Rymer, D.D., for friendly criticism and aid, especially with respect to the questions of 'free-will,' and the bearing of motives' on our knowledge of 'causation,' several of the arguments as to which are derived from his writings. Analogous obligations have also to be expressed to the Rev. Robert Clarke, F.L.S.

71 SEYMOUR STREET, W.

NATURE AND THOUGHT.

6

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY GROUPINGS.

In a small ravine on the verge of Sheffield Forest, in Sussex, there is a shady nook, where on hot summer days the author has loved to sit and where much of this work was done. There, between banks so steep and woody that the sky is almost hidden by meeting boughs of birch and oak, alder and chestnut, a tiny streamlet winds its way, and falls with ceaseless, copious drip from moss-grown rocks into a small pool. All around, tall bracken ferns stretch up towards the light, while masses of blechnum, with their twofold graceful fronds, clothe the banks lower down. Where moss is wanting, on jutting pieces of sandstone, there liverworts have their hold, and campanulas, potentillas, scabious, and agrimony, with corydalis, foxgloves, and asphodels have each their station, which they struggle to extend. Besides the drip and ripple of the streamlet, is heard the constant hum of active insect life, and occasionally the drowsy note of over-sailing

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rooks. Busy ants pass perseveringly to and fro along their well-trod paths, and every now and then a butterfly or moth quivers in the chequered light, and the beautiful giant dragon-fly hovers over, or darts down upon, the pool in which another tiny world may be watched in rapid motion. What is the special charm of a bit of nature of this kind? It is not in a mere soothing of the senses or vague revival in the imagination of pleasures formerly experienced. A mere rustic may indeed have pleasure in such a spot, and every lover of the picturesque may feel its charm, and indistinctly perceive at least some part of its meaning. Only the skilled lover of nature, however, who knows much of her laws and of different classes of living creatures, can thoroughly appreciate all its interest and charm.

What the man of science therein appreciates is, the display of natural harmony, the unity in multifold variety, and the delicate balance of physical and vital activities which it manifests. Evidently the greater his knowledge, the more fully his mind will be able to embrace the complex inter-relations of its animal and vegetal inhabitants, and the more intense will be the intellectual pleasure he may derive from its contemplation.

The great natural phenomena of the world-the forest, the ocean, the desert, and the seeming chaos of mountain masses-present on a vast scale charms of the very same nature to the mind qualified by education to appreciate them. Thus in that great continent of foliage, Brazil, we have a land which has produced, as it were, a great symphony of organic