20 FIRST FORMS OF VEGETATION. 
microscope,” as Mr. Lewes has well observed, “is 
not the mere extension of a faculty ; it is a new 
sense.” 
There are also peculiar pleasures connected with 
the study of these objects. There is first the 
pleasure of novelty and discovery—of exploring a 
realm where everything is comparatively new, and 
every step is delightful ; where the forms are un- 
familiar, and the modes of life hitherto un- 
imagined. There is next the more subtle and 
refined pleasure of observing the strange truths 
which they unfold, the beautiful laws which they 
reveal, and the resemblances and relations which 
they display. The false romanticism of vulgar 
fancy requires something pretentious and un- 
natural to gratify its taste; but to the true 
poetical mind, the humblest moss on the wall, or 
the green slime that creams on the wayside pool, 
will suggest trains of pleasing and profitable re- 
flection. He who has an observing eye and an 
appreciating mind for these minute wonders of 
Nature, need never be alone.. Every nook and 
corner of the earth, howeve barren and dreary to 
superficial minds, has companions for him; and 
on every path he will find what the Indians call a 
rustawallah, a delightful road-fellow. 
To the cryptogamic botanist Nature reveals 
herself in her wildest, and also in her fairest 
