98 THE REV. J. G. WOOD. 



as in numberless other instances, Nature had been 

 beforehand with man. And, alike in book, in article, 

 and in lecture, he always brought the matter for- 

 ward with the one intention of showing that the 

 same Creator who embodied an idea in visible shape 

 in Nature put the germ of the same idea into the 

 mind of man, and thus that its independent, dual 

 existence forms one of the many proofs of the unity 

 of the Divine scheme. For as I have already stated 

 he always preferred, if possible, to point his moral 

 indirectly, and to leave it rather to be drawn by 

 inference than gathered from direct statement. Thus 

 he never seasoned his writings with texts, and sel- 

 dom even quoted Scripture at all, although he might 

 be enlarging upon the beauties of Nature and the 

 marvels of Creation. Nature to him was God, and 

 Creation was God's work. Yet he always abstained 

 on principle from saying so in so many words, and 

 had the most utter detestation of that form of 

 writing generally described as " goody," which causes 

 many a reader to throw aside many a book in 

 disgust. And yet the whole spirit of his writings 

 breathes the one great truth, which is never expressed 

 but always implied. The " goody " element is care- 

 fully excluded, but yet the work which that element 

 is intended to do is done. Throughout all his work 

 the clergyman and the naturalist went hand in hand, 

 and the one was always the exponent and assistant 

 of the other. 



