watching in the centre of its web.-We broke the web, and suspended the spider in the air: when, as fast as it could work, it swallowed the whole of its own web. Upon which we placed it on the leaf of a tree, and left it to begin its toil, and to use its silk over again.

At this moment we saw a hedgehog creeping along the fence. We touched it with a light rod, and it rolled itself up like a ball. The next object, that came across our path, was a beetle. Upon taking it up, we found it infested with lice; we dropt it; and it soon hid itself in the grass. Then we saw two other species of spiders ;-one that finds a home wherever it may chance to wander: and another, which throws out its web, and rises upon it high into the air.—In the course of the afternoon, too, we saw a water-spider, weaving its web in the water.Enclosed in bubbles of air, this wonderful insect never touches the water; but eats, and spins, and sleeps in conscious security ;-the bubble seldom bursting.

A greenfinch and a bullfinch now sung at a small distance.-A redbreast soon after perched upon the wall and a peacock butterfly hovered over the petals of a flower. Its colour was an orange brown, dotted with white.-Bees now flew past us almost every minute. We observed also five mason bees; five or six humble bees; and two or three leaf-cutting bees.-The last of these insects were employed in a very curious manner. They are black, with a

belly downed with yellow.

They line their nests

with bits of leaves either of the chesnut or of the rose. These leaves they cut with great celerity: and as circularly as with a pair of scissars.-We observed them in this employment, and could not but admire the art with which they performed their curious task.

Now we noted a linnet; and then several goldfinches. At length we saw several woodpigeons fly over the valley, followed by a hawk.-The hawk soon pounced upon one of them: the feathers flew; and the hawk, fixing his talons in the breast of the woodpigeon, began plucking it, as he hovered into the air.

At length we turned to a neighbouring cottage; and after partaking of a glass or two of milk, with which the hospitable matron presented us, we sauntered into the garden. What variety of beauty and perfection was here, totally unknown to its possessor!-In one corner was the lily, opening its flower-bud a month before its time; the drops falling from the petals of which were once supposed to produce new lilies.-There too, was the elegant Solomon's seal; and the tulip, the hyacinth, and the narcissus exhibited their six males,-all equal in height, to the admiration of one female: none of which were defended by a calyx.-That shield which protects the majority of flowers in the bud, and supports them in their age.-At a short distance, too, appeared the wild vine, and the oak; the one barren from the abundance of its sap; and the other injured in its grain by having been planted in too rich a soil.

In the buds of parsley we saw five males and two females, like hemlock; and in those of the potatoe five males and one female, like the deadly nigntshade ;-two plants producing juices, which cause death by rendering the heart insensible to the stimulus of the blood; and thereby stopping its circulation. In the lilac we recognized two husbands to one wife in pinks and London pride, two wives to ten husbands: while in the raspberry and strawberry we witnessed many husbands to many wives, growing in the same corolla; and guarded by strong calyxes. The two former eliciting an exquisite perfume; the latter affording an exquisite fruit.

Climbing up the sides of the cottage, and over its roof, the vine promised in the happiness, that one female enjoyed in the society of five lovers, that the result of their united affections would be a fine cluster of grapes. On the roof sat the houseleek; -the only genus of its order, growing in Britain.

Thus in a single woodland landscape we observed objects, too familiar to awaken, in vulgar minds, the smallest reflection; and yet presenting data sufficient to excite the admiration, and to baffle the judgment, of the loftiest intellect. St. Pierre remarked, that the history of the smallest plant transcended his highest powers; and he gives, in confirmation, a history of a strawberry, and the insects that he found upon it. While Whiston inquired of Dr. Clarke, who had presented him with a volume of sermons, how he dared to enter into subjects so far beyond the mental research of men; when the meanest weed, that grew in his garden, more

effectually proved the existence of a Deity, than all his metaphysical arguments and subtleties.

XIII.

The sun now rested his "substantial orb" on one of the distant mountains. A light shower fell from the skirts of a dark purple cloud; when, sheltering ourselves behind a sycamore, we listened, with no little pleasure, to the cooing of the stock-doves; and to the rich warbling of the missel. The rain soon ceased when the woodbines and sweetbriars, which grew in the garden and over the porch of the cottage, the earth beneath, the meadows below, and the woods above, sent forth a most delicious fragrance. While the distance became enveloped in one of those blue nets, so mysterious to the eye, and so delightful to the lover of landscape.

The rivulet, swelled with the rain, flowed more copiously along; the mountains teemed with mist; woodmen were seen in the distance; cows marched in a line before the milkmaid; the cottages and farmhouses sent up their blue volumes; and children, in loud accordance, were imitating the owl at the bottom of the valley. Then they called to the distant rock, which overshadowed a deep hollow,-the mother of a gentle spring. Upon which, Echo answered with apparent delight, from the head of the glen.

The sun still pursued his blue journey; and the bosom of the rivulet reflected its purity and splendour. The atmosphere, clear, transparent, and unbroken, gradually acquired glowing hues; while the air, wafting the volumes, gave a moving

diversity to the distance; and softened the golden hues of Titian into that lemon tint, which Claude Lorrain depicts so beautifully.

At length the sun sunk entirely; and the moon exhibited her thin crescent in the neighbourhood of Venus, who gave new grace to the heavens. The owl flitted past us; and the missel was still heard in the distance. But the nightingale never frequents the glens and mountains, either of Scotland or of Wales.

XIV.

The imagination of a superior mind imparts a rich construction to the images of the poem, that is read, or to the painting, that is observed. In awakening this faculty, the powers of poets and painters are principally shewn.-Apelles and Raphael are said to have disputed with Nature the truth and purity of beauty. Apelles and Raphael had no such power : -but they possessed the rare faculty of converting almost every one, that gazed upon their productions, into poets of the time. I have seen many women as beautiful as the Venus de Medicis; and many a man more than equal to the Apollo, in the unity of manly grace and strength. When will reason and experience subdue the prejudices and presumption of pedantry? Nature is not to be surpassed; let poets, painters, critics and pedants, presume, judge, and cavil, as they will. Nature is not only not to be surpassed, but she is not to be equalled :-even in the associative idea itself, that man is pleased to form of beauty.-Men and women are not seen.-If good