THE SHELLS OF THE GULF OF CALIFORNIA. 219 



With quietness and beauty, and so feed 



With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues, 



Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men, 



Nor greetings where no kin iness is, nor all 



The dreary intercourse of daily life, 



Shall e'er prevail against us ; nor destroy 



Our cheerful faith that all which we behold 



Is full of blessings.'' — Wordsworth's lines on Tmtern Alley. 



Not merely is the study of the works of God a constant source of 

 the most delightful relaxation in the regular concerns of life: but in 

 those times, which come to almost all, of deep sorrow, of physical 

 prostration, or ol unfitness, from whatever cause, for the discharge 

 of ordinary duties, the words of Coleridge speak the literal truth 

 in the living experience of many: 



" With other ministrations thou, Nature, 



Healest thy wandering and distempered child. ., 



Thou pourest on him thy soft influences, 



Thy sunny lines, fail- forms ami breathing sweets, 



Thy melody of woods, and winds, and waters, 



Till be relent, and can no more ensure 



To ho a jarring and a dissonant thing, 



Amid the general dance and minstrelsy." 



