4ÎO STUDIES OF NATURE. 



from us the action of Nature; they announce, in 

 mod inftances, the fame temperatures to the days 

 which fet the birds a-finging, and to thofe which 

 reduce them to filence. The harmonies of Hea- 

 ven are to be felt only by the heart of Man. All 

 Nations, ftruck by their ineffable language, raife 

 their hands and their eyes to Heaven, in the invo- 

 luntary emotions of joy or of grief. 



Reafon, however, tells them that God is every 

 ■where. How comes it that no one ftretches out 

 his arms toward the Earth, or to the Horizon, in 

 the attitude of invocation ? Whence comes the 

 fentiment which whifpers to them, God is in Hea- 

 ven? Is it becaufe Heaven is the place where light 

 dwells ? Is it becaufe the light itfelf, which dif- 

 clofes all objects to us, not being, like our ter- 

 reftrial fubftances, liable to be divided, corrupted, 

 deftroyed, and confined, feems to prefent fome- 

 thing ecleftial in it's fubftance ? 



It is to the fentiment of infinity, which the fight 

 of the Heavens infpires, that we mult afcribe the 

 tafte of all Nations, for building temples on the 

 fummit of a mountain, and the invincible propen- 

 fity which the Jews felt, like other Nations, to 

 worfhip upon high places. There is not a moun- 

 tain, all over the iflands of the Archipelago, but 

 what has it's church ; nor a hill, in China, but 



what 



