CONCLUSION. HAVING endeavoured to point out the changes on the face of nature, during the varying year, we shall conclude our labours with the following impressive extract from St Pierre. "We have attempted in the course of this work," says this amiable writer, "to treat of the harmonies of the sun and moon with animated beings; but these harmonies are inexhaustible. All animals, in short, have the phases of their life regulated by those of the sun and moon. Scarcely does the orb of day sink under the horizon, when all animals are struck. with lethargy, with the exception of those to whom night is the season of excursion. The wakefulness of the latter proves, as well as a number of other effects of nature, that sleep is not a mere mechanical result of the absence of the sun. Insects now take refuge in the hearts of plants; birds, nestling in foliage, repose with their heads under their wings; a flock of sheep retires to rest under the shelter of a hedge, and the watchful dog who guards them, sinks into slumber, after having turned his body several times round. All the functions of intelligence are suspended in the absence of that orb which produces its images; nay, several of the smaller insects find their existence terminated by the setting sun, for the ephemeral fly does not see a second dawn. Soon, Harmonies of Nature, however, comes forth the moon to give new life to the world. Like the sun, she has her plants, her insects, her birds, her quadrupeds; it is by her doubt. ful light that the mirabilis and other nocturnal plants open their flowers; that various species of fish pursue their progress to another clime; that the tortoise lays her eggs on the solitary strand; and that the nightingale, the bird of spring, delights to make the echoes of the forest resound with its song. "Many insects live only during one of the lunar quarters; others live a fortnight, others a month; some go through an entire season, and die at the summer solstice; but the greater number perishes at the autumnal equinox, at the time when the sun preceeds to enlighten another hemisphere. It is then that the marmot retires and falls asleep in the hollow rock, to awaken only at the return of the spring equinox; for to her the year seems a day and a night of six months each. A crowd of animals suspend their labours in our hemisphere at the same season; the bees take rest in their hives; several species of birds, like the quail and swallow, follow the course of the sun, and pass into the hemisphere which he warms; while a multitude perishes in that which he abandons. Carnivorous animals are dispersed in all directions to devour their remains; the furred fox, and the white bear, penetrate even into the bosom of the frozen zone, into regions of snow and ice, which hardly any living animal can inhabit. The currents of the ocean still carry to the shore a quantity of marine substances coming from the temperate and torrid zones. It is thus that the instinct which carries the foxes and white bears to the sea coast of our frozen zone during winter leads me to suppose that the currents of the ocean bring them a supply of food, which would not be the case, unless these currents descended from an opposite pole. "There exists the greatest differences in respect to the extent of the orbits of the different planets; one requires only a month for its revolution round the sun; others, respectively, three months, eight months, two years, twelve years, thirty years, and, finally, nearly eighty-four years. To all these, a calculator may find, or fancy that he finds, corresponding periods in the duration of vegetable and animal life. He may compute that several kinds of insects, such as butterflies, live between one month and eight; others, such as the May-bug, two years, or one year of Mars. Several birds and quadrupeds, among others, goats, are understood to live twelve years, or a year of Jupiter; other quadrupeds, thirty years, or a year of Saturn; while the life of man may be occasionally brought forward as completing the longset period of all, the revolution of the Georgium Sidus. A farther inquiry might lead such a speculator to ascertain examples of still longer life, in the animal and vegetable world, and to find, perhaps, parallels to the return of comets. Leaving these visionary speculations, I am to observe, that the animals which die of old age go off the stage, as they came upon it, without being aware of the change. The last steps in the descent of life are on as gentle a slope as those of its commence ment. They have not been led by vain ambition to climb precipices, or to incur a violent death; but, faithful to the laws received from nature, they restore her that instinct which has now become useless in an exhausted machine: they expire without re gret, remorse or murmur. when a tranquil death takes place in the night, the moon may be said to untie those links which she strung together at the time of birth. Her light still sheds a pale ray over their breathless bodies, and covers them with her funereal crape; while the earth, their common mother, which receives them in her bosom, raises as an ornament to their tomb, the broad foilage of the burdock, or a garland of ivy. Time, like a reaper, cuts down generation after generation of animals; and he likewise plants and gathers, but in comparatively smaller numbers, the individuals of our species. "Let man, however, not vent complaints on the short duration of life; his celestial harmonies will subsist after his terrestial are at an end. The Author of Nature has attached to his bodily existence several years of bitterness and trial; but he has given his soul an eternity of joy and delight.-He is by no means a being condemned to creep on this globe, or to tear its bosom with the ploughshare for the sake of supporting a frail existence. His life is transient, but it has an object, and that object is sublime. Behold him expiring in his bed; his body is in pain, but he already contemplates a God prepared to receive him. Can this being, so weak and helpless, be so strongly impressed with a thought that would not have been sanctioned by the Creator of all thoughts! No; it is not in vain that he has opened his hopes to a future destiny. He quits a world of darkness for a world of light; he quits misfortune, and frail mortals like himself, to enter on an abode where death is not known. His eyes will no longer be distressed by the sight of distress; every ob. ject will be replete with content and satisfaction. How great must be the transports of man, when, escaped from the agony of life, he sees the gates of heaven open to him. He is no longer a creature. of the dust; he is an angel, a superior being, advanced to an upper region. After remaining, during a season, a slave and in irons, now behold him free, and the possessor of a new domain! But lately sad and suffering, he dragged his step towards death, and he rises from it full of glory. He inhabited a world covered with funereal cypress, bedewed with tears, where all are subject to change and to death; where we indulge love only to experience suffering, and where we meet our friends only to part with them. He is now transported to an abode where all is eternal; his soul is kindled with everlasting love, and he casts, from the height of the firmament, a sympathizing look towards his fellow-creatures in this lower world." FINIS. |