OCEAN GARDENS ; 



despair of acquiring that power. ^^The name of 

 the Devonshire squire. Colonel George Montague" 

 (thus wrote the late Professor Edward Porbes), 

 might have become one of the greatest in the whole 

 range of British science, had his whole career been 

 devoted to marine physiology;" and that mainly be- 

 cause, from a sincere devotion to a favourite pursuit * 

 of his leisure, he acquired the art of seeing — an 

 art sought by so few, though open to all who will 

 earnestly seek it. 



Each department of science requires a separate 

 and distinct kind of sight. The astute merchant 

 deciphers at a glance the precise state of the most 

 intricate accounts, in the midst of thousands of 

 seemingly conflicting figures ; but of the thousand 

 interesting and wonderful things concerning the 

 little beetle that crosses his path in his country 

 walk, he is incapable of seeing any single particle ; 

 while the despised entomologist, whom he has con- 

 temptuously observed turning over the stones at the 

 road-side, and peering curiously beneath them, 

 could tell him a tale of wonder, could preach him a 

 sermon upon that tiny type, such as would surely 

 wake up many latent and unsuspected powers in his 

 mind, that would enable him to see wonders where 

 all had previously been blank, and teach him that 



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