58 NATURE STUDY. 



lies of insects requires a great deal of study and a very 

 large collection, but we shall find it a real pleasure to be- 

 come familiar with such as we can have readily at hand. 

 So, in future nature study lessons, we will take our rows 

 or boxes of insects and learn something about a few of the 

 more common families in each of the seven orders. 



A Gift from Nature. 



BY CHARLES H. OAKES. 



A full moon reigning in proud majesty ; 



Some sickly stars acowering from her light ; 

 Crabapple scent low floating o'er the lea ; 



A field-sparrow's wail startling hush-wrapped night- 

 Nature dipt out this night from her vast store, 

 And handed me to keep forevermore. 



In the turning of the human tide cityward, which will begin be- 

 fore long, how many will come back rested ? How many really 

 know how to rest? What proportion of us understand the wisdom 

 of the wilderness where the trammels of conventionalities are un- 

 known and the soul and body expand together in the vast harmo- 

 nies of nature, where everything is pure and free, and where the 

 civilization is from God's own hand? The nearer one gets to the 

 peace in unity that pervades a great wilderness, those immense 

 stretches of forest where the silence is only broken by the song of 

 a bird or the cry of an animal, the stronger he is for his life work 

 when he returns to it. 



And yet there are comparatively few on whom the silence of the 

 wilderness would not pall. A fashionable hotel in the hills is the 

 Mecca of the crowds. A " hole in the wall " to look at the world 

 from is the size of the observation from most hotel rooms where 

 the clatter of humanity drowns the song of the trees. And who 

 shall teach the wisdom of the wilderness which shall minister to 

 these diseased tastes that prefer the flesh-pots to the sweets and 

 virtues of the ground, the waters, the plants, the heavens and ali 

 that weave their enchantments therein? — Listener, in the Boston 

 Transcript. 



