of man. The wild quadrupeds are also driven from their accustomed haunts; hares enter the gardens to browse on cultivated vegetables, and hen-roosts are pillaged by foxes, polecats, and other small beasts of prey.

The domestic cattle now require all the care and protection of man.

"Now, shepherds, to your helpless charge be kind;
Baffle the raging year, and fill their pens

With food at will; lodge them below the storm,
And watch them strict; for, from the bellowing east,
In this dire season, oft the whirlwind's wing
Sweeps up the burden of whole wintry plains
At one wide waft, and o'er the hapless flocks,
Hid in the hollow of two neighbouring hills,
The billowy tempest whelms.

Plants at this season are defended by nature from the effects of cold. Those called herbaceous, which die down to the root every autumn, are safely concealed under ground; and the shrubs and trees, that are exposed to the open air, have all their soft and tender parts closely wrapped up in buds, which, by their texture, resist the effects of frost, and are hence aptly termed the winter quarters of the young shoots. How admirable is the economy of nature!

her, he found she had recovered the grain, and was ready to climb up again; this misfortune befel her three times; but she never let go her hold, nor was discouraged; till at last her strength failing, she was forced to stop, and another ant assisted her to carry home her load to the public stock.

How wonderful is the sagacity of these insects! how commendable their care, diligence and labour ! how generous their assistance of one another for the service of the community! how noble their public virtue, which is never neglected for the sake of private interest! in all these things, they deserve our notice and imitation. A contemplative mind will naturally turn its thoughts from the condition and government of ant-hills, to that of nations, and reflect that superior beings may possibly consider human kind and all their solicitudes and toils, pride, vanity, and ambition, with no more regard than we do the concerns of these little creatures.

It would be endless to attempt to enum erate the various, astonishing and entertaining objects which may be exhibited by the microscope we shall therefore select an account of some which have been displayed, in order to refresh or direct the memory of those who have attended the exhibition, and thereby to assist them to contemplate how weak, bungling, ill-shaped and rugged, the nicest works of art are, when compared with the beautiful symmetry, accurate proportion, elegance and harmony of form, together with the profusion of colouring, brightened with the splendour of diamonds, rubies, amethysts, gold and silver, which are set forth on worms, butterflies, and flowers; and what in our estimation are the meanest productions of nature; I say, when we reflect on these things, our pride must be humbled, and we must be compelled to acknowledge the superior wisdom, power, and goodness, of the beneficent Creator and preserver of all things.

We are indebted to the microscope for the knowledge that the distemper called the itch is occasioned by a multitude of exceedingly small animalcules, which breed in and under the cuticle, or scarf skin of the human body; and, by their motion, produce the intolerable itching, which compels the infected person to scratch, which removing their eggs, spreads the disease on other parts of the skin.

Itch Animal.

We may hence account for this distemper being so very catching; since these animalcules, by simple contact, can easily pass from one person to another, having not only a swift motion, but clinging to every thing they touch, and crawling as well upon the surface of the body as under the outward

skin; and a few being once lodged, they multiply apace by the eggs they lay. The infection may also be propagated in a like manner, by sheets, towels, handkerchiefs, or gloves used by itchy people, since these animalcules may easily be harboured in such things, and will live out of the body two or three days.

The discovery of these animalcules likewise shews the reason why this distemper is never to be cured by internal medicines but requires lixivial washes, baths or ointments, made up with salts, sulphurs, vitriols, mercury, precipitate, sublimate, or such kinds of penetrating and powerful remedies as can kill these vermin in the skin; and if sometimes we find the disease return upon us in a little while after we supposed it quite cured by unction, it is no great wonder; since, though the ointment may destroy all the living animalcules, it may not probably kill their young ones in the eggs, laid in nests in the skin, which coming to hatch may renew the