314 THE YOUNG 



truer in his belief. He will feel that 

 this vast nniverse is bejond his powers 

 to comprehend, that go wherever he 

 will there are things strange and 

 stranger still, and that the power which 

 called him into being and governs him 

 called these into being and governs 

 them also. Wordsworth had a true 

 naturalist feeling when he wrote : — 



Books ! tis a dull and endless strife, 

 Come hear the woodland linnet ! 



How sweet his music ! on my life 

 There's more of wisdom in it. 



And hark how blithe the throstle sings ! 



He, too, is no mean preacher ; 

 Come forth into the light of things, 



Let nature be your teacher. 



She has a world of ready wealth, 

 Our minds and hearts to bless ; 



Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health, 

 Truth breathed by cheerfulness. 



Our impulse from a vernal wood, 

 May teach us more of man, 



Of moral evil and of good, 

 Than all the sages can. 



But we deny that natural history is a 

 mere recreation, it is something more, 

 and is more worthy a place in our 

 education than many things which are 

 taught now. What, for instance, is 

 the use of "cramming" every child 

 with the theory of grammar, it is only 

 necessary for those who are to become 

 teachers ; a child, if brought up in 

 proper company, will learn to speak 

 and write grammatically and correctly 

 by hearing others do it, without having 

 the minute technical knowledge lav- 

 ished upon all children now. Some 



NATURALIST. 



knowledge of the things which surround 

 us and which we come in contact with 

 in every day of our lives, surely is of 

 more importance than such tuition as 

 this. Take for instance the science of 

 botany. What an incalculable boon 

 it has been to mankind that some per- 

 sons have devoted their time to the 

 study of plants. You need not be re- 

 mind that for cotton, linen, and other 

 substances of great utility, we are 

 indebted to those who made plants 

 their study. For medicine, too, the 

 field of botany is almost inexhaustible, 

 and so wonderful and sure are some of 

 the remedies obtained from the veget- 

 able world that there is scarcely a 

 physician in the country, if one at all, 

 who totally disregards plants as cura- 

 tive agents. A knowledge of the uses 

 of some of the common herbs which 

 grow upon every wayside will often 

 save a person — that is, if the herbs are 

 appHed according to the knowledge— i 

 from a lengthened disease, a doctor's i 

 bill, misery, and perhaps death. In 

 many cases a person is so situated that 

 he cannot obtain medical aid, and if 

 he is taught how to administer nature's 

 own remedy to himself, will anybody 

 be so insane as to say that that know- 

 ledge is not of very great utility to 

 him ? Tor all the vegetables we eat, 

 and for all the beautiful flowers with 

 which our houses are adorned, we are [ 

 indebted to some one who has brought ji 

 them from a wild state, and by selec- j 



