186 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN". 



the days and nights must be equal throughout the 

 globe; for the instant that the north pole gets be- 

 yond the vernal equinox in spring, it emerges into 

 the sun's light, and the people who inhabit the arctic 

 regions, have six months of perpetual day; while 

 those at the south pole, or contrary extremity of the 

 earth, have an equal duration of protracted night. 

 At the opposite season of the autumnal equinox, the 

 reverse takes place. In the intermediate spaces be- 

 tween the poles and the equator, the inhabitants 

 experience all that vicissitude of light and shade, to 

 which their situations expose them; and which, in 

 the absence of a globe, may be tolerably well illus- 

 trated by suspending a large wooden bowl from the 

 hand, and making it revolve round a lighted candle, 

 with its axis inclined a little to one side, and point- 

 ing always in the same direction. If, at the same 

 time, this bowl could be made to turn incessantly 

 round on its axis in the progress of its revolution, it 

 would afford a pretty accurate idea how the vicissi- 

 tudes of day and night are produced. 



Let us attend a little to some of th*e beneficial con- 

 sequences of this " ever varying, ever changing 

 scene." Spring is characterized as the season of 

 the renovation of nature; in which animals and ve- 

 getables, excited by the kindly influence of returning 

 warmth, shake off the torpid inaction of winter, and 

 prepare for the continuance and increase of their se- 

 veral species. " A soft and pleasing languor, 

 interrupted only by the gradual progression of the 

 vegetable and animal tribes towards their state of 



