328 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



hind. ^Fortune, in like manner, has blown upon 

 us, and has fcattered abroad our downy-pinioned 

 circles over the face of the whole earth. I call to 

 remembrance, on feeing certain gramineous plants 

 in the ear, the happy age when we conjugated on 

 their alternate ramifications, the different tenfes 

 and moods of the verb aimer (to love). We trem- 

 bled at hearing our companions finifh, after all the 

 various inflexions, with, Je ne vous aime pluSy (I no 

 longer love you). The finefl flowers are not always 

 thofe for which we conceive the higheft afifeâiion. 

 The moral fentiment determines^ at the long run, 

 all our phyfical taftes. The plants which feem to 

 me the moft unfortunate, are, at this day, thofe 

 which awaken in me the moft lively intereft. I 

 frequently fix my attention on a blade of grafs, at 

 the top of an old wall, or on a fcabious, toffed 

 about by the winds in the middle of a plain. 

 Oftener than once, at fight, in a foreign land, of 

 an apple-tree without flowers, and without fruit, 

 have I exclaimed : " Ah ! why has Fortune de- 

 ** nied to thee, as fhe has done to me, a little earth 

 *' in thy native land ?" 



The plants of our Country, recal the idea of it 

 to us, wherever we may be, in a manner flill more 

 afFeding than it's monuments. I would fpare no 

 coft, therefore, to coUeâ; them around the children 

 of the Nation. I would make their fchool a fpot 



charming 



