ON MORNING AND SUN-RISE. "Let there be light, said God, and forthwith light " MILTON. MORNING appears a new creation, restoring to our sight the Heavens and the earth, which were before buried in darkness. This creation, if I may so express it, is yet more glorious than the first, for then there were no spectators of its beauty; the earth, indeed, was made, God had prepared the whole, but animals, plants, plants, and other works with which it was to be adorned were wanting. These ap peared succesively, as it pleased the Creator to regulate their beings and assign them a place. The waters of the atmosphere were not yet exalted, those of the sea were not yet condensed and restrained to their proper limits, and the whole earth was without order. At this time no sooner doth darkness disappear, than our eyes behold the earth covered with riches and embellished with various ornaments; the mountains appear crowned with lofty trees, the vallies are overspread with corn, the meadows with herbage, and the rivers regularly meander through the fields, fertilizing the 'banks which confine them. Morning, besides restoring the world to our view, affords another benefit of equal value;-man revives from the temporary death of sleep, his understanding returns, he he recovers his strength, and his judgment cleared by rest, is fitted for fresh exertion. While man and domestic animals prepare for the duties and labours of the day, the mournful birds of night fly from the glare of the sun; the rabbits withdraw into. their holes, foxes, wolves, and bears skulk into their dens, deer and goats ascend higher on the rocks, and all untamed animals seek refuge from the haunts of men. Turn from these observations and behold the whole verge of the horizon enriched with a glowing red; the clouds assume lively and varying colours, the borders of which are adorned with fringes more splendid than gold or silver. These beauties momentarily become more glorious;-by degrees we proceed from light to light, until the sun at length bursts upon us in full lustre and majesty. Behold Behold then nature's most glorious object, at whose approach all other lights disappear, and the vast luminary spreading his beams over the whole face of the Heavens, dispenses his influence from one end of the earth to the other; revives all that he illuminates, and extends his penetrating power even to those places where his rays can neither be seen or felt, and may be justly called the soul of nature. ON TO recommend ourselves by prayer to the protection of God, is the first duty; for do not even the birds who are not gifted with the blessing of reason carol their gratitude at the sight of the rising sun?-The cattle rise from their grassy beds, and inhaling the morning breeze low their satisfaction at the renewal of day.The cock crows and steps proudly forth from his thatched roost, and clapping his wings, welcomes the breaking morn.Fish quit the soft ooze, and gliding to the surface of the water gasp with delight the invigorating VOL. I. Ε |