34 LEISURE-TIME STUDIES. 



to the workers therein ; but to learn botany does not mean 

 that you shall learn names merely. What the skilful botanist 

 would teach you to look at, to observe, and to note, would 

 be the structure of the flower ; the teachings of the micro- 

 scope with regard to it ; the revelations of physiology about 

 it ; and its relations to the world in which it is placed. 

 From these points he would lead you further to see how the 

 silent inner life of the plant proceeded from day to day ; you 

 would note its growth and its decline ; in short, you would 

 find that through the true study of your primrose, you would 

 gain glimpses of worlds and catch gleams of thoughts, too 

 wonderful in the one case for description, and too grand in 

 the other for realisation. You would through this study 

 come to realise the true force of Wordsworth's lines 



" To me the meanest flower that blows does bring 

 Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears. " 



Of such a character, also, would be the teaching of the true 

 zoologist. He would lead you to look at animal life and 

 existence, not as a mere collection of dry details, but in all 

 its many and varied phases ; and he would thus awaken 

 within you an interest in the world, its tenants nay, and 

 even in yourselves that would afford you instruction and 

 delight throughout an entire lifetime. 



When, therefore, you think of science, do not picture it 

 to yourself as composed of nothing save the dry-as-dust 

 technicalities of popular notions. Do not think of it, either, 

 as those do, who, as the author of the " Ingoldsby Legends " 

 remarks, see something ridiculous in any one who 



"Would pore by the hour, 

 O'er a weed or a flower, 



Or the slugs that come crawling out after a shower. 

 ****** 

 Still poking his nose into this thing or that, 

 At a gnat, or a bat, or a rat, or a cat ; 

 Or great ugly things, 

 All legs and wings, 

 With nasty long tails, armed with nasty long stings." 



