INTRODUCTORY. 



will remind them of it. The lives of such are 

 chiefly passed in two spheres the sphere of work 

 and the sphere of home. They live in one place, 

 and they work whether as employers or employed 

 in another, or it may be in others. 



It is probably because they have not given a 

 thought to the beautiful Ferns that it has not 

 occurred to them how much more pleasant would 

 be the associations of their dwellings and their 

 places of business, were they to fill up every 

 vacant and available corner with these graceful 

 and elegant plants. Sometimes, perhaps, it is 

 because the idea of having flowers in sunless 

 corners would be impracticable that the idea of 

 having any substitutes for flowers is abandoned. 

 But, as it has been urged elsewhere ' Ferns will 

 grow where flowering plants would perish.' 



Will it not be admitted, then, that a vast fund of 

 pleasure is here opened up, pleasure which is 

 within the reach of all ? When it is remembered 

 how much in this life happiness and misery, com- 

 fort and discomfort, depend upon ourselves and 

 upon acts or habits that are within our control ; 

 when it is remembered, too, how easily we accus- 



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