CHAPTER II. 



THE CORN-FIELD. 



Rent is the fleecy mantle of the sky ; 

 The clouds fly different : and the sudden sun 

 By fits effulgent gilds th' illumined field, 

 And black by fits the shadows sweep along 

 A gaily-checkered heart-expanding view : 

 Far as the circling eye can shoot around, 

 Unbounded tossing in a flood of corn. 



THOMPSON. 



PLANTS which produce the various kinds of 

 grain used as food by men and cattle are included 

 under the general name of Corn. They are also 

 sometimes called Cereal grasses, from Ceres, an 

 imaginary being, worshipped in ancient times by 

 some heathen nations as the goddess who watched 

 over corn-fields. That the providence of the one 

 true God keeps a close watch over all His works, 

 we know from the teaching of the Sacred Volume ; 

 and the experience of every day's life repeats the 

 same lesson in one form or another. We cannot 

 in every case discover what ends our Heavenly 

 Father has in view in creating, protecting, and 

 preserving a vast number of vegetables, and even 

 animals, which to us seem unimportant, or by 

 what means those ends are effected ; yet, if we 

 reflect on the particulars which have come under 

 our notice with respect to those which are emi- 

 nently useful to man, and which have on that 

 account been thought worthy of investigation, we 

 shall discern so much that is fraught with instruc- 



