" For many years it has been one of my most constant 

 regrets that no schoolmaster of mine had a knowledge of 

 natural history, so far at least as to have taught me the 

 grasses that grow by the wayside, and the little winged 

 and wingless neighbors that are continually meeting me 

 with salutations which I cannot answer, as things are. 

 Why did not somebody teach me the constellations, too, 

 and make me at home in the starry heavens which are 

 always overhead, and which I do not half know to this 

 day."— Thomas Carlyle. 



" The true naturalist is a true poet. Into his mind the 

 influences of natural scenery, of natural history, uncon- 

 sciously sink down. There is an unmentionable bliss in 

 the unrecognized sympathy which goeth forth toward all 

 things into which He hath breathed the breath of life. 

 The scent of the opening buds ; the sad, soft sighing of 

 summer winds ; the unobtruding kaleidoscope of floral 

 form and color, scattered so freely and bountifully ; cannot 

 these get hold of the soul of a man ! One feels constrained 

 to adopt the language of the principal talker among the 

 favorite disciples — ' Lord, let us build three tabernacles,' 

 etc. The disciple was in no hurry to depart." — Dr. J. E. 

 Taylor, in " The Playtime Naturalist." 



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