Cypripedia. 2 1 



" a cat from a rose-tree." There is no need of referring to what are styled 

 the lower animals, which enjoy no moral sentiments ; for even the vegetables, 

 whose functions are reckoned the most limited, compete with us success- 

 fully in the scale of instinct. The gift of intellect is not the crowning 

 superiority of man : the endowment of soul, which gives spiritual pre-emi- 

 nence, is his chief glory. This embraces moral susceptibilities, feelings, 

 and sentiments. The beating of the heart in response to all that is great 

 and good emanates from this source. The love of the beautiful is its nat- 

 ural offspring. We need, besides burnishing our intellects and adapting 

 our labor to the necessities of civilization, to develop the moral faculties, 

 and to organize the gratifications of the imagination upon some system of 

 principles, that amusement may be the associate of elevated sentiments. 

 We need some more effectual harmonizer than our educational system. 

 Peter the Great of Russia, believing that the study of Nature tends directly 

 to the civilization of a nation, conceived an idea to refine and civilize his 

 barbarian subjects. He established, at an enormous expense, a Museum 

 of Natural History at St. Petersburg ; and, in order to induce his dram- 

 loving subjects to go there, he ordered a glass of brandy to be presented 

 to every visitor. The temperance zealots of to-day, in estimating the profit 

 and loss of this enterprise, might not favor the czar ; but all rational people 

 must acknowledge his sagacity, and observe the compliment he paid to the 

 study which we especially advocate in these pages. The Creator of the 

 world has embellished and made beautiful all that is exposed to our eyes. 

 The love of the beautiful is a principle of our nature ; and to contemplate 

 and enjoy the grace and beauty of flowers, of music, and of art, is the high- 

 est function of man's moral econom)'. "We know very little of the life of 

 plants. Their little histories are more beautiful and charming than many 

 which entertain us in the regions of written romance. We may resign their 

 scientific characteristics to the botanists ; but we may all learn enough of 

 their habits and attractions, not only to enjoy the forms and colors and 

 fragrance of flowers, but to appreciate the lovely and beautiful features of 

 plant-life. The sleep of plants, the vitality of seeds, the dispersion of plants, 

 the insects that live upon plants (thirty thousand different kinds of insects 

 which prey upon wheat alone have been discovered), and the myriad exhi- 

 bitions of intelligence and instinct which plants exhibit to even the 



