LIGHT OF THE SUN. 123 



or too immediately exposed to the direct action of 

 the sun, the sunbeams are instrumental in de- 

 stroying those very beauties of which their own 

 action is the cause. Cultivators of auriculas, and 

 tulips, and carnations, and other blooms of the 

 richest tints, are aware of that fact, and take pre- 

 cautions against their consequences. The beds of 

 auriculas, if those finely dusted purples and greens 

 which are the admiration of their fond cultivators, 

 are matted up ; the tulips, if their tints are to be 

 of the most brilliant lustre, are shaded with awn- 

 ings ; and for a similar purpose little caps or hel- 

 mets of paper are suspended over the carnations. 

 Thus it is not in either extreme of the beauty- 

 producing energy that the perfection of beauty, 

 either in intensity or in duration, is to be found, 

 there is a fading toward each of them, and so 

 the best state the point of maximum, is some- 

 where between them. 



There are few, if any, instances in nature, in 

 which that is not the case ; and the knowledge 

 that the case is so is very pleasing and encourag- 

 ing to us, and it shows how admirably nature is 

 fitted for our instruction and enjoyment. We can- 

 not reach the extreme limit either way, and so if 

 knowledge and pleasure had been in the one ex- 

 treme or the other, we could never have hoped to 

 reach either ; and thus we should have been dis- 

 pirited, and have slackened in our exertions. But 

 knowing, as we always can do, the limits between 

 which the perfection must lie, we know and are 

 in possession of the field in which we are sure to 

 get it ; and so we labour in hope, and if we do it 

 but skilfully and diligently enough, we are cer- 

 tain of success. 



M 2 



