INTEODUCTOEY EEMARKS. Xvii 



cate grasses, the chickweeds, the carices, and the rushes, which 

 spring up on the moist alpine summits ; the graceful ferns, the 

 tiny mosses, with their urn- like thecse, the crustaceous dry lichens, 

 with their spore-hearing apothecia ; all these add such a charm 

 to Highland Botany, as to throw a comparative shade over the 

 vegetation of the plains. 



Many are the important lessons which may be drawn from 

 the study of plants when prosecuted in the true spirit of Wisdom. 

 The volume of Creation is then made the handmaid of the volume 

 of Inspiration, and the more that each is studied, the more shall 

 we find occasion to observe the harmony that subsists between 

 them. It is only Science, falsely so-called, which is in any way 

 opposed to Scripture. Never, in a single instance, remarks Gaus- 

 sen, do we find the Bible in opposition to the just ideas which 

 Science has given us regarding the form of our globe, its magni- 

 tude, its geology, and the productions which cover the surface. 

 " The invisible things of God from the creation of the world are 

 clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even 

 his eternal power and Godhead." The more minutely we examine 

 the phenomena of the material world, and the more fully we 

 compare the facts of Science with Eevealed Truth, the more reason 

 shall we have to exclaim, in adoring wonder, with the Psalmist 

 of old, " Lord ! how manifold are thy works ! in wisdom hast 

 thou made them all ; the earth is full of thy riches." 



