Alexander Wilson Campbell. Wordsworth Victor Hugo Holmes Patterson Sir Samuel Baker READINGS IN NATURE'S BOOK. 1.-INTRODUCTORY. mis'tle-toe, an evergreen plant which târf, peat, a mass of decomposed roots, dug from bogs and dried for fuel. grows on trees. pē'wit, a marsh bird. 1. THE mere reading of wise books will not make you wise you must use for yourselves the tools with which books are made wise; and that is-your eyes, and ears, and common sense. 2. Among the old-fashioned books which I read when a boy was one which taught me this lesson; and therefore I am more grateful to it than if it had been as full of wonderful pictures as all the natural history books you ever saw. Its name was "Evenings at Home;" and in it was a story, called “Eyes and No Eyes," which began thus: "Well, Robert, where have you been walking this afternoon?" said Mr. Andrews to one of his pupils at the close of a holiday. 3. Oh-Robert had been round by the mountain, and home through the meadows. But it was very dull. He hardly saw a single person. He would much rather have gone by the turnpike-road. 4. Presently in comes Master William, who never (he says) had such a pleasant walk in his life; and he has brought home his handkerchief full of curiosities. 5. He has found a piece of mistletoe, and wants to know what it is. He has seen a woodpecker, and a wheat-ear, and gathered strange flowers, and hunted a pewit because he thought its wing was broken, till, of course, it led him into a bog, and very wet he got. But he did not mind it, for he fell in with an old man cutting turf, who told him all about turf-cutting, and gave him a little turtle. And then he went up a hill and saw a grand prospect; and wanted to go again and make out the geography of the country from the old county maps, which were the only maps in those days. And then he went down to the river, saw twenty things more, and so on, and so on, till he had brought home curiosities enough, and thoughts enough, to last him a week. 6. Mr. Andrews tells him all about his curiosities; and then it comes out-if you will believe it-that Master William has been over the very same ground as Master Robert, who saw nothing at all. 7. Whereon Mr. Andrews says, wisely enough, "So it is. One man walks through the world with his eyes open, another with his eyes shut; and upon this difference depends all the superiority of knowledge which one man acquires over another. I have known sailors who had been in all quarters of the world, and could tell you nothing but the signs of the tippling-houses and the price and quality of the liquor. On the other hand, Franklin could not cross the Channel without making observations useful to mankind. While many a vacant, thoughtless youth is whirled through Europe without gaining a single idea worth crossing the street for, the observing eye and inquiring mind find matter of improvement and delight in every ramble. You, then, William, continue to use your eyes. And you, Robert, learn that eyes were given you to use." 8. So said Mr. Andrews; and so I say. I beg all my young readers to think over this story, and settle in their own minds whether they will be eyes or no eyes; whether they will, as they grow up, look and see for themselves what happens; or whether they will let other people look for them, or pretend to look, and dupe them, and lead them about-the blind leading the blind-till both fall into the ditch. 9. God has given you eyes; and it is your duty to God to use them when He offers to teach you all day long by the most beautiful and most wonderful of all picture-books, which is simply all things that you can see, hear, and touch; from the sun and stars above your head to the mosses and insects at your feet. It is your duty to learn His lessons; and it is your interest. God's book, which is the universe, can do you nothing but good, and teach you nothing but truth and wisdom. 10. So use your eyes and your intellect, and learn what God is trying to teach you continually by them. I do not mean that you must stop there, and learn nothing more. Anything but that. There are things which neither your senses nor your brain can tell you; and they are not only more glorious, but actually more true and more real than any things which you can see or touch. But you must begin at the beginning in order to end at the end, and sow the seed if you wish to gather the fruit. 11. God has ordained that you, and every child that comes into the world, should begin by learning something |