e the peaceful beneficence of
nature, and to rejoice in the thought that all the wickedness and
violence of man cannot provoke or derange into confusion and disorder
the great natural elements which minister to his comfort and
happiness--which cause the seed to germinate, the flower to bloom, and
the fruit to ripen, regardless of all his passions, and in spite of his
ingratitude. The unambitious pursuits of the husbandman may have in them
nothing of the pomp and circumstance of glorious war; but they are at
least in harmony with the beneficence of God and the permanent interests
of man; while they are also of the highest importance to the country,
even in the extremity of her peril.

The harvest, now approaching, everywhere gives promise of a bounteous
supply of the productions which annually bless our favored land. The
vast invading army of the enemy, soon to be driven with disaster out of
the loyal States, will have made no serious impression upon the
abundance of our overflowing stores. There may be some scarcity of
labor to secure the maturing crops, but we shall still supply all our
own wants abundantly, leaving a large surplus for shipment abroad, and
even for meeting the necessities of our suffering brethren in the South,
when they shall have utterly failed in their wicked purpose of
destroying the Government, and when their sharp cry of hunger and
suffering shall appeal to our relenting hearts for succor.

THE EARTH AND THE AIR.

The great bulk of all vegetation is derived from the atmosphere. The air
is always loaded with watery vapor, and it contains a vast quantity of
carbonic acid gas, which furnishes the chief material for the woody
fibre of all plants, for the starch, sugar, gums, oils, and other
valuable compounds produced by them. Nitrogen, also, is one of the large
constituents of the air, and is found in it likewise in the form of
ammonia. It is wonderful to reflect that of all the vegetable
productions of the earth--its vast forests, the flowery clothing of its
boundless prairies, the immeasurable productions raised by the industry
of the whole human race in its countless fields of labor--that of all
this mighty growth which covers and adorns the face of the whole solid
globe, more than ninety-five hundredths are derived exclusively from the
atmosphere. This vast ocean which surrounds the earth, in which we are
immersed, and which is actually the breath of life to us, indispensable
to our existen