THE FERN PARADISE. 
bright home — a bird that sings cheerily in its 
cage when a momentary sunbeam finds its way 
even into a London court, and fresh green plants 
in every corner — is happier and calmer under the 
influence of heavy troubles than he who has 
nothing to relieve the crushing weight of poverty ! 
In one point, to which it is well to call espe- 
cial attention here, the pleasant writer in The 
Spectator somewhat misunderstands the Author 
of this volume. The Reviewer thinks that in 
* The Fern Paradise ’ 4 one of the most important 
adjuncts to beauty’ — namely contrast — is left 
out of consideration. He remarks : 4 Why do we 
admire so greatly the ferny growths, wherever 
we see them? Hot merely on account of their 
intrinsic beauty, but because of their surround- 
ings. In the glowing heat of the tropics, it is a 
delight to plunge into the stillness of the forest 
and to repose the eye with the contemplation of 
the lush greenery, that seems as if it revelled in 
its own teeming vigorous life ; and in our woods 
and lanes, and by our waterfalls, we admire the 
tender hues of the grass and Ferns, caused by the 
glinting of the sunlight through the trees ; or the 
42 
