Value of Common Things. 



heartfelt pleasure that trees and woods can give. If they 

 be not so sumptuous as the oaks of Worcestershire, or so 

 stately as the elms of Surrey, our trees are as leafy and 

 as green, and their shadows fall as softly on the summer 

 afternoon. The great secret in the enjoyment of nature, 

 as in our intercourse with society, is to look at its objects 

 in a friendly light, to make the most of them, such as 

 they are; not invidiously contrasting them with certain 

 other objects at a distance, but recognising that absolute 

 and positive beauty which is possessed by the very 

 humblest Superadd to this the habit of connecting our 

 own feelings and emotions with the forms of nature, and, 

 however wanting in attractions to the mere adulator of 

 "fine scenery," every little flower, every bend of the 

 branches, and sweet concurrent play of light and shade, 

 every pendent shadow in the stream, becomes animated 

 with a meaning and a power of satisfying such as none 

 but those who accustom themselves to look for it here, 

 can find in the most favoured and spacious landscape. 

 Justly to appreciate the wonderful and rare, we must first 

 learn to regard with a tender and intimate affection the 

 common and the unpretending; in the degree that we 

 withdraw from the latter, treating it with indifference or 

 contempt, as surely does our capacity diminish for the 

 former. The common things of earth are the most 

 gracious gifts of God. None of us extract their full 

 value, yet every man holds it in his power to make him- 

 self tenfold happier by a wise use of them. For true and 

 continuous enjoyment of life is not attained by the 



