THE MEADOW. 3 



accidentally ; that trifling occurrences have led to 

 the most important events ; but you will find it a 

 difficult task to name to me one invention in the 

 arts, or one discovery in the sciences, which has not 

 been arrived at by pains-taking and thoughtful 

 men, men who were well acquainted with the 

 value of all that had been done before in their 

 respective subjects of investigation, and who had 

 learnt, by dint of hard study and intense appli- 

 cation, to turn accident to account. The study of 

 Botany, should you ever be induced to take it up, 

 will be an amusement for your leisure hours ; but, 

 unless you set out fully prepared to encounter 

 serious difficulties, and resolved to overcome them, 

 it will be a wearisome amusement, and defeat its 

 own ends. It may happen, that your only grati- 

 fication during the earlier stages of your progress 

 will be derived from looking back upon the rug- 

 ged path which you have traversed, when the 

 reflection that you have mastered difficulties which 

 at the outset appeared almost insurmountable, will 

 give you encouragement to proceed against those 

 which yet seem to be obstacles in your way. If, 

 in the course of our rambles, I present you with 

 some of the flowers and fruits of botanical research, 

 you must not forget that they were not attained 

 until many difficulties had been surmounted ; and, 

 if you would wish to gather any such for yourself, 

 you can only reach them by undergoing a similar 

 process. 



Our first excursion shall be through a Meadow, 

 the produce of which is reserved for making hay. 

 Here you will discover at first, perhaps, nothing 

 very well deserving your notice, for, with the ex- 

 ception of Ox-eye Daisies, and a sprinkling of Red 



