242 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Nat 



chooses to announce her own doings, or, if wo please, as the 

 language in which she writes down or chooses to make known 

 her own laws. To understand that language and to interpret 

 aright those laws is at once delightful and profitable. No fact 

 gathered in such a field as this can, therefore, come amiss to 

 those who tread the walks of inductive philosophy, for in the 

 handbook of Nature every such fact is a syllable ; and it is 

 15y patiently collecting fact after fact, and by joining syllable 

 after syllable, that we may finally seek to read aright from the 

 great volume which the mariner at sea and the philosopher on 

 the mountain see spread out before them. T. 



Purity of Vesture a Principle in Nature. 



Purity of vesture seems to be a principal precept of Nature, 

 and observable throughout creation. Fishes, from the nature 

 of the element in which they reside, can contract but little 

 impurity. Birds are unceasingly attentive to neatness and 

 lustration of their plumage. All the slug race, though covered 

 with slimy matter calculated to collect extraneous things and 

 reptiles, are perfectly free from soil. The fur and hair of beasts 

 in a state of liberty and health are never filthy or sullied with 

 dirt. Some birds roll themselves in dust and occasionally 

 cover themselves with mire ; beasts have the same habit ; but 

 this is not from any liking or inclination for such things, but 

 to free themselves from annoyances, or to prevent the bites 

 of insects. The meloe and some of the scarabasi, upon first 

 emerging from their winter's retreat, are commonly found with 

 earth clinging to them ; but the removal of this is one of the 

 first operations of the creature ; and all the beetle race, the chief 

 occupation of which is crawling about the soil and such dirty 

 employs, are, notwithstanding, remarkable for the glossiness of 

 their covering and freedom from defilements of any kind. J. 



The Music of Nature. 



Birds associate themselves with all sounds and voices, add 

 their own poesy, their wild and simple rhythms. By analogy, 

 by contrast, they augment and complete the grand effects of 



