I do like the seasons here, and the sort of feeling of expectation that
winter, dark and dreary as it is, gives of the welcome return of spring
with all its beauties.
_12th., Sunday._--My uncle, in conversing this morning about the
peculiar situation and circumstances of the Israelites, said that the
beneficence which graciously condescended to detail all their smaller
duties in the law, might be compared to the cloud which continued to be
their daily guide in the wilderness, directing them when to halt, and
when to advance; for the law was their sure guide to lead them blameless
through the journey of life, could they but have been obedient to it,
and restrained their unruly and stubborn dispositions.
“But, perhaps,” he continued, “there is not any where in the history of
man a stronger proof of the corruption of his heart, and at the same
time of the perfect free will bestowed on him, than in the simple facts
recorded in the history of the journey of the Israelites across the
desert; when at the very time they were under the immediate guidance of
God, they so frequently murmured and even rebelled against his commands.
Thus exercising their own will, notwithstanding the threats and
prohibitions, as well as the promises, conveyed to them by Moses.
“The book of Numbers, you know, is so called because it contains an
account of the two numberings of the people; the first of which took
place in the second year after their departure from Egypt; and the
second, in the plains of Moab, near the conclusion of their wanderings.
It comprehends about thirty-eight years; but the principal historical
events which it records happened at the beginning or the end of that
period,--such as, the death of Aaron, and the very interesting
narrative of Balak and Balaam’s insidious attempts. It also describes
the consecration of the tabernacle, and recapitulates the forty-two
journeys of the Israelites in the wilderness, under the miraculous
guidance of the cloud.
“This book also contains several instances of the prompt severity with
which God punished the rebellious murmurings and ungrateful seditions of
the people. But amidst the exemplary terrors of those judgments, it sets
forth on every occasion the continuance of his fatherly mercy and
goodness, in providing for their wants, in protecting and defending
them, in holding out the consoling offer of future restoration to his
favour, and particularly in the beautiful and comprehensive blessing
which he appointed to be pronounced by the priests, and to which, lest
any body should despise it, because uttered by a mere mortal, he annexed
this gracious and distinct promise, ‘and I will bless them.’
“The blessing[A] probably extended in its full meaning to after-ages,
and seems to be capable of a more comprehensive interpretation than what
appears in our translation. For it is very remarkable, that the name of
Jehovah, which is three times repeated, has each time in the original
Hebrew a different accent. Some commentators think that this refers to
the three persons of the Trinity; and that it has a strictly parallel
signification to the form of baptism which our Saviour established in
‘the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.’
“The three parts of this benediction, they say, will be found to agree
respectively with the attributes of Three Persons. The Father being the
source of all blessings and preservation, temporal and eternal. Grace
and illumination coming from the Son, through whom we have the light of
all true knowledge. And Peace, that is, the peace of conscience and
inward tranquillity of mind, being essentially the gift of the Spirit,
whose name, St. John says, is the Comforter.”
_13th._--Every thing relating to the interior of Africa is so
interesting now that such efforts are making to explore it, that I think
you will be amused by a few lines from Mollien’s Travels about a kingdom
called _Fonta-diallon_.
He says, that the villages are like camps; there are but few cattle, and
those of diminutive size; horses are unknown, and the ass on which
Mollien rode, spread terror through the country. There is not sufficient
prey to invite the lion; and the surrounding mountains have never been
crossed by the elephant: but hyenas and panthers are abundant; and
monkeys people the woods.
The riches of the inhabitants consist in slaves, and they have some very
singular establishments for them, which seem to shew a much greater
degree of humanity than we find in any other part of Africa. I will copy
Mollien’s own words.
“Les Rumbdés sont des établissemens qui font honneur à l’homme de
l’humanité. Chaque village, ou plusieurs habitans d’un village,
rassemblent leurs esclaves, en leur enjoignant de se bâtir des cases
voisines les unes des autres; cette réunion s’appelle _Rumbdé_. On
choisit un chef parmi les esclaves; ses enfans, s’ils en sont dignes,
occupent sa place après sa mort. Ces esclaves, qui n’en portent que le
nom, labourent le champ de leurs maîtres; et lorsqu’ils voyagent, les
suivent pour porter leurs fardeaux. Jamais on ne les vend quand ils sont
parvenus à un age un peu avancé, ou qu’ils sont nés dans le pays; agir
autrement, ce serait causer la désertion de toute la Rumbdé; mais celui
qui se conduit mal est livré au maître par ses camarades, pour qu’il le
vende.”
_14th._--It is only a fortnight since I first observed snow-drops
pressing up through the snow. Now at every step I find the early
spring-flowers displaying themselves; and myriads of gay crocuses,
yellow, white, and purple, are bursting every day through the grass of
the little lawn under the library windows. My aunt is going to paint a
group of them, which I am to have the pleasure of gathering for her.
Hepaticas, of all colours, are unfolding their little flowers which have
been so long coiled up, waiting for the gentle influence of spring.
Periwinkle, and even polyanthus, are beginning to blossom; and the
sweet-scented mezereon bushes are thickly covered with the flowers which
I saw quite formed in their little buds five months ago.
The weather has been for some days as soft and mild as it was cold and
harsh a week since; and this has rapidly brought out both birds and
plants. Even my little dormouse has been more lively.
I have been reading a description of winter, which gives a more
melancholy idea of it than I think it deserves.
“Winter, season of death, is the time of the sleep, or the torpor of
nature; insects without life, reptiles without motion, and vegetables
without verdure. The inhabitants of the air destroyed; those of the
water inclosed in prisons of ice; and even the terrestrial animals, in
some countries, confined in caverns and holes.”
I do not think that, in the depth of winter, all the little living
creatures were so torpid as they are thus described; but the author
nicely says, afterwards, “The return of the birds in spring is the first
signal of the awakening of nature.” I agree with him in that, as I have
for some days observed, that several birds have been singing in an under
voice, as if trying their powers; even a thrush, early as it is, warbled
a few low notes, for Mary and me, this morning. But there is a little
brown bird, with a bluish, ashy-coloured neck, that for two or three
weeks I have constantly heard, as it sits on a fir tree near my window,
loudly repeating its sweet, though unvaried song. It is the winter
fauvette, or hedge-sparrow; which, however, does not belong to the
sparrow tribe. The fauvette is described as a lively, amiable bird, very
active, and to be found every where; in gardens, in thickets, and
hedgerows.
Numbers of insects, too, may be discovered. In our walks last month, we
found many under the bark of trees, or concealed in the moss; and Mary
told me that some of these are scarce in the summer months. We have
often brought home, in our pocket handkerchiefs, great tufts of moss
from the roots of trees; and by shaking it over white paper, we have
easily collected the insects.
I forgot to mention the golden saxifrage, or stonecrop, with which the
shrubbery is bordered, and which is just beginning to flower; and in
some of the hedges the sloe is coming into bloom. But, mamma, even in
the depth of winter, there was no where that appearance of death
described by that melancholy writer; for the bramble retained its
leaves, and gave a thin scattering of green to the hedges; while the
berries of the wild rose, the euonymus, and the hawthorn, along with the
pretty red dog-wood, gave every thing a cheerful look.
I have often thought of the walk I had with my uncle in November, and of
the quantity of things which he taught me might be found to observe,
even in the worst seasons.
_15th._--All this winter we have observed great numbers of the pretty
little lady-bird, or _coccinella_, clustered together in a privet-hedge;
they are generally collected at the joints of the branches, and at first
I imagined they were red berries. Mary never observed so many before,
and she therefore supposes that the _aphis_ must have been uncommonly
abundant last autumn. She tells me that the lady-bird is of great
service--for in its larva state, it feeds entirely on aphides; and when
these mischievous grubs are very numerous, the multitudes of their
pretty little destroyers always seem to increase in proportion. In 1807,
they covered the cliffs at Brighton in such swarms, that the inhabitants
were almost alarmed, not being aware that they came from the
neighbouring hop-grounds, where their larvæ had been usefully employed
in preying on the aphis, which had committed such ravages among the hop
plants, and which is there called _the fly_.--Their utility is so well
known in France, that they are almost held sacred there; and, indeed,
they are so pretty as to be favourites every where.
Just in the same manner as the locust-eating thrush accompanies the
locusts, so the coccinellæ seem to pursue the aphides: whether the
latter cross the sea is not known; but the coccinellæ certainly do, as
they have often alighted upon vessels at sea.
_17th._--I have just read a passage in Kalm’s Travels in North America,
which seems, in some degree, to confirm that opinion of Dr. Walker’s,
about the flowering time of foreign plants, which my uncle mentioned
last week.
“The crab trees opened their flowers yesterday; whereas, the cultivated
apple trees which were brought from Europe, had already lost theirs. The
wild cherry trees did not flower till May 12th; but the European ones
had opened theirs by the 24th of April. The walnuts of this country had
neither leaves nor flowers, when the European kinds had both. Hence it
appears that the trees brought over from Europe, of the same kind with
the wild trees of North America, flower much sooner than the latter. I
cannot say the cause of this forwardness, unless it be that they bring
forth their blossoms as soon as they get the degree of warmth to which
they have been used in their own country: it almost seems as if the
native trees of this country are directed, by _experience_, not to
trust to the first warmth of spring, while the flowers of the European
trees are often killed by the late frosts.”
I read this passage to my uncle, and asked him if these plants did not
seem almost to have instinct?
He smiled, and said, “I can give you another remarkable fact. The wild
potatoe, from Valparaiso, flowers in the garden of the Horticultural
Society in October, which you know is the spring of South America. All
these curious circumstances are manifest proofs of the wisdom of
Providence, who has impressed on plants and animals the habits proper to
the situation in which he placed them.”
I afterwards asked my uncle if the American fruits were very late in
ripening, as the blossoms are so long kept back by winter.
“No,” he said, “the summer is very warm, though the winter is long and
severe; and, as animals become more sensible to heat, after being
previously exposed to cold,--for the same reason that your hands glow on
coming into the house after having been rubbed with snow--so vegetables
seem to be excited to a greater degree of energy by the previous intense
cold. Vines, in grape-houses which have been exposed to the open winter
air, become forwarder and more vigorous than those which have been kept
shut up in the house. In the northern latitudes, after the dissolution
of the snow, the rapidity of vegetation would astonish you.
“Clarke mentions, in his travels in Scandinavia, that it is by no means
uncommon for barley to be reaped in six weeks after it has been sown;
for in summer the sun is so long above the horizon there, that there is
scarcely any intermission of the warmth of the soil during the night.”
_19th, Sunday._--“While we are engaged in considering the history of
Moses,” said my uncle this morning, “I think we should dwell a little on
a very striking part of his character, in order to imitate it, though,
indeed, we can never be tried like him, in having the guidance of such a
wayward and stiff-necked people. Bertha, guess to what quality I
allude.”
“Perhaps to his meekness, which the Bible mentions as being remarkable,”
I replied.
“Yes; meekness and spirit united. No man could have given more proofs of
his courage than Moses. He slew the Egyptian who was killing one of his
Hebrew brethren; he beat the Midianite shepherds though alone and
unsupported: he boldly remonstrated with Pharaoh in his own court, and
feared not all the power of Egypt; but more than all, when God commanded
him to approach, he ventured amidst all the terrors of Sinai: and yet
that spirit, which made and knew his heart, says ‘He was very meek
above all men upon earth.’ Mildness and fortitude may well lodge
together in one breast; it is not the fierce and cruel who are the most
valiant.
“In the sedition of Miriam and Aaron, we see a beautiful example of his
meekness, and of that true magnanimity which arises from it; and those
very qualities are given as the reason why God avenged their ingratitude
to Moses. Their trial must have been the more painful to him, because
the enmity which he endured was from his own nearest relations. Yet he
interceded for them, and God remitted the punishment which they had
justly incurred. There, my children, is a pattern for you of that
forbearance and generosity, which our Saviour afterwards so strongly
commanded his disciples to exercise.
“If Moses himself excited the anger of the Lord at Meribah-Kadesh, by
the distrust which induced him to strike the rock twice, as if doubtful
of God’s omnipotence--if even he could be guilty of such weakness, or
could be provoked by the people to ‘speak unadvisedly with his lips,’
how much more then do all of us require a continual watchfulness of our
hearts, lest we give way to the same kind of ignorant and presumptuous
scepticism!
“The punishment of Moses, by prohibiting him from leading his people
into the promised land, was peculiarly mortifying; and afforded an
exemplary lesson to all Israel of the necessity of obedience, faith, and
humility, to secure the favour of God. How severely Moses felt this
infliction, and how meekly he bore it, appears from his humble, and it
would seem repeated supplications to the Lord to reverse the sentence;
but it was reserved for a greater than Moses to teach His disciples how
to pray on such an occasion: ‘O my Father, if it be possible, let this
cup pass from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt.’
“I think I have noticed to you, on a former Sunday, the perfect candour
of Moses; in the present case it is again conspicuous. His offence, his
punishment, and his entreaties are frequently alluded to in the
Pentateuch, but are totally omitted by Josephus. In the original
narrative they are mentioned as if necessary to explain the whole
truth--they are expressed in sorrow and humiliation;--and the
ingenuousness with which both the crime and the disgrace are recorded by
himself, form a striking contrast with the suppression of those facts by
that cautious historian in describing the character of the great
legislator, to whom he looked up with so much reverence.”
_20th._--Several insects of different kinds appear now on the fruit
trees, and are already beginning to do mischief to the little buds--some
to those containing the leaf, and some to those of the blossom. When I
heard this, I said, that if they could be picked off the blossoms, it
would not signify much if some of the leaves were destroyed; but my
uncle reminded me that the leaves are necessary to the nourishment of
the fruit; for unless there are leaves to prepare the sap for that
purpose, the fruit withers away.
It has been found, he says, by his friend Mr. Knight, that where a peach
branch had only flower-buds on it, the grafting a leaf-bearing twig to
its extremity, so as to produce leaves, was of great benefit to the
young fruit. Mr. K. having also observed that a melon plant began to
decline, which apparently had sufficient foliage for the nourishment of
its fruit, he examined the plant more carefully, and discovered that a
runner had grown out of the frame at one end, with an additional melon
on it. He took this one off, and the rest of the fruit again flourished.
My uncle is going to try a new wash, which can do no injury, and which
has been much recommended to him, for destroying the various grubs and
insects that are so mischievous to the fruit-trees. He sent yesterday to
Gloucester, for some of the water through which coal gas had been
passed; and he had three gallons of it mixed up to-day with one pound
of flower of brimstone--to this was added soft soap, enough to make it
adhere when laid on with a painter’s brush. It was mixed over the fire,
and it may be done so with perfect safety, he says, as it is not
inflammable.
Many insects deposit their eggs in the bark, or in the young buds; and
it is their larvæ or caterpillars that do the greatest mischief. The
_aphides_ injure all the varieties of plum; and there is a _coccus_
sometimes in such quantities on those trees, that in summer every twig
is thickly beaded with little red, half-round specks. In spring, the
larvæ exhaust the trees by sucking out the rising sap. The grub of a
little brown beetle destroys the blossom of the pear-trees; and a
saw-fly injures the fruit so as to cause it to drop prematurely. In
short, almost every kind of fruit tree has its peculiar family of grubs,
which, in their larva state, prey on the sap, the leaves, or the
flower-buds; and it is to prevent this that my uncle is going to destroy
them by that gas wash.
Among various enemies of the apple-tree, he shewed me in particular the
apple aphis, or American blight, which was not known in this country
till the year 1787. It is a very minute insect, covered with a long,
cotton-like wool; and fixes itself in the chinks and rough parts of the
bark. It has spread throughout the kingdom, and about fifteen years ago
destroyed such numbers of apple-trees in this country, that it was
feared the making of cyder would be quite at an end, if some mode of
banishing those insects was not discovered. Spirit of turpentine, or
smearing the branches with oil, were found to be useful remedies: but
Sir Joseph Banks has succeeded completely by the more simple process of
taking off all the rugged old bark, and then scrubbing the trunk and
branches with a hard brush. My uncle has found this insect infesting two
of his apple-trees; so he will try each of those methods as a fair
experiment.
_21st._--Caroline and I took advantage of a walk with my uncle this
morning, to remind him of his promise to teach us something of geology.
“Are you prepared,” said he, “to learn the general classification?
Though uninteresting till you know more, it is the necessary foundation
to any knowledge of that science.”
“Oh yes, we are anxious to learn it, or any thing that you will be so
good as to teach us.”
“Very well,” said my uncle; “we will begin at once. In examining the
surface of the earth, a person would at first imagine that the confused
variety of mineral substances he saw, was the result of mere chance; but
if in different places he should find the same substances constantly
linked together--if, for instance, in traversing the different coal
districts, he were to find sand, clay, chalk, freestone, coal,
limestone, sandstone, slate, and granite, succeed each other with
tolerable uniformity, he would soon perceive that there was something
like system in their arrangement. And on further examination, he would
discover that this general _series_ may be subdivided into several
lesser series or _formations_, in which, also, considerable regularity
may be observed. The order, then, in which these series are classed by
geologists, is what I am now going to explain to my little girls.
“The first or upper series comprehends the mixed beds of sand, gravel,
pebbles, and clay, which are frequently found covering the great chalk
formation.
“The second class includes several different series more or less
connected with each other: the most important of them are--1st, the
chalk formation; 2dly, a series of sands and clays beneath the chalk;
3dly, a series of calcareous freestones, such as Portland and Bath
stone; and, 4thly, beds of red marl and sandstone, sometimes containing
alabaster and rock salt.
“The third general class comprises beds of coal and the limestones and
sandstones on which they repose.
“The fourth or argillaceous class of rocks is characterised by their
disposition to split into thin _laminæ_; such, for example, as the
common roofing slate.
“The fifth, and lowest, contains all the varieties of granite and
gneiss.
“These five series, or orders, have been named by one of our best
geological writers, superior, super-medial, medial, submedial, and
inferior. But the most general relation under which all these minerals
present themselves, is that from which they have been named _primitive_
and _secondary_. The primitive comprehend the lowest series of rocks,
which serve as the bases upon which the others rest. They never contain
any traces of former animals or vegetables, and may be supposed to have
constituted the materials of the earth’s original surface.
“On the other hand, the different series which cover them, sometimes
contain the remains of vegetables and animals imbedded in them; or
sometimes they are made up of broken fragments of the primitive rocks,
cemented together in a new form; and these are therefore considered to
be of a subsequent and secondary origin. Geologists, however, having
observed that between the primitive rocks, and those which exhibit most
distinctly the characters of the secondary class, there are others
partaking of the nature of both, and containing comparatively but few
organic remains, have distinguished them by the title of _transition
rocks_. And the rocks which are above this transition series, they call
_floetz_ rocks; a German term, implying their having been deposited in
horizontal beds, or _strata_; while the strata of the older rocks were
generally inclined at considerable angles. These floetz rocks were again
subdivided into old floetz and new floetz; and to the new floetz other
writers have given the name _tertiary_.
“Though the distribution into the five series or orders, which I gave
you, is, I think, the arrangement best suited to the science, yet it is
necessary that you should recollect these other terms, because they are
alluded to in almost every work to which you will have to refer. But I
have given you quite enough for your first lesson.”
As soon as I came back from our walk, I wrote down all I could recollect
of what my uncle had told us; and I have transcribed it here, in hopes
that it may interest dear Marianne: this, at all events, will fix it
more firmly in my own head.