278 CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. denly infest our grain, our fruits, and our plants. There is an inquisition, where all human knowledge terminates; the bounds of nature have never been defined. Without considering the various sources of enjoy. ment and pleasure bestowed upon an intelligent creature, what a scene of glorious display might be opened to man through the agency of the eye alone! Motives we must abandon, as probably they are beyond our comprehensions; but were the powers of vision so enlarged or cleared as to bring to observation the now unknown fabrication of animate and inanimate things, what astonishment would be elicited! The seeds, the pollen of plants, the capillary vessels and channels of their several parts, with their concurrent actions, the clothing of various creatures, and all that host of unperceived wisdom around us! Yet probably the mind, constituted as it now is, would be disturbed by the constant excitement such wonders would create; but at present, though sparingly searched out by the patient investigator, and but obscurely seen, they solace and delight; "cheer, but not inebriate." "Oh good beyond compare! If thus thy meaner works are fair, Where thy redeem'd shall live with thee!" AND now I think I have pretty well run over my diary, the humble record of the birds, the reptiles, the plants, and inanimate things around me. They who have had the patience to read these my notes, will probably be surprised that I could take the trouble to register such accounts of such things; and I might think so too, did I not know how much occupation and healthful recreation the seeking out these trifles have afforded me, rendering, besides, all my rural rambles full of enjoyment and interest: companions and inti CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 27 mates were found in every hedge, on every bank, whose connexions I knew something of, and whose individual habits had become familiar by association; and thus this narrative of my contemporaries was formed. Few of us, perhaps, in reviewing our by-gone days, could the hours return again, but would wish many of them differently disposed of, and more profitably employed: but I gratefully say, that portion of my own passed in the contemplation of the works of nature is the part which I most approve-which has been most conducive to my happiness; and, perhaps, from the sensations excited by the wisdom and benevolence perceived, not wholly unprofitable to a final state, and which might be passed again, could I but obtain a clearer comprehension of the ways of Infinite Wisdom. If in my profound ignorance I received such gratification and pleasure; what would have been my enjoyment and satisfaction, "if the secrets of the Most High had been with me, and when by His light I had walked through darkness?" INDEX. AGARICS, the pale gray species Aërial hummings, 250. Ant, the black, 212-the red, -- experi- Bee, the carpenter, 53. 189-nests of, 121, 122, 123, names. Blackbird, song of the, 188. Bramble, the common, almost Burnet, conjecture as to its last- Chaffinch, the, 116. Clocks, name given to the great Coins dug out of the earth, 10. Coral polypi, 15. Dyers' broom, 58-gathering of, Earth-worm, the common, 231. tons of some of his foragers, 11. Fairy rings, 250. Fescue, spines of the hard, bear- Fly, the house, 151-the biting, Fly-catcher, the gray, 146. Friendship between birds, in- Glaucous birthwort, 62. Gleaning, profits of, to the poor, 245. of one, 248. Hair of animals, 106. Evaporation from the earth, ef. Hair-worm, the clay, 226. fect of, 63. Fairfax, general, supposed skele- Hawk, the sparrow, 144-the |