THE LIFE OF A PRIMROSE. 155 
would have been all that you would have found. And 
now the whole wood is carpeted with delicate green 
leaves, with nodding bluebells, and pale-yellow prim- 
roses, as if a fairy had touched the ground and covered 
it with fresh young life. And our fairies have been at 
work here; the fairy " Life," of whom we know so 
little, though we love her so well and rejoice in the 
beautiful forms she can produce; the fairy sunbeams 
with their invisible influence kissing the tiny shoots 
and warming them into vigour and activity ; the gentle 
rain-drops, the balmy air, all these have been working, 
while you or I passed heedlessly by; and now we come 
and gather the flowers they have made, and too often 
forget to wonder how these lovely forms have sprung 
up around us. 
Our work during the next hour will be to consider 
this question. You were asked last week to bring 
with you to-day a primrose-flower, or a whole plant if 
possible, in order the better to follow out with me the 
" Life of a Primrose." * This is a very different kind 
of subject from those of our former lectures. There 
we took world-wide histories ; we travelled up to the 
sun, or round the earth, or into the air; now I only 
ask you to fix your attention on one little plant, and 
inquire into its history. 
There is a beautiful little poem by Tennyson, which 
says 
" Flower in the crannied wall, 
I pluck you out of the crannies ; 
* To enjoy this lecture, the child ought to have, if possible, 
a primrose-flower, an almond soaked for a few minutes in hot 
water, and a piece of orange. 
