I INTRODUCTION oe 
white lily, invest every stream and lonely 
mere with grace.” ? 
For our greater power of perceiving, and 
therefore of enjoying Nature, we are greatly 
indebted to Science. Over and above what is 
visible to the unaided eye, the two magic 
tubes, the telescope and microscope, have re- 
vealed to us, at least partially, the infinitely 
great and the infinitely little. 
Science, our Fairy Godmother, will, unless 
we perversely reject her help, and refuse her 
gifts, so richly endow us, that fewer hours 
of labour will serve to supply us with the 
material necessaries of life, leaving us more 
time to ourselves, more leisure to enjoy all 
that makes life best worth living. 
Even now we all have some leisure, and for 
it we cannot be too grateful. 
“Tf any one,” says Seneca, “gave you a 
few acres, you would say that you had re- 
ceived a benefit; can you deny that the 
boundless extent of the earth is a benefit? If 
a house were given you, bright with marble, 
its roof beautifully painted with colours and 
1 Howitt’s Book of the Seasons. 
