A[AY. 6S 



MAY. 



" All the flowers that gild the spring, 

 Hither their still music bring ; 

 If Heaven bless them, thankful, they 

 Smell more sweet, and look more gay. 



" Though their voices gentle be, 

 Streams have too their melody ; 

 Night and day they warbling run, 

 Never pause, but still sing on. 



" Wake, for shame, my sluggish heart. 

 Wake and gladly sing thy part ; 

 Learn of birds, and streams, and flowers. 

 How to use thy nobler powers." — Hickes. 



How wonderM appears the change which a 

 few weeks have now made on the face of 

 Nature, if we compare this month, and its 

 aspects and productions, with the comparatively 

 bare and gloomy appearance of the garden 

 during February and March ! How has the 

 Almighty's word been working as surely in 

 bringing forth the bright verdure and radiant 

 flowers from their wintry darkness, as it did 

 when he framed this beautifully organized 

 world out of chaos. In the northern countries 

 of Europe, where the change is greater and 

 more rapid, the effect is less pleasing than in 

 the gradual transition of our winter to spring. 

 Laing, speaking of this in Norway, says, the 

 snow is painfully bright to the eyes under " the 

 sunshine. When it melts, vegetation bursts 

 forth at once ; but the patchy, un picturesque 

 appearance of the country, with a knob of 

 a rock here, and a corner of a field there, 

 appearing through the white covering, deprives 

 us of the pleasing impressions of an English 

 spring. The rapid advance of vegetation is 



