THE CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. 5 



gentle and friendly monitors. Advantageous as they 

 undoubtedly are, there is a melancholy pleasure in 

 beholding some of them, and in taking leave of others. 

 The balmy breezes of spring, which tell of the long 

 expected revival of nature, are but of short duration, and 

 summer prodigal of heat, and teeming with life, soon 

 gives place to autumn ; whilst autumn itself, though rich 

 with its golden harvests, gradually falls into "the sere 

 and yellow leaf," which marks its decline : and then, 

 rapidly rushing on upon his steps, comes winter — stern 

 icy, winter — with his mantle of snow, and his breath 

 of mists and storms. Now these changes, well known 

 and expected as they are, can never be attentively 

 observed, without in some degree, saddening the gay, 

 and solemnizing the sober-minded. It is not merely 

 that they remind us of mortality ; they teach rather a 

 lesson of immortality. For, as it has been well 

 remarked, if we look nature through, — 



* 'Tis revolution all, — 



All change, no death !' 



* All to refliourish fades ; 



As in a wheel, all sinks to reascend : 

 Emblem of man who passes, not expires.' 



Where the heart then is truly affected by religious 

 b5 



