JANUARY XVI.

The Damage occasioned by extraordinary Cold.

WHY do we so readily notice those effects of nature which seem to be injurious? Why do we so willingly dwell upon and even murmur at them, whilst we slightly pass over all the striking advantages which they procure us? Men in such cases act toward God as they are accustomed to do with their fellow.crea. tures. A trifling offence, a slight injury they may have received from their best friend or benefactor, often effaces from their memory the essential benefits they have received; their pride and their ingratitude cause them to overlook the benefits, while they magnify the injury. At this season of the year we have a memorable instance of their disposition: men seem only to regard the evil which may result from the cold, and never consider the good it may produce. If they discover the least injury, if some parts of the great whole suffer, they think themselves authorised to murmur against God, without at all considering that nature, taken as a whole, deduces great advantages from the cold. If we weigh with impartiality the advantages and the evils which may be attributed to it, the result will convince us how little cause we have to arraign the government of the Almighty.

It is true a severe season causes many inconveni. ences, and induces some distressing consequences. Sometimes the water is frozen to such a depth that it is not possible to obtain a supply of this necessary article; the fish die in the ponds; rivers swelling above their banks, their torrents increased by the melting snows, and containing vast masses of floating ice, burst their boundaries and devastate the neigh. bouring country. The working of water-mills is stopped;. vegetables suffer; wood and fuel entirely

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fail, or become excessively enhanced in price; grain, potatoes, &c. if not well covered, are spoiled, and plants and trees die. Many animals perish from cold or hunger, and the health and safety of man is often endangered.

These are some of the most striking evils which the rigour of a severe season may produce; but how many winters do we not pass without witnessing such a degree of extreme severity? Admitting, however, that these disastrous effects oftener occurred, what right have we to complain, when the advantages much more than compensate for any evils we may endure? Knowing so little of the great chain of causes which links together this world, how are we poor finite beings to pronounce and to decide upon what is best for nature, or upon what is most prejudicial to her? Let us not then expose our ignorance and absurdity by blaming or condemning the laws of nature, be canse we see but a very minute part, and are totally incapable of grasping the whole. Let us rather ac. knowledge our incapacity, and acquire a confidence in the ways of Providence which shall induce us to believe and to feel assured, that He who has created the heavens and the earth, has likewise ordained a portion of happiness and of good sufficient for our present condition, and far exceeding all the accumu lated evils we can possibly endure. With this reliance upon the rock of ages, we shall remain firm and unmoved, amid the warring of elements and the general wreck of nature; whilst we ascribe praise, honour, and thanksgiving to our wise and beneficent Creator.

JANUARY XVII.

Nature reposes during the Winter.

THE days of winter are the days of Nature's rest. In the preceding months she has been exhausted with.

incessant labour for the good of man. How rich has the spring been in flowers; how the seeds have expanded and the foliage sprouted! What abundance of fruits the summer prepares for the autumn's maturing hand! Every month, every day we receive some fresh gift from nature. As the tender mother provides for her young with anxious care, so nature is busied from morn to evening in supplying our wants, and in procuring us a succession of comforts and blessings to make life's fleeting moments smile with joy and with delight. Food, raiment, and the chief sources of our pleasures, are all derived from her fostering bosom. For us she makes the seeds to open and expand, the herbs to bud, the trees to look gay with foliage, beautiful with blossoms, and to pour forth their riches in fruit of every kind that can please the eye or gratify the taste. For us, the golden grain waves over the fields, the vine offers her varied treasures, and the whole creation is clothed in verdure, and presents to the delighted observer an infinitely varied and beautiful field of attractions. Wearied by so many labours, Nature, for a space, reposes, in order to acquire new force, that she may again be equally fruitful, and again be enabled to assume her wonted resplendency.

Here also, O beneficent Creator! I adore thy wisdom. The repose of nature in winter is not less interesting to us, nor less worthy of entering into the plan of thy Divine Providence, than her utmost activity in spring and summer. Thou hast prepared the different revolutions of the earth; thou hast established the most intimate relation between them; and with an impartial hand hast distributed labour and rest. It is Thou who hast willed that each sun should vary the seasons of nature, in such times and ways as are most fit for the perfection of the whole. If I have ever been foolish enough to blame any thing in the government of the world, O God! pardon my

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temerity. I now see, and am fully persuaded, that all the arrangements of thy Providence, however extraordinary they may appear to my feeble intellects, are full of wisdom and goodness. Now, that I see the earth mantled with a deep snow, I think of the good which will result from it, and bless the wisdom of God; for I now know that unless nature, at certain intervals, enjoyed a state of rest, we should no longer see the flowers and the fruits which so beautify the creation and increase the comforts of life; no more would the joyful harvest-home gladden the swain, nor the fields exchange their dusky hue for the sprightly green.

There is a time also, when the labours, the cares, and the vexations of man shall cease, when his sorrows shall be no more. In the spring and summer of life, the greatest activity and exertions are necessary to secure a comfortable existence for ourselves, and to contribute all in our power to the good of our fellowcreatures. The autumn will soon arrive; and may we resemble the luxuriant trees which shed into our lap their ripe and mature fruits! May we be enabled from our own fulness to give to others a portion of our treasures, and make the rich stores of our minds flow into those who have not had equal opportunities of acquiring knowledge! so that in the winter of our age, when the measure of our days shall be filled, and our head silvered o'er with time, it may be said, as we pass along, see that venerable man, who has devoted his youth to the benefit of mankind, whose days have been passed in the continued exertion of his faculties, and in the constant pursuit of active good, he is hast, ening to receive the reward of his good actions in the eternal kingdom of peace, of joy, and of felicity!

JANUARY XVIII.

Of the Laplanders.

Ir is my desire to begin this meditation with a lively sense of gratitude to my Creator, and of compassion for those of my fellow-creatures to whom na. ture has been less bountiful in her gifts. I shall con. fine my attention in this day's reflection to the Laplanders, and to the natives of those countries which border upon the arctic circle; a race of people whose lot, compared with ours, seems to be much less happy. Their country is almost entirely formed of mountains, perpetually capped with snow and ice, the continued chain of which is only interrupted by vast marshes. Winter reigns during the greatest part of the year; the nights are long, and the days have but a feeble light. According to the season, the inhabitants live in houses or in tents. In winter they seek shelter from the cold in their houses, which have neither door nor chimney; the fire is in the centre, and the smoke escapes through a vaulted aperture in front, by which they enter into the house, being from the lowness of the passage obliged to creep upon their hands and feet; the roof of the house is covered with furs, and the walls within are lined with the same materials; they also sleep and sit down upon the skins of animals. During six months of the year they are enveloped in the shades of night, and, confined to their houses, hear nothing around them but the whistling of the wind, the roaring of the tempest, and the fierce howling of the wolves, driven by hunger to prowl for their prey near the habitations of man.

How thankful ought we to be that we do not live in such a climate, where, far as the eye can reach, extends one vast chain of icy mountains and immense