1^6 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



the ground to induce her child to learn to walk i 

 (he keeps at a little diflance ; fmiles to him, calls 

 him, ftretches ont her arms towards him : but if 

 he happens to fall, Ihe flies to his affiftance, (he 

 wipes away his tears, and comforts him. 



Thus Providence interpofes for the relief of 

 Man, fupplying his wants in a thoufand extraor- 

 dinary ways. What would have become of him 

 in the earlieft ages, had he been abandoned to his 

 own reafon, flill unaided by experience ? Where 

 found he corn, which at this day conftitutes a prin- 

 cipal part of the food of fo many Nations, and 

 which the Earth, while it fpontaneoufly produces 

 all forts of plants, no where exhibits ? Who taught 

 him agriculture, an art fo fimple, that the mofk 

 ftupid of Mankind is capable of learning it, and 

 yet fo fublime, that themoft intelligent of animals 

 never can pretend to pradife it ? There is fcarcely 

 an animal but what fupports it's life by vegetables, 

 but what has daily experience of their re-produc- 

 tion, and which does not employ, in queft of thofe 

 that fuit them, many more combinations than 

 would have been neceflary for re-fowing them. 



But, on what did Man himfelf fubfift, till an 

 JJÏS or a Ceres revealed to him this blefling of the 

 Ikies ? Who (hewed him, in the firft ages of the 

 World, the original fruits of the orchard, fcattered 



over 



