Some curious deep-sea fishes which have very highly-developed organs of touch. 



INTRODUCTION 



By Lord AVEBURY. P.C., F.R.S., D.C.L., LL.D., For. Sec. Roy. Acad. 



O witndersckoti isf CotUs Erae 

 Uiid schbii aitf ihr ein Mensch zn seiit. 

 (Beautiful is God's Earth, and beautiful it is to be a man thereon.) 



WE live in a wonderful and beautiful world, full of interest ; a world which it is most 

 important to understand ; and dangerous, if not fatal, to misunderstand. It is a fairy-land 

 of e.vquisite beauty ; our very e.xistence is a miracle in itself, and yet few of us enjoy as we 



might, and none as yet ap- , _ „ 



predate fully, the beauties and 

 wonders which surround us. 

 The greatest traveller cannot 

 hope even in a long life to 

 visit more than a very small 

 part of our earth, and even of 

 that which is under our very 

 eyes how httle we see ! 



" Paradise indeed might," 

 as Luther said, " apply to the 

 whole world." What more 

 is there we could ask for 

 ourselves? "Every sort of 

 beauty," says Mr. Greg,* 

 " has been lavished on our 

 allotted home ; beauties to 

 enrapture every sense, beauties 

 to satisfy every taste ; forms 

 the noblest and the lovehest. 

 colours the most gorgeous and 

 the most delicate, odours the 

 sweetest and subtlest, har- 

 monies the most soothing and 

 the most stirring ; the sunny 

 glories of the day ; the pale 

 Elysian grace of moonlight ; 

 the lake, the mountain, the 

 primeval forest, and the bound- mmi; i,f] immiiei. 



,<,-, ^ • 1 A MARVELLOUS SPIDER. 



less ocean. Silent pmnacles , , , ,, 



This rcmarliable photograph shows a spicier holding up the silken cradle con- 

 * " The Enigmas of Life." taining its eggs, and revolving it in the Sun's rays. 



