Summer — July. 29 1 
fruits; and the fields, waving with the ripening grain, promise an 
abundant harvest. She clothes and adorns the earth with green, 
a color most beneficial and agreeable to the eye, and adds to its 
beauty by diversifying shades; for though pleasing in itself its 
charms are much increased by this happy distribution of shade. 
Each species of plant has its peculiar color; landscapes covered 
with wood, bushes, plants, herbs, and corn, present a most beauti- 
ful scene of verdure, where the coloring is infinitely varied, and 
its shades insensibly blended, increasing from the lightest tints to 
the darkest hue, and yet a perfect harmony is always present." 
But what is chiefly to be observed and admired in the diversi- 
ties of nature, is the adaptation of every thing to some particular 
use, and all of the completeness of the whole system. There is 
nothing isolated, nothing useless. The two divisions of organized 
existence are formed for each other. Every plant has some cor- 
responding tribe or tribes of animals which it supports, and to 
whose properties and modes of existence it is peculiarly adapted; 
if there are succulent leaves, there are caterpillars to feed on them; 
if there are flowers which secrete honey, there are bees and other 
insects to sip the sweets; if there are fruits, there are birds to 
feast upon them; if there is herbage, there are cattle to crop it; 
and if there is death, there are living beings which convert even 
this to the support of life by devouring the inanimate carcass. 
There is here a complicated and most wonderful system; and 
this is so nicely balanced, that every part is preserved in its due 
proportion, and one species contributes to the benefit of others. 
There is no pleasanter recreation at this season than a water 
excursion in some one of the romantic lakes that diversify our 
forests. The white water-lilies now spangle their borders with a 
profusion of their sweet-scented double blossoms; and among the 
lofty grass and shrubs, the side-saddle flower, [Saracena purpura) 
nod their purple heads over their curious pitcher-shaped leaves. 
The clusters of ripe raspberries overhang the banks within your 
reach, as you sail along their shelvy sides. 
The hay harvest, which commences this month, is amongst the 
various occupations of the farmer, and excites the most general 
interest throughout the whole country. Few people who have 
beheld the occupations of the hay field, which this beautiful sea- 
son every where presents, without feeling a very pure and elevated 
