476 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



higher purposes to serve in this world than mere subservience to the 

 physical wants of man. There is a much higher utility than the 

 mere temporary and Avorldly one. The useful things of external life, 

 indeed, should not be undervalued ; they are the first things required, 

 but they are not the sole or the highest things necessary. Man must 

 have food and clothing in order to live ; but it must also be remem- 

 bered that man does not live by bread and the conveniences of exter- 

 nal life alone. When any one does live by these alone, he has for- 

 feited his claim to the higher form of life which is his glorious privi- 

 lege, and by which he is distinguished from the lower animals. Na- 

 ture throughout her whole wide domains gives no countenance to such 

 a materialistic exclusiveness. She is at once utilitarian and transcen- 

 dental. Uses and beauties intermingle. All that is useful is around 

 us ; but how much more is there besides ? There is a strange superflu- 

 ous glory in the summer air ; there is marvellous beauty in the forms 

 and hues of flowers ; there is an enchanting sweetness in the song of 

 birds and the murmur of waters ; there are a divine grandeur and love- 

 liness in the landscapes of earth and the scenery of the heavens, the 

 changes of the seasons, the dissolving splendors of morning, noon, sun- 

 set, and night, utterly incomprehensible upon the theory of Nature's 

 exclusive utilitarianism. " The tree which shades the wayfarer in the 

 noontide heat adorns the landscape ; and the flower which gives honey 

 to the bee sheds its perfume on the air. A leaf no less than a flower 

 fulfils the functions of life, ministers to the necessities of man, yet 

 clothes itself, and adorns the earth in tapestries richer than the robes 

 of kings." All things proclaim that the Divine Architect, while am- 

 ply providing for the physical wants of his creatures, has not forgot- 

 ten their spiritual necessities and enjoyments ; and, having implanted 

 in the human soul a yearning for the beautiful, has surrounded us with 

 a thousand objects by whose charms that yearning may be gratified. 

 And one of the most striking examples of this Divine care is to be seen 

 in the profusion of minute objects spread around us, which apparently 

 have no direct influence at all upon man's physical nature, and have 

 no connection with his corporeal necessities. These objects, subserv- 

 ing no gross utilitarian purpose, are intended to educate man's spirit- 

 ual faculties by the beauties of form, the wonders of structure, and the 

 adaptations of economy which they display. Their beauty is sufficient 

 reason for their existence, were there no other. When their varied and 

 exquisitely symmetrical forms are presented to the eye under the mi- 

 croscope, a thrill of pleasure is experienced, calm and pure, because 

 free from all taint of passion, and felt all the more intensely because 

 nameless and indefinite. We are brought face to face with perfection 

 in its most wonderful aspect the perfection of minuteness and detail ; 

 with objects which bear most deeply impressed upon them the signet- 

 mark of their Maker ; and we observe with speechless admiration that 

 the Divine attention is acuminated and his skill concentrated on these 



