of want, that our natural aversion to labour, and love of inaction, are overcome. To prove this, we do not need to revert to the theories of philosophers, or to follow man through his fancied stages of advancement, from his lowest grade,—a savage roamer of the forest, feeding on nuts and roots,-till we find him, first a hunter and fisher, then a shepherd, next a tiller of the soil, and last of all, a man of commerce, and an adept in the arts and sciences.

In the supposed steps of this progress, history does not bear us out; but we do know, from all history, as well as from daily experience, that the wants of man stimulate his ingenuity; that these wants increase with the power of gratifying them, while the ingenuity which supplies them keeps pace with his enlarging desires, and that thus there is a constant action and re-action, which, by a most wonderful and interesting process, urges man on, from stage to stage of improvement, till he becomes, what we find him to be in the most advanced state of society,-a being as different, in his mental attainments, from the wandering savage, as the lordly elephant, in his physical powers, is from the blind worm of the earth. The human mind is mighty and various in its facilities; but before these become available to any great extent, they must be excited by external objects, trained and moulded by discipline, and enlightened by the accumulated wisdom of ages; and to perform these important functions, the circumstances and condition of external nature are admirably suited.

This observation applies universally, and might be illustrated in a thousand different ways; but take the case immediately before us, the necessity of protection from the vicissitudes of the seasons. In what state do we find civilized man? Think of the comforts and conveniences which he has accumulated around him, for the purpose in view. This naturally naked and helpless creature, makes the whole creation, both animate and inanimate, contribute to his defence from the wintry blast, and from the summer's heat. hemp, the flax, the cotton plant, and the inner bark of various

The

trees, yield their vegetable stores; the sheep gives its fleece; the silk-worm its web; the cow her hide; the goose and the eider-duck their down; the beaver, the ermine, and the bear, their fur, that his want of natural clothing may be supplied; and that, by adapting his covering to the climate, he may either brave the rigours of the polar sky, or support, without material inconvenience, the fierce rays of a tropical sun.

Again, attend to his place of residence.-What conveniences!-what comforts!-what luxuries! Within his own limited locality, Providence has given him every thing necessary for the supply of his wants. Every where there is to be found stone, and lime, and wood, and iron, or some useful substitutes. Of these, the cottage, the hall, and the palace, are all equally constructed. There is, elaborated by his industry from materials readily within his reach, glass, to admit the light and exclude the chilly blast; there are coals, or billets, or peat, for fire to warm; there are downy beds for necessary rest: and, if ambition or voluptuousness looks farther, the East brings its perfumes and its gems; the West and the South their precious metals and their ornamental furniture; the North its oil, to afford artificial day; all climates and all countries contribute, of their abundance and their varieties, to supply the cravings of a constantly increasing and never satisfied appetite for accumulation and enjoyment.

And so it is, that the very privations and disadvantages, with which man comes into the world, become the means by which the desire of acquiring and improving is stimulated, till he not only equals the lower animals in those gifts, naturally withheld from him, with which Providence had endowed them, but rises far beyond them; and, by means of his mental qualities, deservedly earns for himself the title, which his bodily faculties could never have merited, of being em phatically lord of this nether sphere.

TENTH WEEK-FRIDAY.

II. MAN IN WINTER.-PROVISIONS FOR HIS COMFORT.

It is most interesting to look into the various features of that providential administration, by which, under a very peculiar and surprising discipline, the progress of society is advanced, and man rises in the scale of moral and intelligent beings. In the wants of his natural state, as regards the season of winter, we yesterday saw how a stimulus is employed, which, combined, doubtless, with other incentives, induces him to seek, first, necessaries, then conveniences, then comforts and luxuries, till he draws around him the resources of the world, and, by the ever-expanding views of an aspiring mind, calls progressively into action those mental powers, both in himself and his fellows, which might other wise have lain dormant.

If, from this view of the exercise given to genius and ta lent, in counteracting the privations of winter, we turn to the provisions which have been bountifully made in external nature, for affording scope to these faculties, we shall find additional cause of devout admiration.

The first thing worthy of remark, in this department of the subject, is, that speaking generally, the materials by which exposure to the inclemency of the season may be ob viated, lie patent and abundant in those climates where such inconveniences are liable to be felt. In proportion as we penetrate into the colder regions, animals are found in greater plenty, whose coats of soft and downy fur, furnished benefi cently by their Creator for their own protection, when transferred to the human body, defy the wintry storms. If we ap proach still nearer the polar circle, we discover a provision which renders even these regions of gloom and intense cold, habitable during the severest part of the year. The enor mous tenants of the icy seas, which surround these inhospitable coasts, not only furnish the inhabitants with food, but,

being enveloped in immense loads of fat, yield to them all that is needful, both for light and heat, in their dark and chilly winter months. Nay, the very snow, which clothes Nature as in a winding-sheet, and seems to augur nothing but desolation and death, is converted, by the ingenuity of man, into a comfortable habitation, and thus becomes a preserver of life, and a means of enjoyment.

Then, again, if we speak of fuel, how bountiful is Providence in supplying those exhaustless forests of pine in the northern regions of Europe, and those immense fields of coal in Britain and other similar climates, by which frost is charmed away from the dwellings of the inhabitants! Can we believe it to be without a beneficent design, that such amazing magazines of cumbustible matter should be deposited within our temperate zones? And does it not add to the wonder of this provision that coal is known to be a vegetable production of a climate altogether different from that in which it is found,—a climate probably not inferior in warmth, and in the power of nourishing vegetation, to the most favoured of our tropical regions ?* When, and under what circumstances, did that profusion of gigantic trees and plants cover the face of the earth, and luxuriate in the sunshine and the shower of a blessed climate, which, under the name of Surturbrand, has erected the platform on which northern Iceland rears its burning mountain, and spreads its rugged hills and plains; and in Britain, the land of manufactures, and America, that new country, bouyant with youthful enterprise, has laid up those amazing stores of fuel, which many centuries of human toil and industry, can scarcely be said to diminish? A mystery hangs over the subject, which the geologist, with all his zeal and acuteness, shall probably in vain attempt to penetrate; but it is enough for our present purpose to know the fact. By whatever natural catastrophe

* The high temperature of the localities in which the vegetation was produced that has given rise to our coal fields, is inferred from the gigantic size of the ferns, mosses, and other plants, still discovered in the formation.

these ancient woods and forests were submerged, there they are, collected in the most convenient localities, at once for furnishing the means of comfort during the rigours of an ungenial winter, and for affording facilities to the increase of human power, in the cultivation and improvement of the arts of life. Is it too much to say, that here is the hand of a Paternal Providence?

Fuel implies the use of fire, and this leads us to look at some of the properties of that wonderful element, which, on the hearth and in the lamp, contributes so materially to the

* Dr. Buckland, after stating that iron is frequently associated with coal in the subordinate beds of the transition series, concludes a chapter on this subject with the following interesting observations:-'The important uses of coal and iron in administering to the supply of our daily wants, give to every individual amongst us, in almost every moment of our lives, a personal concern, of which but few are conscious, in the geological events of these very distant eras. We are all brought into immediate connection with the vegetation which clothed the ancient earth, before one-half of its actual surface had yet been formed. The trees of the primeval forests have not, like modern trees, undergone decay, yielding back their elements to the soil and atmosphere, by which they have been nourished, but treasured up in subterranean storehouses, have been transformed into enduring beds of coal, which, in these latter ages, have become to man the sources of heat, and light and wealth. My fire now burns with fuel, and my lamp is shining with the light of gas, derived from coal that has been buried for countless ages in the deep and dark recesses of the earth. We prepare our food, and maintain our forges and furnaces, and the power of our steam-engines, with the remains of plants of ancient forms and extinct species, which were swept from the earth ere the formation of the transition strata was completed. Our instruments of cutlery, the tools of our mechanics, and the countless machines which we construct, by the infinitely varied applications of iron, are derived from ore, for the most part coeval with, or more ancient than the fuel, by the aid of which we reduce it to its metallic state, and apply it to innumerable uses in the economy of human life. Thus from the wreck of forests which waved upon the surface of the primeval lands, and from ferruginous mud that was lodged at the bottom of the primeval waters, we derive our chief supplies of coal and iron, those two fundamental elements of art and industry, which contribute, more than any other mineral production of the earth, to increase the riches, and multiply the comforts, and ameliorate the condition of mankind.'-Buckland's B. T. vol. i. pp. 66, 67.