264 UNITY OF SYSTEM. 



that of the Crossbill. It was made of roots and wool, loosely enough, 

 and contained six largish eggs, white, with brown spots: but the authen- 

 ticity of this I cannot vouch for, as village ornithologists cannot be 

 depended upon. 



There are some seasons in which the Crossbill is very scarce with us; 

 this is chiefly when the weather is very dry and hot, and this may be 

 easily accounted for, as being natives of a cold climate, transition would 

 be probably detrimental to the health of the bird, for it has so seldom 

 happened that they have bred in England, that their visits are probably 

 a sort of uncertain or even capricious migration, depending very much 

 upon circumstances. One thing I have constantly remarked, namely, that 

 the scarcity of fir-cones is accompanied by an almost total absence of these 

 birds, but whether they exercise in this a kind of instinctive prescience, or 

 having arrived, immediately retire again to their native shores for lack of 

 subsistence, must remain, like many other facts, unknown. Their transit, 

 however, to and fro, must be easy, for scarce any bird possesses greater 

 power of flight, or is more fitted, from its hardy nature, for distant 

 migrations. 



ON UNITY OF SYSTEM. 



( Continued from page 247.^ 



Ik pursuing this subject it seems better to incur the charge of repetition 

 or of diffusiveness, than that of obscurity, and therefore the present notes 

 are introduced, commencing with the beginning of creation, a previous 

 state or eternity being apparently beyond the comprehension of man. 

 Creation defines the outlines of man's understanding and knowledge, and 

 marks out space and time, and time seems to be dependent on space. 



The spheres, such as stars or suns, planets, comets, and aerolites, indicate 

 the principal divisions of time by their movements in space. The solid 

 globe of the sun occupies a space of nine hundred thousand miles in 

 diameter. Around this a circle of somewhat less than three hundred 

 millions of miles in diameter, includes Mars, Venus, Mercury, and the 

 Earth, with the Moon, besides numerous comets and innumerable aerolites. 

 The next concentric circle to be noticed has a diameter of nearly eight 

 hundred millions of miles, and the space between it and the first circle is 

 occupied by thirty-four or more planets. 



The third concentric circle is rather less than six thousand millions of 

 miles in diameter, and in the space between it and the second circle 

 there are four planets — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune; this last 

 one having an annual circuit which is as long as one hundred and sixty- 

 four of the Earth's years. The last concentric circle of the solar system 



