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bright luminary, fixed in the centre of its system, is wheeling its planets, in times proportioned to their distances, and at once dispersing light, heat, and motion. The earth, also, with its twofold motion, is seen producing, by the one, the change of seasons; and, by the other, the grateful vicissitudesof day and night. With what silent maglificence is all this performed! with what seeming ease! The works of art are exerted with an interrupted force; and their noisy progress discovers the obstructions which they receive; but the earth, with a silent, steady rotation, successively presents every part of its bosom to the sun, at once imbibing nourishment and light from that parent of vegetation and felicity.

10. The earth a scene of pleasure and improvement.

Not only are provisions of light and heat supplied to man; but, for his convenience, the whole surface of the earth is covered with a transparent atmosphere, the motion of which is accommodated to that of the earth. The rays of the sun are thus broken into a genial warmth; and a gentle heat is produced, in and under the surface of the earth, which contributes to cover it with verdure. Waters are also supplied in healthful abundance, to support life and assist vegetation. Mountains arise, to diversify the prospect, and give a current to the stream. From one continent to the other, extend vast seas, replenished with animals for the support of man, and forming the great source of those vapours which fertilize the earth.

Breezes float along the surface of the fields, to promote health and vegetation. The coolness of the evening invites to rest; and the freshness of the morning invigorates for labor.-Without these sources of enjoyment, man must have been wretched; for his own exertions could never have supplied them.

But, while there is, on the one hand, this kind provision for the wants of man, there are, on the other, numberless excitements to his industry. His habitation, though provided with all the conveniences of air, pasturage, and water, is, without human cultivation, but a desert. The lowest animal finds more conveniences in the wilds of nature, than he who boasts himself their lord. The whirlwind, the inundation, and the periodical asperities of the atmosphere, have peculiar terrors to man, who knows their consequences, and foresees and dreads their approach. The earth itself, where human art has not been exerted, puts on a frightful or gloomy appearance. The forests are dark and tangled; the meadows are covered with rank, unwholesome weeds; and the brooks wander without a determined channel. Nature, which has been kind to every lower order of beings, has left man dependent, in a great measure, on his own exertions; and this arrangement has led the way to the blessings of activity and improvement.

11. Reflections on a view of the heavens.

WHEN the shades of night have spread their veil over the plains, the firmament displays to our view its

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grandeur and its riches. The sparkling points, with which it is studded, are so many suns, suspended by the Almighty, in the immensity of space, to shed a benign influence on worlds which roll around them.

The assemblage of these vast bodies is divided into different systems, the number of which probably surpasses the grains of sand which the sea casts on its shores.

Each system has, for its centre, a star or sun, which shines by its native light. Around this central luminary revolve several opaque globes, reflecting, with more or less brilliancy, the light which they borrow from it, and which renders them visible.

What an exalted, what an amazing conception does this view give us of the works of the Creator: thousands of thousands of suns, multiplied without end, and ranged all around us, at immense distances from each other, attended by ten thousand times ten thousand worlds, all in rapid motion; yet calm, regular, and harmonious in their movements, invariably keeping the path prescribed to them; and these worlds, doubtless, peopled with myriads of beings, formed for endless progression in perfection and felicity!

In the vast canopy, under which we seem to reside, there is scarcely any object more striking to the eye than the comets. These bodies, which, from their fallacious appearance, their fiery trains, the diversity of their directions, their sudden appearance and disappearance, have been considered as meteors, lighted

up in the air by an irritated power, are found to be a species of planetary bodies, whose long routes are now calculated by astronomers. Many of these bodies, at present, acknowledge the empire of our sun; though the orbits which they trace around him, are so extensive, that many ages are necessary for the completion of a revolution.

The diameter of the great orbit which our earth describes, is more than 190 millions of miles; yet this vast extent becomes a mere point, or vanishes into nothing, when the astronomer wishes to use it as a measure to ascertain the distance of the fixed stars. How great, then, is the real bulk of these luminaries, which are perceptible at so enormous a distance!

12. Architecture.

THE Greeks were the parents of that system of architecture, which is universally allowed to approach nearest to perfection. Their architecture consisted of three distinct orders: the Doric, the Ionic, and the Corinthian.

The Doric has a masculine grandeur, and a superior air of strength. It is therefore best adapted to works of great magnitude, and of a sublime character. Sublimity is essentially connected with chasteness and simplicity.

The Ionic order is light and elegant: it is also simple, for simplicity is an essential requisite in true beauty.

The Corinthian order marks an age of luxury and

magnificence, when pomp and splendor had become the predominant characteristics, but had not yet extinguished the taste for the sublime and the beautiful. It attempts, therefore, a union of all these characters, but satisfies not the chastened judgment, and pleases only a corrupted taste.

The Tuscan and the Composite orders are of Italian origin. The Etruscan architecture appears to have been nearly allied to the Grecian, but to have possessed an inferior degree of elegance. The Trajan column at Rome, is of this order; less remarkable for the symmetry of its proportions, than for the admirable sculpture with which it is decorated.

The Composite order is what its name implies: it shows that the Greeks had, in the three original orders, exhausted all the principles of grandeur and beauty; and that it was not possible to form a fourth, unless by combining the first three.

The Gothic architecture offers no contradiction to these observations. The effect which it produces, cannot be altogether accounted for by the rules of symmetry and harmony in the parts: it depends on those deep impressions of vastness and gloom, which it produces as a whole.

13. The seven wonders of the world.

THE following are the objects, which the ancients regarded as unrivaled productions of human art, and on which they conferred the high-sounding appellation of wonders of the world.

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