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THE MATERIAL UNIVERSE.
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of its Maker. And the sight of it should teach, as doubtless it was meant to teach, sad and anxious men a moral lesson, namely, to put away consuming cares, with the selfish and evil passions that produce them, and live a life of innocence, trusting in their Heavenly Father's care and love, and rejoicing in His smile, and they, too, would be happy the livelong day. Or, a still higher lesson may we learn; that as this bright-winged thing was but lately a dull, creeping worm, so a change analogous to this is awaiting us, when, putting off this chrysalis state of material existence, we shall soar into loftier and purer regions, and sport for ever in the sunshine of heaven.

What myriads of living creatures roam the wilds of Africa, America, and other yet unsettled portions of the earth, added to the vast numbers, which, tamed and domesticated, have been subjected to the service of man! From the condor, king of the feathered race, which sweeps majestically from peak to peak of the Andes, sole inhabitant of those trackless solitudes, or the bald eagle of North America, which, perched on some beetling crag, or soaring near the sun, looks proudly down on the world below,—to the pretty humming bird that flits from blossom to blossom, "itself a fairer flower," in the gardens of the Ohio;—between these extremes, what myriads of gay creatures rove the air, filling it with melody! And when the evening shades draw on, and while

"The moping owl doth to the moon complain,"

the nightingale pours forth her song, to entertain the listening groves, or soothe the rest of sleeping Nature; or, (in the Western World,) the plaintive note of the whip-poor-will is heard, poured forth the livelong