INTRODUCTION. 



"Better for man 



Were he and Nature more familiar friends ! 

 His part is worst that touches this base world. 

 Although the ocean's inmost heart be pure, 

 Yet the salt fringe that daily licks the shore 

 Is gross with sand." Alexander Smith. 



WITH the exception of the Inspired Writings, no 

 book is so eminently calculated as that of Nature to 

 elevate the mind, to create within it a thirst for all 

 that is pure and ennobling, and, above all, to fill the 

 heart with a thankful and abiding trust in Him "who 

 feeds the young ravens when they cry," and " whose 

 tender mercies are over all His works." 



Nor are the grander works of creation alone worthy 

 of our consideration : the contemplation of the vast 

 firmament ablaze with untold myriads of glistening 

 orbs, or of the mighty deep now slumbering with un- 

 ruffled surface, now hurling its maddened billows 

 against the rock-bound coast, may well, indeed, 

 entrance and awe the soul ; but humbler things than 

 these demand of us more than a mere passing thought : 

 the tiny moss that creeps upon the wall, the spider's 

 web, insects innumerable, of every form and hue, that 

 flit on gladsome wing, as well as countless millions of 

 creatures far too small for unaided human vision to 



