PREFACE. }9 



which it displays, is in other points less pleasing to a 

 tender and delicate mind. In botany all is elegance 

 and delight. No painful, disgusting, unhealthy experi- 

 ments or inquiries are to be made. Its pleasures spring 

 up under our feet, and, as we pursue them, reward us 

 with health and serene satisfaction. None but the most 

 foolish or depraved could derive any thing from it but 

 what is beautiful, or pollute its lovely scenery with una- 

 miable or unhallowed images. Those who do so, either 

 from corrupt taste or malicious design, can be compared 

 only to the fiend entering into the garden of Eden. 



Let us turn from this odious picture to the contem- 

 plation of Nature, ever new, ever abundant in inex- 

 haustible variety- Whether we scrutinize the damp 

 recesses of woods in the wintry months, when the 

 numerous tribes of mosses are displaying their minute, 

 but highly interesting structure ; whether we walk 

 forth in the early spring, when the ruby tips of the haw- 

 thorn-bush give the first sign of its approaching vegeta- 

 tion, or a little after, when the violet welcomes us with 

 its scent, and the primrose with its beauty ; whether 

 we contemplate in succession all the profuse flowery 

 treasures of the summer, or the more hidden secrets of 

 Nature at the season when fruits and seeds are forming ; 

 the most familiar objects, like old friends, will always 

 afford us something to study and to admire in their 



