6 THE CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. 



feelings, the right observation of the Seasons must 

 produce a deep impression ; for each of these vicissi- 

 tudes to which the natural world is subject, are to the 

 wise like the voice of the great Lord of Nature 

 addressing Adam in the garden of Eden, and saying, 

 " Adam, where art thou ?" Each of them seems to call 

 man to the arduous duty of self-examination ; to remind 

 him who and what he is ; and to question him as 

 to what are his hopes, and his pursuits. They forcibly 

 awaken him to his real situation ; for he sees himself to 

 be the inhabitant of a world ever-changing, and feels 

 that human life also has its changes, — its autumn and 

 its winter, — as well as its spring and its summer. 

 Whether in the bloom of youth, or of more advanced 

 age, he beholds in the varying aspect of nature, a picture 

 of that change which is inevitable to all mortal condi- 

 tions ; and is sensible that, like the dying year, he also 

 must '* fade as a leaf," and be swept away into a land of 

 forgetful ness. How happy is it then for the man who 

 thinks and feels thus, if the spirit of the departing year 

 whispers peace to his conscience ! — if, whilst he beholds 

 the fleeting scene which earth exhibits and all its 

 glories, and is conscious that these are emblems of 

 his own mortal changes, he is also sensible that these 



