INTRODUCTION 







JOB said, " Speak to the earth, and it shall teach 

 thee/' and no man who has ever honestly taken 

 this advice to heart is in a position to gainsay 

 its truth. 



To learn to appreciate the beauties of the 

 world in which we live is a great victory. It 

 establishes within us a never-failing source of 

 pleasure, and enhances the value of existence a 

 thousandfold. I would not exchange the every- 

 day joys of a healthy observant ploughman for 

 the worrying wealth and cares of a millionaire. 

 The idea that to be rich in gold is to be happy 

 is a dying, vulgar fallacy. Men are coming to 

 know that there are greater possessions than 

 those which can be measured by the surveyor's 

 chain or locked in iron safes. A love of Nature 

 is one of them, and it has the unspeakably good 

 quality of endurance. 



Nature appeals to us in a thousand tongues 

 every one of which may be known and loved. The 



