EXTRACT 
FROM 
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
4 > 
I wished to act as an interpreter to those who, from year’s end to 
year’s end, are forced to live among the whirl of cities, or, buried in 
their solitary chambers, remain strangers to our Common Mother— 
Nature. I would fain beg those whose lives are passed amid wood¬ 
land hamlets, on the mountain side, in the forest, and by the strand, 
to take me for their companion in their home-rambles by flood and 
field, and exchange thoughts with me. I wish to implant in the 
bosom of those who have not yet awakened to the love of our 
Common Mother, one grain of that love, and be happy in the thought 
that that seed may germinate in the heart, flower, and perhaps bear 
fruit. Lastly, I would offer, metaphorically, the hand of brotherhood 
to my fellow-thinkers and workers, and all who grasp it shall decide 
whether I have been a welcome companion or not. 
My book shall be entertaining as well as instructive,—one such 
as is suited to our times. Let the reader look upon it only as a small 
cabin, or shieling, built in the rough, regardless of style, rule, or 
plummet,—whose only recommendation is the object for which it is 
intended. The architect wished this cabin to be as simple, true, and 
artless, as he could make it, and has built it in the wilderness,—on 
the slope of a hill among the mountains, sheltered from above by the 
woods, looking down on verdant scenery below, with a bright peep of 
the sparkling blue sea between the hills. In the interior hang rough 
sketches of desert and primaeval forest-scenes; pendant, near by, 
cages with their warbling inmates ; the builder’s gun, nets, gins, and 
springes are not wanting;—for the host is an old bird-fancier. On 
hospitality intent, he opens wide the portal, and invites all to enter, 
—all, aye ! everyone,—grandmasters, masters, pupils of Science; 
c 
