bound by the genial warmth of Spring, and are exposed to the heat of Summer and the glow of Autumn, they display the same Beneficence of The Creator, in the adjustment of their temperature to animated beings, as they manifested during the cold of Winter.

Warm winds now glide over the liquid surface of the lake chosen as our example at page 300; the surface water gains heat by contact, but loses specific gravity, or in other words, floats upon the colder water beneath; the temperature of the surface may be 62 degrees, whilst that of the depth remains at 40 degrees; no sudden elevation of temperature can ensue from conducting power; the fishes become slowly inured to the change that at length is established, by the mechanical agitation of winds and breezes.

In concluding this rapid inquiry regarding the principal phenomena of The Four Seasons which admit of elucidation through the medium of the Science of Chemistry, it becomes necessary to imprint upon the mind of the young student of Nature, the magnitude of the Earth, as compared with the size of man; and then instead of his feeling surprise that so many of its vast phenomena yet remain uninterpreted, he will rather wonder that the Creator has permitted so many to be discovered.

The Earth is 8000 miles in diameter; the atmosphere is calculated to be 50 miles in altitude; the loftiest mountain peak is calculated to be five miles above the level of the sea, for this height has never been visited by man; the deepest mine that he has formed is 550 yards; and his own stature does not average six feet.

Therefore, if it were possible for him to construct a globe 800 feet-or twice the height of St. Paul's cathe

dral—in diameter, and to place upon any one point of its surface an atom of th of an inch in diameter, and

ith part of an inch in height, it would correctly denote the proportion that he bears to the earth upon which he stands.

If he would condescend to bear in mind the fact of his own insignificance in comparison with the magnitude of his dwelling-place; that he is but a mere atom in the stupendous scale of Creation, it would act as a salutary check to the dogmas that he so frequently pronounces, regarding the causes that MUST be operating above and below the huge surface of the earth, because he finds such and such phenomena, after climbing upon a natural hillock, or creeping within an artificial burrow.

How magnificent is the language of Scripture when extolling the Omnipotence of God and the grandeur of His works!

"It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.

"Behold the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and counted as the small dust of the balance; behold he taketh up the isles as a very little thing."

Upon due reflection concerning these important and astounding matters, we are immediately led to exclaim with the Psalmist, "Lord, what is man that Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that Thou regardest him!"

Yet has The Almighty, "The Father of Lights, in whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning," in His abundant goodness, vouchsafed to man, "certain

knowledge of the things that are, namely, to know how the world was made, and the operation of the elements." "The beginning, ending, and midst of the times: the alterations of the turning of the sun and the change of

seasons."

We have thus endeavored to trace a few of the wonderful phenomena of The Four Seasons, which admit of interpretation through the medium of the science of Chemistry, from the Spring, when all Nature is bursting into life, to the Summer, when glowing with beauty and sweetness; then to the Autumn, teeming with all the purposes for which this vitality and perfection were called into being, and finally to the Winter, when it is shrouded in sleep and repose.

We have seen that "everything is beautiful in his season," that everything displays the power and goodness of God.

"All the works of the Lord are good; and He will give every needful thing in due season."

"So that a man cannot say, this is worse than that, for in time they shall all be well approved."

The study of Chemistry and of all the high sciences is well suited to keep down a spirit of arrogance and intellectual pride, "for, in disentangling the phenomena of the material world, we encounter things which hourly tell us of the feebleness of our powers, and material combinations so infinitely beyond the reach of any intellectual analysis as to convince us at once of the narrow limitation of our faculties.

"In the power of grasping abstract truth, and in the power of linking together remote truths by chains of abstract reasoning, we may be distinguished from the lower. order of the beings placed around us; but in the exer

cise of these powers, we bear perhaps no resemblance whatsoever to the Supreme Intellect.

"Applied to an Almighty Being with the attribute of ubiquity, in whose mind all things past and to come coexist in eternal presence, time and space have no meaning, at least in that sense in which they are conditions of our own thoughts and actions.

"To Him all truth is as by intuition; by us, truth is only apprehended through the slow and toilsome process of comparison; so that the powers and capacities, forming the very implements of our strength are also indications of our weakness; in some of our capacities, we may, perhaps, exhibit a faint shadow of a portion of our Maker's image; but in the reasoning power, of which we sometimes vainly boast, we bear to him no resemblance whatsoever.

"Simplicityof character, humility, and love of truth, ought therefore to be-and generally have been-among the attributes of minds well trained in philosophy."

"After all that has been done since the thoughts of man were first turned to the phenomena of the material world -after all the boasted discoveries of science, from the first records of civilization, down to our own days-those glorious passages of the Old Testament, (Job xxxviii.,) contrasting the power and wisdom of God in the wonders of His creation, with man's impotence and ignorance, have still, and ever will continue to have, not merely a figurative or poetical, but a literal application.”

When "God answered out of the whirlwind" concerning the mighty works of His Omniscience and Omnipotence, He deigned to hold direct converse with man, to convince him of human ignorance and imbecility.

The wonderful and beneficial phenomena of the Creation which are acknowledged and appreciated even by the most unenlightened and obdurate minds, in this unapproachable language are displayed and set forth in a series of the most sublime and powerful metaphors, that are instantly apprehended, and carry conviction to the soul of man that "He that built all things is God."

"Before such an Interrogator we can only bow in humble adoration."

"The study of the laws of Nature may strengthen and exalt the intellectual powers; but strange must be our condition of self-government and tortuous our habits of thought if such studies be allowed to co-exist with selflove and arrogance and intellectual pride."

"There are yet hid greater things than these; for we have seen but a few of His works."

Although the amount of scientific knowledge at the present day may be justly called great, yet it is as nothing in comparison with the magnitude of the objects of the Creation, and while it shall please God to continue us in this world where so much is to be done, and so little to be known, we must employ the talents entrusted to our care with unremitting zeal and humble confidence, and wait with patient expectation for the time in which the soul returning to the bosom of its God, "shall be satisfied with Knowledge.”