THE HEATHER. 181 



a sandstone, and a porphyritic soil, and that on the 

 latter the bees produce much larger quantities of 

 honey than on the former. 



Thus we see that heather has other economic uses 

 than those recorded in the well-known lines ; 



" Sweet flower ! from nature's indulgence thou'rt cast, 

 Thy home's on the cold heath, thy nurse is the blast ; 

 No shrub spreads its branches to shelter thy form, 

 Thou art torn by the winds, thou art bent by the storm : 

 But the bird of the moor on thy substance is fed, 

 And thou giv'st to the hare of the mountain a bed." 



And yet, even in pointing out these uses, it is well 

 to record an earnest caution against that weak and 

 vain enthusiasm which gratifies its own microscopic 

 feelings with the belief that it does all that is need- 

 ful, when it yields up the incense of its gratitude 

 for the mighty works of God " whose thoughts are 

 very deep," because it discovers in them an adap- 

 tion to some petty need, some inconsiderable or 

 ephemeral want, and deems that for its pleasure all 

 was made. It is in the mighty unity of Creation 

 that we must learn to look for the comprehensive- 

 ness of His power and love. It is in the oneness of 

 His universe that we must seek to trace the " cause 

 of every cause," never forgetting that while we 

 humbly but heartily acknowledge the beneficence 

 of Him, without whom " not a sparrow falleth to 

 the ground," yet we must never pause in gratified 

 self-contemplation as if we had fathomed and ex- 

 pounded His mighty works when we have, in truth, 

 but learned to apply some created thing to our own 

 requirements, and when we have no more sounded 



