134 



VIGNETTES FROM NATURE. 



is this, again ? One might as well ask, why 

 are we not all Lord Chancellors or Presidents 

 of the Royal Academy. Each plant and 

 each animal makes the best of such talents as 

 it has got, and gets on by their aid ; but all 

 have not the same talents. One survives by 

 dint of its prickles ; another by dint of its 

 attractive flowers ; a third by its sweet fruit ; 

 a fourth by its hard nut-shell. As regards 

 stings, the nettle is one of the best protected 

 plants ; as regards flower and fruit, it is 

 merely one of the ruck. Every plant can 

 only take advantage of any stray chances it 

 happens to possess ; and the same advan- 

 tageous tendencies do not show themselves 

 in all alike. It is said that once a certain 

 American, hearing of the sums which Canova 

 got for his handicraft, took his son to the 

 great man's studio, and inquired how much 

 he would ask to make the boy a sculptor. 

 But there is no evidence to show that that 

 aspiring youth ever produced an Aphrodite 

 or a Discobolus. . 



