Year: 1872

to meet some nice people. Among tn
first | met was an old friend who ha,


been hearing some lectures on botany a
the kensington museum, and had been de.
lighted with them. She is the kind o.


person who gets good out of everything
and she was quite right in being delight
ed; besides that, as found by her ac
count Of them, the lectures were really
interesting and pleasantly given She
had expected botany to be dull, and had
not found it SO, and had learned SC
much" On hearing this, proceeded
naturally to enquire what; for my idea oi
her was that before she went to the lee.
ture at all she had known more botany
than she was likely to learn by them. SO
she told me that she had learned first all
that there "were seven sorts of leaves. -
Now have always great suspicion OF
the number seven; because when | wrote
the "Seven Lamps of Architecture, it
rebuircd all the ingenuity was master
Of to prevent them from becoming eight,
or even nine on my hands. So | thought
to myself that it would be very charming
if there were only seven sorts of leaves.
but thai, perhaps, if one looked tho woods
and the forests carefully through. it was
just possible that one might discover as
many as eight sorts, and then where
would my friends new knowledge of bot
any be- So | said That was very
pretty; but what more ?" Then my friend
told me that she had no idea before that
petals were leaves. On which thought
to myself that it would not have been any
harm to her if she had remained under
her old impression that petals were Pc
tails. But said. "that was very pretty,
too; and what more ?" So then my friend
told me that the lecturer said 'the OBJ.
ject Of his lectures would be entirely ac-
comp.ishcd if he could convince his hear.
crs that there was no such thing as
flower" Now in that sentence you have
the most perfect summary given you of
the general temper Of modern science. 1t
gives lectures on botany, of which the
object is to show that there is no
such thing as flower; on human.
ity, to show there is no such thing as n
man; and on theology, to show there is
no such thing as God. No such thing as
a man, but only mechanism no such
thing as God, but only series Of fore.
es The two faiths are essentially one ;
if you feel yourself to be only Il machine,
constructed to be only regulator of mi
nor machines, you will put your statue
OF such science on your Holborn via
Jaot, aud naoossorily recognize ONLY ma.
Jor machinery as regulating you. | must
explain the real meaning to you, howev-
er, OF that saying Of the botanical lectur.
er, for it has wide bearing. Some fifty
years ago the poet Goethe discovered
that all the parts Of plants had kind Of
common nature, and would change into
each other. Now this was a true discov.
cry and a notable one and you will find
that, in fact, all plants are composed es-
sentially Of two parts-the leaf and the
root-one loving the light, the other dark.
ness one liking to oe clean, the other
dirty; one liking to grow for the most
part up, the other for the most part down;
the one having faculties and purposes of
its own. But the pure one. which loves
the light, has, above all things, the pur.
pose Of being married to another leaf, and
having child leaves, and children's chill.
dren Of leaves, to make the earth fair
forever. And when the leaves marry
they put on wedding robes, and are more
glorious than Solomon in all his glory
and they have feasts of honey, and we
call them "howers." In certain sense,
therefore, you see the botanical lecturer
was quite right. There are no such things
as fowers-they are only leaves. Nay,
further than this, there is a dignity in
the less happy bu. unwithering leaf which
is, in some sort, better than the brief lily
OF its bloom, which the poets always knew
SO well-Chaucer before Goethe, and the
writer of the first psalm before Chaucer,
The botanical lecturer was, in deeper
sense tn III he knew, right.-Ruskin.


FASHIONABLE MusIc.-Oliver Wendell
Holmes has the following to say in refer.
euce to music : don't like your chop