I examined the texture of a flower, and called it admirable: I watched the motions of an insect, and beheld its organs perfect: I strove to build a nest, but the sparrow was the better workman. I saw the cranes fly against the wind, and the fishes against the stream, and I asked, who had taught them thus to protect their feathers and their scales. I marked the birds of passage, and said to the new-fledged swallow prepared for flight, Why thus leave thy home for distant and unknown regions? Wilt thou find good and congenial air whither thou goest? Who instructs thee when to depart? Who will guide thy course through the trackless firmament? and how wilt thou know the season to return? I saw the woodpecker turn her eggs, that they might equally receive the vital warmth; and the partridge trail her wing before the ensnarer, to beguile his footsteps from her young. I observed that the wild beasts slept while man was abroad, and that they sought their prey while man slept. How equally, said I, are the waters balanced, and how great the influence of the stars! The movements of the planets, the changes of the moon, the repelling and attracting qualities of the sun, all--all alike marvellous and sublime. Whom do these things obey? what hand doth direct the great machinery of the universe? and for whom were all these goodly wonders created? I then looked upon myself: I examined my limbs, my powers, my senses. There is a Providence! I cried, and the idols of wood dropped from my hand. There is but one God! I exclaimed, the Almighty, Creator of all things in heaven and on earth, Source of all good and harmony; and henceforth, Him only will I worship! ❦ [Sidenote: Henry IV. of France.]