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Show 178 SPRING ACTION. of plants and animals, and many of us do not either know their names or themselves when we see them. How then could it be possible for us to ~ell what would O"ive them the appearances that they m future are to ~volve 1 To take a single instance, the future peach is not yet the size of a pin'.s head, and few can tell what it is if they do not ~ee 1t taken out of a bud which they believe to be the bud of a p~ach-tree; and very few could tel~ it from the_ nectarme or t~~ apricot. Now, there 1s no questiOn that there 1s something communicated by the atmosphere to the infant peach, which gives it its soft velvety coat, and its purple and green and gold ; but suppose the mo:st skilful man were asked to "go and put the down and the colours to the peaches, so that they might be in the very perfection of their. b~auty, just at the time when the pulp was most dehcwus to the taste" what would he do 1 And what would anothe1 one ~qually wise do if he were commanded to "per. fume the rose," or " scent the mignionette," 01 "flavour the pineapples or the strawberries 1,' Yet all these things have been wonderfully improved by human art; but that art has never been successful in any one case when it was ?ot founded on the most minute and careful observatiOn of nature. As the Apollo of the ancients was the sun, or the image of light and heat, so Mercury, the messenger of the gods, was the at~osphere ; and th~u&"h the personification was a fictiOn or a fable, shU It wa.s a beautiful fable; and among those who have the knowledO"e of the true religion which God himself has reve~led, and therefore are in no danger of being led into any thing like idolatrous worship by it, the fable is a most instructive fable, and gives in a few words one general and remarkable means of bearing in mind a great many truths. Now thouO'h we cannot say positively that there is no agency but that of the sun concerned in ~h e production of all the sweetness of the bloommg SCENTED LEAVES. 179 year, though we cannot ascribe to solar action alone all the gentle offspring of that time which "takes the winds" with fragrance ; yet we could not expect, because we have never found, that they come without the seasonal light and heat. ,.fhe fungi which spring up in the autumn, and come-like the vultures or the ravens of vegetation, to prey upon the dead and the dying, put forth no leaves, and expand no flowers, and they are rank. They come not up in sweetness to the humblest of the vernal tribes, _from ~he leaves of many of which, when they are dned Without heating, we have some of the sweetest of our scents. It is the scented vernal grass which gives to new hay all that sweetness ":hie~ wiles old and_ young to the hay-field at teddmg hme; and the little woodruff which hides itself in the grove is even more fragrant in its decay. Yet they are both tiny and humble to look at : VERNAL GRASS. WOODRUFF. All these early plants are kept fresh and sweet by the vernal showers ; but as death creeps over the land, and even mushrooms and moulds begin to decay, the torrents of autumn descend; and the |