" Blow, ye winds ! lift me with you !
I come to the wild.
Fold closely, O Nature !
Thine arms round thy child.
To thee only God granted
A heart ever new—
To all always open,
To all always true."
Matthew Arnold : Switzerland."
" Flowers seem intended for the solace of ordinary humanity :
children love them ; quiet, contented, ordinary people love them as
they grow; luxurious and disorderly people rejoice in them gathered :
they arc the cottager's treasure ; and in the crowded town, mark, as
with a little broken fragment of rainbow, the windows of the workers
in whose hearts rests the covenant of peace."
Ruskin.
" To a person uninstructed in natural history, his country, or sea-
side, stroll is a walk through a gallery filled with wonderful works of
art, nine-tenths of which have their faces turned to the wall. Teach
him something of natural history, and you place in his hands a
catalogue of those which are worth turning round"
Professor Huxley :
" Educational Value of Natural History Sciences."
" In these days, when enormous sums are annually spent with
universal consent on almost every kind of educational object, it is
strange how little is as yet thought of the powerful influence in
teaching that a well-arranged museum may afford."
Sir William Flower, F.R.S.:
In a Letter to "The Times," August, 31st, 1891.