THE PLEASURE OF THE FANCY. 3 



soms come on it in the springtime. Who that 

 has an eye for beauty can look upon an Almond 

 Tumbler, that tame and graceful creature, the 

 pet of the fancy, apparelled sumptuously in rich- 

 hued plumage, and watch the lustre of amethyst, 

 bathed in emerald, quivering on its shining neck 

 as it struts about with proud, imperious car- 

 riage — who can thus observe it without the 

 splendour of the display evoking an exclamation 

 of delight ? Written legibly all over the resplen- 

 dent plumage of the bird is this broad teaching, 

 which a reverently observant eye can instantly 

 detect, the love of God shown in the loveliness 

 of His works. The Creator stamps His gifts 

 to man with His own seal, and His seal is 

 Beauty. Everything in nature is beautiful. 

 And are we to receive into our hea'rt the gross 

 and treasonable theory of Darwin, that when the 

 Creator was furnishing a world for man to dwell 

 in He did not consult the tastes of the occu- 

 pants ? — that all the beautiful drapery of the sky, 

 and the floral carpeting of the earth, and the 

 decorative feather of the bird, came to them by 

 chance, or by the " agency of selection," to clothe 

 the bald idea in biological language ? 



Take, for instance, the Sky. The material 

 use and end of the sky is to collect and distil 



