his cruel fate but a very fhort time; and her laft requeft was, that she might be buried in the fame untimely grave with her unfortunate brother.

WHAT

SPRIN G.

HAT aftonishing variety of artifices, what innumerable millions of exquifite works, is the God of nature engaged in every moment! How gloriously are his all pervading wisdom and power employed in this useful season of the year; this Spring of Nature! what infinite myriads of vegetable beings is he forming this very moment, in their roots and branches, in their leaves and bloffoms, their feeds and fruit. Some, indeed, begun to discover their bloom amidst the fnows of January, or under the rough cold blaft of March; those flowers are withered and vanifhed in April, and their feeds are now ripening to perfection. Others are fhewing themselves this day in all their blooming pride and beauty; and while they adorn the gardens and meadows with gay and glowing colours, they promise their fruits in the day of harveft. The whole nation of vegetables is under the

Divine care and culture; his hand forms them day and night with admirable skill and unceafing operation, according to the natures he first gave them, and produces their buds and foliage, their flowery bloffoms, and rich fruits, in their appointed months. Their progress in life is exceeding fwift at this season of the year; and their fucceffive appearances, and fweet changes of raiment, are vifible almost hourly.

But these creatures are of lower life, and give but feebler displays of the Maker's wifdom. Let us raise our contemplations another ftory, and furvey a nobler theatre of Divine wonders. What endless armies of animals is the hand of God moulding and figuring this very moment, throughout his brutal dominions!-What immenfe flights of little birds are now fermenting in the egg, heaving and growing towards fhape and life! What vaft flocks of four footed creatures, what droves of large cattle, are now framed in their early embrios, imprifoned in the dark cells of nature! And others, perhaps, are moving towards liberty, and juft preparing to fee the light. What unknown myriads of infects, in their various cradles and nefting places, are now working towards vitality and motion! And thousands of them with their painted wings juft beginning to unfurl,

and

and expand themselves into fluttering and day light; while other families of them have forfaken their hufky beds, and exult and glitter in the warm fun beams! An exquifite world of wonders is complicated even in the body of every little infect, an ant, a gnat, a mite, that is fcarce vifible to the naked eye. Admirable engines! which a whole academy of philofophers could never contrive; which the nation of poets hath neither art nor colours to defcribe; nor has a world of mechanics fkill enough to frame the plaineft or coarseft of them. Their nerves, and mufcles, and the minute atoms which compofe the fluids fit to run in the little channels of their veins, efcape the notice of the most fagacious mathematician, with all his aid of glaffes. The active powers and curiofity of human nature are limited in their purfuit, and must be content and lie down in ignorance.

It is a fublime and conftant triumph over all the intellectual powers of man, which the great God maintains every moment in thefe inimitable works of nature, in thefe impenetrable receffes and myfteries of Divine art! The flags and banners of Almighty wifdom are now difplayed round half the globe, and the other half waits the return of the fun to fpread the fame triumph over the fouthern world. The very fun in the firmament is

God's

God's prime minifter in this wondrous world of Beings, and he works with fovereign vigour on the surface of the earth, and spreads his influences deep under the clods to every root and fibre, moulding them into their proper forms, by Divine direction. There is not a plant, nor a leaf, nor one little branching thread, above or beneath the ground, that escapes the eye or influence of this benevolent star: an illuftrious emblem of the Omnipotence and universal activity of the Creator.

On the INTENTION

OF

LIGHT and DARKNESS.

LIGHT is intended by our Maker for action,

and darkness for reft. In the fourteenth

century, the shops in Paris were opened at four in the morning; at prefent a fhopkeeper is fcarce awake at feven. The King of France dined at eight in the morning; and retired to his bedchamber at the fame hour in the evening; an early hour at present for public amusements.

The Spaniards adhere to ancient cuftom; for manners and fashions feldom change where women are locked up. Their King, to this day, dines precisely at noon, and fups no less precifely at nine in the evening.

During

During the reign of Henry VIII. fashionable people in England breakfafted at feven in the morning, and dined at ten. In Elizabeth's time, the nobility, gentry, and ftudents dined at eleven in the morning, and fupped between five and fix in the afternoon. In the reign of Charles II. four in the afternoon was the appointed hour for acting plays. At prefent, even dinner is at a later hour.

The King of Yeman, the greatest prince in Arabia Felix, dines at nine in the morning, fups at five in the afternoon, and goes to reft at eleven.

From this fhort fpecimen it appears, that the occupations of day-light commence gradually later and later, as if there were a tendency, in polite nations, of converting night into day, and day into night.

Nothing happens without a caufe. Light difposes to action, darkness to reft. The diverfions of day are tournaments, tennis, hunting, racing, and other active exercises. The diverfions of night are fedentary; plays, cards, and converfation. Balls are of a mixed nature, partly active in dancing, partly fedentary in converfing. Formerly active exercises prevailed among a robust and plain people. The milder pleasures of fociety prevail as manners refine. Hence it is, that can

dle-light