YOUNGER YEARS OF A PLANT. 155 



in the depth of its abysses; purple algae were suspended 

 in festoons from the sides of its rocks, and gigantic fucus 

 rose from the bottom of the sea and danced upon the dark 

 green waves. Cedars and pines, with their sombre pyra- 

 mids, formed dark borders around the white fields of 

 eternal snow and dazzling glaciers. Humble mosses and 

 lowly lichens covered the gray granite of the north, and 

 offered, in the midst of unbroken winter, warmth and food 

 to the reindeer of the Laplander, whilst the palm tree of 

 the south, in its lofty majesty, defied the burning sun of 

 the tropics, and gave shade and luscious fruit in abun- 

 dance. 



So much Revelation itself has told us. The rest is left 

 to that innate thirst of knowledge, the gratification of 

 which is the highest of all earthly enjoyments. Still, we 

 are not quite left to ourselves, for aid is promised us, 

 even now, from on high. " Go into a field - of flowers," 

 said the Lord to Ezra, " where no house is built, and there 

 I will come and talk with thee." And who has not felt 

 the truth of good old Cowley's quaint verse: 



"If we could open and intend our eye, 

 We all, like Moses, would espy 

 E'en in a bush the radiant Deity." 



Thus, even now, travellers tell us occasionally, a won- 

 drous tale of barren islands being covered with luxuriant 

 forests, and of naked rocks being clothed with rich ver- 

 dure. We have learned how nature proceeds, even in our 

 day, to let the grass grow, and the herb and the tree 

 yielding fruit, on spots where before all was sterility, or 

 the elements alone reigned supremely. 



