152 LIFE IN NATURE. 



teeing to us a sympathy that is universal, in 

 return. 



The subjects we have discussed might almost be 

 regarded as riddles, presented to us by a Higher 

 Intelligence, in order to cultivate the powers that 

 are exercised in solving them. Nor can this thought 

 be otherwise than welcome to us. Surely man is 

 but a child. I am "an infant crying in the night," 

 says the sweet poet of the modern time, and the 

 words find an echo in all hearts, because they are 

 true of all humanity. Man is a little child, and as 

 a little child he is taught. His feeble powers are 

 drawn gently out, in tender sportive ways. Lord 

 Bacon says, in words w r hich prove in him a sensi- 

 bility of heart as exquisite as the reach of his in- 

 tellect was sublime: "Of the sciences which con- 

 template nature, the sacred philosopher pronounces, 

 * It is the glory of God to conceal a thing : but the 

 glory of the king to search it out : ' not otherwise 

 than as if the Divine Nature delighted in the inno- 

 cent and kindly play of children, who hide them- 

 selves in order that they may be found, and in his 

 indulgent goodness towards mankind, had chosen for 



