such a beautiful, peaceful, sky, thunder-clouds could ever roll and crash, or lightnings dart and play. And yet, in an instant of time, the weather will change, clouds will rise as it were from nothing, here one and there another, the sky becomes overcast before your very eyes, the storm growls on all sides, thunders roll and lightnings flash. The winds are like angry devils, the rain covers the road axle-deep in floods. An hour or two ago the world looked fresh and sweet, as though it had just come from the hands of its Maker: it now looks as the world will look on the eve of the Day of Mundane Destruction, when all its elements shall be for ever dissolved.
We are asked, whence came this terrible change over the face of the earth, and what shall we reply? We can but say that it came from the calm weather of a few hours ago, that the quiet peaceful sky, which we admired just now, held within itself the seeds of that terrible tempest which frightened us so much. We cannot guess at the underlying causes of the weather. Motion lies hidden in the womb of rest, confu-
