22 FOOTNOTES FROM 



lichens, and its summit enveloped in verdure. In the 

 smallest and most insignificant of these objects, there is 

 as much of beauty and ingenuity of structure displayed 

 as though it were the only object in the universe. Nay, 

 God seems to bestow more abundant honour and glory 

 upon those objects whose smallness and insignificance 

 would otherwise cause them to be overlooked. 



Of all the minute flowerless plants with which Nature, 

 as it were, points her flowery sentences, fills up her 

 vacant spaces, and balances and tones her landscapes, 

 mosses are by far the loveliest and the most interesting. 

 As regards form and structure they are the most beauti- 

 ful of all plants; nature having bestowed upon them this 

 compensation for want of the varied and gorgeous col- 

 ouring imparted to the higher tribes of vegetation. In 

 them the most exquisite symmetry and beauty are deve- 

 loped, a beauty not of a glaring or obvious character, but 

 refined and spiritual, consisting in delicacy of tint, in 

 the imperceptible gradation by which one hue is blended 

 with another, in the filmy transparency of the structure, 

 and in the endless diversity and perfection of the form ; 

 a beauty generally invisible to the careless or the casual 

 observer, but brightening like a star upon the view when 

 attentively and minutely examined, finding an uncon- 

 scious interpreter in every heart, and affording, when 

 fully perceived, to every thoughtful mind, a purer and 

 more subtle joy than is communicated even by the rose 

 or the lily. Eegarded en masse, what can be lovelier 

 than a closely- shaven mossy lawn, over which the golden 

 sunbeams, and the light-footed shadows of the fleecy 

 clouds overhead, chase each other throughout the whole 



