The adaptation of the various plants to their peculiar seasons, and the regular and beautiful

elevation above the level of the sea, but which are in a state of high cultivation. In these, while the immediate object of providing a certain and abundant supply of food has been accomplished by the labours of man, an indirect influence has been exerted scarcely less beneficial, by rendering the country in general more healthy and agreeable.

It is

"In the central parts of Scotland, where the introduction of agricultural improvements has been much more recent than in England, but where, owing to causes whose investigation would be misplaced in these pages, their progress has been much more rapid, the change of climate has fully kept pace with those improvements. within the experience of persons still living, to have noticed that the snow, which in that conntry formerly began to fall in November, was not wholly gone until the month of April; while in the middle of summer the heat was so excessive that agricultural labourers were obliged to suspend their toil during four or five hours in the middle of the day. At that time the autumnal rains frequently descended with so much violence, that the crops, which had been retarded by the coldness of the spring, were prevented from ripening on the high grounds, were lodged and rotted on lands that were lower, and swept away by the swelling of the streams over the holms and meadows. In the same spots, at the present day, the quantity of snow which usually falls during the winter is comparatively small, appears rarely before Christmas, and is gone in February, or early in March. The summer heat is more uniformly distributed, seldom amounting to a degree oppressive to the labourer, or protracted to a term injurious to the crops; while the rain which follows is neither so violent in degree, nor so long continued, and happening when the grain is far advanced towards ripeness, the injury which it does is comparatively trifling.

"This mitigation of the seasons, which is wholly referrible to the progress of cultivation, has had the happiest effect upon the health of the inhabitants. Diseases, which formerly paid their periodical visits with distressing regularity, have either been wholly put to flight, or

order in which they successively appear, proclaim the unerring wisdom and providential regard of the Creator; who not only ministers to our delight by presenting to the eye an infinite variety of beautiful objects, but gives to us also "the kindly fruits of the earth, so as in due time we may enjoy them."

When the earth is first loosened by the influence of Spring from its icy fetters, the snowdrop, which seems a plume dropped from the timid zephyr's wing, just peeps above the ground, to regale the eye and prove that resigning its glory, and lying hid and inert for a season, is no proof of annihilation, but rather that "death is the gate of life.”* Then appear the crocus, the hepatica, the primrose, and the violet, which scarcely raise their heads

have been deprived of the terrors in which they were clothed; the supply of food, which rested upon contingencies beyond controul or calculation, has been secured with a comparative certainty; and famines, which commonly recurred at periods only a few years apart, are now happily unknown, except in some of the very wildest districts, and then only at very distant intervals."-Vegetable Substances used for the food of man.

Mors janua vitæ.

Before the Christian era, according to Diodorus, the Troglodites adorned the funeral obsequies of their parents with branches of hawthorn, as a joyful emblem of their lively faith that "death was indeed the gate of life, having passed through which they should never again be separated.

a span high, as if conscious of their incapability to "bear the buffeting of the pitiless storm;" but as the winds subside, and milder weather approaches, taller and more graceful tribes succeed, till the most delicate and the most majestic of Flora's train unveil their beauties to the soft breath and ardent smile of summer. In like manner the fruits succeed each other. When stimulated by heat, we have the gooseberry, currant, strawberry, cherry, apricot, pear, apple, &c. whose delicious juices allay the thirst and cool the blood, till the return of a moderate or cold temperature renders the use of such things again unnecessary and improper.

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The revolving seasons not only excite our observance by the varieties they present, but each is fraught with peculiar blessings. They are messengers which feelingly persuade us what we are;" affording perpetual change of object and temperature to regale the eye, exercise the mind, and energize the muscular system; and without this we know not into what a state of

lethargy our powers might soon fall. Is there a heart so dead to feeling as not to be charmed with the tender budding graces of the vernal season! Who that hath an eye to see, an ear to hear, and a sensible olfactory organ, but must rejoice in the youth of the year when inspiring

gales quicken and invigorate the vital functions,

and a profusion of objects start forth as it were to captivate the senses.—

"Forth in the pleasing Spring

Thy beauty walks, Thy tenderness and love.
Wide flush the fields; the softening air is balm ;
Echo the mountains round; the forest smiles;
And every sense, and every heart is joy."

What delightful reminiscences does it awaken of the time when the meadows appeared to us an enchanted region, and with a fairy's lightness of tread, and a fairy's buoyancy of heart, we bounded over the turf to collect the treasures of Flora. How sweetly does it revive in the memory the happy period when we were wont to "Start the new voice of spring to hear, and imitate his lay," and pursue the shouting stranger from glen to glen, who seemed to mock us from the tree and through every stage of his flight.

There is something in the reviviscence of nature which wakes the throb of rapture in every breast. A thousand joyous feelings are associated with the opening foliage, the fresh verdure of the meadows, and the sportive mazy flight of the vernal butterfly; while the serenity of the sky, the refreshing odour arising from the herbage, the hum of insects, and the warbling of

birds, all combine to render it inexpressibly delightful, to exhilarate the spirits, and call forth the expression of grateful adoration.

Variety, that prolific source of enjoyment, abounds in the field, the meadow, and the wood; from the majestic and sturdy oak to the delicate windflower; from the towering poplar to the diminutive lichen; from the hardy and longflowering furze to the tender and evanescent bindweed. Here also may be found every hue that is agreeable to the eye, and every odour that can gratify the smell; every elegancy of shape, and every grace of ornament.

It is with flowers that we associate the ideas of mortality and immortality. In the remote days of antiquity, the sublime Hebrew poet chose to represent the brevity of life by this striking emblem-" Man cometh up, and is cut down like a flower." The ancient uninspired poets also illustrate the same subject by similar figures

"Like leaves on trees, the race of man is found, Now green in youth, now with'ring on the ground: Another race the following Spring supplies;

They fall successive, and successive rise:

So generations in their course decay,

So flourish these when those are pass'd away."

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