DEC. VI. Winter Plants. IT is a mistaken opinion, that winter is in general destructive to plants and trees. It is, on the éontrary, very certain, that the variety of heat and cold contributes much to the growth and propagation of vegetables. In the warmest climates there are immense deserts, which would be still more barren, if the burning heats were not sometimes succeeded by cold. Winter, so far from being prejudicial to the fertility of the earth, is favourable to it. Even the coldest countries (notwithstanding their snow and ice) have plants which succeed very well. Many trees, for example, the fir, the pine, the juniper, the cedar, the larch, and the boxtree, grow as well in winter as at any other season; and this was necessary, that the forests might fur. nish us with enough of wood. The house-leek, pepper-wort, marjoram, thyme, sage, lavender, the humble wormwood, and other such plants, preserve their verdure in winter. There are even some flowers which grow under the snow. The single anemony, the early hellebore, the primrose, the hyacinth, and winter narcissus, the snow. drop, or white winter-flower, and all sort of mosses, grow green in the cold. The florists tell us, that the plants under the frigid zone, if put into a green-house, cannot bear a heat beyond 38 degrees; but they bear cold so well, that they grow all the winter in Sweden, as well as in most of the parts of France, Germany, Russia, and the northern parts of China. The vegetables belonging to climates extremely cold cannot bear heat; nor can those which grow on high mountains in any country. Mountains and rocks, whose tops are all the year covered with snow, are not without their 4. peculiar plants. On the rocks of Lapland, there grow vegetables which are also found in the Alps and Pyrennean hills, and on the mountains of Spitzberg, but nowhere else. When they are transplanted into gardens, they rise pretty high, but they bear scarce any fruit. Few of the bestgrowing plants in the northern countries can' thrive without snow. Thus we find, that there is no land in the immense garden of nature entirely barren. From the finest dust to the hardest rocks, from under the line to the north pole, there is no soil which does not produce and nourish plants peculiar to it. No season is absolutely without flowers or fruit. Merciful and beneficent Creator! grant that, even in this severe season, we may have a due sense of thy fatherly goodness, and the blessings heaped upon us. If we were properly attentive to the government of thy providence, we should every where find occasion to acknowledge thy goodness and wisdom. DEC. VII. An Exhortation to remember the Poor at this Season. THOSE who are quietly sitting in convenient cheerful houses, and who hear the whistling of the sharp north wind, let them reflect on their unhappy fellow-creatures, many of whom are suffering the utmost severity of poverty and cold.→ "Happy those who at this season have a house to shelter them, clothes to cover them, bread and the fruit of the vine to refresh them, with a bed of down on which they may repose and yield to pleasing dreams. Unhappy the poor man to whom fortune refuses even the necessaries of life! Without shelter, without clothes, often stretched upon a bed of pain, and too modest to proclaim → his wants." We ought all to be touched with the misery of this order of people. How many poor creatures in the streets distressed with cold and hunger! How many old people, with scarce any thing to cover them, exposing them. selves for whole hours to the inclemency of the weather, in order to solicit the charity of passen. gers! How many sick are there without food or nourishment, lying on straw in miserable huts, where the wind, the cold, and the snow penetrate! Winter renders benevolence to the poor the more necessary, because it increases their wants. Is it not the time in which nature itself is poor? and is it not adding double value to our beneface tions to bestow them seasonably? If we have been enriched with the summer and autumn fruits, was it not with the intention that we should share them with our ellow-creatures, now, when nature is at rest? The more the cold increases, the more disposed should we be to relieve the necessitous; to pour into the bosom of poverty all we can spare. What other end could Providence propose in the unequal division of earthly riches, were it not to excite beneficence in the wealthy, by thề affecting scenes of the miseries of the poor. Let us therefore have compassion on our fellow-creatures, and not let them suffer more than even the brutes. It is our duty to soften their evils, and Providence permits us to have a share in this honour. It is our duty to clothe, to feed, and to comfort them. Let us then give of our superfluity, or share our little with them. Nobody is so poor that they may not do some good. Let us enjoy the sweetest satisfaction that a noble mind can feel, the godlike pleasure of relieving the wants of others; of softening and lessening their weight of adversity. How easy is it to do this! We need only retrench a few of our expences in dress and pleasures. How fit an offering would it be to virtue, were our benevolence to be attended by a conquest over our passions, in retrenching the indulgence of luxury and vanity, in order to bestow our charity on the poor! DEC. VIII. Nature is a Lesson for the Heart. WE gain, in every respect, by studying nature; and it may with reason be called a school for the heart, since it clearly instructs us in our duty towards God, our neighbour, and ourselves. Can any thing inspire us with more profound veneration towards God, than the reflection that it is he who has not only formed our globe from nothing, but his almighty hand also that confines the sun within its orb, and the sea within its bounds? Can we humble ourselves too much before that Being who created the innumerable worlds which roll over our heads? What are we in comparison to those immense globes, and how little must the earth in all its glory appear, when considered in that light! Must we not shudder at the very thought of offending this God, whose boundless power we every moment see proofs of, and who, with a single glance, can destroy or make us wretched but the contemplation of nature is also highly calculated to fill us with love and gratitude towards its Author. All nature loudly proclaims this comfortable truth, that God is love. It was love that induced him to create the world, and to communicate to other beings the felicity which he himself enjoys. For this purpose, he created the universe, and an innumerable multitude of creatures, that all of them, from the archangel to the worm, should feel,, each according to its nature and capacity, the effects of Divine Goodness. Is there, in reality, a single creature which * does not furnish proofs of his immense goodness? But particularly, if we reflect on ourselves, how many may we not find? The Creator has endow. ed us with reason, not only to enjoy his blessings, but to acknowledge also this love with which he honours us. He ordained that we should have dominion over the animals, to make them subservient to our wants and conveniencies. It is also for us that the earth produces fruit in such abundance. So many blessings daily enjoyed, and to which we owe the continuance of our existence; the disinterested love of this great Being, who can receive no return from his creatures, and whose felicity can admit of no increase, can we be in sensible to all this? Must it not excite the most grateful love for our bountiful Creator? 1 cannot conceive it possible for mean and selfish sentiments to fill the heart of a man, who, in the contemplation of nature, must every where discover traces of infinite beneficence in the Supreme Being, who does not less propose the happiness of each individual, than the universal good of the world. If we reflect on the ways of Providence, it is impossible not to be sensibly touched with the goodness and merey of God towards every liv. ing creature: and the heart must be depraved to a very great degree, which is not inspired to imi. tate, as much as possible, his universal benevőlence: for "God maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." Can we then exclude any from our charity, or be partial in the distribution of it? Lastly, When we reflect on the admirable order which reigns throughout all nature, ought it not to produce the best dispositions in our minds? If we are convinced that nothing can be pleasing to God, which is contrary to order and regularity, should we not conform to it? How unpardonable to oppose, by our irregularities, the merciful designs of Providence in our favour? Ought we |