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pressure from breakfast time, and there is the sense of fag, so 

 well-known to many of us. Under circumstances like these 

 what is the best method of obtaining rest ? It wall be recog- 

 nised at once that the " rest '* needed is not passivity, but 

 changed activity ; an absolute reversal of occupation. To a 

 man possessed with a love of nature, the all-needful channel of 

 recuperation is entered upon at once. Through country lane, 

 over stile and ditch, by river side or by the shore, he wends 

 his way, all eyes and ears for flower and bird ; for every 

 glorious experience that prodigal nature is never slow to 

 reveal to every seeker after her hid treasures. And who shall 

 tell of all the wonders of her treasure house ! Here in this 

 wayside pond is a wealth of life — of indescribable beauty and 

 activity — so prolific that it forms in itself a veritable little 

 world. Daphnia and Floscule, Rotifer and Polyzoon — so 

 common as, I fear, to be despised by some of us. And 

 yet the humblest of these living creatures, hidden to 

 natural sight, is " a thing of beauty and a joy for ever." 

 The same may be said of aquatic microscopic plants, 

 which to the tyro appear as so much filthy slime until their 

 structure and action have been revealed to him. Similar 

 attention is devoted to the wayside flower — its form, its classi- 

 fication, its place in the economy of nature, its method of pro- 

 pagation. A bank of wild flowers to the passer by may have a 

 temporary attraction, but to a botanist (to the student who 

 knows something of function and structure) it offers a delight 

 almost beyond words. If the bent of mind be not in the 

 direction of plant and animal, there remains the whole realm 

 of entomology to be explored, or failing this, geology. Nor 

 does the profit end with the walking or the ingathering. 

 Somewhere in the man's house is a place, tidy or untidy, it 

 matters not, which for all practical purposes is regarded as 

 sacred. It contains instruments and apparatus and seemingly 

 countless odds and ends which are all needed. Housewife 

 and housemaid stand in awe of that spot; if they see 

 it at all it is on sufferance, and they are made to realize 

 their profound ignorance. But it is in that spot that our 

 business man takes the second step in his study of nature. 



