ment of piety arising in the heart, out of the acknowldgement of God in the contemplation of his works.

Of the works of Nature, we are apt to say, but of the God of Nature in truth: for whosoever shall consider the works of Nature, so vulgarly called, in any one of her simplest productions, will be led infallibly to acknowledge therein, "a Ruling hand; "a Cause-"

Will be led infallibly to acknowledge therein, "a great Supernal Cause infinite in Wisdom; infinite in Power; infinite in Goodness"

AN ALMIGHTY CAUSE.

Author and Ruler of every thing! and his admiration of this Wonderful Being, and the conviction of his never-ceasing providence for man, shall awaken in his heart such sentiments of love and fear, as shall constitute in him, the spirit and essence of Religion. Shall further impress upon his mind such sentiments of awe and reverence, as shall incline his heart to acts of worship and adoration; and these habitually exercised, and put forth in offices of thanksgiving and praise, shall be the form, or mode, or expression, of his religion; necessary and due; and always comfortable to himself, and always grateful, and always acceptable to Almighty God.

This is Religion; the essence in the heart; and the expression, or form, in acts of piety and devotion.

It is found in the contemplation of the works of God himself; it ariseth in the heart, as we attain to the discovery of that one great truth, i. e. the existence of a first Great Cause, Author and Ruler of every thing; seen in every thing; seen in any one of the simplest productions of nature; seen in the contemplation of a barley-corn: as for example:

CHAPTER II.

ON THE BARLEY-CORN.

A GROUP of gypsies in a barn on the brow of an hill.

PRECEPT.

Ere to-morrow's dawn

Ere the dewy veil of morn
Be lifted off the lawn

By playful zephyrs

Of Aurora born

Ere the rustic horn
Announce the fleeting

Of the timid fawn
Mata and Ata

Not to suffer scorn

Shall sing the wonders

Of the barley-corn.

"EGYPTIACUS."

DIALOGUE.

MATA AND ATA.

Ata. So, Mata, what plague has the old fellow got into his head now?

Mata. Aye, before dawn we are to unravel this precept.
Ata. The barley-corn; the wonders of the barley-corn?

Ata. Then quickly: What wonders be there in a barley-corn, do'st think?

Mata. Eh, let us see what weigheth it?

Ata. What can it weigh: a barley-corn, we say. One of the small divisions of an ounce.

Mata. But doesn't know that, by sowing this barley-corn in the earth, more bailey-corns will spring from it? Whose doing is that-doesn't know that a stem shall arise fiom it, whereon there shall be thirty grains?

Ata. Very likely thirty; surely I know it: perhaps more; perhaps less; but what of that?

Mata. But what of that? why, whose doing is that? Being agreed as to the fact, it must follow, that the barley-corn sown in the earth hath been increased by some unaccountable process into thirty additional barley-corns.

Ata. Yes. Why, is it not common! don't we see these miracles from year to year, every year we live?

Mata. Miracles indeed! but would this barley-corn have produced other barley-corns, unless it had been sown in the earth? Ata. I cannot say that it would. I have never thought much

about it. I cannot recollect to have seen corn produced, unless it were first buried in the earth not to any use! If it could be multiplied like nettles, without the labour of ploughing and sowing; dost think the husbandman would bestow the labour of ploughing and sowing gratuitously?

Mata. Then it should seem that labour is wanting, and earth essentially to the multiplication of this grain?

Ata. Aye surely: how can it multiply itself? Can it give more than it possesseth? All its content, in number, quality, or dimension, is one grain! Can it give more than it possesseth to give? Yet more is returned from the earth! Whence is this increase? All the increase is accessorial. The original grain is to be seen still extant in the ground! A root is seen diverging from the grain. The stem is seen diverging from the grain. Ail the increase is accessorial: All the increase is earth.

Mata. Then particles of earth converted into barley-corns? Ata. Even so: what marvel?

Mata. That the earth shall be capable of all this wonderful transubstantiation.

Ata. Aye, and a great deal more, if we will but attend. There is the straw to be considered as a produce of the barley-corn.

Mata. I am amazed:-The earth convertible into straw and corn, by a process so simple as sowing a barley-corn in the earth.

Ata. Aye; it is no more than truth. The earth, by some secret process in nature, shall intermix in this parental grain; shall receive its laws; shail take its forms and flexibilities; shall dilate, deterrate, germinate; take the colours, and contextures, and properties, of every kind, of this parental grain; and terminate at length in a manifold reproduction of this original grain, so acceptable and necessary in the general economy of man. Mata. Most wonderful indeed!

Ata. And every one of these barley corns being buried in the earth, shall possess an equal susceptibility of reproduction with the simple barley-corn originally sown.

Mata. So that in process of time it were possible to multiply this barley-corn into bushels of barley-corns?

Ata. Aye surely; and these bushels of barley-corns, into sacks of barley-corns; and sacks into quarters; and quarters into loads. Mata. So it should seem and further, that, by pursuing this accumulative progression of transubstantiation, it were possible to compute in how much time the whole globe of earth might be converted from its maternal state into so many heaps of barley

corns.

Ata. One would say so, love in taking our rule from the apparent susceptibility of the thing, one would think it possible to go all that length; but experience, which is our best informer and guide in all things, doth not support us to the full extent of this deduction: for the farmer will tell us that a crop may con.e off the land; or two crops; or three crops; and that the ground will by this time impoverish, and loose its susceptibility of teeming the principle of nutrition, the pabalum of the plant will be all exhausted; and that to restore to the earth its virtue, its original faculty of transmuting into plants, the essence must be restored to the earth; the soil must come back again to the field.

Mata. Why yes; in one shape or another, it is clear that what is taken from the field, must come back again to the field.

Ata. Or by taking away a barley-corn at a time, our whole globe might at length be exhausted; we should have no ground left to stand upon but this is reasoning beyond conviction! let us now, my dearest Mata, look a little into this facetious Mother Earth.

Mata. A moment, love, and I will bring to thee an handful of