[U] [Note X.] Richmond Infusorial earth.
REFLECTIONS.
Here we must bring our "Thoughts on a Pebble" to a close; but not without adverting to the pure and elevating gratification which investigations of this nature afford, and the beneficial influence they exert upon the mind and character. In circumstances where the uninstructed and incurious eye can perceive neither novelty nor beauty, he who is imbued with a taste for natural science will everywhere discover an inexhaustible mine of pleasure and instruction, and new and stupendous proofs of the power and goodness of the Eternal! For every rock in the desert, every boulder on the plain, every pebble by the brook-side, every grain of sand on the sea-shore, is fraught with lessons of wisdom to the mind which is fitted to receive and comprehend their sublime import.
"From millions take thy choice,
In all that lives a guide to God is given;
Ever thou hear'st some guardian angel's voice,
When nature speaks of heaven!"
Amidst the turmoil of the world and the dreary intercourse of common life, we possess in these pursuits a never-failing source of delight, of which nothing can deprive us—an oasis in the desert, to which we may escape, and find a home "wherever the intellect can pierce, and the spirit can breathe the air."[V] For like the plant which the Prophet threw into the waters of Marah,[W] that changed the bitterness of the wave into sweetness, a branch from the tree of knowledge thrown into the turbid stream of life, purifies its waters, and imparts to them a healing virtue, which sheds a hallowing and refreshing influence over the soul!
[V] Sir E. Bulwer Lytton.
[W] Exod. XV. 23.
