118 THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE CHAP. 
there was a reason for their colour, size, and 
form —in fact, for every detail of their organ- 
isation. If we did but know all that the 
smallest flower could tell us, we should have 
solved some of the greatest mysteries of 
Nature. But we cannot hope to succeed — 
even if we had the genius of Plato or Aris- 
totle — without careful, patient, and rever- 
ent study. From such an inquiry we may 
hope much ; already we have glimpses, enough 
to convince us that the whole history will 
open out to us conceptions of the Universe 
wider and grander than any which the Imagi- 
nation alone would ever have suggested. 
Attempts to explain the forms, colours, and 
other characteristics of animals and plants 
are by no means new. Our Teutonic fore- 
fathers had a pretty story which explained 
certain points about several common plants. 
Balder, the God of Mirth and Merriment, was, 
characteristically enough, regarded as deficient 
in the possession of immortality. The other 
divinities, fearing to lose him, petitioned Thor 
to make him immortal, and the prayer was 
granted on condition that every animal and 
