180, SPRING ACTION. 



from the nectarine or the apricot. Now, there is 

 no question that there is something communicated 

 by the atmosphere to the infant peach, which 

 gives it its soft velvetty coat, and its purple and 

 green and gold ; but suppose the most skilful man 

 were asked to "go and put the down and the 

 colours to the peaches, so that they might be in 

 the very perfection of their beauty, just at the 

 time when the pulp was most delicious to the 

 taste," what would he do ? And what would an- 

 other one equally wise do if he were commanded 

 " perfume the rose," or " scent the mignionette," 

 or " flavour the pine-apples or the strawberries ?" 

 Yet all these things have been wonderfully im- 

 proved by human art ; but that art has never been 

 successful in any one case when it was not founded 

 on the most minute and careful observation of 

 nature. 



As the Apollo of the ancients was the sun, or the 

 image of light and heat, so Mercury, the messenger 

 of the gods, was the atmosphere ; and though the 

 personification was a fiction or a fable, still it was 

 a beautiful fable ; and among those who have the 

 knowledge of the true religion which God himself 

 has revealed, and therefore are in no danger of 

 being led into any thing like idolatrous worship 

 by it, the fable is a most instructive fable, and 

 gives in a few words one general and remarkable 

 means of bearing in mind a great many truths. 



Now though we cannot say positively that there 

 is no agency but that of the sun concerned in the 

 production of all the sweetness of the blooming 

 year, though we cannot ascribe to solar action 

 alone, all the gentle offspring of that time, which 

 " takes the winds" with fragrance ; yet we could 



