4 ANIMAL SKETCHES. 



will find your interest and delight in the bays and promon- , 

 tories of our coast-line, the hills and valleys of our inland j 

 districts, increased and deepened many-fold. 



I would have you, too, study the trees, and shrubs, and 

 flowers with which nature invests and decks so lavishly 

 and so gladly the bare bones of her sculptured scenes. 

 Don't say that you love the flowers too well to mar the 

 effects of their beauty by a knowledge of their structure. 

 Think you that Linnaeus, when he thanked God that he 

 had been permitted to see the golden gorse, had lost his 

 love of the beauty of flowers by his knowledge of their 

 structure ? Depend upon it, that is but half enjoyment 

 that leaves untouched the intellectual faculties. 



And then I would have you observe, with ever-renewed 

 sympathy, the animal world around you the kitten that 

 plays about your room ; the dog that gambols round you in 

 your walks; the horse that lends us so willingly his strength ; 

 the patient oxen and the " mild and innocent " sheep ; the 

 hare and the white-tailed rabbit ; even the rats that infest 

 our barns, and the mice that make us dream of ghosts ; 

 the domestic fowl and all the choir of woodland songsters ; 

 the snake that glides through the grass and the lizard that 

 runs across our path ; the frog that croaks in the ponds 

 and the ugly jewel-eyed toad ; the fish that dart through 

 the water ; the sea-anemone that looks like a flower in the 

 sea-side pools ; the crab, the limpet, and the star-fish' on 

 the rocks ; the spider in his silken web ; the butterfly that 

 flits through the summer air, and the bee that, "as he 

 hums along, seems to be talking heavily of the heat;" 

 the midges that pester us on summer evenings, and all the 

 myriad minutiae of insect life. I want you to take an 

 interest in them all, each in his due degree. Each has his 

 secret to tell you if you will only learn the language in 

 which he tells it. But you must listen with sympathetic 



