350 THE RIDDLE OF THE UNIVERSE. 



Challenger expedition a vast number of these beautiful 

 forms are delineated on 3,000 plates ; and there are 

 millions of other lovely organisms described in other 

 great works that are included in the fast-growing 

 literature of ^oology and botany of the last ten years. 

 I began on a small scale to select a number of these 

 beautiful forms for more popular description in my 

 Art Forms in Nature (1899). 



However, there is now no need for long voyages 

 and costly works to appreciate the beauties of this 

 world. A man need only keep his eyes open and 

 his mind disciplined. Surrounding nature offers us 

 everywhere a marvellous wealth of lovely and 

 interesting objects of all kinds. In every bit of 

 moss and blade of grass, in every beetle and butter- 

 fly, we find, when we examine it carefully, beauties 

 which are usually overlooked. Above all, when we 

 examine them with a powerful glass, or, better still, 

 with a good microscope, we find everywhere in nature 

 a new world of inexhaustible charms. 



But the nineteenth century has not only opened 

 our eyes to the aesthetic enjoyment of the microscopic 

 world ; it has shown us the beauty of the greater 

 objects in nature. Even at its commencement it was 

 the fashion to regard the mountains as magnificent 

 but forbidding, and the sea as sublime but dreaded. 

 At its close the majority of educated people — especially 

 they who dwell in the great cities — are delighted to 

 enjoy the glories of the Alps and the crystal splendour 

 of the glacier- world for a fortnight every year, or to 

 drink in the majesty of the ocean and the lovely 

 scenery of its coasts. All these sources of the keenest 

 enjoyment of nature have only recently been revealed 

 to us in all their splendour, and the remarkable 



