Ass] AND SYMBOLS. 17 



Appreciation Intensified by Occasional Deprivation. 



As a rule men and women do not appreciate keenly those 

 things which they always possess. Occasional absence makes 

 the heart grow fonder. Take, for example, the zest with which 1 

 we enjoy the return of vegetation in spring, because we have 

 been deprived of it all the winter. The inhabitants of the| 

 Southern Hemisphere South America, Australia, and the Cape 

 of Good Hope have no such zest in reference to their vegeta- 

 tion, because its leaves are not periodically lost. Thus those 

 people lose the enjoyment of, perhaps, one of the most glorious 

 spectacles in the world the first bursting into full foliage of the 

 leafless tree. They may, however, say that we pay dearly for 

 our delight by having the land covered with mere naked 

 skeletons for so many months. This is too true ; but our senses 

 acquire a keen relish for the exquisite green of the spring, which 

 the eyes of those living within the tropics, sated during the long 

 year with the gorgeous productions of those glowing climates, 

 can never experience. EO. 



Assimilation. 



There is in man a principle of assimilation. From books, 

 companions, and circumstances he extracts just those principles 

 which will build up his character. Out of heterogeneous 

 materials his nature converts to its own use whatever is appro- 

 priate. So it is with his body. However various the articles 

 of food and drink may be, it is clear that there is a process by 

 which all differences are annulled and a uniform result attained. 

 Whatever characters these substances may have outside the 

 organism, are altered shortly after their entrance into it ; specific 

 differences vanish, and all varieties are merged in a vital 

 unity. PH. 



Triumph of Associated Labour. 



A single bee, with all its industry, energy, and innumerable 

 journeys it has to perform, will not collect more than a tea- 

 spoonful of honey in a single season, and yet the total weight of 

 honey taken from a single hive is often from sixty to one 

 hundred pounds. A very profitable lesson to mankind of 



