PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
Tiiough somewhat miscellaneous in subject, the read or will perceive 
a consonance of purpose in the various Essays contained in this 
volume. The papers were written at various times during the 
intervals of severe, though not uncongenial duties, and are but 
several expressions of the same sentiment. That sentiment is the 
love of Nature, and more especially of that portion of Nature which 
is represented in the out-door life of “ green things,” embodying, 
as they do, a thousand suggestions of their relations to the life of 
man, closely woven and encircled as he is by a network of beauty, 
which gives a joy to his calmer hours, and enables him to perceive, 
both by reason and analogy, his position in the general scheme of 
creation. If the love of simple things does no more for us than to 
quicken our perceptions, and enlarge the circle of our pleasures, it 
is certainly a love which, in that direction, exalts us, and gives us 
many whisperings of the greatness of the Power under whose con¬ 
trol the worlds perform their ceaseless march, and the seasons 
observe the times appointed them. If we can now and then turn 
aside from the common-place of daily life—a life fraught with 
tendencies to deaden the finer sympathies of our nature—if we. 
can now and then turn aside to breathe and enjoy the cool air of 
mountain groves, and to listen to the music of falling waters, and 
