47 



not more calculated to entertain the mind than to improve the 

 heart. 



Mungo Park, one of the earKest of those enterprising travellers, 

 who have at various times gone forth from this country to 

 explore the wastes and wilds of Africa, and who alas ! have too 

 often, like him, laid down their lives in the cause, has recorded 

 in his Journal a little incident, which some may think triflino- 

 but which can hardly fail to arrest the attention of every serious 

 reader. In a season of great danger and distress, when he had 

 just been robbed, and stript, and ill-treated by a banditti, and he 

 found himself in the midst of a vast wilderness, naked and alone, 

 surrounded by savage animals, and men still more savao-e, 

 with the reflection that he was 500 miles from the nearest 

 European settlement ; when his spirits had begun to fail him, 

 and he considered his fate as certain, and that he had no 

 alternative but to lie down and perish — in that moment the 

 extraordinary beauty of a small moss, in fructification, irresistibly 

 caught his eye. •' Though the Avhole plant " (he says) " was not 

 "larger than the top of one of my finger's, I could not contemplate 

 "the delicate conformation of its roots, leaves, and cap.iules, 

 "without admiration. Can that Being (thought I) who planted 

 "watered, and brought to perfection, in this obscure part of the 

 " world, a thing which appears of so small importance, look with 

 "unconcern upon the situation and sufferings of creatures formed 

 "after his own image ? Surely not !" he replied to himself, and 

 he goes on to say how such reflections roused him from his 

 despair. Starting up, and disregarding both hunger and fatigue, 

 he travelled forward, assured that relief was at hand, and (he 

 adds) he was not disappointed. 



This is but one of the many instances in which the contem- 

 plation of the marvellous works of nature has called up in the 

 beholder the best thoughts which a devotional mind can 

 entertain. Bacon can commend us to a garden as " a refreshment 

 to the spirits," but a greater than Bacon would suggest something 



