240 ISLES OF SUMMER. 



of flowers "blushing unseen," and "wasting their fragrance on 

 the desert air," merely because they are not enjoyed by man. 

 This is an exceedingly contracted view to take of the matter, 

 and is bottomed upon man's egotism. There is no insect how- 

 ever small, no reptile however repulsive, no fish in any brook or 

 sea, no animal that roams in pathless woods, and no bird that 

 disturbs with its wings or songs the deepest solitude of the sea 

 or land, that does not find much which its nature is fitted to 

 enjoy in the great world of which they as well as man, form an 

 integral part. The same great Father made all and provides for 

 all, and when we looked into the coral grottoes, caves and bow- 

 ers, and saw the lavish display of exquisitely beautiful forms and 

 colors which the water glass reveals, we felt that it was no more 

 made for man than is the magnificence of the celestial world 

 made for the few spirits outside, who, perchance, may occasion- 

 ally be permitted, with or without eye glasses, to look at the 

 inner glories through the key-hole of heaven's great front door. 



A book has been recently published in England by Mr. Higgins, 

 entitled " Notes by a Field Naturalist." The author spent a few 

 days in Nassau, visited the " sea garden," and after giving some 

 account of what he saw there and in its vicinity, he adds — 



"At last ! There it all was, even as the great naturalist of 

 H. M. S. "Beagle" had said more than thirty j^ears before, 'how 

 be it, I believed not the words until I came, and my eye had 

 seen it — and, behold, the half was not told.' Description is not 

 the proper vehicle for conveying the impressions made by such 

 a spectacle. If the description be full, it is labored; if concise, 

 it is nothing. I longed for the power of putting it into music." 



"There is no doubt that tlio ' garden ' is a thing of beauty, 

 and that of a very high order." 



