ADVANTAGES OF ABUNDANCE. 153 



plums, peaches, apricots, and nectarines, may be inclined 

 to consider a limitation of quantity in the light of a 

 benefit — yet, as an abstract question, every one must 

 admit the significance which lies in an unstinted, noble, 

 prodigal abundance. Books, for example : can we have 

 too many of them, provided they be well selected ? 

 Dogs : can they be too populous in our grounds ? or 

 horses — in our stables ? or friends — at convenient dis- 

 tances? or children — in the nursery? or creditors, — no, 

 not creditors, unless gathered together in a general 

 cataclysm. In a word, is not abundance in and for itself 

 a grand advantage? Painfully the truth obtrudes itself 

 upon me as I sit eyeing the solitary Anemone which 

 mopes in a single vase upon my table, the last rose of sum- 

 mer, all its blooming companions dissected and dead. 

 My thoughts take wing to Hfracombe and Tenby, 

 where foot-pans, pie-dishes, soup-plates, and vases, were 

 crowded with specimens of every variety of form 

 and colour. I think of that paradisaic abundance, 

 and sigh over this one unhappy animal — the mere Meso- 

 230tamian pennyivorth — partly because I love plenteous- 

 ness in all things, but mainly because it is only with 

 abundant specimens at command that Nature can be pro- 

 perly interrogated. Fortunately I made good use of my 

 specimens, but not so much as I could make now ; and 

 from my notes I will select a few points for the student's 

 consideration ; but as they will refer solely to questions 

 of anatomy and physiology, the reader is advised to 

 skip the chapter, unless he feel some interest in such 

 questions. 



