And guides them as he will:
That glorious God who lives afar,
In heaven, beyond the highest star.
LESSON VIII.
THE WORLD.—PART III.
Genesis i. 20-25.
God had made a great many things, but none of these things were alive. At last he made some living things. He spoke, and the water was filled with fishes, more than could be counted.
Some were very small, and some were very large. Have you heard of the great whale? It is a fish as long as a church. Fishes are cold, and they have no feet, and they cannot sing, nor speak.
God made some creatures, more beautiful than fish, to fly about in the air. The birds:—they perched upon the trees, and sang among the branches.
Birds have wings, and are covered with feathers of all colors. The robin has a red breast; the goldfinch has some yellow feathers; and the jay some blue ones: but the peacock is the most beautiful of birds. It has a little tuft upon its head, and a long train that sweeps behind; sometimes it spreads out its feathers, and they look like a large fan. The thrush, the blackbird and the linnet can sing sweetly: but there is one bird that can sing more sweetly still—it is the nightingale. At night, when all the other birds have left off singing, the nightingale may be heard in the woods.
Some birds swim upon the water; such as geese, and ducks, and the beautiful swan, with its long neck and its feathers like the snow.