r fruit
ripens--falls; what the roots gathered up out of the earth returns to earth
again; the leaves drop one by one, and decay, resolving themselves into
new forms, to enter into other organizations; the sap flows back to the
trunk; and the forest, wood, field, and brake compose themselves to their
annual winter's sleep. In spring and summer the birds sang in the boughs,
and tended their young brood; the whole animal kingdom rejoiced in their
full bounding life; the sun shone warm, and nature rejoiced in greenness.
Winter lays its cold chill upon this scene; but the same scene comes round
again, and another spring recommences the same "never-ending, still
beginning" succession of vital changes. We learn to expect all this, and
become so familiar with it, that it seldom occurs to us to reflect how
much harmony and adaptation there is in the arrangement--how much of beauty
and glory there is every where, above, around, and beneath us.

But were it possible to conceive an intelligent being, abstracted from our
humanity, endowed with the full possession of mind and reason, all at once
set down on the earth's surface--how many objects of surpassing interest
and wonder would at once force themselves on his attention. The verdant
earth, covered with its endless profusion of forms of vegetable life, from
the delicate moss to the oak which survives the revolutions of centuries;
the insect and animal kingdom, from the gnat which dances in the summer's
sunbeams, up to the higher forms of sentient being; birds, beasts of
endless diversity of form, instinct, and color; and, above all, Man--"Lord
of the lion heart and eagle eye;"--these would, to such an intelligence, be
a source of almost endless interest.

It is life which is the grand glory of the world it was the consummation
of creative power, at which the morning stars sang together for joy. Is
not the sun glorious because there are living eyes to be gladdened by his
beams? is not the fresh air delicious because there are living creatures
to inhale and enjoy it? are not odors fragrant, and sounds sweet, and
colors gorgeous, because there is the living sensation to appreciate them?
Without Life, what were they all? What were a Creator himself, without
life, intelligence, understanding, to know and adore Him, and to trace His
finger in the works that He hath made?

Boundless variety and perpetual change are exhibited in the living beings
around us. Take the class of insects al