21
having some definite object in view. "We must strive to get
beyond that often-quoted Peter Bell to whom
" A primrose by the river's brim,
A yellow primrose was to him.
And it was nothing more "
—an unfortunate individual whom we as naturalists must
regard as a type of the blissfully ignorant. In science igno-
rance is not bliss, and no advance will be made if we rest
contented with "it was nothing more." Nature is one—
her votaries are many—but how few are her prophets!
There is no natural phenomenon, however apparently in-
significant, which does not appeal to us—there is not a
pebble on our hill tops that does not incessantly cry out to
us with a hundred tongues to read and learn. Surely to the
naturalist of all others is it given to find—
" Tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything."