308 FACULTIES OF BIRDS. 



and instincts, suiting living creatures to exist and 

 to enjoy existence in them all. From the glowing 

 equator to the vicinity of the frozen poles, all nature 

 is instinct with life and buoyant with happiness. 

 On the dry land, the fields and the deserts, the 

 woods and the forests, the valleys and the mount- 

 ains, all teem with animation and are vocal with 

 joy. The waters, the lakes, the rivers, and the 

 mighty ocean from shore to shore, bring forth and 

 nourish their myriads of living creatures, different 

 in kind, but united by a wonderful analogy into one 

 grand and mighty chain of existence, all fitted with 

 superlative wisdom to their respective habitations. 

 Even the viewless air is not void of life and indica- 

 tions of enjoyment ; the feathered tribes there soar 

 with the wings which all-bountiful nature has pro- 

 vided, traversing fearlessly the blue expanse, and 

 singing as they mount towards the clouds. 



Nor is it to be forgotten, that of all sublunary 

 creatures, man alone is endowed with faculties 

 capable of discerning the Creator's hand in his 

 works. Had not the human race been called into 

 existence, all these magnificent provisions would 

 have been unappreciated and unknown. The glo- 

 ries of the Divine perfections would still, indeed, 

 have been inscribed on nature, but among earthly 

 existences there would have been no eye to read and 

 no heart to feel them. Man has justly been called 

 the priest of nature, and while from the seen he 

 rises to the unseen, from the temporal to the eter- 

 nal, he ought never to forget that the high rank 

 which has been assigned him implies a high respon- 

 sibility ; and that, in proportion as his vision is en- 

 larged and his faculties are exalted, his duties and 

 obligations are, to an equal extent, increased. 



THE END. 



