512 JUVENILE LITEUATIKE, 



is pure and serene, we say that we should like such weather to continue 

 for ever ; no doubt it would be very pleasant to our feelings to enjoy 

 perpetual sunshine, and to have at all times the cool and refreshing: 

 breezes of spring playing around us. 



*' Let us, however, consider for a moment, what the consequences 

 would be if our wishes were to be gratified. 



" An equal temperature, or a sameness of seasons, kept up at all 

 times and in all places, would cause a loss of at least one half of the 

 natural productions of the earth. 



Wi Instead therefore of each nation having- something peculiar to itself, 

 and valuable to every other, all countries would possess the same things, 

 and all countries would want the same things. * 



" Thus then would be an end of commerce between nations, and of the 

 many advantages which arise from it. 



" But a worse consequence would attend a constant sameness of 

 weather, however fine or delightful it might be : the air would be 

 stagnant, and would soon become charged with noisome exhalations or 

 vapours : the winds which arise from differences of heat, in different 

 places, would cease to blow. Thus there would be a dead and constant 

 calm, and the air which we breathe would occasion disease and death : 

 no art which we could use, would prevent a universal pestilence, fatal 

 alike to man, to animals, and to plants. 



" Happily for us, a beneficent and all- wise God who knows what we 

 require better than we do ourselves, makes the changes in the weather, 

 and all things else work together for our good." 



And again in the following lesson : 



" What a beautiful world is this in which we live ! how full of 

 harmony, of design, and of wisdom! Every day brings with it some 

 change, and every change affords new proofs of the care and bountiful 

 providence of Almighty God/' 



It is in this way that instruction should be blended with religion, 

 and it is thus that the idea of a bountiful Creator should ever be 

 mingled with observations upon His works. What can be more 

 beautiful, more simple, more eloquent, or more appropriate, than the 

 concluding remarks of the volume. 



" We have thus traced the seasons through their varied changes ; we 

 have seen all nature shrouded in the sleep of winter then bursting into 

 life in spring then glowing with beauty and sweetness during summer, 

 and, finally, leaving completed the purposes for which all this life and 

 beauty were called into being, during autumn again sinking into repose. 



" And we have seen, that all are beautiful, and that all show the care 

 and protecting hand of Almighty wisdom and goodness." 



If the spirit pervading this volume is thus excellent, and its style 

 thus beautiful, the information it contains is not less striking and 

 valuable ; and we do not know of any single work, however large, 

 which can compare with it. The knowledge it conveys is also of 

 that kind, which the common affairs of every-day life demand. The 

 account given of the almanack, of the divisions of time, of days, 

 weeks, and months, is particularly full and explicit, and, withal, is 

 conveyed in so simple and graceful a way, that dates and figures 

 look interesting. In speaking of the origin of the divisions of time, 

 the Author says : 



" At a very early period of the world, as far back indeed as history 



