a strap having spikes on it was put on the calf, and it was then admitted into the same enclosure with the cow. The latter, on finding the spikes hurt her udder, lay down upon her side, and thus the calf was able to suck without any pain to its mother.

In further illustration of the faculties of animals under peculiar circumstances, I may mention the following interesting and well-authenticated fact.

The late Earl of Thanet was in the habit of removing, every year, with his hunters and hounds from Hothfield, near Ashford in Kent, to another seat he had in Westmoreland. A short time previous to one of these removals, a Fox had been run to earth near Hothfield; and upon being dug out, he proved to be so extraordinary a large and fine one, that Lord Thanet directed it to be conveyed to Westmoreland. In the course of the next season, a fox was run to earth again at Hothfield, and upon being dug out, the huntsman, whippers-in, and the earth-stoppers, all declared that it was the same fox which had been taken into Westmoreland, as it had an unusually large white blaze on his forehead. Lord Thanet was exceedingly energetic in his expressions of disbelief of the statement of his people, but they persisted in their assertions, and having ear-marked the fox, he was again taken into Westmoreland, and turned loose in the neighbourhood of Appleby Castle.

In hunting the next season at Hothfield, a fox was killed at that place, which proved to be the one in question, and which had thus twice found his way from Westmoreland into Kent. By what instinct or exertions of its faculties the animal was enabled to do this, the distance from one place to the other being about three hundred and twenty miles, it is not easy to form an idea. Its well-known cunning would, one would suppose, be of little avail in such an emergency, except in enabling it to procure food.

Snakes and some other animals, and even insects, will put on a semblance of death, when they find that they have no means left of escaping from their enemies. My Bees have contracted the entrance to their hives, in order to protect them the more readily from depredation. Birds have artfully endeavoured to conceal their nests by a different covering, when they find that their young have been in danger from the discovery of the nest. Eggs have been forsaken after they have been touched, and the nest, after all the labour and art which have been bestowed upon it, abandoned; but however much the young may have been handled, I have never yet known an instance in which fear has overcome affection, and induced the parent birds to abandon their offspring; so powerfully does love pervade the animal creation.

In order justly to estimate the wise arrange

ments of our benevolent Creator, the mind cannot be too frequently employed in searching into the various facts and circumstances connected with everything we see around us. If we habituated ourselves to this pleasing study, we should discover in His works, a Being full of the tenderest compassion and kindness, incessantly employed in the welfare of His creatures, however mean and insignificant they may appear to us, and evincing His goodness by the very abundance of His benefits. This is a consideration calculated to fill us with gratitude as well as admiration; and these feelings have been well described by one of my favourite poets.

Oh! by yonder mossy seat,
In my hours of sweat retreat,
Might I thus my soul employ,
With sense of gratitude and joy:
Rais'd, as antient prophets were,

In heavenly vision, praise and pray'r;
Pleasing all men, hurting none,

Pleas'd and blest with God alone;

Then while the gardens take my sight,

With all the colours of delight;
While silver waters glide along,

To please my ear, and court my song;
I'll lift my voice and tune my string,
And Thee, great source of nature sing.

PARNELL.

Thy mystic characters I see,

Wrought in each flower, inscribed on every tree;

In ev'ry leaf that trembles to the breeze
I hear the voice of God among the trees.
With thee in shady solitudes I walk,
With thee in busy crowded cities talk ;
In every creature own thy forming power,
In each event thy providence adore."

MRS. BARBAULD.

In surveying the wide, extended range of created objects, it is impossible not to be struck with the peculiar care which an all-wise Creator has bestowed upon all his creatures. There is no reptile however loathsome, no bird however feeble, no insect however insignificant, for whose well being provision has not been made in some way or other. Foxes shelter themselves in holes, and have peculiar instincts implanted in them, the birds of the air have nests, and insects are taught to make or spin their habitations. Plants are watered with the dews and rains of heaven, and the little modest floweret of the desert is not neglected by its maker. The glorious sun shines upon all alike, and the beauteous moon is seen in the magnificent vault of Heaven, not only "an ornament in the high places of the Lord," but

dispelling the nocturnal gloom, and cheering all nature with her refulgence. While we reflect on these things, let us remember that the Great Creator of all we see, and of all we enjoy-the compassionate Saviour of the world, went about doing good, yet had no place where he could lay his head. If our minds were disposed as they ought, to reflect on this astonishing fact, to consider, the sufferings, want, fatigue and privations of Him by whose command all things were made, we may well be lost in astonishment at the stupendous love and mercy shewn to us. There may be an affectation of ignorance and indifference in some, and doubts may be raised where none ought to exist. An inward monitor has been implanted in the breast of every one that assures him, not only that there is a future state of existence, but that he is an accountable being, and accountable to that Saviour who died for him. Health, prosperity, youth, high spirits, and above all all the pride of our hearts, may keep away reflection for a time, but when disease, adversity, old age, and melancholy have the ascendancy, the mind is tortured with painful doubts, fears to scrutinize its awful responsibility, and shrinks from a task which has been neglected and has therefore become dreadful. The cheerful grasshopper of the field, the faithful dog that frisks around us, the soaring and singing lark, then