INTRODUCTION. 



CHAPTEE I. 



LEADING PRINCIPLES OF SCIENOK : MENTAL AND MORAL DISCIPLINE 



ITS AIM AND END. 



1. Plants as related to Man. The vegetable kingdom maintains to-wards 

 man several important relations. Besides its obvious utility as the source of his 

 food, shelter, clothing and medicine, it furnishes an exhaustless field for interesting 

 and disciplinary study. 



2. Paoor THAT Nature is related to Mind. This remark is commonplace. 

 But the fact stated is neither a necessity nor accident. Since the phenomena of 

 Nature are ordained subject to the coguizance of the human understanding while 

 yet their depths are unfathomable by it, it is evident that God made them for' each 

 other. It ia certainly conceivable that He might have ordained otherwise. 



3. Illustration. Tlie phenomena of vegetation, or of nature in general, might 

 have been all simple and uniform, thus awakening, no curiosity, presenting no 

 motive for study. Or on the other hand, they might have involved plans so intri- 

 cate as to defy aU efforts of the mind in their investigation. In this case, as in the 

 former, the mind and nature would have remained for ever estranged. 



4. The study op Nature successful. But an intermediate course hath 

 seemed good to an All-wise and Beneficent Creator. The works of His Hand are 

 commensurate with the powers of the understanding. We study them not in vain. 

 Step by step His plans are unfolded ; and research, although never reaching the 

 goal, yet never wearies, nor fails of its appropriate reward. 



5. — Pleasurable. Hence the study of nature, through this beautifully adjusted 

 relation, becomes a source of the purest pleasure, being ever accompanied by fresh 

 discoveries of truth in the plans and operations of a sublime Intelhgence. 



6. — ^Disciplinary. But a higher purpose than present pleasure is accomplished 

 by this means, namely, discipline. Entering life as a mere germ, the soul expands 

 into intelligence and virtue through the teachings of surrounding objects and influ- 

 ences. In this good work the beauty, purity and wisdom displayed in the vegeta- 

 ble world bear a full share. These invite to investigation ; and their tendency is to 

 impress upon their votaries the characteristics of their own sincerity and loveliness. 



1. CRE.iTiVE Wisdom never works in vain, nor merely in sport. Even the 

 flying cloud which now passes over the sun has its mission ; the forms which it 

 assumes, and the colors, were each necessary and divmely appointed for that special 

 purpose. The hills and valleys, which seem scattered in accidental confusion, have 

 received each their contour and position by design, according to the ends foreseen. 

 Consequently, each stone or mineral composing these hills was also the work of 

 special design, as to its magnitude, form and place. 



