Certainly your chickens, for example, live upon hard corn, which they have no teeth to chew, and which their stomachs are incapable of digesting till it has been broken in pieces."

"But indeed, mamma, they swallow it whole: I have seen them do it a hundred times."

"I know you have; but it is equally true that a chicken would starve upon a heap of corn, if it were not for a peculiar muscle with which it is furnished. You

(

have often seen the gizzard of a fowl, Harry, but you did not know that it was endued with the power of bruising and grinding the corn as effectually, and by the same mechanical action, as

R

that of the mill which grinds the coffeeberries for our breakfast."

"This is very curious," said Harry: "then the gizzard of birds supplies their want of teeth."

"You travel too fast, Harry. All birds have not gizzards; the contrivance is only found where there is a necessity for it. Birds of prey have no occasion for such an organ; their food does not require to be ground in a mill. They have hooked beaks, and strong, sharp, crooked talons, fitted for seizing their prey, and tearing it to pieces. It would be easy to multiply these instances; for the same principle is uniformly acted upon by the Creator. Throughout the wonderful variety of animated beings

which he has called into existence, we find the outward form, and the internal organs, to be exactly that which is best adapted to the habits and the comfort of each species. I do not, however, wish to give you any further proofs at present. If there were no other instances of intelligent contrivance in nature, than those I have mentioned, they would be sufficient, and more than sufficient, to prove to you that there could not be such evident marks of design, unless there were some power capable of inventing and executing these things."

"I know it," replied Harry: "the watch must have had a watchmaker."

"Yes, that was our first conclusion; and you see that it may be applied to greater things than a watch."

CHAP. V.

"Thro' worlds unnumber'd tho' the God be known, 'Tis ours to trace him only in our own."

POPE,

ON Sunday evening Harry read the 19th Psalin to his parents, and afterwards accompanied them to the terrace in the garden, where they continued to walk, till long after the magnificent tints of the western horizon had faded into the obscurity of twilight. eastern sky remained unbroken by a single cloud, and the full moon appeared slowly rising behind a distant wood.

The

They stopped with one consent, and watched it gradually emerging, till it hung suspended, “like a lamp of gold," over the dark tufted trees. "The heavens indeed declare the glory of God!" said Mr. Beaufoy, breaking silence. Harry pressed his mother's arm with one hand, while with the other he pointed to the beautiful object of their attention. "I wonder, mamma," said he, "I wonder very much, why you never chose that for one of your proofs of his power and wisdom."

"I think your mother acted very wisely in not doing so," replied Mr. Beaufoy "she wished to convince :

you,

by the evidence of your senses, that there is an intelligent Creator. This