THE STORY OF A BLADE OF GRASS. 
SI 
himself richly furnished with book, and lesson, and 
teacher, when he descries on his solitary w r ay only a blade 
of grass. 
VIII. PERORATES. 
It is worth noting here that, according to the teach¬ 
ings of Geology, the tribe of grasses was ushered into 
being only a short time previous to the appearance of 
man upon the earth. There are no grasses in the old 
red sandstone, none in the carboniferous rocks, rich as 
they are in other vegetable forms which gave their bulk 
to the formation of the coal measures. Myriads of ages 
went by, and myriads of plants succeeded race upon race, 
but not a grass was fashioned until of the entombed gene¬ 
rations, as we find them, “God had made the pile com¬ 
plete.” Then , and not till then, when the earth was to 
be the abode of man and the creatures that especially 
minister to his wants, God said, “ let the earth bring 
forth grassand the black vallies became savannahs— 
the dreary plains prairies of grasses and wild flowers. 
The grasses were made especially for man, and that is 
man's title to draw from them sustenance for both body 
and mind. Hence the moral beauty of green things 
generally, best perceived through the aid of a healthy 
sentiment, and a mind ordered after the will of God. 
Dear to man are they as things which solace him and 
beguile life of its harshness; which surround his home 
with poetry, and fill his heart with peace. How dreary 
would be the lot of man in a world where green things 
were not; with no green valleys dotted w r ith homely 
sheep, no broad savannahs rustling a million golden 
