399 



promises to him. The caterpillar that resigns itself 

 to its temporary tomb, should be a model of his own 

 glad submission to the natural and moral laws of 

 his Maker; and if in his inquiries and pursuits he is 

 sometimes baffled;, sometimes shocked or distressed 

 by apparent unintelligible evil, amid a profusion of 

 good, let him. conceive as addressed to him those 

 words which his Saviour addressed to his disciples 

 on an extraordinary manifestation of his person, 

 * It is 1, be not afraid!"' 



The concluding passage of the Preface to his En- 

 glish Flora breathes the same sublime spirit, and 

 may be referred to as the latest expression of those 

 cheering hopes he was permitted to utter. 



"He who feeds the sparrows, and clothes the 

 golden lily of the fields in a splendour beyond that 

 of Solomon himself, invites us his rational crea- 

 tures to confide in his promises of eternal life. The 

 simplest blade of grass, and the grain of corn to 

 which he gives ' its own body/ are sufficient to con- 

 vince us that our trust cannot be vain. Let those 

 who hope to inherit these promises, and those who 

 love science for its own sake, cherish the same be- 

 nevolent dispositions. Envy and rivalship in one 

 case are no less censurable, than bigotry and un- 

 charitableness in the other. The former are as in- 

 compatible with the love of nature, as the latter 

 with the love of God ; and they altogether unfit us 

 for the enjoyment of happiness here or hereafter." 



Sir James composed at different times several 

 Hymns ; and these, in like manner with what has 



