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THE treasures of Nature are inexhaustible. Here is employment enough for the vastest parts, the most indefatigable industries, the happiest opportunities, the most prolix and undisturbed vacancies. And for our encouragement in this study observe what the Psalmist saith: "The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein."

RAY.

NATURE ne'er deserts the wise and pure,
No plot so narrow be, but Nature there;
No waste so vacant but may well employ
Each faculty of sense, and keep the breast
Awake to love and beauty.

COLERIDGE.

How sweet to muse upon the skill display'd,
(Infinite skill!) in all that He has made :
To trace in Nature's most minute design
The signature and stamp of power Divine.

Cowfer.

D

CUP LICHEN.

IF by the microscopic glass
Survey'd, you'll see how far surpass
The works of Nature in design,
And texture delicately fine,
And perfectness of every part,
Each effort of mimetic art.

And as the gardener's watchful care
The ground, of native clothing bare,
Indues with vegetable soil;
And with the waste's collected spoil
The tender plants exposed defends :
So the Great Gardener mindful sends
These mossy tribes, where with to shun
The pinching frost, the scorching sun.

*

This at His will, perpetual grows,
And joins with all in heaven above
And earth beneath, His power to prove;
How great in all His works confess'd,
In none more great than in the least.

BISHOP MANT.

A LOVER of natural history cannot, I think, be a bad man, as the very study of it tends to promote a calmness and serenity of mind favourable to the reception of grateful and holy thoughts of the great and good Parent of the universe. He cannot be a cruel man, because he will be unwilling to destroy wantonly even an insect, when he perceives how exquisitely each of them is contrived, and how curiously it is made for the station it is destined to fill in the animal world.

JESSE.

THE Soul can learn-will learn to love all things
That God hath made-to pity and forgive
All faults, all failings; here the heart's deep
springs

Are open'd up, and all on earth who live
To me grow nearer, dearer than before;
My brother loving, I my God adore!

R. NICOLL.

HEART'S-EASE.

AND thou, so rich in gentle names, appealing To hearts that own our Nature's common lot; Thou, styled by sportive Fancy's better feeling "A thought," "The Heart's-ease," or "For

get-me-Not,"

Who deck'st alike the peasant's garden plot,
And castle's proud parterre ;—with humble joy
Proclaim afresh by castle, and by cot,

Hopes which ought not like things of time to

cloy,

And feelings, Time itself shall deepen—not destroy!

BARTON.

OH! had this flower the magic art,
To ease the tumults of the heart;
Monarchs would lay their sceptres down,
And for a flower exchange a crown.

ANON.

ALL flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as

the flower of grass; the grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away.-St. Peter.

Is all grass? Make you no distinction? No, all is grass; or if you will have some other name, be it so. Once, this is true, that all flesh is grass; and if that glory which shines so much in your eyes must have a difference, then this is all it can have, it is but the flower of that same grass; somewhat above the common grass in gayness, a little comelier, and better appareled than it, but partakes of its frail and fading nature.

ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON.

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