HABITS OF OBSERVATION. 3 



You cannot indeed go out at night as he did ; but, 

 for instance, in any walk or excursion in the country 

 you can gather a little flower ; and if you only knew 

 how to pick that flower to pieces (and you may soon 

 learn), and were taught the uses of its several parts, 

 and how all fit together and grow together, and are 

 necessary one to another, and provide the seed which 

 grows into other plants of the same kind another 

 year, you would indeed be surprised and interested. 



' Nature, enchanting Nature, in whose form 

 And lineaments divine I trace a hand 

 That errs not, and find raptures still renew'd, 

 Is free to all men — universal prize. 

 Strange that so fair a creature should yet want 

 Admirers, and be destin'd to divide 

 With meaner objects ev'n the few she finds !' 



COWPER. 



Some few years ago, at the village school in the 

 parish of Hitcham, of which Professor Henslow, the 

 well-known botanist, was the Rector, the elder chil- 

 dren used once a -week to bring flowers and other 

 things to school, and were taught to examine and 

 preserve them ; then, at the end of the year, there 

 used to be a show of all they had found and prepared, 

 and prizes were given ; and thus the children's eyes 

 became very sharp to search for and find little things 

 that perhaps you would not think worth looking at. 



And here I would say that if you want to see the 

 wonders of Nature, you must always remember that 

 many of the greatest wonders are found in the 

 smallest things. You must not think that a thing is 

 wonderful simply because it is large. When you have 



