SPECIAL KNOWLEDGE ITS USE. 9 



the long sleep of winter, nature is once more 

 exhibiting a cheerful aspect. The want of special 

 and particular acquaintance with the science of 

 botany deprives him of numberless pleasing 

 impressions, which would otherwise be made upon 

 his mind by the reappearance of those objects in 

 the vegetable kingdom to which he had given 

 attention in some preceding season. 



" A primrose by the river's brim 

 A yellow primrose is to him, 

 And it is nothing more." 



The Book of Nature has opened its pages before 

 his eyes; those pages are distinctly printed and 

 gloriously illustrated ; but to him they are in a 

 great measure written in an unknown language, 

 and the characters fail to awaken in him more 

 than a few vague and indefinite ideas. 



How different is the case of the person who is 

 even but imperfectly acquainted with botany I 

 To him a solitary ramble among the green lanes 

 and shadowy woods offers an inexhaustible fund 

 of cheerful, healthful, elevating contemplation. 

 He can read the book that is opened before him, 

 and comprehend much of its language. The 

 simplest flower that springs up beneath the haw- 

 thorn hedge suggests to him a train of ideas. Every 

 leaf that issues from nature's press is in his view 

 like the Prophet's roll, printed within and without 

 in characters full of the sublimest significance; 

 every blade of grass is vocal to him, and, 

 awakening the echoes of memory, renews past 



