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 



