warmth is maintained. It is a second garment which nature throws over the first, but this garment warms without touching. It allows a free passage to the air, which agitates the flower, and brings us its perfume. Thus the violet is preserved from the cold, and its summer habits are but an additional charm which nature imparts to spring.

As a general rule, nature has done nothing to render man unhappy, and when he laments, it is because, on the contrary, he is deprived of the goods which she lavishes upon the race. The prisoner complains of the loss of the liberty which he held from nature; the hungry man complains of the privation of the produce which she has caused to grow for all; the sick man asks her for health; the orphan, for his mother. In all these afflictions, I seek for the genius of evil, but I see only the conditions of our mortal life, or the absence of those benefits for which we are indebted to nature.

It is good to notice the circumstance, that all the evils which do not depend upon our physical constitution arise from our ignorance. In order to remove them, our errors should have been removed; but we have found it more convenient to accuse as their source I know not what evil genius, to which we deliver up the universe. Nature has opened her book to us, in which God himself has written his thoughts; and it is in the books of men, in works of ambition and of corruption, that we go to look for truth. This is the way in which truth has been lost upon the earth, this is the way that the God of the universe, the infinitely good, just, and merciful, has become the God of a small number; the terrible, the jealous, the avenging, exterminating God. Fortunately, the work has preserved the name of the workman, and notwithstanding all the

efforts of fanaticism; this name, some syllables of which every people has repeated, is still found entire, in the benefits of nature, and in the prayer of the human race, "Our Father."

CHAPTER X.

STUDY OF GOD IN THE WORKS OF NATURE.

"Et son empire immense

Nulle part ne finit, nulle part ne commence."

OBSERVE what passes in the regions of infinity, where the stars are multiplied like the sands on the sea-shore. These stars, these suns, I can measure them without reaching them-I regulate their movements by means of lines and figures. Geometry is the reason of God. Man is permitted to discover it in matter, and thus to ascend to his intellectual origin. But my soul is more vast; the infinity which it contemplates gives it the idea of an infinity which is beyond its contemplation. The only one of all created beings, man has been able to say: Perhaps !—and this word in his mouth expresses a measureless and endless power-perhaps each of these suns has a movement which is proper to it, as each of these planets pursues a different course! perhaps the light from these constellations produces colours which are unknown to us!-perhaps these nebulæ allow atoms to escape from them which diffuse joy and delight, just as our sun bestows light and heat! perhaps, also, these myriads of worlds are but the avenues to the abode of the incomprehensible Being who perceives them like dust at his feet. But it is only angels

who have a glimpse of this divine spectacle; they employ eternity in studying it from sphere to sphere, from delight to delight. And yet it is given to us, weak creatures, to penetrate therein by thought; we, who are lost upon this globe, which is itself lost in space, we may imagine that which we do not see: the wonders which God alone has been able to conceive.

This correspondence between man and God; these worlds, these suns placed between us and the Creator, like the luminous steps which lead up to the threshold of the celestial temple, astonish my soul without overpowering it. I pass from admiration to love, and from love to prayer. This testifies at the same time my weakness and my greatness! All the creatures which surround me follow their instincts and fulfil their destiny,-I alone pray. Animals see nothing of that which I perceive, hear nothing of that which I hear; and because I am the only creature that prays, I know the object of my being. If man had not a soul for prayer, the world would be as if he were not: there would be nothing between annihilation and God.

Thus we see two intelligences which correspond to each other one in heaven, the other upon earth. The allpowerful Being has deigned to manifest himself to his creature. Our soul is a temple in which he has impressed his thought; in nature, as well as in ourselves, his existence is revealed by intelligence, power, and goodness. In order that there should be power, there must be creation; in order that there should be intelligence, there must be relations and harmonies; in order that there should be goodness, there must be foresight and benefits. From the existence of all these conditions, I may infer the existence of God: the attributes are only present, because he exists. And even should a part of the laws of nature be inexplicable to me-even if a multitude of relations and

harmonies should be beyond the scope of my intelligence, it will suffice me to have seized some of them in order to establish my certainty, for my certainty need not arise from a profound knowledge of nature, which belongs to none, but from the understanding of some of its laws. If foresight and goodness are evident in one instance, I may infer that they exist in all other instances. How could they exist in one, if not in all? The universe is but one work, its totality is but one creation, its laws are but one law order exists only in unity. But the genius of evil could not produce any good; if, therefore, the good shows itself in some parts of the work, it is everywhere.

:

God exists: this is a sufficient reason for the world to be. A sublime truth! a light of nature and intelligence! God exists, and his attributes are, -power, since he creates; foresight, since he preserves; and goodness, since we live. God exists, and the light which renders him visible shines only in the soul of man, who seeks in heaven for the cause of that which he sees upon the earth. To multiply suns in space, worlds around these suns, existences in these worlds; to give them light and darkness, pleasure and pain, life and death, to cause to spring forth the harmonies of these contrasts and the love of these harmonies, such is the visible work of God! And we, the witnesses of his power and the proofs of his bounty,-we who enjoy his earthly benefits,-we are permitted to meditate upon that which we do not see, to rest our hopes upon that which we cannot touch;-we, weak creatures, believe in that which is invisible, we implore that which is unknown. There is in us a something which seeks infinity without conceiving it, which aspires to eternity without comprehending it, and which raises itself up to God by love! Therein lies the proof of our high destiny; love,

this sentiment which nothing here below can satisfy, raises itself up to God only because it is immortal.

Thus, from all parts in nature, God comes to man in order that man should come to God. If my regards plunge into the heavens, I recognise him. If I descend to the lowest degrees of the creation, I still contemplate him. It seems to me that I hear a voice arise from out of each

blade of grass : "Thou seekest God," it says; "he is around thee, and in thee. Interrogate thy soul, thou wilt find him there; interrogate the smallest insect, it will reveal to thee the greatest foresight. I am but a blade of grass in a meadow; I shall only live a few days, and yet it is for me that the winds sweep over the seas; it is for me that they bring back on their wings the most refreshing dews, and that the stream perpetually flows from the mountain's side. I am but a blade of grass, and notwithstanding, thou seest I partake of the benefits of the great phenomena of the universe. What an harmonious concurrence between the winds, the clouds, the sea, the sun, man, a fly, a quadruped, and a frail plant that lives but for a day! My history is that of the whole of nature. He who knows my secrets, knows the word of the creation; whosoever knows how I exist, will have heard the voice of God. Between nought and life-the being and not being -there are, power, intelligence, and will; between life and life, the being and the being, there is relationship. God is everywhere."

Such is, to him who knows how to understand it, the language of the grass of the field. Thus speaks the grain of sand—thus speak the trees: thus all creation expresses itself.

And if we ascend from these details to the whole, from a plant to the earth, from the earth to heaven, we see with astonishment all these particular foresights resolve them