236 ASSISTED VISION 



of lenses of three powers, such as may be bought from 

 any optician for half-a-crown or three-and-sixpence, 

 provides an avenue for a vast deal of harmless pleasure. 

 I remember well, when grouse-driving one morning, 

 how I delighted a young keeper who was loading for 

 me, by the revelations of one such lens. He had 

 never looked through one before, and he could hardly 

 believe his eyes when it was directed on the caterpillar 

 of an emperor moth, which happened to be crawling on 

 the edge of our box. It is a handsome worm, even as 

 seen by the naked eye, but when magnified, its vivid 

 green skin and salmon-coloured warts present a splendid 

 appearance. 



It is good to show a young gardener through a lens 

 some of the everyday phenomena that are around him 

 at his work, such as the irritable movements of the 

 stamens of any of the barberries (Darwinii is as good 

 as any of them) : how quickly they close up round the 

 pistil on the insertion of any external object, be it 

 point of pin or tongue of bee. Flowers present beauty 

 in plenty to unassisted eyes, but there is a vast deal 

 can only be enjoyed by help of a glass. Too many 

 of us reject all auxiliaries to vision, till the mournful 

 day comes bonjour, lunettes ! adieu, fillettes ! when 

 we can no longer puzzle out the bill of fare without 

 spectacles. 



This quiet bay on the west coast, lit by the low 

 winter sun, is a fair prospect without any need for 

 artificial scrutiny, but a great deal is waiting to be 

 revealed by the glass. On the right, the land rises into 



