often with an extravagant and ridiculous affection. I am almost ashamed to say, there are men and women extravagant enough to love those creatures to such a degree, as to sacrifice to them, without scruple, the essential duties they owe to their fellow-creatures. Let war be kindled between nations, let armies destroy one another; the news will not make the least impression on a lady, who some days before was inconsolable for the loss of her spaniel. How much might be said on this! but I wave it, in order to conclude these reflections by a very important remark. Parents, and all who have the charge of children's education, or who live with them, cannot be too attentive to avoid scrupulously themselves any abuse of animals. It is the more necessary to dwell on this maxim, because, in general, it is much neglected; and very bad examples of this kind are given to children, which has sometimes influence upon their whole education. No beast ought to be killed in their sight: Much less should they be employed to do it. Let them be taught to treat animals, as beings which have life and feeling, and towards whom we have duties to fulfil. But, on the other hand, take great care that children do not attach themselves too much to animals, or grow passionately fond of them, as they are apt to do. In guarding carefully against children's making a bad use of animals, either way, they should also be taught to make a good use of them, that they may, from their earliest age, be accustomed to acknowledge, even in those creatures, an impression of the perfections of the Creator. APRIL II. THE MOTION OF THE EARTH. WHEN the delightful prospect of the rising sun renews each morning in our souls the gratitude and admiration due to the sublime Author of the universe, we may at the same time observe, that the place in which this magnificent sight is beheld, changes with the seasons. To be convinced of this with our own eyes, we need only examine the place where the sun rises in spring and autumn; we shall perceive it afterwards in summer more to the north, and in winter more to the south. We shall reasonably conclude from thence, that some motion must be the cause of these changes; for we cannot see a body of any sort change its place, without being occasioned either by its own motion, or that of another body. We are naturally led to think, that it is the sun which moves, as we see it sometimes on one side, and sometimes on another. But, as the same phenomena would take place, supposing the sun to remain immoveable, and that we with the earth were turning round it, we ought to depend less on our own conjectures, than on the repeated observations made by astronomers upon this subject, which prove the motion of the earth. Let us, in the first place, represent to ourselves the immense space in which the celestial bodies are placed. It is either empty, or filled with a substance, infinitely subtile, called æther. In that space it is that our globe floats, as well as all the other planets which compose our solar system. The sun, the dimensions of which have been mentioned already, is placed in the centre, surrounded by its worlds, which it surpasses greatly in size. The weight which our globe has in common with all other bodies, draws it towards that centre, or else the sun draws the earth, by the power which the greater bodies have of attracting the lesser. Thus, each time the earth inclines to move from the sun, it is drawn back again. It moves in a circle round itself, in the same manner as we have seen a sling turn round; or, to make use of an example still more analogous, like a cannon ball, which describes a curved or crooked line. It is true, it falls again on the ground, after having gone over a certain distance; but perhaps it would continue the same line for the space of some miles, if it had been sent off from the top of a high mountain. Suppose a still greater height, it would go farther in proportion. Add still to that height, and it would go as far as our Antipodes, to return at last to the point from whence it set out. All these effects would take place from the laws of gravitation, or the attractive power of our globe; and it is in the same manner that this earth describes its orbit round the sun. This orbit is not a perfect circle, but an ellipsis, which occasions our being farther from the sun at one time than at another. In making the course round the sun, it takes 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 43 seconds, the space of time which is the measure of our year; after which revolution we find the sun again in the same place. For, in each point of the orbit of the earth, the sun appears to us at the opposite side of the sky, so that at every insensible motion of the earth, we fancy it is the sun that moves. In spring the sun is seen equally distant from the poles: This causes equal nights and days. In summer it is 23 degrees 30. minutes nearer the north, K3 north, which occasions our longest days. In antumn it returns to an equal distance between the poles: And, in winter, it removes as far towards the south as it had approached the north; and it is then that our days are the shortest. If such is the order and plan of the great work of the creation, how much reason have we to admire and adore the supreme wisdom and goodness of the Creator! How precious to us ought every new acquired knowledge to be, that discovers to us the Father of all nature by his works. We find him every where. We are every where obliged to cry out, Lord, thou hast done all things with wonderful wisdom! APRIL III. THE IMMENSE RICHES OF NATURE. TO be convinced of the extreme liberality with which nature dispenses her gifts, it would be sufficient to reflect on the prodigious number of human creatures, who receive their food, their raiment, and every pleasure they enjoy, from that beneficent mother. But, as this is perhaps one of those things which, because they happen every day, no longer make the impression they ought to make upon our hearts, we will turn our reflections on creatures which are partly made for our use; and some of which are become objects of our contempt. This meditation will teach us that all the beings spread over our globe proclaim the goodness of their Author, and incite us to glorify his name, if our hearts are susceptible of any feeling. An innumerable quantity of living creatures, inhabitants of the earth, the air, and the waters, are are daily indebted for their subsistence to nature. Even the animals which we take care to feed, properly speaking, owe their food to her. The grass, which grows without being sown, is their chief foot. The whole race of fish subsist without man's assistance, unless those which he feeds for his amusement. The forests likewise produce acorns, the fields and mountains produce grass without culture. Amongst the birds, the species the most despised, and perhaps the most numerous, is the sparrow. Their number is so prodigious, that the king of France, with the produce of all the fields in his dominions, would be too poor to feed them for the space of one year. It is nature who takes from her immense magazine what is necessary to support them: and yet they are but the smallest part of her children. The quantity of insects is so great, that perhaps many ages may pass away before their several species and classes can be known. What numbers of flies are there, and how many different sorts of them do we see playing in the air? The blood the gnats take from us, is a very accidental food to them, and it may be supposed, that, for one gnat that lives on it, there are millions who have never tasted human blood, or that of any animal whatever. On what do all those creatures live? There is not a handful of earth which does not contain living insects. In every drop of water, creatures are discovered, whose means of support, as well as their multiplying, are incomprehensible. Immensely rich as nature is in living animals, so is she equally fruitful in means for their subsistence; or rather, it is the Creator who has poured into her bosom this inexhaustible source of riches. Through him each creature finds its food and dwelling. It is for them he causes the grass to grow, K 4 |