252 THE BEAUTIES OP NATURE chap. 



"When I would beget content," says Izaak 

 Walton, "and increase confidence in the 

 power and wisdom and providence of Al- 

 mighty God, I will walk the meadows by 

 some gliding stream, and there contemplate 

 the lilies that take no care, and those very 

 many other little living creatures that are 

 not only created, but fed (man knows not 

 how) by the goodness of the God of Nature, 

 and therefore trust in Him;" and in his 

 quaint old language he craves a special bless- 

 ing on all those "that are true lovers of 

 virtue, and dare trust in His Providence, and 

 be quiet, and go a angling." 



At the water's edge flowers are especially 

 varied and luxuriant, so that the banks of a 

 river are a long natural garden of tall and 

 graceful grasses and sedges, the Meadow 

 Sweet, the Flowering Rush, the sweet Flag, 

 the Bull Rush, Purple Loosestrife, Hemp 

 Agrimony, Dewberry, Forget-me-not, and a 

 hundred more, backed by Willows, Alders, 

 Poplars, and other trees. 



The Animal world, if less conspicuous to 

 the eye, is quite as fascinating to the imagina- 



