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Show 66 BOUNTY THAT ENRICUES. The object of all our honourable exertions is, that . we may stand higher than our fellows, not by ; thrusting them down, but by raising ourselves up ; and we nowhere get the vantag~-ground ~? much or so certainly as when we are m a condition for making discoveries that may, and must, be useful to them. The making of the discove_ry, so far from impoverishing us, puts us more m the way o_f 1 making fresh discoveries ; and w~en we commu~u cate it to others, that takes notlnng from us, while it gives us the highest of all plea~ures,-that of being benefactors, and benefactors m a w a~ and to an extent to and in which the objects of It could not benefit themselves. Thus, the observation of nature is not only a never-failin_g resat~rc~ to us l amid all contingencies and ills of l_Ife, but It gives l!S means of elevatino- ourselves, which we can obtam no other way. Il'we are rich and bountiful-and if we are the one, it is our duty and should be our pleasure to be the other-we . are restrained_ and limited within a certain measure m our benefactiOns; and if we exceed that measure, we not only destroy our means of continuing to be bountiful, but directly and immediately bring upon ourselves those miseries from which we sought to relieve others. If we have gold, it can be weighed, whatever its amount may be ; if we have notes and bonds, they can be counted; if we have acres or even provmces of land, they can be measured ; and, take but one grain from the gold, one farthing from the notes, or one inch from the acres or the provinces, and the remainder is less by the quantity so taken. But when we are rich in observation, and when, in consequence of that, the gift which we can give is useful practical knowledge (and it never is so unless the foundation of it is in the study of nature), we really become richer by the very process of giving away. The exercise of our powers is not only the enjoyment of life, it is life itself-a real and grow- NATURE's CHARMS. 67 ing treasure to us ; and, whatever may be the fate of external property, the change of persons or of things about us, our true treasure-that which is life and life's gladness to us-is beyond the reach of accident, and proof against every contingency. But if we do not observe nature, we incur dis- (grace as well as suffer loss,-we are ungrateful to our Maker and we are unworthy of ourselves. Wherefore ~ere the organs and faculties of observation given us, if we do not use them 1 The senses, though, as we have them without cost or study, or effort on our part, and so are apt to undervalu~ them, are, in reality, choice gifts; and the produc!wns. of nature are so admirably fitted for the gratrficatwn of those senses, that it is altogether impossible for us not to perceive that the one must have been made for the other. Why was every tint and tone of colour so mingled in the light of day as that they all come out clear and perfect and tell us, not merely of substance, but of space 1 ~nd wherefore, when the sky is clouded and the blackness of darkness shades the landscape, is the arch of Hope with its sevenfold glory se~ in the rain cloud, if it be not for us to look, and_ admue, and learn, and love 1 Why does the rose giVe forth its odour and the scent of the lavender and of the mio-nione'tte steal viewless upon the still air around us, 0 and the blooming bean and the new-mown ~ay outscent all the preparations of the apothecary, 1f _1t be not to wile us unto the garden and the field, m order that we may breathe health, and at the same time cull pleasure and instruction there 1 ':Vherefore sings the breeze in the forest, why whtspers the zephyr among the reeds, and how come~ it t~at the caves and hollows of the barren mountams giVe out their tones, as if the earth were one musical instrument of innumerable strings, if it be not to tempt ns forth in order to learn, how ever-fair, ever-new, |