BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN. 



maturity, forms the leading character of Summer, 

 In Autumn the promise of the spring is fulfilled. 

 The silent and gradual progress of maturation is 

 completed, and human industry beholds with tri- 

 umph the rich production of its toil. The unvarying 

 symptoms of approaching Winter now warn several 

 of the winged tribes to prepare for their aerial voy- 

 age to those happy climates where no deficiency of 

 food or shelter can ever distress them ; and, about 

 the same time, other fowls of hardier constitutions, 

 which are contented with escaping the iron winters 

 of the arctic regions, arrive to supply their place. 

 From the fall of the leaf, and withering of the herb, 

 an unvarying, death-like torpor oppresses almost the 

 whole vegetable creation, and a considerable part 

 of the animal, during this entire portion of the year: 

 but this state is not always to continue; it is a time 

 of renovation and refreshment: a time shall come, 

 when many that sleep in the dust shall awake, and 

 shine forth gloriously at the return of spring. 



Day is the season of labour and activity ; Night is 

 the time for rest and repose. Man goeth forth to 

 his labour in the morning, and returns to recruit his 

 exhausted powers in the evening ; and what an ad- 

 mirable provision for this purpose is sleep, which 

 introduces a most welcome vacation, both for the 

 soul and body, during which the exercises of the 

 brain, and the labours of the hands, are at once dis- 

 continued. 



These are some of the inestimable blessings de- 

 rived from the changes of the seasons, and the alter- 



