BIAS, one of the seven sages of Greece, was a noted political and legal orator. His most famous utterance was, "I carry all my wealth with me." His store of learning and power of speech were always at hand, and his life had been such that all his investments were in the man, rather than in property which might or might not afterwards belong to the man.

He who knows nature and has a habit of seeing things carries with him a fruitful source of happiness. It requires technical knowledge to use any of the mechanical appliances with which civilized life is crowded. It requires artistic training to appreciate any of the great productions of the leaders in the fields of ideal pleasure. But there is no preparation demanded by nature herself of those who would enjoy her feasts. Whosoever will may be her guest.

But because she is so free with the race in giving pleasure to all her guests, it must not be inferred that cultivation and systematic pursuit will not be rewarded. All eyes are blind until they have been opened, and all ears deaf till they have learned desire. Just why I am delighted with the landscape before me is beyond my power to tell, and the reasons for the varying feelings that course through me are too numerous for recognition. But with all these thronging sensations and reflections that occupy me, there is a multitude of others that escape me because I have not had my soul opened in their directions.

Every new item of nature's news that breaks upon the consciousness increases capacity for pleasure for all time. He who meets nature with enlightened senses is rewarded every day of his life for the pains taken in delightful study by way of preparation. A landscape is infinitely enhanced to him who has pursued the science of color with some diligence. The sounds of the forest speak tenderly to all; but he who knows the secrets of melody and harmony, and the limits of human skill in music, has worlds of delight in the forest that others may not enter. And so has the swain whose childhood was spent among the voices of the trees. The sense of smell has a thousand raptures for the man whose nose has lived up to its possibilities.

To look upon all nature broadly with the familiarity which comes only from long acquaintance and scientific investigation of her various aspects is the highest type of living. While this is not possible to all, yet, much of it may be experienced by every one who has the desire and follows it. The leading facts of all the sciences are open to all who care to know them. The beauties and mysteries of the world are constantly inviting us. And the rapid developments of knowledge in all directions give us all the exciting motives one can desire.

Looking out over the face of the world, we note that there are two sorts of material to be considered. One is alive or was produced by the action of life, and the other is material which has never known a want. We are drawn most to that which has pulsed with sap or blood—that which has made a struggle of some sort.

All things that live are made up chemically principally of four of the elements of the universe which are best adapted by their characteristics for the purposes of life. Three are gases, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen; one is a solid, carbon. All these have what is technically known as affinities of narrow range and low intensity except oxygen. Oxygen is greedy to attack almost everything, the others unite but sparingly and feebly. From these elements, life chooses combinations that are easily changed in form and light enough to stand up from the earth, to swim in the waters, and even to fly in the atmosphere. So gaseous and quick to change are the things of life that life itself has the reputation of being fleeting. Development is a change in the arrangement of parts, and function is a transformation of motion. These four elements, three gaseous and one solid, three very exclusive and one very free in choosing all sorts of associates, have been the means whereby life has been possible upon the earth. Their characters have provided for what are known as differentiation and integration.

With these materials is formed the mass which is the lowest form of life, protoplasm. This may be formed into cells or not, but it is from this beginning the scale of living things springs, rising in beautiful and mysterious forms till the earth is enveloped and beautified so that we can hardly think of it except as the receptacle prepared by Omniscience for the entertainment of living beings, all of which point to the highest and speak of the expansion and eternal value of the human soul.

By getting next to other substances, or by getting them inside, the organism draws within itself new matter of its own selection. It chooses always material that is chemically similar to itself, and we say it grows. Where it wears away in the pursuit, it makes repairs with the fresh material. Where the pursuit is wearing, and requires great activity or strength, the new matter is consumed in furnishing energy alone.

When the period of growth is well advanced, the living thing matures organs for the preservation of its kind. Male and female are distinguished. A seed marks the female element in the plant, and in the animal an ovum or egg. And as soon as the race has been provided for, the individual is of no more use upon the face of the earth. It has served its purpose, and merits a reward. But whether in the economy of nature the joys of life are regarded as sufficient reward to every living creature, there follows fast upon the heels of its usefulness a period of lamentable decline. The elements which were so facile in building up the individual are no longer active in furnishing energy, repair, and growth. All these products are lopped off. Weakness, debility, and shrinking ensue. The organism loses its attractiveness for its kind, the pulse of life weakens, and the corpse falls to the earth, yielding rapidly to a process of transformation called decay, which is merely a giving up of what has been recently of use to this form of life to some new form of the same sort or a different one. Life is so swift and relentless that most of its subjects fall by the way and give up their substance so effectually that there is no memory or record left upon the face of the earth that such a form has ever been.

And so God is creating the heavens and the earth. While we participate in a measure in this creation, let us observe and enjoy it and be wise.