ss valley as into a new world, with
the dust all blown away. A stereoscope costs little, and views are not
expensive,--that is if you are content with one or two at a time, which
is the real way to buy them; choosing, considering, carefully selecting
only those you cannot possibly go home without! I know we began with
six; those six sorted out with jealous care from the contents of many
boxes; and by ones and twos the little collection has grown into
something worth having. And if you turn over every lot of views you
come across, you will often find one rare and fine and cheap, thrown in
among the rubbish.

Then there is the microscope,--full of rich pleasure and deep study and
wonderful revealings. And here again no great outlay is needed. The
days of only sixty dollar glasses are quite gone by, and for five or
ten dollars--even less--you can get a microscope that will keep ahead
of you for some time to come.

On the other hand, if one has neither the skill nor the means to
furnish a home-made telescope, there are other ways of studying the
stars, from the days of Ferguson down. You remember he used to measure
the distance from star to star with beads upon a string. I have seen a
man who could neither read nor write, and yet could tell by the stars
the hour at any time of night; and it is a shame that we educated
people who know so much, should also know so little.

If you are in the country, and fond of "stones," get a geologist's
hammer, and Hugh Miller's books, and give yourself up to happiness. Or
if you like flowers, study _them_; learning to know families and
sub-families through all the floral peerage.

But perhaps you "do not care for out-door things?" Then get a bit of
wood and a few carving tools, and see what dainty wonders you can make
at home. Or lose your cares in "illuminating"; or bury them fathom
deep in German. From any of these, well begun and carried on, you will
come back re-created for your work: made over "as good as new." Not
poisoned with bad air, nor wearied by late hours; not singed and jaded
with chagrin, vanity, and disappointment. Riding, rowing, archery,
fishing, ought to give Christian people enough exercise, without their
being obliged to frequent ball rooms to find it; and as for the "grace"
people talk of, nothing teaches that like a heart full of
graces--"love, joy, peace," and the rest. Do _they_ flourish at your
doubtful entertainments? do they not rather droop an