BOTANICAL: THE LOWER ORDERS. 129 



Ah ! you may well exclaim, as a pious astronomer once 

 did on surveying the starry heavens, "What omnipo- 

 tence ! " The power of God is seen just as much in the 

 formation of a seed as in the formation of a sun ; for, after 

 dll, is not a seed a tiny world ? And is not the embryo 

 contained in it its inhabitant, " whose seed is in itself," 

 mysteriously wrapped up, generation after generation, so 

 that generations yet unborn do lie concealed under that 

 exquisitely sculptured envelope ? 



" Nothing can be more ungrateful," says worthy Mrs. 

 Trimmer, " than to pass over the works of God without 

 consideration. To study them is among the highest grati- 

 fications the human mind can enjoy, provided the study 

 is conducted upon religious principles. 

 The book of nature is open to all. On 

 every leaf, ' Creator, God/ is written." 

 If our clear poet Wordsworth could 

 write, looking upon London as seen 

 from one of its bridges 



" Dull would he be who could pass by 

 A sight so touching in its majesty" 



much more may we be affected in con- 

 ternplating the works of God, which, 

 He says, " ought to be remembered," 

 and which, in the lowest and meanest 

 and humblest conditions of life, as 

 well as the noblest and highest, give 

 such unmistakable evidence of design. 

 Now, look closely upon the spo- 

 rules, that is, the spore-cases, of our 

 fern. The heat, condensed by the con- Fern (Polypodium), 

 vex side of our lens, has produced what with f t ifi <*ti 

 may be called artificial hatching. Look! the case 



I 



