BOOK. OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 



Being, who gave him his appointed course, and 

 prescribed the bounds which he can never pass." 



But how is tliis pleasing and useful variety produc- 

 ed? How is this perpetual succession of Day and 

 Night, of Spring and Summer, of Autumn and Win- 

 ter, kept up? It is by means simple, but evidently 

 striking, to the man of science and discernment. By 

 the revolution of the earth on its axis, once in twenty- 

 four hours, we have the alternate succession of day 

 and night; by its annual circuit round the sun, to- 

 gether with the inclination of its poles (lying always 

 in the same direction) to the plane of its orbit, we 

 experience all that variety of season, which is so in- 

 dispensibly necessary for the springing up, ripening, 

 and in gathering of the fruits of the earth. 



By this constitution of things, that part of the 

 earth's surface which is turned towards the sun, 

 must have the largest share of his visible presence at 

 the time ; hence, when the earth is south of that lu- 

 minary, the inhabitants of the regions north of the 

 equator, must have their summer ; and, on the con- 

 trary, those wno dwell in the southern latitudes, 

 must have their winter: but reverse the case, and 

 suppose the earth in that part of her orbit which is 

 north of the sun, and the inhabitants between the 

 equator and south pole must have their longest days, 

 while those who dwell on the opposite side, of course 

 must have their shortest. At the equinoctial points^, 

 the axis of the earth being parallel ta the san^ and 

 neither turned in to,, nor out from him, .it aecessariljr 

 Mows, that at those precise times, and HO 



