Another doctrine, well known, because associated with all our classical recollections, is that of Greece and Rome; which assigns to souls a separate state of existence in the infernal regions, where rewards and punishments are awarded, according to the good or evil deeds of a present life. The puerile fables, false morality, and fanciful traditions, which are mingled with this doctrine, tend to debase and render contemptible, what might otherwise be considered as the germ of a purer faith.

All that history records, or modern discoveries have ascertained, of the belief of mankind on this subject of vital importance, tends to show the impotence of human reason; and shuts us up to the revealed word of God, as the great source of light and of hope regarding the future destiny of man. The soul survives the grave, but where does it go? What new forms of being does it assume? What conflicts and what triumphs are reserved for it? These are questions which curiosity, that powerful principle, unites with every selfish and every ennobling feeling of the human heart, to urge on the attention. And what is the answer which the Divine oracles return? Man is a sinner, and "the wages of sin is death." Such is the appalling response. And what is death? Not the separation of the soul from the body merely, but the separation of both soul and body from God.

And is there no remedy? Not in the power of man, but in the grace and mercy of God. "God so loved the world, that He sent His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him might not perish, but have everlasting life." The Son of the Eternal God is our Saviour. He came to earth, and assumed our form and nature, that He might take away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. His own words are, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whosoever believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die."

What, then, is death? It is to the Christian but the passing away of a feverish dream, and an awaking to the glorious realities of an endless and unclouded day. This at least, it is, as far as regards his soul. But his body

So.

goes down to the grave, and, for all that we can perceive, is finally resolved into its native elements. Yet it is not A germ remains. It is like seed buried in winter, by the sower, beneath the sluggish soil, that it may undergo a mysterious change, and rise again to life, in a new season, under a more propitious sky. The spring of an eternal year will come. It will breathe on the dry bones, and they shall live. Then shall the soul be reunited to

its material frame, "sown a natural body, but raised a spiritual body;" and this mysterious reunion, which seems essential to the perfect happiness of human beings, will consummate the appointed period, when death, the last enemy, shall be "swallowed up in victory;" when time itself shall perish, along with the revolution of seasons; and when one vast, measureless, incomprehensible eternity, shall embrace all.

TENTH WEEK-MONDAY.

HYBERNATION.-OF QUADRUPEDS-THEIR CLOTHING.

ONE obvious disadvantage arising from the change of climate from heat to cold, is the effect on the bodily frame, which, at one season, is oppressed with the fervid rays of an almost vertical sun, and, at another, made to shiver under the biting blast of a wintry sky. It was not consistent with the plans of Providence for our world, that this inconvenience should be altogether compensated for; but the contrivances by which it is alleviated, and rendered tolerable, are truly wonderful. One of the most familiar of these contrivances, is a change from summer to winter clothing.

Man is born naked, but his Creator has endowed him with rational powers, which enable him to procure a dress suited to the various climes in which he is destined to live, and to change it with the changing weather, or

his altered residence. vored with the high attribute of reason, have their wants, with respect to clothing, attended to in another way. Those which reside under the burning suns of the tropics, are remarkable for their covering of hair, and the total absence of wool; while animals of the very same species, when resident in colder countries, are found to be clothed with a warmer covering, which becomes still more abundant and woolly as we approach the polar regions. The remarkable change, in this respect, which takes place within a very limited distance, and under no very violent change of temperature, may be exemplified by comparing the strong and thin bristles of the Devonshire swine, with the furry coat of those of the Highland breed. As an instance of this beneficent law of Nature, in a more extensive range, we may take the sheep, whose covering, in the tropical regions, is a scanty coat of hair, which, on the Alpine ranges of Spain, becomes a fine soft and silky wool; in the mainland of Britain, is changed into a fleece, coarser, indeed, but thicker, and better adapted to resist the vicissitudes of our changeable weather; in the Shetland Islands, undergoes another transformation, still more capable of resisting the cold; and, in Iceland, and other regions verging towards the Pole, acquires the character of a thick fur, interspersed with long and coarse hair,-a provision which is common to the clothing of numerous northern tribes, and which seems admirably calculated at once to foster the animal heat, to give free passage to the insensible perspiration, and to serve as a protection from the penetrating rains.*

The lower animals, not being fa

Now, what we wish the reader particularly to remark is, that effects similar to those which are produced on the clothing of animals by a change of climate, are, to a certain extent, produced also by the different seasons of the year. There is a beneficent adaptation, in this respect, to the alternations of heat and cold, in the same country. Examples of this wise provision, among our domestic animals, are familiar to every farmer. The horse, the

* See Kirby's Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. p. 64. See also Scripture Geology, p. 349.

cow, and the sheep, when exposed to the open air, all acquire a rough coat in winter, which they throw off as the warm weather advances, being then supplied with a thinner and sleeker covering; and, what is remarkable, the shagginess, and consequent heat, of their clothing is proportioned, in each species, to the extent of their exposure, and the intensity of the cold. So much is this the case, that it has been alleged, probably, however, with some degree of exaggeration, that, "if we were to look at the horses, for example, of the farmers on a market-day in winter, we might determine the relative temperature of their respective farms, from the relative quantity of clothing provided by Nature for the animals which live on them."* The dealers in fur are well acquainted with the change we are now considering. In summer, the fur of those animals which are valued for the possession of this article of commerce, is too thin and short to be an object of pursuit; but, as soon as the frost and snow begin to show themselves, a rapid alteration takes place, and the fur is then said to have suddenly ripened. This is remarkably the case in the hare and rabbit.

Another beneficent provision of the Creator, for alleviating the effects of cold in winter, is to be discovered in the change of color, which takes place in the clothing of some species, both of quadrupeds and birds. It is remarkable, that the tendency of this change is from dark to pure white. Thus, the ermine, which is in the summer months of a pale brown color, inclining to red, is highly prized in winter for the snowlike whiteness of its fur; and the Alpine hare of the Grampian range undergoes a similar change, throwing off its summer dress of tawny gray, and appearing in a coat of the color of milk. Among the feathered tribes, we find the ptarmigan, which takes up its habitation on the summits of our most lofty Highland mountains, and the guillemot, which frequents our coasts, endowed with an analogous property. In the former, the change is complete; in the case

* Edinburgh Encyclopedia-Article Hybernation.

of the latter, its summer covering of black, is, in this climate, converted into a plumage clouded with ash-colored spots, on a white ground; but, what distinctly marks the intention of the Creator, is, that this latter bird, when exposed, as in Greenland, to a more intense cold, throws off its spotted mantle, and appears in feathers of a beautiful and uniform white.

The object of this remarkable change in the appearance of these animals, is not merely, as some writers have supposed, to protect them from the prying eyes of their enemies, by assimilating their color to that of the snow, though this intention is not to be overlooked; but chiefly, as I believe, to provide more effectually for their protection from the alteration in the temperature of the seasons. It might, perhaps, on a superficial view, appear, that white, which consists in the reflection of all the rays of light, was less favorable than any other color to the heat of the body, and that, were the intention to protect the animals from cold, the process would just be reversed. It is true, indeed, that a dark surface imbibes the heat to which it is exposed, in greater quantities than that which is of a light hue, and if this were all that was required, the objection might be held to be well founded. But it must be remembered, that the temperature of a living body depends chiefly on the power of retaining the animal heat; and it is on this principle that we are to look for the ultimate design in the change of color to which we have alluded. It would appear, from chemical experiment, that the radiating power of bodies is inversely as their reflecting power; and, upon this principle, the white color of animals, possessing less radiating power than any other, must be best calculated to retain the heat generated in their bodies by the vital principle. Thus, while there is less warmth absorbed from the external atmosphere than if their darker color had remained, this disadvantage is far more than compensated by the power which their white clothing confers, of resisting the effects of the external cold in reducing the temperature. This is one of the cases which we so commonly meet with in investigations of a similar kind, where an imperfect knowl

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