3IO STUDIES OF NATURE, 



hini this way and that. Tempefls prefent, in the 

 Heavens, the fame charafters of deftruftion. You 

 fometimes perceive the ftormy clouds moving in 

 oppofite direftions, and with various degrees of 

 velocity ; now they fly with the rapidity of light- 

 ning, while others remain immoveable as the rock. 

 In the tremendous hurricanes of the Weft-Indies, 

 the explofion is always preceded and followed by 

 a dead calm. 



The more that a body poflefles of felf-motion, 

 or of rotation, the more agreeable it appears, efpe- 

 cially when to this movement is united the har- 

 monic, or circular, motion. It is for this reafon, 

 that trees whofe leaves are moveable, fuch as the 

 afpin and poplar, have more grace than other fo- 

 reft trees, when agitated by the wind. They pleafe 

 the eye by the balancing of their tops, and by 

 prefenting, in turns, the two furfaces of their fo- 

 liage, which difplay two different greens. They 

 are likewife agreeable to the ear, from their imi- 

 tation of the bubbling of water. From the effedt 

 of felf-motion it is, that, every moral idea out of 

 the queflion, animals intcreft us more than vege- 

 tables, becaufe they have the principle of motion 

 within themfelves. 



I do not believe there is a fingle fpot on the 

 Earth in which there is not fome body in motion. 



Frequently 



