LOVE OF NATURE. 45 



less desolate. The mind requires occupation, and if 

 no pursuit is at hand it will prey upon itself. I have 

 visited the abodes of squalid misery, both in garrets 

 and in cellars, in places from which all earthly 

 comfort seemed to be withdrawn, but never have 

 I met with persons so wretched at heart as those 

 who have no stimulus to exertion. The hope of 

 getting employment is the polar star of such as are 

 out of work, and whose misery springs from this 

 cause ; but the individuals of whom I speak have no 

 polar star whatever ; to them, therefore, the study 

 of natural history would be a safety-valve, and 

 whatever they brought to the light of science would 

 increase in interest. The flower would appear more 

 beautiful the more it was examined, and the tree, now 

 thought of only as a thing to be cut down and ap- 

 plied to domestic purposes, would stand before them 

 a majestic column, with its internal mechanism 

 wonderfully adapted to answer the requirings of 

 vegetable life ; with its outward beauty, majestic 

 even in the depth of winter. 



The consideration of all natural objects is calcu- 

 lated to enlarge the mind, whether they are such as 

 men call great, or whether they are such as the foot 

 treads upon, and the eye will scarcely deign to 

 glance at. Ignorance naturally accompanies in- 

 difference, arid there are many whose feelings and 

 capacities are narrowed within the circle of their 

 daily wants, merely because they have no sympathy 

 with the objects that surround them. But call forth 

 that latent sympathy, and let them understand the 

 extent and the variety of interesting objects that are 

 within their reach, they will seem to acquire new 



