JULY. 133 



how are they present to the eye of the mind, 

 even while the bodily eye is gazing on the brick 

 wall, or the city houses ! The love of the coun- 

 try — the love of nature, affords, next to religion, 

 the surest means of enjoyment ; and may so 

 well be connected with pious thought, that it is 

 often the means of raising us above the world 

 and its cares to the contemplation of God. It 

 is very desirable that the young should cherish 

 it ; for he who has been taught to mark the 

 beauties of the starry heavens, and the waving 

 tree, and the wayside flower, has learned a better 

 lesson than if he had been taught to gather gold. 



The heath-lands are so beautiful in July, 

 with their gorgeous array of flowers, that one 

 can hardly imagine that the purple bells indi- 

 cate that the soil is barren and poor. As the 

 bleak winds chase over them in winter, they do, 

 indeed, seem drear ; but the seasons come round, 

 and the Almighty causeth "it to rain on the 

 earth .... to satisfy the desolate and waste 

 ground, and to cause the bud of the tender herb 

 to spring forth,"* and then the heath becomes a 

 spot of beauty, fitted to invite the footstep and 

 to charm the spirit. 



Our five native species of heath (Erica) are 

 very lovely flowers, either of a dark purplish red, 

 or of a rose colour, and are so little like our 

 other wild plants that few would mistake them. 

 Thj Highlanders thatch their cottages and 

 make their beds of its sprays, and an old histo- 

 rian relates, that the Picts, who drank a great 



• Job xxxviti. 26, 27. 



