Manifold effects in Nature from the same cause. So manifold are the effects resulting from one and the same cause in the empire of Nature. Equally diversified are the effects which are frequently produced in the moral world from one single moving principle of the soul. The individual impulse of benevolence is productive, after various changes, of many beneficial consequences. From this source proceed the solicitude of parents for their children, social union, friendship, patriotism, kindness in those who govern, and fidelity in those who obey. This impulse keeps each individual in his proper spere, constitutes the bond of human society, and is the principle of all virtuous actions, laudable enterprizes, and innocent amusements. These considerations, my brethren, afford the most evident proof that the world is not a mass of crude and disjointed materials, without connection, order, or mutual relation; but, on the contrary, that it is a regular fabric, reared with consummate skill by the hand of the almighty architect.* Every part, and every phenomenon of the visible world displays some evidences of the divine wisdom. But how much is there that eludes our enquiries, and even baffles the most attentive researches, and the most profound meditations of the greatest philosophers! If we endeavor to pursue the traces of This conviction was deeply impressed also on the minds of the heathen of antiquity who had bestowed any attention on the works of Nature. Quod si omnes mundi partes ita constituta sunt, says Cicero,' ut neque ad usum meliores - potuerint esse, neque ad speciem pulchriores; videamus utrum ea fortuita sint, an eo statu quo cohærere nullo modo potuerint, nisi sensu moderante divinaque providentia.' De Natura. 1. S. c. 34.. Of mildew and honey-dew. divine wisdom, we find them in one place perfectly clear and distinct, while in another they are wholly concealed from our view. Let us therefore, my brethren, so much the more attentively contemplate the works of God, and employ those wonders which he hath so conspicuously manifested, for the glorification of his name. Then will our hearts be deeply sensible of the truth of these words of David : · "The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.” JULY 29. OF MILDEW AND HONEY-DEW. MILDEW is a whitish substance, like dust, with which plants are sometimes covered. It proceeds not, as is commonly believed, from insects, but from a natural stagnation of the juices, and a disposition to putridity, which attracts insects. This stagnation of the juices is the first step towards putridity, and it has been observed, that this alone is sufficient to invite insects, for they assemble in thousands, whenever any cause, natural or artificial, interrupts the circulation of the juices in a tree. Hence the weakest trees, and those which stand in unfavorable situations, are most liable to mildew. If insects were actually the cause of this malady, it would be impossible to produce it by art. On the contrary, if a tree be purposely wounded, or deprived of the necessary care, it will soon become mildewed. On a tree so weakened, a thousand insects are immediately collected, while the neighboring trees are free from them. Hence the corruption can no more be attributed to the in Of mildew and honey-dew. sects, than the putridity of animal substances; but on the contrary, it proceeds from the stagnation of the juices, which may be occasioned by a variety of circumstances. Honey-dew is a viscous, sweet, but at the same time acrid and burning fluid, which destroys plants. It has been imagined that the insects extracted this glutinous juice by suction from vegetables, or that the bees deposited their honey upon them; but it is now said to be proved by repeated experiments, that honey-dew is a real dew which falls from the atmosphere. In many places it is found in the form of small drops on a great number of vegetables, without distinction; and sometimes in a single night it covers almost all the leaves of a whole row of trees, on which no traces of it were before to be discovered. These facts demonstrate that this substance must fall from the air. Perhaps this dew may be formed from the exhalations of the flowers and blossoms from which the bees extract their delicious honey; perhaps, also, it may be, like mildew, an effect of the vitiated state of the juices of plants; for it is the weakest ears, branches, bushes, and trees that are most liable to the honey-dew. It is farther remarked, that the leaves upon which the honey-dew falls become spotted, black, and shrivelled; and it is more than probable that this substance may be the cause of their decay. We find traces of the wisdom of the Creator in thus ordaining that the insects which must be supported, should find a subsistence on those vegetables which are already sickly and diseased, and are consequently unserviceable to man. This cir cumstance is a proof of the particular care which the Creator has manifested withrespect to man in the Of mildew and honey-dew. arrangement of the universe. Thus these animals are so advantageously provided for, that they consume none of the stores destined for our use, but confine themselves entirely to what might be prejudicial to us. It is certainly consistent with the order of Nature that every animal, every plant, and every tree should afford a subsistence to a particular species of living creatures. We avenge ourselves sufficiently on these insects by endeavoring to destroy them in every possible way. We should perhaps spare them more if we knew how little real mischief most of them occasion.* * Recent observations have tended to give us more cor rect notions relative to the nature of the phenomena treated of by the author in this article. The causes and effects of mildew are thus explained by Mr. Marshall, in a late edi tion of his Rural Economy of the West of England :---"That the operation of this disease is carried on by the fungus tribe, evidently appears from the ingenious and persevering labors of botanists. But fungi, it is equally evident, are an effect, not the cause of the disease, They are the vermin of the more perfect vegetables; and fasten on them, whether in a dead, or in a diseased state; but seldom, I believe, while they are in full health and vigor. Their minute and volatile seeds may be said to be every where present,--ready to produce their kind wherever they may find a genial matrix. Such, at least, appears to be the nature of the fungus, or fungi, of wheat; for it may be liable to the attack of more than one species. In a dry, warm summer, which is well known to be favorable to the health, vigor, and productiveness of the wheat crop, the seeds of fungi are harmless, so long as the fine weather continues. On the contrary, in a cold wet season, which gives languor and weakness to the wheat plants, few crops escape, entirely, their destructive effects. A standing crop not unfrequently escapes, while plots that are lodged in the same field, especially in pits and hollow places, become Provision of Nature for the nourishment of animals. JULY 30. PROVISION OF NATURE FOR THE NOURISHMENT OF ANIMALS. Ir is a wonderful effect of the divine goodness and omnipotence that the living creatures with liable to their attack. And, by the facts above stated, we plainly see that even strong healthy crops may, in a few days, or perhaps in a few hours, be rendered liable to be assailed, not progressively, as by an infectious disease; but at once, as by a blast or blight. In the state of the atmosphere we are to look for the cause of the disease, in a standing crop and nothing is so likely to bring on the fatal predisposition of the plants as a succession of cold rains while the grain is forming. The coolness necessarily gives a check to the rich saccharine juices which are then rising towards the ear; and the moisture may at the same time assist the seeds of the fungi to germinate and take root." Sir Joseph Banks, in a short account of the cause of this disease, lately published, observes: "It seems probable that the leaf is first affected in the spring or early in summer, before the corn shoots into straw, and then the fungus is orange colored; after the straw becomes yellow it assumes a deep chocolate brown; every pore will produce from twenty to forty fungi, and every one of these a hundred seeds, which may possibly be scattered by the wind within a week in the hot season, and the latter end of the summer be loaded with this dust. It has long been admitted by farmers, though scarcely credited by botanists, that wheat in the neighborhood of a barberry bush seldom escapes the blight. Some observing men have of late attributed this very perplexing effect to the farina of the flowers of the barberry, which is yellow; but it is known to all botanical observers, that the leaves are very subject to the attack of a yellow parasitic fungus, larger, but otherwise much resembling the rust in corn." The same author far |