the varieties of food already mentioned, and many more. Of their numerous vegetables, few are indigenous to Britain. The Jerusalem artichoke is a native of Brazil, the spinach of Asia, the endive of Japan, the scorzonera of Spain; pepper is a production of tropical climates; beet and celery of the European continent. We first imported cauliflower and the garden-cress from the island of Cyprus; asparagus was early cultivated in Greece; and the artichoke and lettuce seem to owe their origin to a similar locality on the shores of the Mediterranean. Rice and millet are the produce of tropical grasses; arrow-root is extracted from the root, and sago from the pith, of plants which flourish only under the rays of a burning sun. The animal food used by the higher ranks is also indebted for some of its varieties to foreign importation. The cow, which furnishes our beef, and the hog, which supplies us with pork and ham, may be native animals; but it is not so with the sheep, which provides us with mutton, and adds, by its delicacy and flavour, so much to the luxuries of the table. This has been transported from the teeming East, and has proved, from the earliest times, one of the most important gifts of the Creator to the human race, whether we consider its uses while alive, or after it has fallen under the butcher's knife.

The luxuries of the dessert are equally varied by the productions of foreign lands. The apple, the pear, the quince, and the medlar, are all acquisitions from the Eastern continent; and the same may be said of the pomegranate, the fig, and the grape. To an Eastern region, also, we are indebted for our cucumbers and melons; while the peach, the nectarine, the almond, and the apricot, are importations from the same primeval garden. The olive is a native of Asia and Africa, and perhaps also of the south-eastern parts of Europe; and the orange, though now cultivated in almost all warm climates, seems to have originally sprung from the tropical regions of the East. Of our preserves, the tamarind and the

guava are the produce of either India. Of exhilarating infusions, coffee, as well as tea, is raised under the influence of a warmer climate; and when we add to all these luxuries, the fermented juice of the grape, we enumerate the chief of a long list of productions and preparations, remarkable at once for their variety and for their agreeable qualities, which our countrymen owe to the industry and enterprise of civilization.

Many of these productions have been naturalized in Britain, and have thus increased the range of our vegetable stores, while they have added most materially to the powers of our soil and climate in maintaining human life. But, where this could not be effected, commerce has accomplished whatever else was necessary for extending the varieties of human enjoyment; and from all climates and all regions, the exuberance and diversified produce of nature are poured into our happy land.

Such is the effect of that salutary discipline, under which the necessity of procuring food from the vegetable stores of the earth, and its animal produce, has placed the mind of man. There is no end to the race of improvement, under the urgency of natural and artificial wants, and the variety of nature's enticements. In looking back on the progress we have made, we cannot but wonder at our present advanced position; and while this encourages us to look forward with hope to the future, it reminds us, at the same time, of the Unseen Hand which has led us hitherto, and confirms all the conclusions which, in the course of our investigations, we have formed relative to the profound and benevolent system of Providence, in the conduct of human affairs.

SIXTH WEEK-TUESDAY.

CLOTHING.-ITS PRINCIPLE.

THE necessity or comfort of procuring a covering to the body, from the vicissitudes of the weather, is, as I have said, another mode by which the Creator calls forth and exercises the faculties of his rational creatures. Every other inhabitant of the earth, above the grade of insects which are governed by laws of their own, comes into the world with some contrivance in the shape of clothing, beautifully adapted to its nature, and generally altering with the season of the year, so as more effectually to guard its body from the injurious effects of the heat or the cold which prevails. But man is destined to procure his own clothing; and this, which at first sight appears a defect, is in reality the source of many blessings.

The human race was to be diffused over the whole habitable earth, to be an inhabitant of all climates, and of all localities. His clothing, had it pleased the Creator to afford him a natural cover, would have required to be so constituted, as to change with the peculiar situation in which he was placed, so as to serve as a protection at one time from the burning heats of the tropics, and at another from the chilling breath of the polar skies. This might, indeed, have been effected, and would have only been a further extension of the law which exists among the lower animals. But something more would have been wanting. Man is a wandering animal. In the pursuit of those objects, to which he is urged by his necessities or his pleasures, he has to traverse all climates; at one time braving the storms of the north; at another fanned by the gentle breezes of the temperate regions; at another still, melting under the direct rays of an equatorial sun; and all this he has, in a commercial age,

frequently to undergo, with the rapidity which art has given, or may yet give, to the means of transportation by land and sea. It would, doubtless, still be easy for Creative Power and Wisdom to contrive some kind of natural dress, capable of accommodating itself to all these sudden and extensive changes; but, for wise purposes, it has been otherwise ordered. Man has been destined to suit his covering to his own convenience.

Thus his activity is called forth. He finds a new want that must be supplied. He may be placed in the midst of abundance of food; the cocoa-nut and the banana-tree may pour their stores for his subsistence; but even in the climate where these bounties of nature exist, this is not enough. He may live, but he feels discomfort, unless he discover some mode of sheltering himself from the excessive heats of the day, and the cold dews of the night. He cannot always be under the shade of a rock or a tree. It is desirable that he should have a permanent covering for his body, to shield him from all the changes to which he may be subjected in the open air. In an instinctive sense of modesty, too, another incentive to seek for clothing is bestowed, on which I need not at present dwell. Here is a motive to exertion. The want must be supplied by industry; and, however limited the sphere of that industry may be, when man is in the savage state of which we now speak, it is something to have an object in view, which teaches the pleasure of exercise, and rewards activity.

His ingenuity, as well as activity, is called into exercise. Clothing is not to be found ready prepared. Even the bark of the paper-mulberry and the bread fruit-tree must undergo a rude manufacture, before it be fit for use. A simple covering to part of the body, is all that the rudest tribes affect; but yet, among them, this is distinguished by degrees of excellence, and is coveted for its superior qualities. Various principles are called into action by the same want, further developed, in more advanced stages of society, the love of possessing, the de

sire of distinction, a taste for what is beautiful, an admiration of what is ingenious, a delight in personal indulgence, a generous regard for the interests of society ;-and all these principles stimulate the inventive faculties, and promise a reward to the skill and industry of the manufacturer. Thus a foundation is laid, in the human mind, for improvement in this as well as other arts.

On the other hand, Nature adapts her supplies to the exercise of these principles; or, to speak more correctly, the God of Nature follows out, in this department, the wise and far-extended plans of his providence, for the training and discipline of the human mind. We shall afterwards examine the details of this providential system; but let us at present inquire into its nature.

All our articles of clothing are, as regards the fabric itself, derived from the vegetable or animal kingdom. The same living principle which elaborates our food, prepares also our clothing. This is assuredly an intended arrangement, and it is of some importance in that economy, which regards man as a being whose faculties require to be stimulated. It affords additional employment to his mind, in the pursuits of agriculture. Vegetables have to be cultivated, and animals reared, to supply human wants, in articles of clothing, as well as of food. Here, again, we see the operation of that remarkable law, which dooms man to laborious exertion, and, by that exertion, gives power and enlargement to his faculties.

The variety of the articles of clothing which civilized man requires to supply his wants, or satisfy his taste or ambition, is another element which must not be overlooked. The constitution of nature favours, or rather cherishes, this desire for variety. There are numerous plants which furnish the raw material for manufacture; the sheep gives its wool; the goat and the camel their hair; the ermine, the beaver, and the bear, their fur; while various animals afford their hides for a similar purpose. The skins of animals appear, indeed, to have