24 THE FAIRY-LAND OF SCIENCE. 
wonders of nature going on around us ? Do you 
never feel tired and " out of sorts," and want to creep 
away from your companions, because they are merry 
and you are not ? Then is the time to read about 
the stars, and how quietly they keep their course 
from age to age ; or to visit some little flower, and 
ask what story it has to tell ; or to watch the clouds, 
and try to imagine how the winds drive them across 
the sky. No person is so independent as he who can 
find interest in a bare rock, a drop of water, the foam 
of the sea, the spider on the wall, the flower under- 
foot or the stars overhead. And these interests are 
open to everyone who enters the fairy-land of science. 
Moreover, we learn from this study to see that there 
is a law and purpose in everything in the Universe, 
and it makes us patient when we recognize the quiet 
noiseless working of nature all around us. Study 
light, and learn how all colour, beauty, and life depend 
on the sun's rays ; note the winds and currents of the 
air, regular even in their apparent irregularity, as they 
carry heat and moisture all over the world. Watch 
the water flowing in deep quiet streams, or forming 
the vast ocean ; and then reflect that every drop is 
guided by invisible forces working according to fixed 
laws. See plants springing up under the sunlight, 
learn the secrets of plant life, and how their scents 
and colours attract the insects. Read how insects 
cannot live without plants, nor plants without the 
flitting butterfly or the busy bee. Realize that all 
this is worked by fixed laws, and that out of it (even 
if sometimes in suffering and pain) springs the wonder- 
ful universe around us. And then say, can you fear 
