Vi _ PREFACE. 
how soft and gentle are the influences which 
take possession of the mind, when it turns the 
channel of its musings from the bright world 
around it, to the great Fountain and Source 
and Creator of all. 
There is probably no time in life when a 
fondness for the study of Nature may be more 
safely cultivated than in early childhood. It 
is then that the mind turns with true simpli- 
city from the visible objects of its admiration, 
to the adoration of the Invisible who created 
them; and what more happy moment than 
this to instil into the mind of a child the great 
truths of that religion, whose sublime doctrines 
are so abundantly illustrated in Holy Writ by 
direct references to objects in the outward 
world? Our Saviour, in his teachings to his 
disciples, frequently alludes to the beauties of 
his Father’s creation: ‘Consider the lilies of 
the field how they grow; they toil not, neither 
do they spin; and yet I say unto you that 
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like 
one of these.” 
The object of these pages is not so much to 
attempt a description of rare and curious 
P 
j 
