BOTANICAL: THE UPPER CLASSES. 147 



light." Each is a revelation, and we not only need a 

 right spirit to receive the secrets of His Word, bat a right 

 understanding to penetrate into the mystery of His 

 handiwork. 



We want the simplicity of little, loving children in 

 order to receive from the great Teacher the secrets of 

 what we call " nature," and to remember the words of the 

 Master, " I thank Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and 

 earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise 

 and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes," before 

 we can see into the supernatural. Nature is a nurse who 

 has her glorious picturer ready for such of her children 

 as have eyes to see, reminding one of the simple but 

 beautiful lines with which some of us are familiar 



" For Nature, the old nurse, took 



The child upon her knee, 

 Saying, ' There is a story-book 

 My Father has written for thee. 



" ' Come, wander with me,' she said, 



* Into regions yet untrod ; 

 And read what is yet unread 

 In the manuscripts of God/ 



" And he wandered away and away, 

 "With Nature, the dear old nurse ; 

 And she sang to him night and day 

 The songs of the universe." 



Now we have a choice object. It consists but of three 

 small leaves of the common box with which we border the 

 beds of our gardens ; in it we have a typical representa- 

 tion of all leaves. And what a wonderful thing, truly, is 

 a leaf! and more wonderful still is a plant, whereas a full- 

 sized forest tree, one of the very commonest of all God's 

 works, is a standing monument of His Almightiness ! 



When we think of the variety of form, and taste, and 

 colour, and produce of trees, the sweetness of one and the 



