104 
power, his wisdom, his goodness, and his truth : this man is greater, as well as 
happier, in his poverty, than the other in his riches. The one is but a little 
higher than a beast, the other but a little lower than an angel.” 
The very leisure for which the wealthy merchant sighed may prove his great¬ 
est bane, and, finding time hang heavy, and deprived of the excitement connected 
with his former pursuits, he may, as a substitute, betake himself to debasing and 
ruinous ones—to gambling, or dissipation, and perchance impair, if not lose, his 
fortune, and, to meet the consequences of his extravagance, may oppress his 
tenants whom he should befriend, and, becoming morose and selfish, introduce 
misery and distress into his domestic circle. 
“ But,” says Dr. Drummond, in his excellent Letters to a Young Naturalist , 
“ who are these men to whom time is a burden ? Are they geologists, or astro¬ 
nomers, or chemists ? Are they botanists, or landscape painters ? Are they en¬ 
tomologists, are they naturalists or philosophers of any kind ? We may safely, I 
believe, answer in the negative. No one who pursues science is likely to com¬ 
plain of the ennui of modern times ; and I feel convinced that science, in union 
with natural religion, is the pursuit best of all calculated to make our time pass 
happily, and the world we inhabit seem a paradise.” 
Another writer (Dr. Boot) has eloquently said—“ There is a mysterious com¬ 
munion between the mind and heart of man and the sights and sounds of natural 
objects. A voice, descending from heaven, and borne upon the breath of morn, is 
heard along the enamelled mead, or through the mazes of the dark forest, which 
penetrates to the sources of our thoughts and affections, and which kindles a spirit 
of devotion to light and warm our own bosoms, to be thence reflected upon all 
around us. Listen to its instructions in the delightful solitude of your occasion¬ 
ally secluded hours, far from the contaminating influence of worldly ambition; 
and you will return to society with feelings better adapted to the discharge of your 
duties there, and in possession of a mean for happiness of which no adversity can 
rob you, and with a refinement of mind which no prosperity can vitiate.” 
Nor is it only in the joyous morn or active noon of life that these things 
should engage our attention, or are capable of yielding pleasure, and bringing 
with them their reward. For after a long period of usefulness to ourselves and 
others, when the sun of our day begins to cast lengthened and prophetic shadows 
along the vale of life, we naturally feel anxious to retire, to repose and meditate 
awhile, ere we quit this for another scene of being. Then what occupation can 
be found so calm and tranquil, so befitting the evening of life, as the contempla¬ 
tion of the objects of nature ? In observing and considering “ the lilies, how they 
grow,” we at once comply with the divine injunction and reap the benefit of our 
compliance, in finding our minds gradually purified from those stains of earth 
which even the best of us contract during a lengthened intercourse with the 
world, and so become progressively prepared for the change which awaits us.—Z. 
