INTRODUCTION. 13 



beauties intermingle. All that is useful is around us ; 

 but how much more is there beside 1 There is a strange 

 superfluous glory in the summer air ; there is marvellous 

 beauty in the forms and hues of flowers ; there is an 

 enchanting sweetness in the song of birds and the mur- 

 mur of waters ; there is a divine grandeur and loveli- 

 ness in the landscapes of earth and the scenery of the 

 heavens, the changes of the seasons, the dissolving splen- 

 dours of morning, noon, sunset and night, utterly in- 

 comprehensible upon the theory of nature's exclusive 

 utilitarianism. " The tree which shades the wayfarer in 

 the noontide heat adorns the landscape ; and the flower 

 which gives honey to the bee sheds its perfume on the 

 air. A leaf no less than a flower fulfils the functions of 

 life, ministers to the necessities of man, yet clothes 

 itself, and adorns the earth in tapestries richer than the 

 robes of kings." All things proclaim that the Divine 

 Architect, while amply providing for the physical wants 

 of his creatures, has not forgotten their spiritual neces- 

 sities and enjoyments ; and having implanted in the 

 human soul a yearning for the beautiful, has surrounded 

 us with a thousand objects by whose charms that yearn- 

 ing may be gratified. And one of the most striking 

 examples of this Divine care is to be seen in the pro- 

 fusion of minute objects spread around us, which ap- 

 parently have no direct influence at all upon man's 

 physical nature, and have no connexion with his cor- 

 poreal necessities. These objects, subserving no gross 

 utilitarian purpose, are intended to educate man's spiri- 

 tual faculties by the beauties of form, the wonders of 

 structure, and the adaptations of economy which they 



