THE BOOK OF NATURE.



THERE is an open book spread out before all eyes. This book was made by God, and its pages cover the universe. Every one can study this volume, even if he is unable to read other books. Strange facts are written on hills, vales, and mountains. Curious things may be learned from insects, birds, and beasts; and the most familiar objects teach important and instructive truths. Everything in nature is arranged with the greatest order and symmetry. The snowflakes are perfect geometrical forms. The stars move in beautiful harmony above. 

The trees are gracefully proportioned, and all things below show forth the wisdom of the great Author of creation. The tiniest objects of earth, when placed beneath a microscope, reveal curious facts. The dust that covers the wings of the butterfly is feathers. Mold is a forest of beautiful trees. Hairs are hollow tubes, and stagnant water is full of strange shaped beings.

There are many objects and scenes in nature that are grandly impressive and sublime. The deep gloom of stately old forests, the bursting fury of the storm, the mighty rush of some vast cataract, the awful beauty of the hoary-headed mountain, the sparkling waters of some solitary lake far from human habitation, the dim, uncertain outlines of distant hills, all tend to awaken feelings of sublimity and awe. 

In the deep silence of the midnight hour, when the starry firmament seems the very floor of Heaven, the mind is impressed with the sense of an unseen Power, and in the awful stillness the heart cries out after God.

The hand of man cannot reproduce the beauties of nature. No artist can make the canvas glow with the colors that exist in the plumage of birds, the tints of seashells, the gems from mines, and the hues of sky and flowers. No sculptor can produce the graceful lines that are found in the great art-gallery of nature.

Beauty in its simplest, purest, and most lovely form exists in the outer world. The waving fields, the smiling valleys, the snow topped mountains, the caves of earth, and the waters of the sea, are full of the riches, of the majesty of God's glory.

The study of these natural objects gives strength of mind and a love for the beautiful, which, if cherished, will lighten the burdens of life and lead the heart nearer to God. 




ELIZA H. MORTON.