ject, is the effect which winter also produces in checking an over production of organized beings. To what extent its severity, and the scanty subsistence it affords, are destructive of animal and vegetable life, I shall not attempt to estimate; but that it is considerable, cannot be denied. Notwithstanding the various and astonishing means made use of by a wise Creator, for the preservation of organized beings during the inclemency of winter, it is certainly true, that this season does not pass without a great expense of life. Violent storms, severe frosts, sudden inundations, deep snows, scarcity of food, the tracks of animals in the new-fallen snow, which guide the hunter to their lair,-all these are so many means of destruction to numerous individuals of various tribes of animals, and some of them, means of destruction to different kinds of vegetables also.

Now, that the checks we have mentioned, combined with others, are most wisely adapted for promoting the benevolent intentions of Providence, in preserving a due balance in Nature, may be inferred from various considerations. Of these, I shall mention one, which is sufficiently striking. Man has frequently attempted, for his own purposes, to interfere with the balance which Providence has thus established, often wisely and successfully, the higher species being destined to supplant the lower; but when injudiciously, not with impunity. The following examples of the latter, which I extract from a note in Mr. Sharon Turner's 'History of the Creation,' may suffice as an illustration. "Farmers destroy moles, because the hillocks they make break the level surface; but they have found worms increase so much, when the moles were gone, as to wish they had not molested them. Moles live on worms, insects, snails, frogs, and larvæ. The farmers on a nobleman's estate in France, found the moles' disturbances of the earth such a good husbandry to it, as to solicit their landlords not to have them killed. (Bull, Un., 1829, p. 334.) So toads are found to keep down the ants. Mice have increased in barns where owls have been shot. The blue jay was destroyed in America for eating the pease; but the pea

grub, which it fed on, became more destructive afterward. A gentleman shot a magpie, to save his cherries, but found its craw as full as it could be crammed with the large bluebottle flies, that lay their eggs in meat. The fox renders considerable service to man, by the quantity of rats, field-mice, frogs, toads, lizards, and snakes, which he destroys."*

These are instances of the kind of balance which is preserved in the animal world, by means of predaceous animals, and prove that, by removing one cause of annoyance, we may sometimes only give room to another of a more grievous nature; and that we ought, therefore, to be cautious how we do violence to Nature. There can be no doubt, however, that the judicious interference of man was taken into account in the establishment of the order of Nature; and that his employing his rational powers for this purpose, is one of the exercises by which Providence intended to call forth his ingenuity, and reward his industry. It is not merely as a curse, that, in the field of the sluggard, "thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley ;"-it is also as a warning against sloth, and as a stimulus to exertion. So it is with regard to industrious, intelligent, and virtuous habits of every kind; and, with reference to the agriculturist, while the neglect of such habits is punished by an accumulation of noxious weeds and vermin, and a deficiency of useful produce, the very reverse is the case when these habits are cultivated ;-and so, changing the terms, with every other profession.

Of the salutary effect of a judicious use of the power which Providence has intrusted us with, of extirpating noxious animals, we have a remarkable instance, in the total extinction of the wolf from Great Britain, chiefly through the energetic measures adopted by two of our kings, Edgar I. and Edward I. The importance which we ought to attach to the removal of this nuisance, will be better estimated on reading the official account which was given in the public papers, of the devastations com

* Turner, note, p. 350, quoting from Howit's Brit. Preserv.

mitted by wolves, in the year 1823, in the province of Livonia alone. They are stated to have devoured 1841 horses, 1243 foals, 1807 horned cattle, 733 calves, 15,182 sheep, 726 lambs, 2545 goats, 183 kids, 4190 swine, 312 sucking pigs, 703 dogs, 673 geese.

This destruction is remarkable, and it is only a single example of the immense extent of the power by which the excess of the reproductive principle is restrained, in all the various races of living beings, from the microscopic insect to the huge elephant. The proof thus afforded of the wisdom of the great Creator, is conspicuous and preeminent; the balance of Nature is preserved; one species, taken on the average, does not unduly encroach upon another; a greater quantity of living beings have the means of being nourished, and are therefore produced; and the good of the whole is most strikingly consulted. One condition, which the due balance of the reproductive powers involves, is, that the most useful species shall be able not only to maintain their ground, but to preponderate over all the rest. This is instanced in the case of vegetables, in the prolific power already noticed, as bestowed upon the common grasses on which so many animals, and especially those destined for the use of man, are formed to feed. It is in virtue of this quality, with which man, for his own purposes, finds it necessary frequently to war, that the soft green carpet is so universally spread over hill and valley, on which our herds and flocks graze so luxuriously by day, and repose so comfortably by night. But then, it was the wise intention of Providence, that this mastery, gained by the prolific power, should not be of such extent as to annihilate any of the species of plants formed by His creative wisdom. There are, therefore, most surprising and ingenious contrivances, by which this power is so far counteracted as to serve the end in view. These will fall more properly to be considered in another season, and it is enough, at present, merely to advert to them.

In saying, however, that the most useful vegetable productions are usually the most prolific, I must not forget to make an exception, which embraces a great variety of

those plants that are cultivated by the farmer and the gardener, for the use of man. All the cereal, leguminous, potato, and cabbage tribes are of this kind, and seem to be intended, along with many other means in the economy of Providence, to verify the sentence so early pronounced on our sinning race, that in the sweat of their face they must eat bread. It is, indeed, in this view, a most remarkable provision, that, while the means of subsistence are so amply provided for the lower animals, man is left to procure his food by the exercise of his own mental and bodily powers, in the labors of cultivation; and, for this purpose, finds it necessary to counteract the natural tendencies of vegetation, as well as to control the habits, and subdue the propensities of the brute creation.

Among animals, the balance which we have been considering, is kept up in a way different from that which takes place in the vegetable kingdom, though in some respects analogous to it. Here, too, the powers of reproduction are with obvious design unequally distributed, being most copiously bestowed on those species which are either most useful to man, or most harmless in their own nature, or least capable of defending themselves. Were not this the case, animals of prey, whose species are numerous, and are to be found in all the classes of animated nature, from the lowest to the highest, would soon destroy the more helpless kinds, and reduce the various orders of beings to a few of nearly equal strength and prowess in the various genera. Among beasts, the lion and tiger, for example, would desolate the tropical regions; the wolf would reign paramount in the temperate zone; and the arctic bear would overrun the regions bordering on the poles, till nothing would be left for them to devour but creatures of their own species. Among birds, the eagle, the vulture, and the condor, would each assert the terrible powers of its nature, till the other feathered tribes, in their respective localities, had been exterminated; and as to fishes, the enormous whale,* and the

*The Greenland whale is supposed to live only on medusa or shrimps; but the cachalot, [or spermaceti whale,] and its varieties, are exceedingly voracious.

rapacious shark, each of which devours the inferior tribes by hundreds at a mouthful, would quickly divide the desolated ocean between them.

The very fact, therefore, that, notwithstanding the existence of such formidable enemies, the other tribes of animated beings not only survive, but abound, is a proof that the Author of Nature has provided sufficient checks to their power and rapacity. Of quadrupeds alone, from 800 to 1000 species are known to exist; and, as we descend in the scale to the lower genera, their species proportionally increase, till among the insect and microscopic tribes, they become almost innumerable. If this be the case with regard to species, how would the mind be overwhelmed with the immensity of the subject, were it to attempt to estimate the number of individual existences in the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Let us recognise and admire the Designing Mind which has with such wonderful skill adjusted the balance of nature, and fitted it to the condition of man in his present state. It is impossible not to be struck with the analogy which runs through all the departments of organized existence, from the highest to the lowest, in this as well as in other instances. We see every where a superabundant power of reproduction counteracted and balanced, by what may be justly called antagonist powers. Among these opposing forces, we find voracity and famine every where, excessive heat, and periodical storms, in tropical countries, excessive cold during the winter of the temperate and frigid regions, each in its own manner and its own place, doing the necessary work of destruction.

THIRD WEEK-THURSDAY.

ALTERNATION OF DAY AND NIGHT.

THE SUN now remains but a short period above the horizon; and, even during that short period, the comparative