THE FEKN PAKADISE. 



How keen is the enjoyment of those who can 

 find- 



' Books in the running brooks, 

 Sermons in stones, arid good ii* everything ! ' 



The book of Nature is indeed beautiful to those 

 who can read it. But those who cannot read it all 

 can read a part of it. Some of its stories are full 

 of sweet simplicity. Page after page can some- 

 times be turned, and the reader will encounter 

 nothing to dismay him ; nothing even to puzzle him. 

 But the simple study of Nature is too frequently 

 made a hard task by those who profess to teach. 



Botany is one of the most beautiful of natural 

 studies, because it tells us all about the glorious 

 vegetation which springs from the earth. Yet are 

 there not thousands who do not understand 

 botany? To seme the study is too difficult. 

 Others can find no opportunities for pursuing it. 

 But all would like to know something of the beau- 

 tiful vegetable world ; something less less formal, 

 less difficult than what is usually to be found in 

 books, and something more than can be learned 

 from the mute language eloquent nevertheless in 

 its muteness of the plants themselves. Why 



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